Brandon Huntley Is Not White

By Vusi Moloi © 2009

Brandon Huntley is not White after all. For all intents and purposes, Huntley is a Black guy who passed for white because of his impressive Caucasian looks. The convincing power of his Caucasian looks was such a flawless execution that the great Canadians, who still care about skin complexion, neglected to take a DNA test which would have convinced them otherwise.

Refugee Status Based on White Skin

Huntley is a “White” South African who was granted refugee status by the Canada Immigration Refugee Board tribunal on August 27th presided by the only member Mr. William Davis who ruled that Huntley had submitted “a convincing proof” of his persecution as a White person in the hands of the Black South Africans because he was White. Mr. Davis referred to the South African Government’s “inability or unwillingness to protect him." when he said “The evidence of the claimant and the witness and the documentary evidence which I accept as credible show a picture of indifference and inability or unwillingness of the government and the security forces to protect White South Africans from persecution by African South Africans.” This represents a historic precedent where someone has ever been granted refugee status because of the colour of his skin. Huntley was represented by Russel Kaplan who had his own sister Lara Kaplan testify on behalf of Huntley.

New Evidence Contradicts Refugee Claimant

New evidence from a respected historian who happens to be Huntley’s distant relative, Patrick Tariq Mellet of South Africa writes in his Cape Slavery Heritage blog that he maternally shares a blood line of heritage through their grand parents whose genetic roots go back to Huntley’s great great grandparents William Huntley and Mary Anne Haddon whose children had married “black and white South Africans”.

Mellet confirms, using death and archival records of the City of Cape Town, that a Coloured woman Francina van der Kaap who had married one of the first Englishmen to settle in the Xalanga district of the Transkei in the mid 1800s William Haddon was Huntley’s great great grand mother. Mellet further corrobates “Brandon’s great great
Grandparents lived happily in Cala and faced no endangerment amongst Xhosa people in Cala, right through to William’s death at the ripe old age of 100 years in 1908.”

Mellet, who hails from District Six and Woodstock, tells us “This of course makes Brandon Huntley’s case all the more absurd.”

Website Blog Blocked!

Incredibly, the website blog of Mellet at this link became inaccessible but this writer was able to use his superior technological skills to retrieve the article on September 9, 2009 the day that happens to be 999, perhaps an alignment of the planets? Could this be the work of hackers acting under whose instructions?

Canada Reviews the Case

What is the Canadian Government going to do with this case considering that it was premised on a misguided notion of skin pigmentation that is now looking different under the new spotlight? It has since been reported that the Canada Immigration and Citizenship is reviewing the case. This means in one month the Federal Court will announce if it will go ahead to hear the case after which it could take several months before the case is heard by a panel of judges.

In the meanwhile Huntley is a refugee that enjoys the hospitable protection of the great Canadians while South Africa’s international image as the land of peace and reconciliation suffers the stringent consequences of misinformation.

Refugee Status Not a Race Thing

When this writer became a refugee from apartheid it was not based on race but rather on the apartheid system. When the Jews became refugees it was not based on the race of the Germans but the system of the NAZIS. Canada is the only exception in this rule which has tarnished South Africa’s image as a rainbow nation country. South Africans are understandably angry over this.

Passing for White

Passing for White is not a new thing under the sun. The former Cuban dictator and former Communist Fulgencio Batista had African genes coursing through his genes but the Americans supported him partly because they believed he was white because he convincingly looked white. The great Conceptual Artist Dr. Adrian Piper who had written a powerful analytical article Passing for White, Passing for Black and was herself a racially mixed African descendent became listed as Suspicious Traveler on the U.S. Security Administration’s Watch List and Wellesley College moved to suddenly terminate her full tenured professorship in 2008.

The actress Jeanne Crain was chosen by director Darryl F. Zanuck for a role in the movie Pinky to star the character of an African American woman who passed for White in the USA even though Crain herself was White bypassing talented and brilliant stars like Lena Horne. Another actress Elizabeth Taylor was chosen by director Joseph L. Mankiewicz to star in the movie Cleopatra portraying the life of the North African Pharaoh Cleopatra despite the fact that Cleopatra was racially mixed and even Shakespeare refers to her as a Gypsy woman in Anthony and Cleopatra.

About the Author

A former South African Television Journalist, Vusi Moloi is a published author of a contextual poetry book, A Goodbye To My Little Troubles, and maintains a blog, Zulumathabo on the Internet.