Just found out something wild about Elon Musk's heritage that I had totally wrong. Apparently he's been clarifying on Twitter that he's got British/English roots, not Afrikaner background like most people assume. He even compared himself to J.R.R. Tolkien, which is kind of fitting since Tolkien was also born in South Africa.

Musk actually posted this back in early 2024 because people kept getting his background mixed up. Both of them were born there but had English parents - Tolkien in Bloemfontein, Musk in Pretoria. The difference matters more than I realized: Afrikaner heritage is from Dutch/German/French settlers speaking Afrikaans, while English South Africans trace back to 19th-century British settlers. Completely different cultural identities.

What's funny is Musk is apparently obsessed with Tolkien - like seriously into his work. There's even a story that Tolkien's books played a role in how he courted Grimes. So the Elon Musk heritage correction also ties into his whole personality and what he's into. Kind of explains why he'd make that specific comparison instead of just saying 'I'm British-descended' like anyone else would.

Also read that his childhood in South Africa was rough - some kind of survival camp at 12 that he called a 'Lord of the Flies' situation. And there's all these rumors about his dad and an emerald mine that Musk keeps denying. The whole South African chapter of his life seems complicated, which maybe why he wanted to set the record straight on his actual heritage.