Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption President Donald Trump on 'Nambia' and Africa's 'business potential' 
 
 "Nambia's health system is increasingly self-sufficient," said US President Donald Trump at a lunch with African leaders in New York on Wednesday, reeling off a list of their nations' achievements. 
 
 But no such country exists. 
 
 Could the US leader have been referring to Namibia? Zambia? Or perhaps, The Gambia? 
 
 Social media users wasted no time in offering their own explanations. 
 
 One person shared an image of US race activist Rachel Dolezal, who identifies as black despite being born white, and who recently visited South Africa: 
 
 Find out more about Namibia, Zambia and The Gambia here: 
 
 Namibia facts and figures 
 
 Zambia facts and figures 
 
 The Gambia facts and figures 
 
 Africa Live: More on this and other stories 
 
 Namibia's President Hage Geingob was present when Mr Trump made the gaffe. He has not yet commented. 
 
 Some Twitter users also bristled at President Trump's comments about Africa's "tremendous business potential". 
 
 "I have so many friends going to your countries trying to get rich. I congratulate you, they're spending a lot of money," Mr Trump said. 
 
 "It [represents] huge amounts of different markets... It's really become a place they have to go, that they want to go." 
 
 Others defended Mr Trump, saying that aside from the "Nambia" blunder, he made some valid points. 
 
 Translator defends Trump speech omissions ||||| Namibia is a real country in southern African and on Wednesday it got its 15 minutes of fame in America after President Donald Trump mistakenly referred to it as “Nambia” at a United Nations summit in New York. And, you guess it, the moment went viral. 
 
 It happened at a gathering with African leaders when Trump made the unfortunate mispronunciation in this line: “In Guinea and Nigeria, you fought a horrifying Ebola outbreak. Nambia’s health system is increasingly self-sufficient.” 
 
 https://twitter.com/davidmackau/status/910558586799099904 
 
 Of course, there is no African country called “Nambia” — there’s Zambia and Namibia, but not “Nambia.” But people on Twitter took off with it, promptly cracking jokes and taking shots at the president’s speaking skills. Soon after, the word “Nambia” became a trending topic on Twitter. 
 
 https://twitter.com/taureanb/status/910560630536642560 
 
 https://twitter.com/anirvanghosh/status/910598814486204418 
 
 https://twitter.com/claudiajordan/status/910618357136683009 
 
 Jokes aside, a communications director for ONE — an advocacy group in Africa — argued that Trump said some valid points about African countries and the opportunities they present for American investors as Trump noted in his address. 
 
 https://twitter.com/iankoski/status/910566507700260864 
 
 https://twitter.com/iankoski/status/910565344141602823 
 
 So, where is Namibia and why is it so important? 
 
 https://twitter.com/RunGomez/status/910897240721387520 
 
 Namibia is on the southern end of Africa on the Atlantic Ocean coast and it shares borders with South Africa, Botswana, Zambia and Angola. It has a recorded population of almost 2.5 million, according to the CIA’s factbook. Namibia has been an independent country since 1990 when it earned sovereignty from South Africa. 
 
 Trump said Africa has some of the fastest-growing economies in the world, but Namibia is not one of them. Rather, one of the big reasons Trump and the world is interested in the region is the vast supply of minerals. 
 
 Namibia is one of the world’s top producers of uranium. About half of the world’s supply of vanadium, platinum and diamonds also come from that region, a southern Africa news outlet reported this week. 
 
 Namibia may still be largely obscure to some people in the world but if Trump’s blunder was worth anything, it was this: the world now knows about Namibia. 
 
 https://twitter.com/GwenLister1/status/910620978790768641 
 
 Have some thoughts to share? 
 
 Join me in a conversation: Shoot me a private email with your thoughts or ideas on a different approach to this story. As always, you can also send us a tweet. 
 
 Email: luis.gomez@sduniontribune.com 
 
 Twitter: @RunGomez 
 
 Read The Conversation on Flipboard. ||||| Story highlights Trump spoke during a speech to African leaders 
 
 "Nambia's health system is increasingly self-sufficient," he said 
 
 (CNN) President Donald Trump lavished praise on the health care system of Nambia during a speech at the United Nations. But there's one little problem -- there's no such country. 
 
 "In Guinea and Nigeria, you fought a horrifying Ebola outbreak," Trump told African leaders gathered Wednesday. "Nambia's health system is increasingly self-sufficient." 
 
 Namibia has stunning scenery such as this private reserve where visitors can see giraffes and other animals. 
 
 Trump mentioned Nambia twice during the session attended by leaders of several nations, including Ghana, Namibia and Uganda. 
 
 The gaffe lit up social media, with many speculating whether he meant Namibia, Zambia or Gambia. ||||| WASHINGTON/JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - The United States warned South Africa on Thursday that seizing land without compensation risked sending the country down the wrong path, deepening a spat over Pretoria’s efforts to fix a glaring racial disparity almost 25 years after the end of apartheid. 
 
 South Africa accused U.S. President Donald Trump on Thursday of stoking racial divisions in a late-night tweet in which he said he had asked U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo to study South African “land and farm seizures” and the “killing of farmers”. 
 
 Washington’s charge d’affaires in South Africa, Jessye Lapenn, was summoned by the ministry of foreign affairs over the tweet, people familiar with the matter told Reuters. 
 
 Trump’s comments inflamed an already heated debate over land ownership in South Africa, a country that remains deeply racially divided and unequal nearly a quarter of a century after Nelson Mandela swept to power at the end of the apartheid era. 
 
 Trump’s tweet appeared to be a response to a Fox News report on Wednesday that focused on South Africa’s land issue and murders of white farmers. 
 
 “The expropriation of land without compensation, our position is that would risk sending South Africa down the wrong path,” State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert said on Thursday. 
 
 “We continue to encourage a peaceful and transparent public debate about what we consider to be a very important issue in South Africa.” 
 
 South African President Cyril Ramaphosa announced on Aug. 1 that the ruling African National Congress (ANC) plans to change the constitution to allow the expropriation of land without compensation, as whites still own most of South Africa’s territory. 
 
 Writing in the London-based Financial Times on Thursday, Ramaphosa said: “This is no land grab. Nor is it an assault on the private ownership of property.” 
 
 He has said any measures would not hit economic growth or food security. No land has been “seized” since the reform plans were announced, the ANC said. 
 
 His spokeswoman said Trump was “misinformed” and the foreign ministry would seek clarification from the U.S. Embassy in Pretoria. 
 
 “South Africa totally rejects this narrow perception which only seeks to divide our nation and reminds us of our colonial past,” a tweet from South Africa’s official government account said. 
 
 At public hearings, suggestions for expropriation included unused land, derelict buildings, circumstances where occupiers have strong historical rights, informal settlements and abandoned inner-city buildings, Ramaphosa wrote on Thursday. 
 
 And he said that the country would not make the same mistakes that other countries have made, alluding to the violent land seizures seen in neighboring Zimbabwe. 
 
 “All of us would be concerned if they went the direction that Zimbabwe did. Right now it’s just a proposal in parliament,” U.S. Republican Senator Jeff Flake, who is chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee Africa subcommittee, said. 
 
 FILE PHOTO: People erect a shack during illegal land occupations, in Mitchell's Plain township near Cape Town, South Africa, May 29, 2018. REUTERS/Mike Hutchings 
 
 The State Department’s Nauert pointed out that Zimbabwe’s government had squashed civil society, shut down the media and destroyed an independent judiciary. “We have not seen that happen in South Africa,” she said. 
 
 South Africa’s far-left opposition firebrand, Julius Malema, who has led calls for the seizure of white-owned land, told Trump to stay out of the debate. “You have caused enough problems in Africa,” he told journalists. 
 
 Senator Cory Booker, the top Democrat on the Africa subcommittee, said Trump’s tweet showed a “painful ignorance.” 
 
 The ANC has long had a strained relationship with the U.S. Republican administration, mainly over U.S. support for Israel. 
 
 AfriForum, which mostly champions white people’s rights in South Africa, welcomed Trump’s announcement. 
 
 “Everyone in South Africa should therefore hope that the pressure from the USA will lead to the ANC reconsidering the disastrous route that they want to take SA on,” AfriForum’s CEO, Kallie Kriel, said. 
 
 He added that Trump’s comment came just three months after the organization sent a delegation to the United States to brief Fox News presenter Tucker Carlson, and the Cato Institute think tank, on the situation in South Africa. 
 
 VIOLENT CRIME 
 
 Violent crime is a serious problem across South Africa and 47 farmers were killed in 2017-18, according to statistics from AgriSA, an association of agricultural associations. However the same figures show that farm murders are at a 20-year low. 
 
 Since the end of apartheid in 1994, the ANC has followed a “willing-seller, willing-buyer” model under which the government buys white-owned farms for redistribution to blacks. 
 
 Progress has been slow and most South Africans believe something has to be done to accelerate change, providing it does not hurt the economy or stoke unrest. 
 
 “Reforming the land distribution and ownership will be good for South Africa,” said independent political analyst Nic Borain. 
 
 “That there will be instability and worries about property rights is inevitable, but we don’t expect that the government will act in a way that radically destabilizes investor security.” 
 
 Trump’s tweet came days after it was announced that his wife, Melania, would travel to Africa in October for her first major solo international trip as first lady. 
 
 In January, South Africa protested to the U.S. Embassy in Pretoria about reported remarks by Trump that some immigrants from Africa and Haiti came from “shithole” countries. 
 
 “This is a guy that calls those countries s-hole countries,” Booker said. “He’s shown a level of not just ignorance, but meanness, bigoted ideas.” 
 
 Slideshow (5 Images) ||||| Lotte New York Palace Hotel 
 
 New York, New York 
 
 1:31 P.M. EDT 
 
 PRESIDENT TRUMP: Thank you very much, General. I appreciate it. And I'm greatly honored to host this lunch, to be joined by the leaders of Côte d’Ivoire, Ethiopia, Ghana, Guinea, Namibia, Nigeria, Senegal, Uganda, and South Africa. In particular, I want to thank President Condé, who is representing the African Union. Thank you. Thank you. 
 
 In this room, I see partners for promoting prosperity and peace on a range of economic, humanitarian, and security issues. We hope to extend our economic partnerships with countries who are committed to self-reliance and to fostering opportunities for job creation in both Africa and the United States. 
 
 Africa has tremendous business potential. I have so many friends going to your countries, trying to get rich. I congratulate you. They're spending a lot of money. But it does -- it has a tremendous business potential and representing huge amounts of different markets. And for American firms it's really become a place that they have to go -- that they want to go. 
 
 of the world’s ten fastest-growing economies are in Africa. Increasing American trade and investment across diverse industries -- including agriculture, energy, transportation, healthcare, travel, and tourism -- will further transform lives throughout the continent. Secretary Tillerson and the U.S. Millennium Challenge Corporation are already considering an investment worth hundreds of millions of dollars in Côte d’Ivoire, which has made impressive economic reforms. Really, you've done a tremendous job. 
 
 We also hope that African firms -- like the company Sasol --consider making investments in the United States. Sasol, as an example, is building a $9 billion petrochemical plant in Louisiana, which will bring new jobs to the state and, really, hardworking Americans will be manning those jobs. 
 
 we cannot have prosperity if we're not healthy. We will continue our partnership on critical health initiatives. Uganda has made incredible strides in the battle against HIV/AIDS. In Guinea and Nigeria, you fought a horrifying Ebola outbreak. Namibia’s health system is increasingly self-sufficient. My Secretary of Health and Human Services will be traveling to Africa to promote our Global Health Security Agenda. 
 
 Yet, we know that our prosperity depends, above all, on peace. The United States will partner with the countries and organizations, like the African Union, that lead successful efforts to end violence, to prevent the spread of terrorism, and to respond to humanitarian crises. I commend your troops currently serving in the field. Very brave. Very, very brave what they’re going through. 
 
 you well know, too many people are suffering from conflict in Africa. In the Central African Republic, the Congo, Libya, Mali, Somalia, and South Sudan, among others, they’re going through some very, very tough and very dangerous times. Terrorist groups, such as ISIS, al-Shabaab, Boko Haram, and al Qaeda also threaten African peace. The United States is proud to work with you to eradicate terrorist safe havens, to cut off their finances, and to discredit their depraved ideology. And a number of you have told me -- actually, last night -- that we’ve been doing a very good job over the last six or seven months in particular. 
 
 We're closely monitoring and deeply disturbed by the ongoing violence in South Sudan and in the Congo. Millions of lives are at risk, and we continue to provide humanitarian assistance. But real results in halting this catastrophe will require an African-led peace process and a sincere -- really sincere commitment of all parties involved. And I know you’re working on that, and you’re working on that very hard. To assist in these efforts, I'm sending Ambassador Nikki Haley to Africa to discuss avenues of conflict and resolution and, most importantly, prevention. 
 
 I want to discuss our partnership against a global challenge. Today, the world faces an enormous security threat from North Korean regime. We must all stand together and be accountable in implementing United Nations sanctions and resolutions in response to North Korea’s hostile and menacing actions. 
 
 We believe that a free, independent, and democratic nation, in all cases, is the best vehicle for human happiness and success. Thank you for joining me for this critical discussion of the challenges and the opportunities facing our nations. 
 
 Africa, I have to say, is a continent of tremendous, tremendous potential. The outlook is bright. I look forward to hearing from you and your advice during the meal. I thought rather than just eating, we’ll have long discussions -- and I look forward to that very much. But I also look forward to getting to know so many of you, and so many of you I do know. And it’s an honor. It’s an honor. 
 
 And I really want to congratulate you -- growing very fast economically and in every other way. You’ve done a terrific job, you’ve had some tremendous obstacles placed in your path, but you have done, really, an absolutely incredible job. 
 
 So I want to thank you, and I look forward to our discussion. Thank you. 
 
 Thank you all very much. (Applause.) 
 
 END 1:36 P.M. EDT ||||| Government says intervention is misinformed and ‘reminds us of our colonial past’ 
 
 An order by Donald Trump to his secretary of state, Mike Pompeo, to look into alleged seizures of farms and the “large-scale killing of farmers” in South Africa has prompted anger and derision in a country where land ownership and violent crime are highly contentious issues. 
 
 The South African government said the US president’s intervention was based on “false information” and reflected a “narrow perception which only seeks to divide our nation and reminds us of our colonial past”. 
 
 Trump says 'flipping' in criminal cases should be illegal and warns against impeachment Read more 
 
 Trump tweeted on the subject following a segment on Fox News on Wednesday in which host Tucker Carlson claimed that the South African president, Cyril Ramaphosa, had started “seizing land from his own citizens without compensation because they are the wrong skin colour”, calling the alleged seizures “immoral”. 
 
 Khusela Diko, a spokesperson for Ramaphosa, said: “The presidency has noted Trump’s tweet, which is misinformed in our view. We will take up the matter through diplomatic channels.” 
 
 Trump’s latest tweet delighted white nationalists in the US, who have increasingly made South African land rights a talking point since he entered the White House. 
 
 All major political parties in South Africa have agreed there is a need for extensive land reform in the country, where 72% of agricultural land is in the hands of white farmers, according to the Land Audit Report, despite white people making up just 8% of the population. 
 
 On 1 August Ramaphosa announced that the ruling African National Congress (ANC) would forge ahead with plans to change the constitution to allow the expropriation of land without compensation, a motion passed by parliament in February. 
 
 Almost 25 years after the end of apartheid, the land issue has become a focus of economic and social grievances in what has remained one of the most unequal countries in the world. 
 
 Trump’s statements dominated local media in South Africa on Thursday. 
 
 Mmusi Maimane, the leader of the main opposition Democratic Alliance party, which opposes forced expropriation but backs land reform, said “fear-mongering by international leaders adds no value”. 
 
 Julius Malema, leader of the Economic Freedom Fighters, a populist leftwing opposition party, told reporters there was no white genocide in South Africa. “There is black genocide in the USA; black people are killed every day. There is a black genocide here in South Africa; just recently a farmer was convicted for the murder of a black farmer,” he said. 
 
 ENCA, a local TV network, broadcast a video pointing out factual errors in Trump’s statements while mocking the US president for his alleged relationship with pornographic actors. 
 
 The statistics around violence against white farmers are contested. According to research by one of South Africa’s biggest farmers’ organisations, such murders are at a 20-year low. 
 
 In 2017-18, 47 farmers were killed, according to statistics compiled by AgriSA, an association of hundreds of agricultural groups across South Africa. Violence against farmers peaked in 1998 when 153 died. Between 80 and 100 were murdered each year from 2003 to 2011, and then about 60 until 2016. 
 
 Despite the decline in the number of deaths there has been a rise in the number of attacks on farms, from 478 in 2016-17 to 561 a year later. 
 
 “The murders on farms are a reflection of the security situation in South Africa. There is absolutely no evidence that the violence is aimed at white farmers,” said Gareth Newham, head of the crime and justice programme of the Institute for Security Studies in Pretoria. 
 
 The AgriSA figures have been challenged by other organisations representing farmers in South Africa such as Afriforum, a lobby group that campaigns for the interests of South Africa’s white Afrikaans-speaking minority. But AgriSA said its research was reliable. 
 
 Senior officials from Afriforum travelled to the US in May where they met Carlson, the Fox News host cited by Trump in his tweet. 
 
 Trump’s intervention was the first time he has tweeted the word “Africa” since he became president. Instead of myriad political, economic and security issues that he could have addressed, he offered support to the tiny population of white people on the continent. 
 
 It continues a pattern in which he began his presidency with a travel ban on several Muslim-majority countries, reportedly described African nations as “shithole countries”, pushed for a wall along the Mexican border, offered a flat-footed response to last year’s hurricane in Puerto Rico and promoted inflammatory and misleading videos from the anti-immigrant group Britain First. 
 
 Last year the rightwing author Ann Coulter tweeted: “The only real refugees: white South African farmers facing genocide.” In March white nationalist Richard Spencer’s AltRight.com website published an article that warned: “Perhaps nowhere is the political emergency of the west becoming so clear as in the recent developments in South Africa.” 
 
 Spencer retweeted Trump’s comment on Thursday and described him as “the white man’s champion”. 
 
 The issue has also caught fire among white nationalists in Australia after being pushed by tabloid newspapers belonging to News Corp which, like Fox News, is owned by Rupert Murdoch. The Australian home affairs minister, Peter Dutton, claimed that white farmers were being targeted and should receive fast-tracked humanitarian visas from a “civilised country”. 
 
 But there was also sharp condemnation in America on Thursday. Patrick Gaspard, the country’s former ambassador to South Africa – the Trump administration has yet to replace him – tweeted that Trump was “attacking South Africa with the disproven racial myth of ‘large-scale killings of farmers’. This man has never visited the continent and has no discernible Africa policy.” 
 
 Democratic congresswoman Karen Bass of California tweeted: “The president of the United States is taking policy recommendations from cable news hosts running stories from white nationalist apartheid sympathisers. The mass killing that happened in South Africa was that of black Africans during apartheid.”
– The nation that seems to be showing up in most headlines Thursday is Nambia, mainly because it doesn't actually exist. In a speech to African leaders Wednesday, President Trump referred to "Nambia" not once but twice, first in his general introduction and then later when he mentioned that "Nambia's health system is increasingly self-sufficient." As the BBC notes, that led to plenty of online jokes, along with people wondering whether he meant Gambia, Zambia, or Namibia. Turns out, it was the last of those. Coverage: For the record: The official White House transcript of the speech made the correction without mention of the mispronunciation. (You can hear for yourself in this video.) But that hasn't slowed a barrage of coverage making light of the president's mistake. One example: At CNN, Anderson Cooper referred to Nambia as a "magical land far, far away" in his recap. Namibia 101: The gaffe has led to a slew of civics-type primers about Namibia. Time, for instance, notes the tiny nation of fewer than 2.5 million people is relatively young, having achieved its independence in 1990. Among the factoids it highlights: Namibia is a big producer of diamonds and it has environmental protection written into its constitution. Silver lining: "If Trump's blunder was worth anything, it was this: The world now knows about Namibia," writes Luis Gomez at the San Diego Union-Tribune. He notes that Namibia also is one of the top global producers of uranium. The main point: The gist of Trump's speech was to tout the region's economic potential (he said he has friends who go there "trying to get rich"), and a member of the African advocacy group ONE praised the intent. "I know 'Nambia' will be the narrative that comes from those remarks, but POTUS is right on this: Africa has tremendous business potential," tweeted rep Ian Koski. Namibia's reaction: Officially, nada. No major government official, including President Hage Geingob, who was present, has said anything publicly about the mistake. But the Washington Post reports that Namibians themselves sound a little miffed and are mocking Trump, like so.