THE APPLE AND THE TREE: ELON MUSK'S PRO-APARTHEID GRANDFATHER

Elon Musk's father, Errol Musk, recently told South Africa’s @podcastwithmacg (X) how his ex-wife Maye's father, Joshua N. Haldeman, was a pro-apartheid white Canadian who moved to South Africa to support the Afrikaner regime that took power in 1948.

In his book, ‘The International Conspiracy to Establish a World Dictatorship and the Menace to South Africa’ (1960), Haldeman claimed Black South Africans’ accounts of mistreatment under the white-led apartheid regime were part of a false ploy to brainwash the public. Haldeman abhorred the widely growing opposition to the apartheid regime at the time, claiming, ‘the white man has always developed the country he inhabits to the benefit of all concerned,’ and that African civilisations had ‘built nothing and discovered nothing.’


Meanwhile, many have criticised Tesla founder and X owner Elon Musk for promoting narratives that downplay the generational impact of slavery in the Global South. For instance, on 15 October, Musk retweeted a post highlighting the supposed ‘good’ of the British Empire. Adding his perspective to the tweet, he wrote, ‘Not many people these days know that the British Empire was the driving force behind ending the vast majority of global slavery. Slavery or de facto slavery was standard practice throughout the world from the dawn of civilisation until a few hundred years ago. It is even discussed at length in the Bible, for example.’

Such rhetoric not only glosses over slavery’s atrocities and the British empire’s barbaric nature but also overlooks well-documented historical facts, such as the British government's decision to compensate enslavers for the loss of their ‘property’ while the enslaved received nothing. Moreover, after abolishing slavery, Britain colonised territories that now amount to 56 modern countries.

Does the apple truly not fall far from the tree after all? Let us know your thoughts in the comments.

Video credit: @podcastwithmacg (X)

SOURCES:

https://www.newyorker.com/news/daily-comment/the-world-according-to-elon-musks-grandfather

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KH1U5x8LXgs

https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/international/global-trends/elon-musk-says-british-empire-ended-global-slavery-indians-say-have-some-shame/articleshow/114262071.cms?from=mdr#

https://x.com/elonmusk/status/1846211256622968856