Just saw Musk clarifying something that apparently needed clearing up - he's not Afrikaner, he's from a British/English background. Pretty interesting that he drew a parallel to J.R.R. Tolkien, who was also born in South Africa. Didn't know that connection before.

So basically Musk grew up in Pretoria with English heritage, not the Dutch/German/French settler background that defines Afrikaner culture. It's a distinction that apparently matters more than I realized. The whole thing came up because someone on social media had described his upbringing in a way that missed this context.

There's something kind of cool about how Musk and Tolkien both came from that South African English background - and we know Musk is obsessed with Tolkien's work anyway. He's mentioned it influenced a lot of his thinking. Makes you wonder how much of that South African English heritage shaped both of them, even though they ended up in completely different places. Anyway, wild that this needed a tweet to clarify in 2024.