In the quiet, dry heart of South Africa’s Karoo lies a town unlike any other.
Orania, home to just 3,000 people ,is a place frozen in time.
Built on the dream of cultural survival, it was formed by white Afrikaners more than three decades ago.
Just as apartheid began to fall and South Africa started its journey toward racial equality.
The Orania bubble
From schoolteachers to street sweepers, everyone shares not just a culture, but a controversial belief: that their way of life needs protecting, even if that means isolation.
In a move that has reignited racial tensions in South Africa, leaders from the whites-only enclave of Orania are calling for international recognition.
They’ve turned to former U.S. President Donald Trump’s circle for help.
Orania, a self-declared Afrikaner settlement in South Africa’s Karoo region, is home to around 3,000 white residents.
Founded in 1991 as apartheid crumbled, the town enforces strict racial exclusivity, where all residents including labourers must be white Afrikaners.
Last week, senior members of the Orania Movement traveled to the United States seeking support for autonomy.
While South African law recognizes Orania as a municipality with limited self-governance, it remains firmly under national jurisdiction.
Community leaders now want to expand that independence possibly with backing from U.S. right-wing allies sympathetic to their cause.
“We wanted to gain international recognition,” said Joost Strydom, Orania’s current movement leader.
“South Africa is too diverse to be run centrally. We believe communities like ours should govern themselves.”
In Washington and New York, the delegation met conservative think tanks and low-level Republican politicians.
They claim they are not looking for financial aid, but rather investment and political leverage to expand infrastructure and keep pace with rapid population growth reportedly at 15% annually.
Orania has already made strides toward energy independence using solar power and circulates its own local currency, the Ora.
Seeking Trump’s help
Though they refused to confirm any direct contact with Trump’s inner circle, their appeal follows Trump’s 2018 comments.
Offering to resettle white South African farmers in the U.S. as refugees a move widely condemned as racially inflammatory.
South African officials dismissed the request.
“Orania is not a country,” said foreign ministry spokesperson Chrispin Phiri.
“They are subject to the laws of South Africa and our constitution.”
Critics, including the leftist Economic Freedom Fighters, say the town’s actions undermine national unity.
“They are destroying the fabric of this country,” said an EFF spokesperson.
Orania’s founders including descendants of apartheid architect Hendrik Verwoerd have long claimed they are preserving culture, not promoting hate.
But with the town’s leaders courting support from predominantly white U.S. conservatives, critics argue that Orania isn’t just resisting change it’s actively fueling the flames of racial division.
