When the European Settlers arrived in what is today known as the United States of America, they found a country owned and occupied by various nationalities, together constituting the indigenous Native Americans, wrongly called Indians. As they fought to defend their country, the Native American Nationalities were defeated after a violent conflict which stretched over two centuries, resulting in what amounted to a genocide. Those who survived, deprived of their country, were condemned to live in Reservations allocated to them by the victorious Settlers.

Accordingly, as the USA was born, it carried in its bosom the national question, born of the colonisation and subjugation of the Native Americans. The USA went further to import millions of Africans whom it retained and exploited in the country as slaves. Because of the impact of slavery on the development of the United States, and the numbers of slaves, in essence the national question in the US has referred to the fate of the African American population, the descendants of the slaves.

Similarly, when the European Settlers arrived in what is today known as the Republic of South Africa, they found a country owned and occupied by various nationalities, together constituting the indigenous African population. As they fought to defend their country, the indigenous African nationalities were defeated after a violent conflict which stretched over two centuries, seriously decimating the Khoi and San sections of the indigenous population. Thus, the indigenous population became stateless as the Settlers claimed exclusive ownership of the country. The dispossessed were then exposed to abuse and exploitation by the victorious Settlers. Accordingly, as the RSA was born, it carried in its bosom the national question, born of the colonisation and subjugation of the indigenous African people.

It is therefore inevitable that this Paper will and must reflect on the important matter of the national question as it relates to both the United States of America and the Republic of South Africa.

Paper by the Thabo Mbeki Foundation