Who are the Afrikaners? Story of South Africa's white tribe that Trump claims 'facing a genocide' The Afrikaner people are a white ethnic group native to South Africa, primarily descended from 17th-century Western European settlers who arrived at the southern tip of Africa. US President Donald Trump has offered refuge to a group of 59 South Africa's Afrikaners, claiming that they were facing genocide and discrimination in South Africa, a country where they make up some 7 percent of the population but own more than 70 percent of the land. As they...