White Africans Of European Ancestry
White Africans (or less commonly European Africans or Euro Africans in a similar style to terms such as African American, Italian American or French Canadian) are people of European descent living in or coming from Africa who identify themselves as white.
Africans of European descent are mostly of Dutch, British, French, Portuguese, German, Flemish, and to a lesser extent, Italian, Austrian, Swedish, Danish, Norwegian, Greek, Lithuanian, Maltese, Walloon, Swiss, Polish and Irish ancestry.
Prior to the post-World War II decolonization era, White Africans numbered up to 10 million persons and were represented in every part of the continent, especially South Africa (Afrikaners and English), South-West Africa (Afrikaners and Germans), Algeria (French), Rhodesia (predominantly English), Kenya (English), and Angola (Portuguese). However, many left during and after the independence of the colonies. Some, such as the Italians in Libya and the Belgians in Burundi, were expelled by post-colonial governments. Nevertheless, White Africans remain a substantial minority in some southern African countries.
The African country with the largest White African population of European descent both numerically and proportionally is South Africa, at approximately 4.6 million (9.2% of the population). Although White Africans no longer have the exclusive rule of single nations, they sometimes still hold a substantial ownership of the economy and land in specific regions.
Read more about White Africans Of European Ancestry: Current Populations, Portuguese in Africa, Spanish in Africa, Belgians in Africa, Other European African Groups, Languages, Sports, See Also
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“Let me just say, at once: I am not now nor have I ever been a white man. And, leaving aside the joys of unearned privilege, this leaves me feeling pretty good ...”
—June Jordan (b. 1936)
“Where do whites fit in the New Africa? Nowhere, I’m inclined to say ... and I do believe that it is true that even the gentlest and most westernised Africans would like the emotional idea of the continent entirely without the complication of the presence of the white man for a generation or two. But nowhere, as an answer for us whites, is in the same category as remarks like What’s the use of living? in the face of the threat of atomic radiation. We are living; we are in Africa.”
—Nadine Gordimer (b. 1923)
“In verity ... we are the poor. This humanity we would claim for ourselves is the legacy, not only of the Enlightenment, but of the thousands and thousands of European peasants and poor townspeople who came here bringing their humanity and their sufferings with them. It is the absence of a stable upper class that is responsible for much of the vulgarity of the American scene. Should we blush before the visitor for this deficiency?”
—Mary McCarthy (1912–1989)
“I am, in point of fact, a particularly haughty and exclusive person, of pre-Adamite ancestral descent. You will understand this when I tell you that I can trace my ancestry back to a protoplasmal primordial atomic globule.”
—Sir William Schwenck Gilbert (1836–1911)