Regent Xami Thomas’s Speech

Regent Xami Thomas gave this speech at the inaugural event for the Indigenous Embassy Jerusalem 1 February 2024, at Friends of Zion Museum.

Dr Evans, Deputy Mayor and Dr Sheree.  Thank you for this opportunity to allowing the Khoi to be part of this momentous occasion

I fell in love with Jerusalem. There's one thing I don't understand about Jerusalem though. My good friends who brought me here took me to the market upill and when we returned to our hotel it was uphill. One day I will understand, but what a wonderful place. I'm hooked.

But we always loved Jerusalem. We always loved the people of Israel. I want to say I'm from the most beautiful coastal city, I said Coastal because Jerusalem is not Coastal, in the world, it's called Cape Town.  Our ancestral name for Cape Town is kamissa, meaning place of Sweet Waters.

Now I want to apologize to the people of Israel for the horrible thing that the ANC government did to this glorious Nation.  We are sorry. They do not represent all the Khoi or all the people of Southern Africa. They did not consult us and the allegation is without any substance. South Africa has got a wonderful population of koi people and I must say to you, a vibrant Jewish Community that's strong, established and an influence that contributes greatly to the success economically of South Africa and we appreciate their contribution to South Africa. So we were horrified of what the South African government did.

I want to say that when they said Indigenous Embassy, my heart jumped and I said let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob.

And I want to say that anybody who says that Israel is not Indigenous doesn’t know what they're talking about, because if Israel is not indigenous there's no indigenous Nation on the earth.  Go tell pharaoh that Israel is my first born. May Jerusalem always be in peace and I want to ask you to open your eyes. The friends of Israel are much more than the enemies of Israel. Amen. Long Live Israel and the Beautiful city of Jerusalem.