Elon Musk Just Corrected Everyone: He's Not Afrikaner, And Here's Why He Brought Up Tolkien

Turns out Musk got tired of people getting his heritage wrong. The man just dropped a casual correction on X saying his roots are British/English, not Afrikaner—and then dropped a fun fact: J.R.R. Tolkien (yes, Lord of the Rings guy) was also born in South Africa.

The Heritage Mix-Up

Afrikaner ≠ English South African. Seems like a big distinction that keeps getting glossed over. Afrikaners trace back to 17th-century Dutch, German, and French settlers and speak Afrikaans. English South Africans? British settlers from the 1800s, English speakers, ties to Britain.

Musk was born in Pretoria back in 1971, and like Tolkien (born in Bloemfontein 1892), he had English parents. Both ended up leaving South Africa early and building legendary careers elsewhere. Coincidence? Maybe.

Why This Matters

Context is everything. A fan blogger (Casey Handmer) had painted Musk’s background as “Afrikaner family in apartheid South Africa”—which apparently bothered him enough to set the record straight. The point: misreading someone’s cultural background can lead to totally wrong assumptions about who they are and how they think.

Also worth noting: Musk is a certified Tolkien nerd. Dude cites LOTR constantly and even apparently used Tolkien’s work to charm Grimes back in the day. So maybe there’s more to this correction than just pedantry—it’s actually about connecting his own story to a literary icon.

The South Africa Question

Big asterisk: Musk’s childhood wasn’t all sunshine. He’s been open about a brutal wilderness survival camp at 12 (“Lord of the Flies” vibes) and there’s the whole emerald mine rumor—which he absolutely hates talking about and calls “fake.”

Bottom line: Understanding where someone actually comes from matters more than you’d think.