[alienthrowaway]

> [...]Afrikaaners (like most people of European descent here) identify more as European residents of South Africa

As someone who used to cross the "Boerewors curtain" daily, interacting with people on both sides, I think you're severely understating how distinct the Afrikaaner identity is, and how (most) Afrikaaners see themselves as having a different heritage from other people of "European descent".

> If someone on the internet told me they were African, (and not in a bad way) I would assume they are of dark colour.

Maybe that's because the former government (that one) used "African" as a race, an not as a geography-based identity: one could be "White", "Colored", "Asian" or "African"