# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
grew up in a small, tight-knit community of mixed race people on the edge of the British empire. The population of what was then called Swaziland (now Eswatini) was divided into white Europeans, black "native" Swazis and those who fell into the awkward space between.

I was born and raised in that awkward space. Even as a child, I knew my brown skin and green eyes set me apart. In a country where interracial marriage was banned, we were proof that someone, somewhere, had been very naughty indeed. We were the living, breathing result of a sin; sex across the colour line.

Children belong to their father under Swazi tradition. Many mixed-race people's fathers were white soldiers and government hands who rotated through the country and then returned to their homes far away. Mixed-race people became the unclaimed baggage on the carousel of British colonial life.

A brave few, like my own great-grandfather, stayed in the country and made a mixed family. He lived with his black wife in the open and openly loved his children.

I now live in a western cultural bubble that tells me to be my authentic self. That message would have made no sense to me as a child. As a girl, my authentic self seemed to be a poor version of the Europeans who had the best jobs. Being "coloured", as we were called then, isolated us and, in many cases, taught us to disdain the black part of ourselves. We were also a shameful version of the Swazis whose land we occupied.

Both my parents were mixed race and suffered the humiliations heaped on "non-whites". They wanted out of southern Africa. Thank God. The Baptist Union of Australia offered them the job of "house parents" at a hostel for Aboriginal boys in Perth, Western Australia. We disembarked the Italian passenger liner SS Guglielmo Marconi in the port of Fremantle and our lives changed. Australia liberated us. Nobody knew who or what we were. Greek? Italian? South American? We were free of the old labels and free to enter any store and attend any school.

To insist that stories be told only by those with 'lived experience' goes against my belief in imagination and empathy

Australia was a miracle but, we soon discovered, not for the Aboriginal boys at the hostel. Racial profiling is a new term for an old practice. In stores, the boys were followed in case they tried to steal. On the street, they were watched for signs of violence and bad behaviour. The poison we'd left behind in southern Africa was in Australia, except that now, we didn't have to swallow it whole.

Twenty years on, I write for a living; a luxury beyond anything I could have imagined in the dusty fields of my childhood. I am now, as then, hyper-aware of trends in the dominant culture. The search for authentic and diverse fiction is helping to address a centuries-old lack of outside voices, and for that, I am grateful.

But to insist that stories be told only by those with "lived experience" goes against my belief in imagination, empathy, research and the shared experience of being human.

Would I prefer a story about a mixed South African girl to be written by a mixed female South African writer? Yes, absolutely! I don't want to, however, insist on it. The story itself is the magic. Writers must be able to dip their pen into the well and draw out whatever stories they find there. I grew up on a map where those with superior knowledge determined where I might set my foot. I know, from personal experience, that hard boundaries cut us off from each other. They stop the exchange of ideas.

I leave you with an example of the power of story to transcend an author's "lived experience": The Number 1 Ladies' Detective Agency by Alexander McCall Smith, a white, Zimbabwean-born author. The books lack the grit and authenticity I wanted in southern African crime fiction. My mother, on the other hand, adored the series. When she sat down to read those books, she wasn't looking for hard-edged reality. She'd lived through poverty, shame and racism in real time. She wanted humour, hope and a black woman in control. Alexander McCall Smith's work gives her that. I'll let her and all the other readers decide where they stand in relation to the character and the story.

Malla Nunn is the author of When the Ground is Hard, in bookstores now through Allen & Unwin

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
I grew up mixed-race in southern Africa. Who has the right to tell my story? | Malla Nunn

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
grew up in a small, tight-knit community of mixed race people on the edge of the British empire. The population of what was then called Swaziland (now Eswatini) was divided into white Europeans, black "native" Swazis and those who fell into the awkward space between. I was born and raised in that awkward space.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
South Africa is the world’s most unequal country. 25 years of freedom have failed to bridge the divide | CNN

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Despite 25 years of democracy, South Africa remains the most economically unequal country in the world, according to the World Bank. If anything, the “Rainbow Nation” is even more divided now than it was in 1994.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
From 1948 through the 1990s, a single word dominated life in South Africa. Apartheid -Afrikaans for "apartness"-kept the country's majority Black population under the thumb of a small white minority. It would take decades of struggle to stop the policy, which affected every facet of life in a country locked in centuries-old patterns of discrimination and racism.

What Was Apartheid?

The segregation began in 1948 after the National Party came to power. The nationalist political party instituted policies of white supremacy, which empowered white South Africans who descended from both Dutch and British settlers in South Africa while further disenfranchising Black Africans.

The system was rooted in the country's history of colonization and slavery. White settlers had historically viewed Black South Africans as a natural resource to be used to turn the country from a rural society to an industrialized one. Starting in the 17th century, Dutch settlers relied on slaves to build up South Africa. Around the time that slavery was abolished in the country in 1863, gold and diamonds were discovered in South Africa.

That discovery represented a lucrative opportunity for white-owned mining companies that employed-and exploited-Black workers. Those companies all but enslaved Black miners while enjoying massive wealth from the diamonds and gold they mined. Like Dutch slaveholders, they relied on intimidation and discrimination to rule over their Black workers.

Apartheid Laws and Segregation

The mining companies borrowed a tactic that earlier slaveholders and British settlers had used to control Black workers: pass laws. As early as the 18th century, these laws had required members of the Black majority, and other people of color, to carry identification papers at all times and restricted their movement in certain areas. They were also used to control Black settlement, forcing Black people to reside in places where their labor would benefit white settlers.

Those laws persisted through the 20th century as South Africa became a self-governing dominion of the United Kingdom. Between 1899 and 1902, Britain and the Dutch-descended Afrikaners fought one another in the Boer War, a conflict that the Afrikaners eventually lost. Anti-British sentiment continued to foment among white South Africans, and Afrikaner nationalists developed an identity rooted in white supremacy. When they took control in 1948, they made the country's already discriminatory laws even more draconian.

Racist fears and attitudes about "natives" colored white society. Though apartheid was supposedly designed to allow different races to develop on their own, it forced Black South Africans into poverty and hopelessness. "Grand" apartheid laws focused on keeping Black people in their own designated "homelands." And "petty" apartheid laws focused on daily life and restricted almost every facet of Black life in South Africa.

Pass laws and apartheid policies prohibited Black people from entering urban areas without immediately finding a job. It was illegal for a Black person not to carry a passbook. Black people could not marry white people. They could not set up businesses in white areas. Everywhere from hospitals to beaches was segregated. Education was restricted. And throughout the 1950s, the NP passed law after law regulating the movement and lives of Black people.

Though they were disempowered, Black South Africans protested their treatment within apartheid. In the 1950s, the African National Congress, the country's oldest Black political party, initiated a mass mobilization against the racist laws, called the Defiance Campaign. Black workers boycotted white businesses, went on strike, and staged non-violent protests.

These acts of defiance were met with police and state brutality. Protesters were beaten and tried en masse in unfair legal proceedings. But though the campaigns took a toll on Black protesters, they didn't generate enough international pressure on the South African government to inspire reforms.

Steve Biko, Nelson Mandela and the Black Consciousness Movement

In 1960, South African police killed 69 peaceful protesters in Sharpeville, sparking nationwide dissent and a wave of strikes. A subgroup of protesters who were tired of what they saw as ineffective nonviolent protests began to embrace armed resistance instead. Among them was Nelson Mandela, who helped organize a paramilitary subgroup of the ANC in 1960. He was arrested for treason in 1961 and was sentenced to life in prison for charges of sabotage in 1964.

In response to the 1960 protests, the government declared a state of emergency. This tactic cleared the way for even more apartheid laws to be put in place. Despite the state of emergency, Black groups continued to organize and protest. But a crackdown on many movement leaders forced them into exile abroad.

Anti-apartheid protests continued as life for Black South Africans became more and more dire under apartheid. On June 16, 1976, up to 10,000 Black schoolchildren, inspired by new tenets of Black consciousness, marched to protest a new law that forced them to learn Afrikaans in schools. Steve Biko, anti-apartheid activist and co-founder of the South African Students' Organization, spearheaded the movement and was arrested multiple times for his activism before dying from injuries sustained while in police custody on September 12, 1977.

When Did Apartheid End?

During the 1980s, resistance became even more fierce. Peaceful and violent protests finally began to spark international attention. Nelson Mandela, the movement's most powerful and well-known representative, had been imprisoned since 1964. But he inspired his followers to continue resisting and conducted secret negotiations to end apartheid.

By the end of the 1980s, discontentment was growing among white South Africans about what they saw as South Africa's diminished international standing. By then, the country faced sanctions and economic ramifications as international businesses, celebrities, and other governments pressured the government to end discrimination. As the economy faltered, the government was locked in a stalemate with anti-apartheid activists.

But when South African president P.W. Botha resigned in 1989, the stalemate finally broke. Botha's successor, F.W. de Klerk, decided it was time to negotiate to end apartheid in earnest.

In February 1990, de Klerk lifted the ban on the ANC and other opposition groups and released Mandela, whose secret negotiations had thus far failed, from prison. Despite continued political violence, Mandela, de Klerk and their allies began intensive negotiations.

In 1994, the NP was finally defeated and Mandela became president of South Africa. A constitutional assembly was convened and South Africa adopted a new constitution that allowed for a South Africa that was not ruled by racial discrimination. It took effect in 1997.

By then, South Africa had dismantled apartheid for good. Mandela and de Klerk won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1993 for their cooperation, and a truth and reconciliation commission began investigating human rights abuses and memorializing those abuses. The transition was not entirely non-violent. But by its end, South Africa had forged a new reality: one that owed its existence to the continued resistance of an oppressed racial majority.

HISTORY Vault: Voices of Civil Rights

Fact Check

We strive for accuracy and fairness. But if you see something that doesn't look right, click here to contact us! HISTORY reviews and updates its content regularly to ensure it is complete and accurate.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
The Harsh Reality of Life Under Apartheid in South Africa | HISTORY

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
For decades, the country's Black majority was controlled by racist laws enshrining white supremacy.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Life under apartheid: demeaning, often brutal | CNN

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
For South Africans who survived apartheid, the end of the brutal system was the birth of a new world, midwifed in large part by Nelson Mandela.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
JOHANNESBURG (AP) - My mother was furious. The operators of the gas station in rural, racist South Africa had taken her money to fill the car, but would not give her the key to the toilets. They were for whites only.

It was the early 1960s, and apartheid was the law of the land.

So my indomitable mum did the only thing she could do: She ordered me and my two sisters to urinate right there, very publicly, in front of the fuel pumps.

We did not disobey, but I started crying - and my sisters bawled, too. We lowered our shorts, but I was so traumatized that I simply could not go.

My widowed mother, Ethel Pillay, had driven us from our home in Zimbabwe, which was then called Rhodesia, to visit family in her native South Africa.

There was racism in Rhodesia, too, but it was nothing like the institutionalized code in South Africa that made blacks subhuman - the system that Nelson Mandela later fought to bring down.

We had been on the road for more than 15 hours that day. We were taking the car because the train ride was difficult for a woman with three children and lots of baggage.

The train also was an uncomfortable ride for blacks: Halfway through the trip, in the middle of the night, they would have to get out of the Rhodesian Railways compartments and transfer to decrepit blacks-only South African carriages.

The car trip presented its own challenges. Hotels catered only to whites, so the drive needed to be nonstop. We also had to carry piles of food and drinks because my mother refused to go to the back door of shops; only whites were allowed inside the stores.

In those days, of course, we didn't say "blacks" and "whites." Black people were called "Africans," we were "colored" to designate our mixed race, and whites were called "Europeans."

Sometimes those lines got blurred. South Africa had a crazy system of deciding your race, including whether the moons of your fingernails were a bit more mauve than white, indicating a hint of black blood. There also was the test of whether a pencil would stay in your hair, indicating it must be of kinky black stock. If the pencil slid through, you could be considered white.

Under such rules of apartheid, Chinese were classified colored despite their straight hair; Japanese were white.

Blacks who wanted to be reclassified as colored also could undergo the pencil test: if it fell out when you shook your head, you could be become colored.

Tens of thousands of people changed their race in this manner. Sometimes it was not voluntary and led to families being forcibly separated - even children from their parents - if one member was deemed not to belong to the same race. It was not unusual, in the colored community, to find siblings ranging in shades from deepest black to fair with blond hair.

I remember the sorrow brought on our family because one of my mother's sisters "played white." When she was in her 90s, my grandmother recounted how her own daughter walked past her in the street, pretending not to know her. But with the pain still stark in her eyes, she told me, "That's what she had to do to make a better life for herself and her children."

Being white meant you got decent health care, your kids could go to school, and you could live where you wanted.

Blacks were corralled into townships, if they could get jobs in the city. If not, their urban shacks often were bulldozed and they were forcibly moved to unproductive "homelands." This was at the heart of the policy of apartheid, or "separateness."

My experience was more the absurd pettiness of apartheid, rather than the brutal, state-sponsored violence used to maintain it.

If you were white, you had access to jobs denied to blacks. The only black professionals were teachers, like my mother; nurses and doctors who could only treat blacks; and lawyers, the profession chosen by Mandela, who once believed he could end apartheid by reasoning and legal argument.

We moved to England from Rhodesia when I was child because my mother fell in love with a white man, Michael Faul, who had come to Rhodesia when he was 2. His mother strenuously objected to the marriage, and for years, she was estranged from her only son until my mother forced him to reconcile.

I remember our ship docking in Southampton. On the train ride to London, seeing whites doing menial work, I exclaimed to my mother: "But those are Europeans - picking up dustbins!" It was so alien.

On subsequent visits to South Africa as a teenager, I had a British passport. That put me in the peculiar position of being an "honorary white" - meaning I could stay in white hotels and, upon showing my passport, go to restaurants, movie theaters and other places reserved for whites. The exception was South Africa's racially segregated beaches.

To my surprise, I realized that Johannesburg was not made up of dusty, treeless suburbs with poor homes crowded onto small plots overlooked by dumps. White people lived in green neighborhoods with paved roads and sidewalks, in lush homes with gardens, swimming pools and tennis courts.

Black people who worked in those suburbs had to have permission to live in the "boy's quarters" at the bottom of the garden - such approval was stamped into much-hated "passbooks." Or they had to be out of the white suburbs before nightfall.

My mother, now writing her memoirs, recalls racism as something that "children were not taught. ... It seemed to be imbibed unconsciously, and automatically became a part of you."

In Cradock, a South African town in the eastern Cape where she was living when apartheid was legalized in 1948, my English-speaking mother struggled with her studies after new laws sought to entrench white superiority through the Afrikaans language. Once, she was "locked into my classroom to do my topic in history, in a foreign language I could neither read nor write."

Opposition to Afrikaans as "the language of the oppressor" led to the 1976 uprising in Soweto, when police opened fire on 15,000 students marching in a peaceful protest. Images of the state violence published around the world proved a momentous turning point, changing how many perceived apartheid.

When that evil system finally was crushed, we all were in awe of Mandela's insistence on reconciliation and not retribution. It is a tribute to him that today, as he ordained, I and others forgive but do not forget.

EDITOR'S NOTE - Michelle Faul is Chief Africa Correspondent for The Associated Press.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
What Life Was Like In South Africa During Apartheid

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
JOHANNESBURG (AP) - My mother was furious. The operators of the gas station in rural, racist South Africa had taken her money to fill the car, but would not give her the key to the toilets. They were for whites only. It was the early 1960s, and apartheid was the law of the land.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Soweto, Johannesburg | South African History Online

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Soweto is an urban settlement or ‘Township’ in South Africa, South West of Johannesburg, with a population of approximately 1.3 Million (2008, Joburg archive).

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Race plays key factor in a society where 10 percent of population owns more than 80 percent of wealth, World Bank says.

Shacks are seen in Kayamandi township near Stellenbosch, South Africa [File: Mike Hutchings/Reuters]

South Africa is the most unequal country in the world, with race playing a determining factor in a society where 10 percent of the population owns more than 80 percent of the wealth, a World Bank report has said.

"South Africa... is the most unequal country in the world, ranking first among 164 countries," the Washington-based institution said Wednesday in a report, Inequality in Southern Africa.

Almost three decades after the end of apartheid, "race remains a key driver of high inequality in South Africa, due to its impact on education and the labor market," it said.

When race is considered as a factor in income disparities, the report added, "its contribution to income inequality amounts to 41 percent, while contribution of education is reduced to 30 percent.

"The legacy of colonialism and apartheid, rooted in racial and spatial segregation, continues to reinforce inequality."

The country's neighbours that make up the rest of the Southern African Customs Union - Botswana, Eswatini, Lesotho and Namibia - established in 1910, all finish higher on the list of the most unequal countries in the world.

In the region, women earn on average 30 percent less than men with the same level of education with the pay gap as wide as 38 percent in Namibia and South Africa.

The uneven distribution of agricultural land is also a factor driving inequality, especially in rural areas.

In Namibia, 70 percent of the 39.7 million hectares (98.1 million acres) of commercial agricultural land "still belong to Namibians of European descent", the World Bank said.

The report was produced before the COVID-19 pandemic and its authors used the Gini coefficient - an indicator of income inequality - to rank countries.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
South Africa most unequal country in the world: Report

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Race plays key factor in a society where 10 percent of population owns more than 80 percent of wealth, World Bank says. South Africa is the most unequal country in the world, with race playing a determining factor in a society where 10 percent of the population owns more than 80 percent of the wealth, a World Bank report has said.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
6 Things To Know About South Africa's Soweto Township - Travel Noire

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Soweto is a neighborhood in Johannesburg that draws thousands of visitors each year. It's a fascinating place like no other in South Africa. From its rich history, museums, and local cuisine, Soweto offers a variety of things to do and see for every traveler.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
The story of Alexandra and Sandton is a story of the most stark divide of wealth in South Africa.

Sandton, as all South Africans know, is a name synonymous with wealth, opulence, finance, and white flight. The Johannesburg Stock Exchange is located here, as is Sandton City shopping centre, Sandton Convention Centre, headquarters of various companies, a polo club, and a residential heart that purports "Manhattan-style living".

Sandton benefited from the urban decay of central Johannesburg during the 1990s. It became an alternative, attractive, and safe area for business to operate, and is now considered the financial centre of South Africa, and therefore, one of the major financial centres of Africa.

Less than a kilometer away, across the M1 highway, sits the former township of Alexandra, an icon of apartheid-era urban planning, and former home to several famous struggle heroes including Nelson Mandela.

From an aerial view, Alex appears as if carved from stone. It's almost treeless, contrasting sharply with the leafy parks and avenues of Sandton. The streets are laid out in a perfect grid, but within those grids, shacks fill every gap, every contour. Huge hostel complexes, once proposed to house all of Alexandra's inhabitants, now loom like megaliths within the urban structure. The township itself is almost a perfect square, blatantly visible from any map view you choose.

That's the most surprising thing to me about Alex. The impression of order, even precision, in an urban structure which encompasses, in part, disorder.

The City of Johannesburg is actively trying to redress the spatial separation caused by apartheid urban planning. One of those projects is the Corridors of Freedom project ( http://www.corridorsoffreedom.co.za).

The bridge in the photograph is one of two being built, which will carry bus rapid transit and pedestrians from Alexandra to Sandton. Thousands of commuters make this trip each day, on thoroughfares not designed to carry heavy pedestrian traffic. Bridges such as these, in theory, will ease the access and improve the safety of commuters to Sandton.

But the problem of inequality will persist without major structural changes to an economic and architectural environment that favors wealthy and previously privileged individuals and companies. Above, a small informal settlement exists in the middle of Innisfree Park, overlooking the wealthiest part of Sandton City.

↑ Back to Top

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
The story of Alexandra and Sandton is a story of the most stark divide of wealth in South Africa. Sandton, as all South Africans know, is a name synonymous with wealth, opulence, finance, and white flight.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Reading the history of Alexandra Township (a name used by the apartheid government to describe a black settlement), one cannot but realise how easy it is for a human tragedy to occur - all it needs is the combination of a mass movement of poor rural families to the city; short sighted, inadequate, local government, and a misguided national government - to destroy the lives of ordinary citizens.

Today, Alex, as the township is lovingly known by its residents, is gradually starting to overcome its past, over 100 years later. But to understand how difficult the road has been, let's get back to the beginning.

Buying a farm

The story of Alex goes back to 1904, when Papenfus, a wealthy farmer, bought a number of farms, in the Alex area, one of which, Zandfontein, would become the township. Papenfus brought his wife, Alexandra, and his cook Hey Nxele Mbanjwa, with him and their first job was to build a mud hut, which acted as a donkey refreshment station for carts carrying Papenfus' milk from his farm to Johannesburg.

The Mbanjwas brought their five-year-old daughter Annie with them when they moved. Annie married Phumuza Twala and they had 10 children. Phumuza was a thatcher and thatched roofs in the white suburbs of Johannesburg.

People from the rural areas, lured by jobs opportunities at the expanding mines, settled near to the Mbanjwas, and by 1912 Papenfus started dividing the farm Zandfontein into plots, selling them to black families and giving them an opportunity to own land just before the 1913 Land Act took that right away from them.

Papenfus needed a name for the new township. The Mbanjwa's son, Twala recalls that Papenfus asked his grandparents what name was suitable. They replied: "Your wife, Alexandra, loves people." So it became Alexandra.

Political woes

In 1912, Alex was proclaimed a "native township" and by 1916 the Alexandra Health Committee was established to manage Alexandra, a settlement that now accommodated around 30 000 people. However, the Committee was not allowed to collect local taxes, nor was the Johannesburg City Council willing to take responsibility for an area that it claimed fell outside its jurisdiction, leading to a lack of resources and proper management. As it grew, with no tarred roads, rainwater drainage systems, street lighting or sewerage systems, accompanied by haphazard shack settlement, it took on the appearance of a ghetto.

In 1948, the National Party was elected into government, and it brought into law a sweep of apartheid laws - Alexandra was put under the direct control of the then Department of Native Affairs.

It was decided that the influx of people into Alexandra had to be controlled, and in fact the population needed to be decreased, and finally, the provisions of the 1913 Land Act had to be implemented: freehold rights had to be taken away from those residents who owned their properties.

Part of the population reduction plan involved the forced removal of 5 000 squatters to Orlando in Soweto. But there were no homes for them in Soweto and they were dumped back in Alexandra, becoming the health committee's problem again, Alexandra being considered outside the jurisdiction of the Johannesburg City Council. The exercise was repeated again with 2 000 squatters. At this time Alex had a population of 60 000 residents.

Civil Protests

The first bus boycott took place in 1940, because the city wanted to increase the four-penny fare to five pennies (one penny is around R1 in today's terms). The township came out in protest, and for six months residents walked to town, a distance of up to 15km, taking them up to two hours to walk the distance, home and back.

This persistence and resilience paid off - at the end of six months the penny increase was dropped. But the issue was raised again in 1942, 1943 and in 1957 in a movement called "Zikwelwa" ("we will not ride").

The residents won the fourth bus boycott too, with the government passing a law that compelled employers to pick up part of the bill of increased transport, getting their workers to and from work.

Bantu education

In 1957 the residents of Alex were in for another fight. In 1954 the government passed the Bantu Education Act, which stated that blacks now had to submit to an inferior system of education, preparing them for inferior status in South African society.

Mission and private schools, which had maintained high standards, had to now register with the Bantu Education Department, along with all public schools. Thousands of school children boycotted their schools in April 1954, in Alexandra and around the country. Sixteen teachers in Alex lost their jobs. Cultural clubs were formed and informal teaching took place in the open. This continued for two years in Alexandra, with numbers attending the classes slowly dwindling.

The government eventually ended the impasse with an ultimatum: no child would be allowed back into a classroom if they hadn't started attending school by the beginning of 1956. Parents, concerned for their children's education, relented, and their children and future generations were subjected for the next 40 years to the debasing and debilitating Bantu education.

Forced Removals

Alex had been threatened with removals on and off for decades. It started back in 1942 with the North Eastern Protection League; according to urban specialist Pauline Morris in her 2000 paper Alexandra Township - A history, lessons for urban renewal and some challenges for planners.

The league pushed for the abolition of Alexandra. The city council, which didn't have jurisdiction over the township, approved of the idea but backed down when faced with the cost of relocation of the residents, proposing instead, the upgrading of Alex, and its incorporation into Johannesburg.

Alternative accommodation was offered to residents and some of them took up the offer, the first of many removals of people out of Alex. From 1948, through the issuing of permits and passes, further settlement of people in the township was controlled, at the same time as freehold property was expropriated. Police raided homes, checking on passes, and residents not in possession of the relevant documents were systemically moved out of Alexandra.

Morris says that the Alexandra population in 1948 was estimated at between 80 000 and 100 000, with plans to ideally bring the population down to 30 000. Between 1958 and 1973, some 56 000 people were removed from Alex and resettled in Soweto, and 15 000 removed to Tembisa on the East Rand.

The board started buying homes, demolishing some and renovating others, with a view to the government owning all land and houses in the township. Owners were compensated an amount of around R1 770, with the government buying 2 539 properties for an amount of R4.5-million by 1972. Not everyone who was compensated was moved from Alex, in the broader plan of maintaining a labour pool in the northern suburbs.

After the Sharpeville killings of 1960, the government clamped down on opposition parties with a state of emergency and it was decided to remove Alexandra altogether and rebuild the area as a "hostel city". Twenty-five hostels were to be built, each housing 2 500 people, for single men and women, and blacks living on white properties throughout the northern suburbs were to be moved into these hostels.

There was widespread resistance to the move, including from the Johannesburg City Council. All parties felt the cost and social dislocation was not worth the enormous effort that would be needed. But construction went ahead and Madala men's hostel went up in 1971 and Nobuhle hostel in 1972. A women's hostel was completed in 1981, even after it was acknowledged that it wasn't feasible, the destruction of family life being the major stumbling block.

And this is where the Reverend Sam Buti steps onto the stage to play a major role in the eventual reprieve of Alex. He established the Residents' Interim Committee in 1974.

Alexandra Township had been under threat of demolition many times in its history. The marvel is that the township still exists. It should have been obliterated years ago, at the height of the apartheid period, when other "black spots" in the middle of white suburbs met their deaths under the bulldozers. But Alex alone survived - because of a friendship between a church minister and a cabinet minister which finally saved the township from demolition in 1979.

The church minister was the Reverend Sam Buti, who initiated and drove the Save Alex Campaign in the late 1970s, and the minister was Dr Piet Koornhof, Minister of Co-operation and Development in the apartheid government.

Their friendship came about because their fathers, both ministers in the Dutch Reformed Church in the Free State, were friends and their sons knew one another from those times. Buti spoke Afrikaans and when Koornhof was appointed minister, he approached him and said: "My mense praat van 'die erwe van ons vadere' en vra: Hoe moet ons verstaan?"

Translated, this refers to the land inherited from their fathers, meaning that the people of Alexandra failed to understand why this land was being taken away from them, a plea that Afrikaners could readily understand. It was the key to solving the problem. Shortly afterwards, Buti got a call containing a simple message: "Alexandra gaan bly [Alexandra will remain]."

Finally, in 1982, Alexandra was given the official status of a residential area and the then Alexandra liaison committee, led by Rev Buti, was instituted to run the township.

Buti's story subsequently takes on a sad irony. He got further involved in municipal politics. After fighting for Alex to be an independent municipality, he was voted on to the Alex council, and was eventually elected mayor of Alex. But Alexandrans felt he was siding with the apartheid government and betraying their interests. His house was bombed and razed to the ground. He was forced to give up his mayoral post, and got more involved in church matters. Today his reputation is fully restored, but the 1980s were a difficult time for him and his family.

The riots that started in Soweto in June 1976 quickly spread to other areas such as Alexandra, where 19 people were killed. As a consequence of these riots, evictions, forced removals and expropriation of black properties were stopped; urban blacks were no longer regarded as temporary residents and their permanent status was recognised.

Attempts at infrastructure up-liftment

The township, was for decades referred to as the "dark city" because it had no electricity, and in fact, the first house to receive electricity was Buti's, in the early 1970s.

In 1980 a " Master Plan " for Alexandra was introduced, which aim was to transform Alexandra into a "Garden City" with a completely new layout. However, only a small part of this plan was actually ever implemented; the execution of the "Master Plan" was permanently stopped by the violent "Alex Six Days" uprising in February 1986, during which 40 people were killed. By May the council started collapsing and the councillors resigned, which saw the emergence of street committees and peoples' courts.

After the imposition of the nationwide state of emergency in June, the Defence Force moved in to keep the peace. In its place, the government then introduced the " Urban Renewal Plan " as part of its strategy during the state of emergency. However, this plan lead to considerable demolitions, disruptions and displacement in the community as well as two treason trials involving 13 leaders of Alexandra.

This, combined with the considerable number of additional people moving into Alexandra during this time, led to a new area called the "East Bank" being built.

Because of the insufficient capacity and difficult maintenance of the newly built infrastructure, the situation quickly deteriorated and thus the "Urban Renewal Plan" was shelved in 1990. During the communal and political conflicts that took place in the 1991 - 1992 periods, many people were killed, injured or displaced.

In the early 1990s the township was wracked by violence in the run-up to the first democratic elections in 1994. Violence broke out between residents in the men's hostels and residents just south of the hostels, an area that became known as "Beirut". In early 1992 some 60 people were killed and nearly 600 people were injured and around 10 000 people were displaced from their homes, according to Morris.

This led to several peace initiatives, which were greatly assisted by the first fully democratic South African elections in April 1994.

In 1998 another development plan was drawn up, and like its predecessors, planned to reduce Alex's population and divide the township into development zones. "Superblocks", three-storey blocks, were to be built to house 3 000 people. Total cost was to be R3-billion.

The plan fizzled out. Meanwhile, an athlete's village was constructed in 1999 for the All Africa Games on the Far East Bank. Called "Tsutsumani", it consisted of 1 700 freestanding, semi-detached and simplex units. These are now occupied by Alexandrans who have been on the housing waiting list and qualify in terms of certain criteria.

In February 2001 President Thabo Mbeki announced the Alexandra Renewal Project, a presidential project that is to lift the township onto its feet. An amount of R1.3-billion was made available and over a period of seven years the township was to be upgraded.

This programme is a key component of the Government's approach to addressing urbanisation and housing challenges in South Africa and comprises the integrated development of an area addressing economic, social and physical challenges simultaneously.

It is a joint urban regeneration project between all three tiers of government, the private sector, NGO's and community-based organisations.

The Department of Housing extended the Alexandra Renewal Project to the end of the 2009/10 financial year. So far, R1,2 billion has been spent on this, and there are currently 26 infrastructure projects and 12 housing projects being implemented in Alexandra.

It seems fair to say that Alex is finally finding its feet.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
The history of Alexandra Township, Johannesburg, Gauteng

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Reading the history of Alexandra Township (a name used by the apartheid government to describe a black settlement), one cannot but realise how easy it is for a human tragedy to occur - all it needs is the combination of a mass movement of poor rural families to the city; short sighted, inadequate, local government, and a misguided national government - to destroy the lives of ordinary citizens.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Alexandra, Township in Johannesburg | South African History Online

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
A Township 13 kilometeres from North-East Johannesburg. The development of Alexandra Township dates back to 1912. Sometimes thought to be named in honour of Queen Alexandra, wife of King Edward VII of Great Britain; also said to be named after Alexandra, the daughter of EH Papenfus, Township secrata…

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Help us improve our Directory.

Thanks for using our World Directory of Minorities and Indigenous Peoples! We hope you find it interesting.

We have a small favour to ask: if you appreciate our work, would you mind considering making a donation to support our work?

Profile

According to the 2011 census, 8.9 per cent of the population of South Africa self-identifies as coloured. Many individuals who were identified as 'coloured' under apartheid are now self-identifying as San or Khoekhoe. In fact under almost any definition many other South Africans are of 'mixed race'. The communities designated as coloured are primarily descended from the Khoisan people who originally inhabited the western parts of South Africa, from Asian and African slaves brought to the Cape from the earliest years of the colony, from European settlers, and from other Africans. The long process of mixing and acculturation led to the extinction of several Khoisan languages; most coloured people speak Afrikaans as a first language and most still live in the Western and Northern Cape provinces, where they comprise an overall majority of the population.

Historical context

In many ways the exploitation of the coloured community, living in longer and closer proximity to European settlers than most black communities, has been the most intensive in South Africa. Traditional cultures were destroyed and replaced with almost universal conditions of servitude and subservience. Labour conditions on the farms of the Western Cape have been notorious. The forced removals of mixed-race communities from Cape Town in the 1950s and 1960s were among the most pitiless in the annals of apartheid; the new ghettos which resulted face some of the worst crime and other social challenges in the country.

Coloured voting patterns in the 1994 election provided a striking example of the potential for the continuation of racial politics in democratic conditions. Although opposition to coloured co-option into the apartheid system via the 'tricameral parliament' in 1983 had been widespread, a decade later most coloured votes went to the National Party, the instrument of decades of racial oppression. The reasons were complex but a central core was lack of identification, for cultural and linguistic reasons, with the majority black population. In 1999 elections the New National Party (NPP) lost coloured votes to the ANC and Democratic Party. In the 2004 vote, coloureds largely split their vote between the ANC and Democratic Party, while the NPP suffered losses that helped bring about its demise.

Current issues

An ongoing legacy of the apartheid era, in nearly all social indicators - from average income to rates of HIV infection - coloureds as a group still rank between blacks and whites. In the coloured-majority Western Cape many coloureds remain wary of affirmative action programs that they fear will benefit blacks at their expense. The opposition Democratic Alliance has maintained its hold on Cape Town in local elections since 2006. Poverty levels remain high at 41.6 per cent, compared to 0.6 per cent among white South Africans.
Updated March 2018

Minorities and indigenous peoples in

We use cookies on our website to give you the most relevant experience by remembering your preferences and repeat visits. By clicking 'Accept', you consent to the use of all the cookies.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Thanks for using our World Directory of Minorities and Indigenous Peoples! We hope you find it interesting. We have a small favour to ask: if you appreciate our work, would you mind considering making a donation to support our work? According to the 2011 census, 8.9 per cent of the population of South Africa self-identifies as coloured.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
ALTERNATE NAMES: Coloureds, Coloreds

POPULATION: 3.6 million

LANGUAGE: Afrikaans; English

1 * INTRODUCTION

South Africa's 3.6 million mixed-race people are referred to as Cape Coloreds or Coloreds. In other places in the world, the word colored used to describe race is considered disparaging (negative or critical). In South Africa, it is used to describe an important segment of the population.

South Africa's Coloreds are descended from the intermarriage of white settlers, African natives, and Asian slaves who were brought to South Africa from the Dutch colonies of Asia in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Most Coloreds worked as domestic servants, farm laborers, and fisher-folk, but large numbers were also involved in the skilled trades. Colored masons and engineers are responsible for nearly all of the beautiful buildings in Cape Town, and colored seamstresses and tailors are well-known for their craftsmanship.

Coloreds were always closely associated with whites. They spoke the same languages (English and Afrikaans), worshiped in the same churches (mostly Christian Protestant, but also some Catholic), enjoyed the same foods, wore the same kind of clothes, and-especially in latter years-enjoyed the same sports and pastimes. In spite of this common heritage, Coloreds were never fully integrated into white society.

There is still a sense among Coloreds that they continue to be victims of discrimination in South Africa, but this time at the hands of the black majority government.

2 * LOCATION

Most of South Africa's 3.6 million Coloreds live in both the urban and rural areas around Cape Town, where they make up influential political and cultural groups. However, they have also migrated to other major centers, and significant concentrations can be found around the cities of Johannesburg, Pretoria, Port Elizabeth, East London, and Durban. There are also important groups in the neighboring nations of Namibia and Zimbabwe.

The region around Cape Town is known as the western Cape. It is regarded as the traditional homeland of the Coloreds. Coloreds play a vital role in the agriculture industry (fruit, wine, wheat, and dairy products), not only as farm laborers but also as managers, skilled artisans, and increasingly as property-owning entrepreneurs. They also dominate the fishing industry that has grown up in the rich cold waters of the country's west coast. In the cities, many Coloreds work in trades such as carpentry, plumbing, auto repair, and construction, and in professions like health care, accounting, law, and education.

3 * LANGUAGE

Coloreds speak two languages, English and Afrikaans. At one stage during the struggle against apartheid, many Coloreds chose to avoid speaking Afrikaans because of its association with white domination. It is not unusual for Coloreds to combine the two languages in a distinctive, informal local dialect. It is especially heard in humor and in light-hearted songs known as moppies. In formal settings, however, Coloreds use either formal English or Afrikaans.

4 * FOLKLORE

Most folklore is shared by Afrikaners and Coloreds. There are goel or ghost stories, which are frequently as amusing as they are alarming, that can be traced to the stories of slaves from India and Malaysia. A popular time to tell goel stories is in Cape Town in summer when the strong southeast wind, known as the "Cape Doctor," blows. Sometimes it blows so hard that people can hardly walk in the city and the harbor is closed to shipping. Cape Doctor time, when windows are rattling and doors are creaking, is ideal for the telling of goel stories.

Folk music features traditional ballads and moppies (joke songs). An especially delightful moppie tells the story of a baboon trying to learn how to swim. He learns very quickly when he sees a crocodile in front of him and a shark behind.

5 * RELIGION

The Coloreds of Cape Town observe two main religions-Christianity (mostly Protestantism, but also some Catholicism) and Islam, which plays an influential role in a large sector of the population. In urban areas where Coloreds live in large numbers, it is common to hear the faithful Muslims (observers of Islam) being summoned to prayer from mosques. Muslim Coloreds take an intense interest in events in the Middle East and other parts of the Muslim world. Religious beliefs are seen as a factor in the emergence of a strong conservative element among Coloreds.

6 * MAJOR HOLIDAYS

For more than one hundred years, Cape Town's Coloreds were associated with a New Year's Day parade. Neighborhoods formed troops that dressed in colorful satin costumes and marched or danced behind guitar and banjo bands. Each troop had its own combination of colors. When they all arrived at central sports fields, they competed for trophies in front of large crowds of spectators. This tradition was largely abandoned during the latter days of apartheid because many members of the community felt the name it had been given by the white population was racist. When apartheid was eliminated in the 1990s, the citizens of Cape Town revived the parade.

A traditional song performed in the parade is "January, February." The words consist simply of the months of the year sung to a catchy tune and rhythm. Everybody knows this song, and spectators often join in when the band marches by.

7 * RITES OF PASSAGE

Birthdays are celebrated by parties where the guests bring gifts. Baptism of infants, confirmation, and first communion are celebrated among Christian Coloreds. On their twenty-first birthday, many young adults in South Africa receive a symbolic key to adulthood.

8 * RELATIONSHIPS

Although separation of the races was the norm in South Africa for most of the twentieth century, there were always close contacts between whites and Coloreds. They met in the workplace, stores, and the street. Until 1986, it was illegal for members of different race groups to have sexual relations, and people were prosecuted for breaking this law.

Whites and colored adjusted easily to the elimination of apartheid laws. Relations between Coloreds and members of the majority black groups are still evolving, and there has been tension because many Coloreds feel that the government does not always consider the interests of Coloreds.

9 * LIVING CONDITIONS

When most of the apartheid laws were introduced after 1948, many Coloreds were forcibly moved from their traditional residential areas to segregated suburbs and townships. This relocation was bitterly resented and resisted, and it remains one of the worst memories of South African history.

District Six, an area in Cape Town, was the traditional home of many Colored families. Under apartheid laws, it was renewed, but for whites. The Colored residents were forced to move to the sandy Cape Flats, where crime, alcoholism, and other social problems soon developed. As of the late 1990s, Coloreds can live wherever their economic status allows. Some have moved into gracious homes, but the problems of forced removal created a legacy which will take a long time to eradicate.

10 * FAMILY LIFE

Colored families tend to be conservative and mutually supportive. It was largely these qualities that enabled the community to survive the treatment it received during the apartheid years.

11 * CLOTHING

Colored South Africans wear both formal and casual clothing, similar to that worn by people in major industrial nations anywhere in the world. Young people wear jeans, sneakers, and T-shirts, and baseball caps have become popular. Jackets and ties are becoming less common everywhere, even in the workplace. This is a result of the example set by President Nelson Mandela and other leaders, who wear comfortable casual clothes rather than Western-style business attire.

Coloreds are famous for bredies (stews) made with mutton (lamb), tomatoes, cabbage, or local plants known as water-blommetjies. Also popular are small, triangular pies known as samoesas that contain a ground meat mixture seasoned with curry. Samoesas are ideal for snacks or lunch and are often served as appetizers or at cocktail parties. Working men often carry a lunch consisting of a hollowed-out loaf of bread filled with a bredie.

13 * EDUCATION

Education is viewed as the road to self-improvement among Coloreds. As a result, families save and sacrifice to send their children to the best available schools and colleges. In the past, Coloreds were allowed to attend only those institutions designated for them. While these schools were better equipped than those allocated to black Africans, they were nevertheless inferior to the schools for whites. When the transition from apartheid to non-racial democracy took place in 1994, the student-to-teacher ratio in white schools was eighteen to one; in Colored schools, it was twenty-two to one; and in black schools, it was fifty to one.

14 * CULTURAL HERITAGE

The Colored schools produced notable figures in the fields of medicine, law, government, diplomacy, the arts, engineering, commerce and industry, and education itself. Some of South Africa's finest writers and poets-such as the internationally acclaimed Adam Small-are Colored.

15 * EMPLOYMENT

During apartheid, Coloreds were kept by law out of the best jobs and the best schools. Because they were restricted in where they could live, Coloreds had to travel long distances each day to low-paying jobs. The result was a high incidence of crime, alcoholism, and other social ills. When apart-heid ended in 1991 and the black majority assumed power in government, many Coloreds feared that the government would create programs that gave strong education, economic, and employment advantages to blacks. This would leave the Coloreds on the sidelines. They did not want to lose what they have gained in economic and educational opportunities.

The most popular sports are soccer, cricket, rugby, and track and field. After 1991, there was increasing interest in tennis, swimming, golf, yachting, and wind-and wave-surfing, sports not open to Coloreds under apartheid. Hiking and mountaineering are popular, especially in the western part of the country.

17 * RECREATION

Coloreds enjoy the same entertainment as most people in industrialized society-pop and classical music, the movies, dances and nightclubs, and radio and television.

18 * CRAFTS AND HOBBIES

Coloreds enjoy varied hobbies typical of citizens of an industrialized society.

19 * SOCIAL PROBLEMS

Until the mid-1990s, South Africa was governed by apartheid. The result was a relatively poor education for Coloreds because their schools had poor facilities, and many Coloreds abandoned schooling early to help support their families. When people were forced to move into townships and suburbs defined by the race, social problems such as alcoholism, poor health care, and a rising crime rate resulted. Not all of these negative factors have been eliminated under the new democratic system. Colored leaders want to ensure that their people will not be abandoned by the black majority.

20 * BIBLIOGRAPHY

Green, Lawrence G. Tavern of the Seas. Cape Town: Timmins, 1953.

Picard, Hymen W. J. Grand Parade, the Birth of Greater Cape Town, 1850-1913. Cape Town: Struik, 1969.

Reader's Digest Illustrated History of South Africa. Cape Town: Reader's Digest Association, 1994.

Suzman, Helen. In No Uncertain Terms, A South African Memoir. New York: Knopf, 1993

Wilson, Monica, and Leonard Thompson, eds. The Oxford History of South Africa II (1870-1966). Oxford: Clarendon, 1971.

WEBSITES

Embassy of South Africa, Washington, D.C. [Online] Available http://www.southafrica.net/, 1998.

Government of South Africa. [Online] http://www.polity.org.za/gnu.html, 1998.

Interknowledge Corp. South Africa. [Online] Available http://www.geographia.com/south-africa/, 1998.

Southern African Development Community. South Africa. [Online] Available http://www.sadcusa.net/members/safrica/, 1998.

ETHNONYMS: Basters (mixed), Bruinmense (brown people), Cape Coloured People, Coloureds

Orientation

Identification. The term "Cape Coloureds" generally refers to those South Africans of mixed cultural and racial stock whose ancestors include Europeans, Khoi and other indigenous African people, and Asians. The Coloureds were complexly and artificially defined for political convenience by the South African state in the Population Registration Act No. 30 of 1950 (as amended) on the premise that they occupied a middle political estate between Whites and indigenous Blacks, a designation that entrenched still further that structural position and the varying attendant feelings of marginality among individuals. The legal definition distinguished seven subcategories, only one of which was designated the "Cape Coloured group." The remaining six were listed as "Malay," "Griqua," "Chinese" ( sic), "Indian," "other Asiatic," and "other Coloured."

Location. Historically, the ethnonym "Cape Coloureds" alluded specifically to their origin in and around what is now the city of Cape Town and, more generally, in the Cape Colony (Province). Today their descendants are found throughout South Africa, Namibia, Botswana, Lesotho, Swaziland, and Zimbabwe, and the term "Coloured" is often used indiscriminately for all people of mixed racial origin.

Demography. In 1988 the total Coloured population in South Africa, excluding Asians, was 3,127,000, representing about 8.7 percent of the total population of that country. Roughly 75 percent of the Coloured population live in urban areas. In neighboring Namibia, 42,241 people were classified as Coloureds in 1981. The 25,181 Rehoboth Basters, who physically resemble the Namibian Coloured people, regard themselves as a separate "nation" because of their historical and political position in that country. The various Baster groups in South Africa tend to maintain a similar ethnic aloofness.

Linguistic Affiliation. By and large, Coloured people speak either or both of the official state languages, Afrikaans and English. In 1980, 83.3 percent claimed Afrikaans as their home language, as opposed to the 10.3 percent who spoke English. Only 4.5 percent of all Coloured families reported that they were bilingual. Various dialects of both English and Afrikaans are also spoken, especially in Cape Town. Some families in rural areas speak Khoe or a Bantu language (nearly 2 percent in 1980).

History and Cultural Relations

The history of the Coloured people is coemergent with the first permanent European settlement on the Cape Peninsula, which was established in 1652. Intermarriage and cohabitation between settlers and Khoi was common and, at that time, often encouraged by all parties. When slaves were introduced from East Africa, India, Ceylon, and Malaysia, the process was repeated. The heterogeneity of the Coloured people intensified with the continuing arrival of diverse immigrant populations throughout the history of South Africa. In 1950 Parliament enacted two laws designed to prevent both intermarriage and miscegenation; this legislation was repealed thirty-five years later, having proved unenforceable. The history of the Coloureds has thus always been inextricably bound up with both Whites and people of color. Many Whites resemble Coloureds and vice versa, a reality that inspired the South African state to enforce a rigid color bar through the Population Registration Act.

The culture of the Coloured frontiersmen of the northwestern Cape and Namibia, known as the Basters, is similar to that of their White counterparts in other parts of southern Africa. It is often impossible to distinguish between the institutions of the White and Brown Voortrekkers. The special place of the Cape Malays (who are Muslims) in the culture of the urban Cape Coloureds must also be noted.

Settlements

In both rural and urban areas, few differences between Coloured and White settlements exist, other than those imposed by the government policies of racial segregation. Thus, the large number of Coloureds living in shantytowns and low-cost housing schemes in South African cities and small towns is essentially a reflection of the wider stratified society, not one of choice or the product of culture. Similarly, Coloured people living on reserves and on European farms must be seen against the background of their sociopolitical and economic referents. The architecture of many attractive rural cottages built by Cape Coloureds exhibits Dutch and Malaysian influence. It is only in the district of Namaqualand that traditional Khoi mat houses are found; many White people in the area chose to build in similar architectural designs.

Economy

One could speculate that had it not been for the growth of race prejudice, the Coloured population would scarcely differ from South African Whites in terms of their occupational profiles. In practice, although there are Coloured physicians, professors, teachers, entrepreneurs, civil servants, and skilled artisans, the majority are semiskilled and unskilled workers and laborers. Coloureds living on reserves and mission stations rarely make ends meet as farmers, and most domestic families are involved in the migratory labor force in one way or another. The success of the White farmers in Western Cape Province has, over the years, largely been made possible by the employment of poorly paid Coloured labor. Many members of the Cape Malay population enjoy a high economic status, related in part to their historical position as skilled artisans, professional fishers, and petty commodity producers.

Kinship, Marriage, and Family

The generally heterogeneous nature of Coloured culture is also reflected in patterns of family life, kinship, and marriage. Thus, on the Namaqualand reserves, a number of families follow practices regarding descent, generation, age, and sex that are recognizably Nama Khoi, whereas most middle-class families in the major urban areas hardly differ from Western middle-class families generally. Meaningful analysis of kinship and marriage can therefore be carried out only within a particular community or a specific regional context. It is quite erroneous to suggest that where matricentric families are found, evidence of pre-Emancipation slave culture is still evident.

An important aspect of Coloured kinship and marriage lies in people's preoccupation with class, status, and color, reflecting the extent to which Coloured people are enmeshed in the structure of South African society and their preoccupation with White values in particular. In the reserve communities of the district of Namaqualand, people distinguish four lineage categories. Marriages within and between these categories are guided by various preferential rules of status endogamy based on such criteria as skin color, hair form, ethnic origin, and so forth. Similar patterns are found in urban areas, where the emphasis on biological characteristics and ethnicity is complicated by indexes of association, educational achievement, political and religious affiliation, occupation, and the like. Some light-skinned Coloured individuals were able to change their official race classification to White. The process was a complex one and could only be undertaken successfully by higher-status people with established social networks among people in the White estate.

Sociopolitical Organization

Like other non-White people in South Africa prior to 1994, the Coloured population has never enjoyed equal political rights with those regarded as White. With the advent of the Union of South Africa in 1909, for example, the franchise was given to Coloured males in the Cape Province only, subject to specified property and income qualifications. In 1951 those rights were removed, and voters were placed on a separate Coloured roll. In 1984 the government introduced a tricameral parliamentary system that made provision for the election of representatives to be responsible for the administration of so-called Coloured affairs. In the pre-1951 system, White political parties hoped to lure Coloured voters, and in certain urban areas the more liberal parties considered the Coloured vote crucial to their success. One of the reasons for removing the Coloureds from the voter roll was to reduce their political power as the number of qualified voters increased.

Coloured involvement in political protest in White-dominated South Africa changed radically after 1951, and, by the mid-1970s, many Coloureds began to identify themselves with national struggles against apartheid, reflecting their disillusionment with White liberalism.

Various segments of those people who came to be known as the Basters formed, with the assistance of missionaries, largely autonomous political communities and cultivated their marginal ethnic identity. These included the Grigua, the various Baster groups of Little Namaqualand, and the Rehoboth Basters, who established a republic in what is now Namibia in 1870. All these Baster nations developed formal written constitutions after they had lived for a period under customary law during their seminomadic pastoral stage, as did the White Voortrekkers. The constitutions of the Basters resembled very closely those of their White counterparts (cf. the thirty-three articles of the constitution of the South African Republic of 1844 with the sixty-four articles of that of the Rehoboth Baster nation of 1874).

The Coloured reserves of Little Namaqualand have similar histories to that of the Rehoboth nation of Namibia, although the former never enjoyed full political autonomy.

Religion

Apart from the Muslim Cape Malays (6.7 percent), the Coloured people are by and large nominal Christians (26 percent Dutch Reformed, 10.7 percent Anglican, 5.7 percent Methodist, 7 percent Congregationalist, 10 percent Catholic), a pattern very similar to that of Whites. Compared with the Bantu-speaking peoples, the Coloureds have engaged in relatively few minor schismatic movements in reaction to White domination in religion.

On the Coloured reserves and mission stations, the churches and the Christian religion stand at the core of communal and political life. Some residents have retained aspects of traditional Khoi religion, magic, and sorcery, and they hold these beliefs together with their articulation of Christianity. In urban areas, varieties of magico-medical traditions persist. Many of these, notably divination and the prescription of "home remedies" for illness, are often associated with people of Cape Malay background.

Bibliography

Carstens, Peter (1966). The Social Structure of Cape Coloured Reserve. Cape Town and New York: Oxford University Press.

Carstens, Peter (1983-1984). Opting Out of Colonial Rule: The Brown Voortrekkers of South Africa and Their Constitutions." African Studies 42(2): 135-152; 43(1): 19-30.

Goldin, Ian (1987). Making Race: The Politics and Economics of Coloured Identity in South Africa. London and New York: Longman.

Marais, J. S. (1939). The Cape Coloured People, 1652-1937. Johannesburg: Witwatersrand University Press.

Patterson, Sheila (1953). Colour and Culture in South Africa. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul.

Van der Ross, R. E. (1979). Myths and Attitudes: An Inside Look at the Coloured People. Cape Town: Tafelberg Publishers.

Venter, Al J. (1974). Coloured: A Profile of Two Million South Africans. Cape Town: Human & Rousseau.

PETER CARSTENS

More From encyclopedia.com

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.authors[].name
Junior Worldmark Encyclopedia of World Cultures

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Colored People (south Africa) | Encyclopedia.com

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Cape Coloreds ALTERNATE NAMES: Coloureds, Coloreds LOCATION: South Africa [1] POPULATION: 3.6 million LANGUAGE: Afrikaans [2]; English RELIGION: Christianity [3]; Islam [4] 1 • INTRODUCTION South Africa [5]’s 3.6 million mixed-race people are referred to as Cape Coloreds or Coloreds.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
South Africa is not a country of black or white. Along the thin lines of the black Xhosas and Zulus and the Whites of Northern European descendants are the Coloured, who are neither black nor white but a mix of everything. Known as the Cape-Coloured or simply The Coloured, they form a significant majority in the Western and Northern Cape of South Africa.

An Interesting Origin

The Khoi San people originally occupied the Cape. They are widely regarded as the first nation of South Africa. They were short and had yellow brown skin. On 6th April 1652, Jan van Riebeeck and a host of other Dutchmen of the Dutch East India Company arrived at the Cape to establish a station to provide refreshment to ships travelling to and from the East. In 1654, the Asians arrived at the Cape and in 1988; The Huguenots joined the growing population from France via Holland. Inter-racial marriages in the region led to a heterogeneous ethnic group with diverse ancestral links. The Coloureds possess a diverse heritage including British, Irish, German, Mauritian, Indians, Zulu and Xhosa.

Many Coloureds are bilingual as they can speak English and Afrikaans and sometimes Kaap. Nonetheless, the prevalent language of Coloureds is Afrikaans. Afrikaans in a language imported by the Dutch who lived in South Africa and who were the first colonialists of the country. it eventually became a well spoken language in Namibia, and to a lesser extent, Botswana and Zimbabwe.

Inter-racial marriages in the region led to a heterogeneous ethnic group with diverse ancestral links

Not Black Enough, Not White Enough

Due to the nature of the backgrounds, Coloured are not classified as blacks and neither do they enjoy the privileges of whites. They are part of a diverse society that includes Black South Africans, White South Africans, Indians and Coloureds. I n acknowledgement of the presence of the Coloured ethnic group, Archbishop Desmond Tutu described South Africa as a rainbow nation.

The rights of Coloured people have varied over time. In the 1900s, Coloureds enjoyed similar rights to the whites in the Cape Colony. In the Orange Free State, they had fewer rights. Once they were able to contest for Cape Town's municipal authority but by 1930, upon the establishment of the Union of South Africa, they were restricted to voting only white representatives. At the full rise of the apartheid programme, Coloured people got stripped of their remaining voting powers. Some Coloureds expressed distrust of the African National Congress (ANC) saying that the Coloured were considered "not white enough under apartheid, and not black enough under the ANC", thus alienating their political participation.
Coloured people received education inferior to that of White South Africans during the apartheid. It was, however, better than that provided to Black South Africans. Although Coloureds had more privileges than black Africans did, they still faced social discrimination.

Battle of Racial Identities

A genetic study led by geneticist researcher of the University of Pennsylvania, Sarah Tishkoff revealed that the Cape-coloured population of South Africa has highest levels of mixed ancestry on the globe, a blend of African, European, East Asian and South Indian. This makes it difficult to associate completely with any tribe.
Coloureds continue to seek inclusion in South Africa. Seen as inbetweeners in a country of black and white, Coloureds feel that they are not fully accepted in the South African community.
Although Coloureds are a minority in South Africa, they have contributed just as much to the progress of the country. Some famous "Coloured people" from South Africa include Abdullah Abdurahman, Trevor Noah, Benni McCarthy, Stephen Pienaar, Adam Small, Trevor Jones, Geraldine Pillay, Herschelle Gibbs, Jonathan Butler, Trevor Manuel, Athol Williams, AKA, Amy Kleinhans and Patricia de Lille.
Coloureds are not only resident in South Africa. A significant population live in Namibia and are also referred to as Coloured. Zambians and Zimbabweans refer to the Coloureds as Goffal. Coloureds are also found in Swaziland.

[Header image]- Trevo Noah - BBC Comedy Greats, Miss South Africa 1992 Amy Kleinhans-Curd - FOTO: Phyllis Green, Athol Williams, Jonathan Butler

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Not Black, Not White. Meet the Coloured People of South Africa

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
South Africa is not a country of black or white. Along the thin lines of the black Xhosas and Zulus and the Whites of Northern European descendants are the Coloured, who are neither black nor white but a mix of everything.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
South Africa has never had an official state religion. The country's constitution explicitly states everyone's right to freedom of conscience, religion, thought, belief and opinion. However, the government actively promoted Christianity throughout much of the 20th century and it remains the most widely followed faith today. While the 2011 South African census did not include a question of religious affiliation, the majority of South Africans (84.2%) identified as Christian in a 2013 General Household Survey. This represented an increased from 79.8% reported in the 2001 census. Of the remaining population, 5% identified with ancestral or traditional African religions, 2% identified as Muslim, 1% identified as Hindu, and 0.2% identified as Jewish. and agnosticism were identified by 0.2% of the population, while 5.5% identified with 'nothing in particular', and 1.6% did not specify.
Christianity in South Africa
Christianity was first introduced to South Africa in the 1600s when large numbers of Christian missionaries began arriving from the Netherlands. Further missionaries from the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Scandinavia and the United States started to arrive from the early 1800s. South Africa's religious composition was (and continues to be) deeply shaped by these early interactions. Today, the majority of South Africans identify as Christian (84.2%).

According to StatsSA, the provinces of Northern Cape (97.9%) and Free State (95.5%) have the highest percentage of Christians in the country. Christianity often plays an important role for South Africans and their communities. For instance, the General Household Survey also found that 56.4% of those who identify as Christian report attending religious services on a weekly basis.

The 'African Independent Church' (or African-initiated Church) make up the largest Christian group. This consists of several churches and subdivisions are denominationally, ritually and linguistically diverse. However, they are all united by the fact that they were established by African initiatives rather than foreign missionaries. African Independent Churches often openly incorporate aspects of ancestral and traditional African religions with Christian practices. The largest church of this kind is the Zion Christian Church (ZCC), which presents a between the worship practices of Christianity and traditional African religions. This tradition places emphasis on practices relating to physical and spiritual healing. Methodist, Roman Catholic, Anglican, Dutch Reformed, Lutheran, Pentecostal and Seventh-day Adventist churches are also popular throughout South Africa.
Christianity and the Apartheid
Christianity has had an influential role in South African society and politics, both during and after . For example, the Dutch Reformed Church (Nederduitse Gereformeerde Kerk) became the official religion of the National Party during the era, accumulating more than three million followers by the 1990s. This church posed a barrier to political reform as many clergy members were highly committed to (often moreso than many of its followers).

However, many Christian churches also played an instrumental role in the abolishment and transition from . Former president Nelson Mandela often called upon churches and religious organisations to help in the process of building a "new" South Africa. The South African Council of Churches (SACC) was one of the most active anti- organisations under the leadership of Anglican Archbishop Desmond Tutu.
Traditional African Religions
The earliest known religion in South Africa was the traditional beliefs and practices of the Khoisan people, who resided in the region for centuries. Bantu-speaking groups introduced further religious traditions to the region in 1000 CE. Today, South Africa is home to a diversity of traditional African practices, with roughly 5% of the population identifying with a traditional African religion. Those who identify with traditional African religions make up 11.35% of the population residing in the province of KwaZulu Natal.

Some South Africans adhere solely to traditional and ancestral beliefs and practices. However, it is also common to find a mixture of such beliefs and practices with Christianity, reflecting how religious demarcations in South Africa are often blurred. A respect for past and present elders plays an important role in most traditional African religions. People tend to maintain a spiritual connection with their ancestors through various activities such as prayer. Some traditions may have a spiritual leader who has various responsibilities. For instance, in the Zulu tradition, there are special mediators called 'sangomas' that are responsible for physical and spiritual healing, as well as counselling about the future.
Islam in South Africa
The first Muslims to arrive in South Africa were political exiles from British and Dutch colonies (South Asia, Indonesia and Malaysia) during the 17th to 19th century. Today, it is estimated roughly 2% of South African population identifies as Muslim. These are mostly people of Indian and/or Asian descent, predominantly living in the provinces of Western Cape, KwaZulu Natal and Gauteng.
Hinduism in South Africa
Hinduism was introduced to South Africa in the 1800s by indentured labourers from South Asia. In present-day South Africa, approximately 1% of the population identifies as Hindu - most of which have South Asian or Malay descent. Many Hindus in South Africa practice temple-based rituals, and the most popular festival celebrated is Diwali. Hindus make up 3.9% of the population residing in the province of KwaZulu Natal.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
South Africa has never had an official state religion. The country's constitution explicitly states everyone's right to freedom of conscience, religion, thought, belief and opinion. However, the government actively promoted Christianity throughout much of the 20th century and it remains the most widely followed faith today.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Religion is an important part of millions of people's lives across the world. Thousands of African people are converted to Christianity every day and in Nigeria about 20 new religious sects or groups come into being every month. More than ten million Jews from all over the world observe the Sabbath every week and millions of Muslim pilgrims travel to Mecca in the Middle East every year. They do this because they have certain religious beliefs and because their religions guide their lives.

There are many different religions and some of them have been celebrating their faith, telling their stories and teaching their principles for thousands of years. People have looked to religion to answer questions like "Where did the world come from?", "Why are we here?", "Why do bad things happen to good people?" and "What happens to us when we die?" for as long as they've been in existence.

South Africa is called the rainbow nation because of its variety of people, cultures and religions. The people follow many spiritual traditions and religious faiths. In South Africa the constitution protects freedom of religion. Everyone is free to follow whatever faith they want to, or not to follow one at all.

People are also encouraged to learn about and respect different spiritual practices. This is part of democracy. The major faiths practiced in South Africa are Christianity, Islam, Hinduism, traditional African religions and Judaism. European and other foreign settlers brought most of these religions. Traditional African religion is very popular and arrived here with our North and West African ancestors. It is often combined with elements of Christianity and Islam. The most important thing is that in the new South Africa religion and spirituality are used to create greater understanding and harmony rather than to divide people as was done in the past.

Traditional African Religion What is traditional African religion?

Most of the "traditional" groups of people living in South Africa arrived here from West and Central Africa about 1 500 years ago. Most of them were Bantu -speaking people and were the ancestors of many South Africans, especially the Nguni groups like the Zulu and Xhosa.

Traditional African religion is based on oral traditions, which means that the basic values and way of life are passed from elders to younger generation. These traditions are not religious principles, but a cultural identity that is passed on through stories, myths and tales.

These traditions have been passed from one generation to the next. The elders are the final authority and are trusted completely.
What do the followers of this religion believe?
In traditional African religion the community is the most important part of someone's life. This community is made up of people who remember and share the same traditions. The individual only exists within the community and separation from it is sometimes worse than death. A believer's family still has influence over him or her even if they live far away. Religion in most African societies also supports moral order. It creates a sense of security and order in the community. Followers believe in the guidance of their ancestors spirits.

There are spiritual leaders, kinds of priests or pastors in most traditional African religions. This person is essential in the spiritual and religious survival of the community. In the Zulu culture there are mystics or sangomas that are responsible for healing and 'divining' - a kind of fortune telling and counseling. These traditional healers have to be called by ancestors. They undergo strict training and learn many skills, including how to use herbs for healing and other, more mystical skills, like the finding of a hidden object without knowing where it is.

Traditional African religion is a way of life in which ancestors are part of every major event such as wedding, births and deaths as well as less important ones such as getting a job and finishing university. During these events usually an offering is made to honour, please and thank the ancestors. A cow, sheep or chicken is slaughtered and the ancestors are called to receive the offering and bless the gathering.

Although traditional African religion recognises a Supreme God, followers do not worship him or her directly as they do not feel worthy enough. They therefore ask the ancestors to communicate on their behalf. The Supreme Being is called upon in times of great hardship and need, like drought or epidemic that may threaten the entire community. The Supreme Being is the connection between people and their environment.
Ancestor worship
Ancestor worship and belief is an extension of a belief in and respect for elders. Followers of traditional African religion believe that ancestors maintain a spiritual connection with their living relatives.

Most ancestral spirits are generally good and kind. The only negative actions taken by ancestral spirits is to cause minor illnesses to warn people that they have gotten onto the wrong path. To please these unhappy ancestors, usually offerings of beer and meat are made.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Religion is an important part of millions of people's lives across the world. Thousands of African people are converted to Christianity every day and in Nigeria about 20 new religious sects or groups come into being every month.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
The wide variety of religions in South Africa is a reflection of the cultural diversity in South Africa's "Rainbow" society.
Nearly all South Africans will tell you that they belong to a church and practice a faith, although their thinking when it comes to religion and religious beliefs differ widely.

Even though South Africa has never had an official state religion, the government has positively been encouraging Christian beliefs throughout much of the last century.

Despite the wide-ranging spectrum of South Africa's religions, 80 percent of all South Africans consider themselves Christian.

Nearly 40% of the black colored South Africans are members of the African Independent Churches, commonly known as the Zionist Christian Churches, which include no less than 4,000 congregations.

This denomination in general embodies a mixture of traditional African and Protestant Christian beliefs. It differs widely in its degree of theological orthodoxy or heterodoxy from traditional Christian beliefs.

The large Christian Protestant denomination has its origin on the day when the first Dutch settlers including missionaries, set foot on South African soil under Jan van Riebeeck in 1962. Right from those days it became known as the Dutch Reformed Church.

Today protestant churches in South Africa total a membership of approximately 4 million, the majority of whom are white-colored people as well as people of mixed ethnic background.

The Traditional religion belonging to the early "Khoi" and 'San" people included a great many mythical tales involving gods and ancestor-heroes, whose lives were regarded as excellent examples of ways of dealing with social conflict situations and personal problem issues.

They believed that by means of the use of dance and altered states of consciousness they would obtain knowledge and insight from the gods and ancestral spirits for the purpose of healing a person or remedying a social evil.

The vast majority of Bantu speaking people arriving in South Africa during the first millennium A.D. did believe in a supreme being, a deity who possessed the power of creation. This deity was basically thought to be unreachable for human beings and also beyond human comprehension.

Much more important and influential in the spiritual life of the Bantu people have been the ancestral spirits. These spirits could communicate with and influence the world of the living and act as an intermediary between them and the deity.

Other major religions in South Africa are Hinduism, Islam, Buddhism as well as the Bahá'í Faith. Hinduism had been introduced by the slaves and servants moved in by the Dutch from the Indian subcontinent.

The Islam was introduced through the Cape Malay slaves of the Dutch colonists. These days the majority of Islam believers are of Indian ancestry. Buddhism was introduced through a number Chinese and Indian immigrants. The Bahá'í Faith was introduced in 1911.

Judaism in South Africa came to exist some time prior to the discovery of the Cape of Good Hope, by way of the participation of Jewish astronomers and cartographers in the Portuguese discovery of the sea-route to India.

They assisted Bartolomeu Dias and Vasco da Gama who first sailed around the Cape of Good Hope in 1488 and 1497. Having said that, Jews only began to arrive in numbers from the 1820s.

According to statistics recorded in 2001, the percentages of the South African population that belonged to the different religions were as follows:

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Religions in South Africa, South Africa Religion Overview

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Despite a wide ranging spectrum of religions in South Africa, 80 percent of all South Africans consider themselves Christian.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
A game of snakes and ladders with loaded dice — socioeconomic class and poverty in South Africa | SA-TIED

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
South Africa is often cited as the most unequal economy in the world. Its experience of having to overcome both colonialism and apartheid makes it unique from the vantage of studies on socioeconomic class, economic mobility, and poverty — with household characteristics like race, gender, and geograp…

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
South Africa Wealth Gap Unchanged Since Apartheid, Group Says

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
The richest 10% of the population own more than 85% of household wealth, World Inequality Lab report says

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Gender inequality has a profound impact on the lives of children in Eastern and Southern Africa. There is a direct correlation between a child's gender and the possibility of realizing their rights and enjoying their full potential, with social norms favouring boys over girls in most aspects of life.
Gender equality is fundamental to the achievement of human rights, and core to the UNICEF mandate for children.
People across the region face the impact of the gendered society in which they live.

Women and girls carry the majority of the care and domestic burden in every country in the region, are less likely to be employed in the formal sector (and where they are employed, earn lower wages), are less likely to be able to influence government policy, and experience high levels of violence.

Many children across the region are raised by female caregivers, and many do not have active contact with their fathers.

Differentiated treatment according to gender is particularly acute during adolescence, when many girls are faced with the prospect of marriage (often before reaching the age of 18), adolescent pregnancy, and gender-based violence, as well as a heightened risk of HIV transmission. The risk of dropping out of school is high for girls at this age.

As gender inequality creates more barriers for girls and women, most gender-equitable programming targets girls and young women specifically as leaders and beneficiaries, while enlisting boys and men as supporters for change.

However, boys also face gender issues. These include recruitment into armed forces, early workforce exploitation, higher malnutrition levels in some age groups, and the impact of being brought up to adopt negative masculine stereotypes - for example, the acceptance of male violence as a method of control.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Gender inequality has a profound impact on the lives of children in Eastern and Southern Africa. There is a direct correlation between a child's gender and the possibility of realizing their rights and enjoying their full potential, with social norms favouring boys over girls in most aspects of life.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Persistent gender roles in South Africa deprive women of leisure time

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
In most countries, traditional gender roles within the household are still common due to the prevalence and persistence of patriarchal systems. These roles put a greater burden of care work on women, which can reduce women's leisure time relative to men.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
History of Women’s Struggle in South Africa | South African History Online

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
The Afrikaners are a South African ethnic group who are descended from 17th century Dutch, German, and French settlers to South Africa. The Afrikaners slowly developed their own language and culture when they came into contact with Africans and Asians. The word "Afrikaners" means "Africans" in Dutch. About 4 million people out of South Africa's total population of 56.5 million (2017 figures from Statistics South Africa) are white, though it's unknown if all identify themselves as Afrikaners. World Atlas estimates that 61 percent of whites in South Africa identify as Afrikaners. Regardless of their small number, Afrikaners have had a large impact on South African history.

In 1652, Dutch emigrants first settled in South Africa near the Cape of Good Hope to establish a station where ships traveling to the Dutch East Indies (currently Indonesia) could rest and resupply. French Protestants, German mercenaries, and other Europeans joined the Dutch in South Africa. The Afrikaners are also known as the "Boers," the Dutch word for "farmers." To aid them in agriculture, the Europeans imported slaves from places such as Malaysia and Madagascar while enslaving some local tribes, such as the Khoikhoi and San.

For 150 years, the Dutch were the predominant foreign influence in South Africa. However, in 1795, Britain gained control of the country, and many British government officials and citizens settled there. The British angered the Afrikaners by freeing their slaves. Due to the end of slavery, border wars with natives, and the need for more fertile farmland, in the 1820s, many Afrikaner "Voortrekkers" began to migrate northward and eastward into the interior of South Africa. This journey became known as the "Great Trek." The Afrikaners founded the independent republics of Transvaal and the Orange Free State. However, many indigenous groups resented the intrusion of the Afrikaners upon their land. After several wars, the Afrikaners conquered some of the land and farmed peacefully until gold was discovered in their republics in the late 19th century.

The British quickly learned about the rich natural resources in the Afrikaner republics. Afrikaner and British tensions over the ownership of the land quickly escalated into the two Boer Wars. The First Boer War was fought between 1880 and 1881. The Afrikaners won the First Boer War, but the British still coveted the rich African resources. The Second Boer War was fought from 1899 to 1902. Tens of thousands of Afrikaners died due to combat, hunger, and disease. The victorious British annexed the Afrikaner republics of Transvaal and the Orange Free State.

The Europeans in South Africa were responsible for establishing apartheid in the 20th century. The word "apartheid" means "separateness" in Afrikaans. Although the Afrikaners were the minority ethnic group in the country, the Afrikaner National Party gained control of the government in 1948. To restrict the ability of "less civilized" ethnic groups to participate in government, different races were strictly segregated. Whites had access to much better housing, education, employment, transportation, and medical care. Blacks could not vote and had no representation in government. After many decades of inequality, other countries began to condemn apartheid. The practice ended in 1994 when members of all ethnic classes were allowed to vote in the presidential election. Nelson Mandela became South Africa's first black president.

After the Boer Wars, many poor, homeless Afrikaners moved into other countries in Southern Africa, such as Namibia and Zimbabwe. Some Afrikaners returned to the Netherlands, and some even moved to distant places such as South America, Australia, and the southwestern United States. Due to racial violence and in search of better educational and employment opportunities, many Afrikaners have left South Africa since the end of apartheid. About 100,000 Afrikaners now reside in the United Kingdom.

Afrikaners around the world have a distinct culture. They deeply respect their history and traditions. Sports such as rugby, cricket, and golf are popular. Traditional clothing, music, and dance are celebrated. Barbecued meats and vegetables, as well as porridges influenced by indigenous African tribes, are common dishes.

The Dutch language spoken at the Cape Colony in the 17th century slowly transformed into a separate language, with differences in vocabulary, grammar, and pronunciation. Today, Afrikaans, the Afrikaner language, is one of the 11 official languages of South Africa. It is spoken across the country and by people from many different races. Worldwide, about 17 million people speak Afrikaans as a first or second language, though first-language speakers are declining in number. Most Afrikaans words are of Dutch origin, but the languages of the Asian and African slaves, as well as European languages such as English, French, and Portuguese, greatly influenced the language. Many English words, such as "aardvark," "meerkat," and "trek," derive from Afrikaans. To reflect local languages, many South African cities with names of Afrikaner origin are now being changed. Pretoria, South Africa's executive capital, may one day permanently change its name to Tshwane.

The Afrikaners, descended from hard-working, resourceful pioneers, have developed a rich culture and language over the past four centuries. Although the Afrikaners have been associated with the oppression of apartheid, Afrikaners today live in a multiethnic society where all races can participate in government. However, the white population in South Africa has been declining since at least 1986 and is expected to keep decreasing, as reflected in South Africa SA estimates of a loss of 112,740 coming between 2016 and 2021.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Afrikaners in South Africa: Overview and History

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
The Afrikaners are a South African ethnic group who are descended from 17th century Dutch, German, and French settlers to South Africa. The Afrikaners slowly developed their own language and culture when they came into contact with Africans and Asians. The word "Afrikaners" means "Africans" in Dutch.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
While South Africa is known for its history of extreme racism of white South Africans toward black South Africans, it also has a history of conflict between its primary white groups of European ancestry. Two main white groups emigrated to South Africa: first the Boers came, mainly from Holland, later calling themselves Afrikaners. Then the English arrived, drawn initially by the territory's strategic importance and then by the discovery of diamonds and gold and the prospects for wealth they promised.

Once diamonds and gold were discovered, these differences turned in the 1880s into conflict and, finally, an all-out war for control around the turn of the century. Even though blacks made up roughly 80% of the population, the two white groups battled over which would control the national wealth. Francis Reitz, a leading Afrikaner politician and author, wrote A Century of Wrong in 1899, as the South African War between the English and the Boers was about to break out. When this particularly bloody war ended with British victory in 1902, the two sides managed to come together to create a new single country, the Union of South Africa. However, the minerals stayed firmly in English hands, and tensions persisted between the two groups, only easing when the Afrikaners took sole control of the government in 1948, roughly 50 years after the South African War.

Despite their sharp divisions, the Afrikaners and the English remained united in two core beliefs: that black South Africans were uncivilized yet important and useful to white South Africans as workers, and that white South Africans must find a way to work together to rule over black South Africans.

Reitz gave the following account of this pivotal period from the Boer perspective:

In 1886 gold was discovered in great quantities and in different parts of the South African Republic [a land which the Afrikaners controlled], and with that discovery our people entered upon a new phase of their history. The South African Republic was to develop within a few years from a condition of great poverty into a rich and prosperous State, a country calculated in every respect to awaken and inflame the greed of the Capitalistic speculator. Within a few years the South African Republic was ranked among the first gold-producing countries of the world.

[What had been farmland was now full of cities,] inhabited by a speculative and bustling class brought together from all corners of the earth. [We] the Boers, who had hitherto followed pastoral and hunting pursuits, were now called upon to fulfill one of the most difficult tasks in the world, namely, the management of a complicated administration, and the government of a large digging population, which had sprung up suddenly under the most extraordinary circumstances. . . .

In a part of the world so rich in minerals of all descriptions as [here], it is natural that [British] Capitalism should play a considerable role. Unfortunately, in South Africa it has from the very first attempted to go far beyond its legitimate scope; it has endeavoured to gain political power, and to make all other forms of government and influence subservient to its own ends. . . .

In this awful turning point in the history of South Africa, on the eve of the conflict [between Britain and the Afrikaners] which threatens to exterminate our people, it behoves us to speak the truth in what may be, perchance, our last message to the world. Even if we are exterminated the truth will triumph through us over our conquerors . . .

. . . These wild and useless tracts, which had been guaranteed to the Boers, appeared to be very valuable after the Boers had rescued them from barbarism, and opened them up for civilisation. . . . The British . . . succeeded in annexing the Diamond Fields-a flagrantly illegal act.

. . . Our existence as a people and as a State is now threatened by an unparalleled combination of forces. Arrayed against us we find numerical strength, the public opinion of the United Kingdom thirsting and shouting for blood and revenge, the world-wide and cosmopolitan power of Capitalism, and all the forces which underlie the lust of robbery and the spirit of plunder. Our lot has of late become more and more perilous. . . .

For the marauding hordes of the Bantu are once more roving where European dwellings used to stand. And when the question is asked-why all this has happened? Why the heroic children of an heroic race, to which civilisation owes its most priceless blessings, should lie murdered there in that distant quarter of the globe? . . .

If it is ordained that we, insignificant as we are, should be the first among all peoples to begin the struggle against the new-world tyranny of Capitalism, then we are ready to do so . . .

[We] now submit our cause [for freedom from British control] with perfect confidence to the whole world. Whether the result be Victory or Death, Liberty will assuredly rise in South Africa like the sun from out the mists of the morning, just as Freedom dawned over the United States of America a little more than a century ago. Then from the Zambesi [River in the north] to Simon's Bay [in the south] it will be

"AFRICA FOR THE AFRICANDER."

Connection Questions

1. What does Reitz see as being at the heart of the conflict between the Boers and the British? In particular, what grievances does he express against the British colonial government? How does the kind of rhetoric he uses reflect the strength of his grievances? What does he fear may be the end result of this conflict? How does he portray the Afrikaners?

2. Reitz also writes about Africans (whom he calls "Bantu"). What language does he use to describe them and their relationship to the land and the Boers?

3. Reitz ends this passage by "shouting" the slogan "AFRICA FOR THE AFRICANDER." What does the word Africander (also written as Afrikaner) literally mean? What is the implication of the Boers taking this name for themselves?

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Examine the tension between two white European groups in South Africa, the Afrikaners (formerly Boers) and the English, in Afrikaner politician Francis Reitz's A Century of Wrong.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Statues like these - here Paul Kruger at Pretoria's Church Square - are a reminder of a time when Afrikaners were the ruling class in South Africa. Mike Hutchings/Reuters

Why is it that when the West was turning away from direct colonialism in the mid-20th century, South Africa shifted to apartheid, an intensified form of this heinous system?

One of the answers lies in the country's history of colonisation by two contending settler classes. The Dutch, or Boer, settler class on the southern most point of Africa was displaced in the 19th century by the arrival of the British. The Afrikaners - as the descendants of the Boer settlers eventually became known - constructed their identity in opposition to, on the one hand, black identities, and on the other to Anglo whiteness.

The reverberations of the contest between these two settler groups continue even after apartheid, as I argue in my new book Sitting Pretty - White Afrikaans Women in Postapartheid South Africa.

During apartheid a great deal of work went into justifying the imposition of inequalities on the basis of human differences. In the end apartheid collapsed due to global opprobrium that was heaped on the Afrikaner government, with both material and symbolic consequences. It tipped Afrikaner identity into turmoil, not least because their sense of themselves as moral beings was radically challenged.

At stake was ordentlikheid, analysed in my book as an ethnicised respectability. Ordentlikheid is an Afrikaans word that is difficult to translate: apart from respectability, its meanings include presentability, good manners, decency, politeness and humility with a Calvinist tenor.

Today it works as a glue that holds the identity together at the intersections of specific versions of gender, sexuality, class and race. Ordentlikheid serves as a mode of identification that works as a panacea to Afrikaner woes as they struggle to cleanse themselves of the stain of apartheid and adapt to changing historical conditions.

Examining "Afrikaner" identity through the lens of ordentlikheid reveals it as a lesser whiteness in relation to white English-speaking South African identity, which in turn draws on global Anglo whiteness. Unpicking ordentlikheid reveals a double movement: ordentlikheid derives from and elaborates on white English-speaking respectability. But it is also, paradoxically, what sets Afrikaner whiteness apart from white English-speaking identity.

Slow-witted, simple, ignorant

These dynamics can be traced historically. By the late 1800s, the Boers were regarded as "an inferior or degraded class of colonist", as historian Timothy Keegan writes. They were depicted by European visitors as indolent, slow-witted, simple, ignorant and even dirty.

Lord Kitchener concluded that the Boers were,

uncivilised Afrikaner savages with a thin white veneer.

As late as 1975, negative stereotypes about Afrikaners still abounded, for example in an essay written by priest and politics academic Nancy Charton. She summarises the "empirical evidence" of white English-speaking attitudes to "the Afrikaner", listing positive stereotypes such as Afrikaners being simple and warm, and negative ones such as them being uncultured, superstitious and lacking in efficiency.

Pejorative terms for Afrikaners included "Dutchman", "hairyback", "rock spider", "mealie muncher", "takhaar" (long hair), "bywoner" (backyard dweller), "backvelder" and "plank". These mocking terms show "the element of cultural and social superiority" of white English-speaking identity that Charton speaks approvingly of.

Afrikaner whiteness resisted white English-speaking domination. Afrikaners defied being subjected to the hegemonic white English-speaking culture through a counteracting discourse of Afrikaner "volkstrots" (people's pride), noble suffering and Calvinist decency. Afrikaner nationalist histories written in the 1960s overhauled and relaunched Afrikaners as hospitable, brave and fair Christians.

An eighteenth century discourse of Boers-as-unspoilt-children-of-nature was recuperated as one of Afrikaner innocence, uncorrupted mentality and closeness to God.

My research shows that the competitive dynamic with white English-speaking identity persists even after the fall of official apartheid but with paradoxical manifestations. One example is that conceding to Anglo culture serves to elevate Afrikaner whiteness.

"That makes me angry"

White Afrikaans identity hovers between two poles symbolised by the Afrikaans language.

It's premised on Afrikaans as the touchstone of Afrikaner nationalism. Yet, Afrikaans contains traces of its historical "association of being the language of the underprivileged", as political scientist Louise Vincent writes.

Surprisingly, Afrikaans speakers abandon the language in certain social settings, even though it's an intrinsic part of their identity.

To understand this complex relationship I interviewed a number of Afrikaner women in Johannesburg and Cape Town. One said that she was aware that she switched to English even when she was in the company of Afrikaans speaking people.

Leah (49) says:

When I look at Johannesburg where we live [an affluent, multiracial, centrally located suburb], 70% of the people [can] speak Afrikaans, but we all speak English.

Sandra (43) expresses her frustration:

I just get angry when people knowingly in a group [speak English when most are Afrikaans].

Pieta says:

I will speak to someone on the telephone and they will start in English and at some stage I'll hear the person is Afrikaans and then I'd feel too bad switching to Afrikaans because I'm afraid they'll think they speak bad English.

Nerina agrees:

That happens to me on a daily basis.

Respondents describe switching to English as part of a routine which is also experienced as a denial of white Afrikaans identity - and therefore as an injury. Social space is ceded to white English-speaking identity. Interestingly, however, this loss allows for the appropriation of an element of English whiteness: politeness.

The temporary abandonment of Afrikaans is covered over with an articulation of Afrikaans-ness with "politeness" and "accommodation". It is resonant of "manners" as a key element of "Britishness".

As Willemien (33) explains:

It is the effort we make with other people, not so? Yes, we are now going to speak English to you because you are English.

Pieta replies:

Because it is polite to do that.

In yielding to Anglo culture as a sign of "manners", politeness becomes ordentlikheid. This manoeuvre shows that white Afrikaans-speakers remain trapped in a form of whiteness that competes with norm-setting white English-speaking whiteness, instead of seeking to transcend whiteness, and therefore race and racism, altogether.
This article is derived from Sitting Pretty. White Afrikaans Women in Postapartheid South Africa (UKZN Press)

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Afrikaner identity in post-apartheid South Africa remains stuck in whiteness

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Why is it that when the West was turning away from direct colonialism in the mid-20th century, South Africa shifted to apartheid, an intensified form of this heinous system? One of the answers lies in the country's history of colonisation by two contending settler classes.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
The modern Afrikaner is descended mainly from Western Europeans who settled on the southern tip of Africa during the middle of the 17th century. Portuguese mariners discovered the sea passage to the East round Cape Point in 1488 and in the course of their visits, came into contact with the Khoi. Initially cultural differences caused conflict and the Portuguese conveyed a biased image of a 'hostile' Africa to the Western world.

Nevertheless, for the commercially active Dutch the Cape was the ideal halfway station on the sea route to the East, and the Dutch East India Company (VOC) established a refreshment post in Table Bay (present day Cape Town). In 1657 officials (mostly Dutch and Germans) could retire from the Company's service and become Free Burghers (independent farmers). In 1688 a group of French Protestants, striving for religious freedom, fled from France and settled in the Cape. Together with the Free Burghers they are regarded as the earliest ancestors of the Afrikaner nation.

According to J.A. Heese and C. Pama, by 1867 the 'Afrikaners' constituted a mixture of:

Dutch (34, 8%)

Germans (33, 7%)

French (13, 2%)

People of colour (7%)

British (5, 2%)

Unknown origin (3, 5%)

Other Europeans (2, 6%)

A unique cultural group was formed which identified itself completely with African soil. As early as 1707, Hendrik Biebouw (Bibault) referred to himself as an "Africaander". This community developed their own language, national identity, history and religion. They differed radically from the indigenous Khoi and San and also from the south-moving Bantu-speaking peoples whom they would later encounter deeper into the interior.

In 2006, a census determined that just over 5 million South Africans speak Afrikaans as their home language. Afrikaans is also spoken in the Republic of Namibia, and by South Africans living and working in the United Kingdom, USA, Canada, Australia and New Zealand.
Language, Culture and Beliefs
The Dutch and French who settled in the Cape were committed Calvinists or Reformed Protestants. Anyone who accepted the Christian faith was accepted in the Western cultural community. Those outside were regarded as heathens while the Eastern slaves were predominantly Muslim.

By 1795, there were seven Dutch Reformed congregations in the Cape, and Calvinism became the foundation of the Afrikaner's philosophy of life and view of the world. It also influenced all aspects of his cultural activities. In addition, individuality and independence were intensified by a pioneering existence. The migrant farmers and pioneers who took part in the Great Trek into the interior didn't have any kind of organized church life and not having ministers of religion, their only source of knowledge was the bible. In their struggle for survival they gradually came to identify themselves with the nation of Israel.

With the establishment of another two Dutch Reformed (Hervormde and Gereformeerde) churches in the 1850s in the Transvaal three so-called sister churches originated. Afrikaners believed that they were called to spread the Christian faith in Africa. The influence of their Christian-national beliefs figured strongly in government and schools.

The centenary of the Great Trek in 1938 was the inspiration for a people's festival. People all over the country became involved and celebrations were organized even in the smallest villages. The highlight was on a hill outside Pretoria where thousands of people gathered for the laying of the corner stone of the Voortrekker Monument on the 16th of December. In 1949 a second festival was held during the inauguration of the Monument (13-16 December).

Several other centenaries were celebrated with much pomp and circumstance such as the arrival of Jan van Riebeeck (1652) in 1952. Political events were celebrated with festivals such as the Union Festival in 1960 and the Republic Festival in 1966 when the Republic of South Africa (RSA) was five years old. Cities and towns usually celebrate their own centenaries with local festivities.

In addition, some organizations arrange festivals on a smaller scale to commemorate certain events. Regional celebrations such as the Biltong Festival in Somerset-East or the Mampoer (traditional liquor distilled from fruit) Festival at the Willem Prinsloo Agricultural Museum, Pretoria, is held annually. The 1990s saw the start of annual arts festivals - the Klein Karoo National Arts Festival (Oudtshoorn) followed by Aardklop in Potchefstroom, InniBos in Nelspruit and many others.
Afrikaners also continue to celebrate their heritage in traditional ways and on special occasions don traditional dress and take part in formal dancing called volkspele. On these occasions, boys and men wear shorts with knee socks, and women wear long dresses and bonnets. Male folk dancing partners also wear shirts with vests and long pants.

Afrikaners only really began to compose Afrikaans music after the TweedeTaalbeweging (Second Language Movement) c. 1905 when poets were able to express themselves in Afrikaans and the poems were set to music. J.H.G. Bosman did pioneering work with the music he composed for Eugene Marais' 'Winternag' in 1908. This was the beginning of the Afrikaans art song. Composers who made significant contributions before 1930 were S. le Roux Marais, Stephen Eyssen, and M.L. de Villiers. After 1930 musicians such as Gideon Fagan, Arnold van Wyk, Hubert du Plessis and Stefans Grove played important roles.

After 1945, a few operas were translated into Afrikaans and performed, but opera was to remain a foreign art form for most Afrikaans speakers. Afrikaans opera singers did, however, make their mark. Cecilia Wessels became famous abroad for her roles in operas. Mimi Coertse will be remembered for her wonderful contribution to music - in Afrikaans, but also for all the years she performed in opera houses abroad.

It is in the field of popular music that Afrikaners made an enormous contribution - Jannie du Toit, Koos du Plessis, Laurika Rauch, and several other artists would become famous. The Musiek- en Liriekbeweging (Music and Lyrics Movement) heralds the beginning of a new era of modern, original Afrikaans music.

In the 1980s, musicians protested against the government of the day. This culminated in the Voelvry Movement which built up a big following amongst the youth as they toured to and performed on university campuses.

Since the 1990s and particularly since arts festivals became popular, there has been renewed interest in and support for Afrikaans music amongst the youth. Afrikaans artists produce popular as well as alternative music and have caused an explosion in Afrikaans music sales.

Van Wouw also created several excellent bronze statues and is, par excellence, the great Afrikaans sculptor of the people. Coert Steynberg will also be remembered for his many statues and monuments. Afrikaans sculptors produced a large number of national monuments and statues of Afrikaner heroes.

J.E.A. Volschenk was the first Afrikaner to become a professional painter. He particularly captured South African landscapes on canvas. W.H. Coetzer's interest in Afrikaner history resulted in the creation of several historical paintings.

Erich Mayer loved South Africa, its landscapes and its people. He was a pioneer in developing Afrikaans art, and his work is of great cultural historical value. J.H. Pierneef developed a style of his own which could only have originated in South Africa-a new way of portraying nature. His lino cuts and etches eternalized many historical buildings. Maggie Laubser also developed her own definitive style.

In addition, Afrikaans artists made significant contributions to other fields of art such as stained glass, ceramics, mixed media and mosaics.

In 1914, Afrikaans was recognized by the Cape Provincial Council and in 1925 was acknowledged by the legislator as an official language. Gradually scientific works began to be published in Afrikaans, facilitated by the first edition of the Afrikaanse Woordelys en Spelreels (Afrikaans Word List and Spelling Rules) in 1917. The highlight for most Afrikaners was the launch of the Afrikaans Bible in 1933.

Initially, few women ventured to write, but in 1936 Elisabeth Eybers made her debut as the first female poet in Afrikaans.

Afrikaans authors and poets contributed to every genre and in the 1960s protest literature was published, criticising the government of the day and its policies. In terms of the power vested in the Publication Board in 1963, some lyrics, films, and publications which threatened public morals or safety, were banned.

Publications in the form of newspapers and magazines date back to the second decade of the 20th century. The first Die Huisgenoot appeared in 1916, and Die Landbouweekblad in 1919. These prepared the way for other family publications while a number of organizations like the ATKV and the FAK began to launch their own publications.

The wealth of literature that still appears in Afrikaans proves that the language is alive and well.

On an international level, Afrikaners excelled in individual sports such as boxing and wrestling soon after the Anglo-Boer War, and later in athletics. But it would be rugby that found favour at an early stage. Afrikaners contributed on all levels to South Africans becoming renowned as one of the greatest rugby nations in the world, and the world champions in 1995, 2007 and 2019.

Various illustrious individuals, like Danie Craven, Mannetjies Roux, Frik du Preez, Dawie de Villiers and Naas Botha and families such as the Morkels, Du Plessis' and Burger-families, as well as rugby-commentator Gerhard Viviers and many others became part of popular Afrikaner culture.

Success or failure on the rugby field has a direct impact on the morale and attitude of most Afrikaners. On the other hand Afrikaners, unlike their fellow citizens, are still relatively uninvolved in soccer. Since the Afrikaners are an especially sporting nation, it was used as an effective weapon against the South African government in the years of conflict and international isolation.

After South Africa was readmitted to international sport, Afrikaners also made a difference on the cricket field. Golfers like Ernie Els, Retief Goosen and Trevor Immelman currently excel on the golf course whilst swimmers such as Ryk Neethling and Roland Schoeman shatter various world records.

Even in the smallest towns, Afrikaans Dutch Reformed churches contributed to an important architectural aspect to the country, with their soaring steeples and classic stonework.
Origins
The influence of other languages on the development of the Afrikaans dialect began after 1652, when sailors who had been shipwrecked off the Cape coast incorporated terms and phrases into the dialect. This influence was significant, as many ships passed through the Cape after a trade route via the horn of Africa became viable. These phrases, both English and Portuguese in origin, soon found their way into the then predominantly Dutch dialect.

At this stage, before Afrikaans became an established and written language, it was referred to as Cape Dutch or Kitchen Dutch. This is because it acted mainly as a spoken language for people living in the Cape, with Dutch used as the formal and written language. The first known example of written Afrikaans appeared in a poem dated 7 August 1795, written about the Battle of Muizenberg. Other early work in Afrikaans included the use of the Arabic alphabet, for example in the work Bayaan-ud-djyn written by Abu Bakr in the mid 1800s.

The Afrikaans dialect took on a different flavour with the arrival of slaves in the Cape. Naturally, they all spoke different African and Asian languages, depending on their origins. Slaves from India and the East Indies for example, spoke a mixture of Indian and Indonesian languages. All these languages, accents, dialects and phrases, along with Khoikhoi dialects, began to influence the way people communicated on the farms. Mixed with Dutch and German, the result became a dialect known as Afrikaans. This dialect was further developed by Huguenot settlers, who contributed different words to the Afrikaans vocabulary, and altered the sounds of certain words.

These Huguenots, along with other Free Burghers, had been granted rights to land by the VOC management (1652-1795), and began farming to generate income. In the area of the Cape Peninsula, where they had limited access to education and cultural opportunities, these Free Burghers soon established grain and wine farms, which thrived due to favourable economic conditions.

In order to maintain these farms, slaves were imported for manual labour from the East. According to records, by 1170 there were 8104 slaves versus 7949 burghers with their families in the Cape. As these slaves were also employed as domestic servants, aspects of Eastern culture such as music, food dishes and words became an intrinsic part of the developing Afrikaner culture.

The consequences of British colonisation of the Cape after 1806 (i.e. conflict with the Xhosa as a result of the Eastern border and the anglicizing policies, and the manner in which the British freed the slaves) fired the Afrikaners' craving for independence and this led to the Great Trek (1836-1854) into the interior. In spite of inadequate training and political know-how, the sheer willpower of these pioneers resulted in the establishment in 1852 of the South African Republic (ZAR) and of the Republic of the Orange Free State (OVS) in 1854. These republics became known as the Boer republics and the inhabitants would be internationally known as the "Boers'.

The determination and courage of these pioneers became the single most important element in the folk memory of Afrikaner Nationalism, and significant developments in the consolidation of the Afrikaans language and culture began with the "Groot Trek".

Around this time, three main Afrikaans dialects had emerged, Cape Afrikaans, Orange River Afrikaans and Eastern Border Afrikaans. The Cape dialect remains infused with the language spoken by Malay slaves who worked in the Cape, and spoke a form of broken Portuguese. The Orange River dialect developed with the influence of Khoi languages and dialects developed in the Namaqualand and Griqualand West regions, and the Eastern Border Afrikaans evolved from the settlers who moved east towards Natal from the Cape.

This resentment was exacerbated by the treatment of Afrikaans women and children in war concentration camps, the British "scorched earth policy" and resulting Afrikaner destitution. The loss of Afrikaner morale prompted a 'Kultuur' [culture] campaign to promote the Afrikaans language, and lead to the establishment of the Afrikaner Broederbond (Brotherhood). The Broederbond in turn established other cultural institutions such as FAK (Federasie van Afrikaanse Kultuurvereniginge). In 1924, Afrikaans, as opposed to Dutch, was given official recognition, and a new South African flag was introduced three years later.

The National Party was also instrumental in the consolidation of Afrikaner culture, as it emphasized Afrikaner Nationalism and racial separation. Therefore, when the party won the South African elections of 1948, measures were introduced to give preference to White Afrikaans speakers in terms of employment and business. The National Party's institution of apartheid was overtly criticized, and was vehemently protested against. A significant example of anti-apartheid protest was the Soweto Uprising of 1976, when Afrikaans was declared the sole medium of instruction in so called "Bantu" schools.

Unfortunately, the National Party's ruthless apartheid regime and simultaneous promotion of the language continues to associate the language with an oppressive political system. During apartheid, Afrikaans was 1 of only 2 official languages. However, today it is one of 11 official South African languages recognized by the Constitution.
Related Languages
Afrikaans, which was first spoken in the Cape Colony, was also originally a pidgin language, or a language that has been grammatically simplified from a parent language, with the addition of local language elements.

Like Fanagalo, Afrikaans was also developed so that people who did not share a common language could communicate with each other.

According to Adam Haupt, gamtaal is seen as an 'authentic' language representative of the Coloured working class, and has been used in the songs of musicians such as Prophets of the City (POC) and Brasse van die Kaap (BVK).

This article is mainly made up of a research put together by 'Die Erfenisstigting' research and heritage NGO based at the Voortrekker Monument. The material has been used with their permission (2010), it forms the basis of a permanent exhibition at the Voortrekker Monument on the 'history of Afrikaners in SA'.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
The modern Afrikaner is descended mainly from Western Europeans who settled on the southern tip of Africa during the middle of the 17th century. Portuguese mariners discovered the sea passage to the East round Cape Point in 1488 and in the course of their visits, came into contact with the Khoi.