How White South Africans Are Reshaping the Mississippi Delta

Nick Ramsden, a 31-year-old farmer from South Africa, relocated to Mississippi in 2021 to work at Nelson-King Farms, where he performs demanding agricultural labor including operating combines and transporting harvested crops. The rural area around Chatham, Mississippi has attracted a significant population of white South African workers in recent years, with over 130 individuals from his home region working within a half-hour radius. These workers have established a visible community presence, gathering at local bars and forming social networks. Ramsden describes the work as grueling, particularly during harvest seasons when hundred-hour weeks are common, but appreciates the tight-knit community of fellow South African expatriates and the welcoming local environment.

"Nick Ramsden, who is thirty-one, grew up in the Lowveld region of South Africa, where his family managed a game reserve, farming livestock and sourcing wildlife, including lions, hippos, elephants, and rhinos, for export. In 2021, he moved to the U.S. to take up work at Nelson-King Farms. The job was gruelling: during harvest, he sometimes worked hundred-hour weeks."

"It helped, though, that thirty other young men whom he'd known back home, and more than a hundred more whom he didn't know, were within about a half hour's drive. At certain bars in the area, it had become commonplace to find groups of young South African men-distinguishable by their accents and their extraordinarily short shorts-knocking back beers."

"It's such a small community. You get to know each and every person around here. We really enjoy it. People are good out here."

Read at The New Yorker