just saw elon musk clarifying something on twitter about his south african roots that kinda caught me off guard. so apparently everyone's been getting it wrong—he's not afrikaner heritage, he's british/english background. like, there's actually a wild connection here: j.r.r. tolkien (lord of the rings guy) was also born in south africa but had english parents. musk even mentioned this parallel.

this is interesting because musk's clearly obsessed with tolkien's work, and apparently it even factored into his whole thing with grimes back in the day. the difference is pretty significant though—afrikaner means descendants of dutch/german/french settlers speaking afrikaans, while english south africans trace back to 19th century british settlers. totally different cultural identity.

so when people talk about is elon musk african in terms of his heritage, it's more nuanced than just 'south african.' his african background is through an english lens, not the afrikaner one everyone assumes. kinda explains why he's always quoting tolkien, right? 🤔