I cycled across South Africa and stayed many nights with white farmers. (Since the land is fenced off, it’s not easy to just stop and camp. You have to find the road up to the farmhouse and ask the farmer’s permission. It usually results in an invitation to dinner and to sleep in the guest bedroom.) What surprised me is how cash-poor a lot of those farming families were, in spite of their land holdings. Yes, they had a higher standard of living than in the townships, but they seemed of only modest wealth in a general developed-world context. They seemed poor compared to some Johannesburg black elites. Farmers complained that their children had moved away not necessarily due to violence but rather for improved financial prospects.