BRANDON Huntley is the new black. Or more precisely, the former Capetonian who is now a race refugee in Canada is the descendent of one Francina van der Kaap, a woman “of colour”, and more than half of his relatives are similarly coloured.
This is according to social historian Patric Tariq Mellet, who says he shares Huntley’s colourful lineage.
“We are in fact a family with a proud tradition of being mixed.”
Further, said Mellet, Huntley's cousin – and Mellet’s half-sister’s son – lives in a common-law partnership with a black woman in Khayelitsha, and Huntley’s uncle married across the colour line, as did his grandparents’ siblings.
Writing on the Cape-Slavery-Heritage blog this week, Mellet said his maternal grandparents, William Huntley and Mary-Anne Haddon- Huntley, were Brandon’s great-grandparents. “Over 50% of Brandon’s relatives are people of colour ... and don’t share his race attitudes.”
According to Mellet, “Brandon’s great-great-grandmother, Francina, was a woman of colour, married to ... William Haddon, one of the first Englishmen to settle in the Xalanga district of the Transkei in the mid 1800s.”
Mellet was critical of Huntley's case, which he said “brought dishonour to his ancestors”.
Huntley's lawyer, Russell Kaplan, has meanwhile issued a statement saying the case gave an “evidentiary foundation to prove” Huntley was the victim of racial persecution.


The Weekend Post Online