A law that allows the government to confiscate land has reignited racial tensions that have dogged Africa's southernmost tip ever since European settlers began arriving nearly four centuries ago.

Trump's move to sanction South Africa, a key U.S. trading partner in Africa, came after he and his South African-born adviser Elon Musk accused its Black leadership of having an anti-white stance. But the portrayal of Afrikaners as a downtrodden group that needed to be saved would surprise most South Africans.