Church Gunman Hijacks Rhodesian and South African Culture to Support Murder

Last night nine people were senselessly murdered at a predominately black church in Charleston, South Carolina during a prayer service.  The gunmen has been identified by police as Dylann Roof.  From his profile picture on Facebook (shown as the featured image of this article) we can begin to identify a possible motive.  Seen on Roof’s jacket are the flags of the former countries of Rhodesia, now Zimbabwe, and apartheid-era South Africa.  Both of those countries were run by white minority rule which changed in 1980 for Rhodesia and in 1994 for South Africa.

In the past, SOFREP has covered the conflicts in Rhodesia and South Africa, for what they are and for what they are not, without glorifying white settler governments.  Many would argue that things were better in South Africa and Zimbabwe under the previous governments, however, times and change and there is no place for race based governments in this day and age.

For Roof to latch onto Rhodesia and South Africa, presumably as role models, to justify his senseless murder of innocent people is as misguided as it is disgusting.  Anachronistic racial policies are nothing to admire.  Whatever one thinks about Rhodesian and pre-1994 South African policies, Roof is clearly a very lost and confused young man.