Andre De Jong, a New Zealand international, plays for Orlando Pirates F.C. in South Africa. He’s of Dutch descent. If you really wanted to stretch it, you could say there’s a very distant historical connection there: the Dutch were the first Europeans to occupy the Cape, displace local populations, and introduce slavery. As for New Zealand, it is one of the preferred destinations for white South Africans who prefer not to live in a democratic South Africa and its rugby team is South Africa’s greatest rival. But that’s about as far as the connection goes.

De Jong’s arrival is much more pleasant and he has actually become something of a South African league journeyman. This is his fourth club in the country — he previously played for AmaZulu, Royal AM, and Stellenbosch F.C. before joining Pirates.

When he first arrived at Pirates, fans nicknamed him “Mlungu,” which simply means “white person.” On Facebook, a fan named Mojalesa Musi suggested the nickname was a way of affirming diversity in the squad. South African football — both players and fans — is overwhelmingly Black, so, in that sense, the label made sense.

There’s also some historical precedent at Pirates for the way fans nickname white players. Back in the early 1990s, another white Pirates player, defender Gavin Lane, was nicknamed “Stability Unit,” after a notorious apartheid police riot squad. This was meant to show affection. Late striker Marc Batchelor was known as “Blonde Bomber.”

But reflecting how the times have changed, De Jong apparently has a new nickname now. According to a recent Facebook post by Musi, “He is now called ‘White Genocide’ to mock Donald Trump and to suggest that no white person is being decimated [in South Africa].”

As Musi concluded: “The masses are conscious.”

HT Tony Karon