In of the most insultingly timed events in recent memory, the whites-only town of Orania, in South Africa, has leased its own whites-only currency two days after the 10th anniversary of the end of apartheid.

The new currency, dubbed the “ora,” can only be spent in the small town of Orania, where its 600 or so white residents have an agriculturally based economy.

While the ostensible reason that the residents of Orania flocked to the small town was to escape the violence and the crime that plagues South Africa, it is doubtful that security was the motivating factor for their migration to Orania, and the legacy of apartheid is alive and well in the town; the grandson of Henrik Vorwoerd, who designed the program of apartheid, currently lives in Orania.  

In a baffling defense of the notion of white supremacy, Eleanor Lombard, a town spokesman, declared: “South African society is like a fruit salad – if I am allowed to be whatever I am – a banana, an apple or whatever – I can add to the flavour … If I am all squashed up, I cannot contribute.” In Lombard’s explanation, the purpose of establishing this currency is to make the community increasingly self-sufficient.

The notion of a racially exclusive community is shameful, demeaning, and repellent. That these individuals took the jubilant and hopeful anniversary of the end of apartheid to further reinforce racial divisions is a disgraceful insult to the potential of inter-racial harmony.

Mimi Hanaoka