UNIVERSIDAD DEL SALVADOR

Escuela de Lenguas Modernas

SOUTH AFRICA
Subject: English Language III

Professor: Bortolato, Bárbara

Students:

- Dinardi, Angela

- Gutiérrez, Sara

- Mandolin, Paula

Date: 23/08/17
 INTRODUCTION
South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the 25th-largest
country in the world by land area, and with close to 56 million people, is the
world's 24th most populous nation. It is the southernmost country on the
mainland of the Old World or the Eastern Hemisphere. About 80 percent of
South Africans are of Sub-Saharan African ancestry, divided among a variety of
ethnic groups speaking different Bantu languages, nine of which have official
status. The remaining population consists of Africa's largest communities of
European (white), Asian (Indian), and multiracial (coloured) ancestry.

South Africa is a multiethnic society encompassing a wide variety of cultures,

languages, and religions. Its pluralistic makeup is reflected in the constitution's
recognition of 11 official languages, which is among the highest number of any
country in the world. Two of these languages are of European origin: Afrikaans
developed from Dutch and serves as the first language of most white and
coloured South Africans; English reflects the legacy of British colonialism, and is
commonly used in public and commercial life, though it is fourth-ranked as a
spoken first language.

The country is one of the few in Africa never to have had a coup d'état, and
regular elections have been held for almost a century. However, the vast
majority of black South Africans were not enfranchised until 1994. During the
20th century, the black majority sought to recover its rights from the dominant
white minority, with this struggle playing a large role in the country's recent
history and politics. The National Party imposed apartheid in 1948,
institutionalising previous racial segregation. After a long and sometimes violent
struggle by the African National Congress (ANC) and other anti-apartheid
activists both inside and outside the country, discriminatory laws began to be
repealed or abolished from 1990 onwards.

Rainbow nation is a term coined by Archbishop Desmond Tutu to describe

post-apartheid South Africa, after South Africa's first fully democratic election in
1994. The phrase was elaborated upon by President Nelson Mandela in his first
month of office, when he proclaimed: "Each of us is as intimately attached to the

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soil of this beautiful country as are the famous jacaranda trees of Pretoria and
the mimosa trees of the bushveld – a rainbow nation at peace with itself and the
world."

The term was intended to encapsulate the unity of multi-culturalism and the
coming-together of people of many different nations, in a country once identified
with the strict division of white and black.

GEOGRAPHY
Location

South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the southernmost
sovereign state in Africa. It is bounded on the south by 2,798 kilometres of
coastline of Southern Africa stretching along the South Atlantic and Indian
Oceans, on the north by the neighbouring countries of Namibia, Botswana and
Zimbabwe, and on the east and northeast by Mozambique and Swaziland, and
surrounding the kingdom of Lesotho. South Africa is the 25th-largest country in
the world by land area, and with close to 53 million people, is the world's 24th-
most populous nation. It is the southernmost country on the mainland of the Old
World or the Eastern Hemisphere. It is the only country that borders both the
Atlantic Ocean and the Indian Ocean. It has 9 provinces.

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Land
A plateau covers the largest part of the country, dominating the topography; it is
separated from surrounding areas of generally lower elevation by the Great
Escarpment. South Africa’s coastlines border the Indian Ocean to the southeast
and the Atlantic Ocean to the southwest.

Climate

A subtropical location, moderated by ocean on three sides of the country and

the altitude of the interior plateau, makes South Africa a warm and sunny
country. But it's also dry, with an average annual rainfall of about 450mm, with
about 21% of the country receiving less than 200mm a year. The world average
is 860mm. While the Western Cape gets most of its rainfall in winter, the rest of
the country is mostly a summer-rainfall region.

BIODIVERSITY
Animals

South Africa has a rich and varied mammal life, with more than 200 species,
including such large animals as lions, leopards, elephants, rhinoceroses,
hippopotamuses, baboons, zebras, and many kinds of antelope. Smaller
creatures include mongooses, jackals, and various cats such as the caracal.
The numbers of animals declined greatly, however, during the expansion of
white settlement in the 18th and 19th centuries, and today large mammals exist
mainly in the country’s wildlife reserves. South Africa contains more than 800
species of birds, such as the bearded vulture, the bald ibis, and the black eagle;
many species of reptiles, including more than 100 varieties of snakes (of which
one-fourth are poisonous); and an extraordinarily diverse population of insects.

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Fungi

Up to 1945, more than 4900 species of fungi (including lichen-forming species)

had been recorded. In 2006, the total number of fungi which occur in South
Africa was conservatively estimated at about 200,000 species, but that did not
take into account fungi associated with insects. If correct, then the number of
South African fungi dwarfs that of its plants. In at least some major South
African ecosystems, an exceptionally high percentage of fungi are highly
specific in terms of the plants with which they occur. The country's biodiversity
strategy and action plan does not mention fungi (including lichen-forming fungi).

Plants

With more than 22,000 different higher plants, or about 9% of all the known
species of plants on Earth, South Africa is particularly rich in plant diversity. The
most prevalent biome in South Africa is the grassland, particularly on the
Highveld, where the plant cover is dominated by different grasses, low shrubs,
and acacia trees, mainly camel-thorn and whitethorn. Vegetation becomes even
more sparse towards the northwest due to low rainfall. There are several
species of water-storing succulents like aloes and euphorbias in the very hot
and dry Namaqualand area. The grass and thorn savannah turns slowly into a
bush savannah towards the north-east of the country, with denser growth.
There are significant numbers of baobab trees in this area, near the northern
end of Kruger National Park.

While South Africa has a great wealth of flowering plants, only 1% of South
Africa is forest, almost exclusively in the humid coastal plain of KwaZulu-Natal,
where there are also areas of Southern Africa mangroves in river mouths. There
are even smaller reserves of forests that are out of the reach of fire, known as
montane forests. Plantations of imported tree species are predominant,
particularly the non-native eucalyptus and pine.

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 POLITICS AND GOVERNMENT
South Africa is a parliamentary republic, although unlike most such republics
the President is both head of state and head of government, and depends for
his tenure on the confidence of Parliament. The executive, legislature and
judiciary are all subject to the supremacy of the Constitution, and the superior
courts have the power to strike down executive actions and acts of Parliament if
they are unconstitutional.

The National Assembly, the lower house of Parliament, consists of 400

members and is elected every five years by a system of party-list proportional
representation. The National Council of Provinces, the upper house, consists of
ninety members, with each of the nine provincial legislatures electing ten
members.

After each parliamentary election, the National Assembly elects one of its
members as President; hence the President serves a term of office the same as
that of the Assembly, normally five years. No President may serve more than
two terms in office. The President appoints a Deputy President and Ministers,
who form the Cabinet which consists of Departments and Ministries.

Capital City

Unlike most other countries around the world, South Africa has not one but
three capital cities. More precisely, the government branches are divided
among three major South African cities: Pretoria, Cape Town, and Bloemfontein.

This concept dates back to the creation of the Union of South Africa, where
conflicting views on which city should hold the capital led to this compromise.
Much like the very idea of the balance of powers, leaders of early South Africa
decided that having all government centralized in one place could give that
place too much power, so it divided the branches among three provinces.

 Cape Town, in the Western Cape, is the legislative capital and is where
the country's Parliament is found.

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  Bloemfontein, in the Free State, is the judicial capital, and home to the
Supreme Court of Appeal.
 Pretoria, in Gauteng, is the administrative capital, and the ultimate capital
of the country. It is home to the Union Buildings and a large proportion of
the public service.

The largest and most important city is Johannesburg, the economic heartland of
the country. Other important centres include Durban and Pietermaritzburg in
KwaZulu- Natal, and Port Elizabeth in the Eastern Cape.

President

His name is Jacob Zuma. Since 9 may 2009. South Africa has an almost
unique system for the election of its president. Unlike other former British
colonies and dominions who have adopted a parliamentary republican form of
government and those that follow the Westminster system, South Africa's
President is both head of state and head of government and Commander-in-
Chief of the South African National Defence Force (SANDF). Contrary to

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presidential systems around the world, the President of South Africa is elected
by the Parliament of South Africa rather than by the people directly or an
Electoral College, thus answerable to it in theory and able to influence
legislation in practice as head of the majority party (presently the ANC).

FLAG

Symbolism

The design and colours are a synopsis of principal elements of the country's
flag history. Individual colours, or colour combinations represent different
meanings for different people and therefore no universal symbolism should be
attached to any of the colours.

Individually, the six colours of the South African flag have no meaning, but three
of the colours – black, green and yellow – are found in the banners of the
African National Congress, the Pan Africanist Congress and the Inkatha
Freedom Party – and are thus said to represent the country’s black population.
The other three – red, white and blue – are displayed on the Dutch tricolour and
the British Union flag and are said represent the country's white population.

The "Y" shape indicates South Africa's diversity and unity converging to a single
point as one country.

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Talk of a new South African flag design first emerged with the release of Nelson
Mandela in 1990. In 1993, a national competition invited the public to submit
flag designs, but this bore little fruit, and the pressure was on to create what
would become the most visible symbol of the fledgling democracy.

The flag of South Africa was adopted on 27 April 1994, at the beginning of
South Africa's 1994 general election, to replace the flag that had been used
since 1928. The new national flag, designed by the then State Herald of South
Africa Frederick Brownell, was chosen to represent the country's new
democracy after the end of apartheid.

NATIONAL ANTHEM

Two anthems into one

Before South Africa's first democratic elections in 1994, the country had two
anthems – an official and an unofficial one. The official anthem was Die Stem,
in English The Call of South Africa. The unofficial anthem, Nkosi Sikelel' iAfrika,
was a symbol of independence and resistance to apartheid, sung by the

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majority of the population and at all anti-apartheid rallies and gatherings. In the
official anthem of the new South Africa, the two anthems merge into one.

HISTORY

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San and Khoikhoi: first inhabitants

The San and Khoekhoe people were the earliest representatives of South
Africa´s diversity (otherwise known individually as the Bushmen and Hottentots
or Khoikhoi; collectively called the Khoisan). Whereas the San were hunter-
gathers, the Khoikhoi were pastoral herders. Both were resident in the southern
tip of the continent for thousands of years before its written history began with
the arrival of European seafarers.

The early colonial period

Portuguese seafarers, who pioneered the sea route to India in the late 15th
century, were regular visitors to the South Africa coast during the early 1500s.
Other Europeans followed from the late 16 th century.

In 1652, the Dutch East India Company (VOC) under the command of Jan van
Riebeeck set up a station in Table Bay (Cape Town) to provision passing ships.
As the Khoekhoe were not agricultural farmers, there was no food to trade for at
the Cape and the VOC had to import Dutch farmers to establish farms to supply
the passing ships as well as to supply the growing VOC settlement. The small
initial group of free burghers, as these farmers were known, steadily increased
in number and began to expand their farms further north and east. The free
burghers were ex-VOC soldiers and gardeners, who were unable to return to
Holland when their contracts were completed with the VOC.

Trade with the Khoekhoe(n) for slaughter stock soon degenerated into trading
and warfare. Beginning in 1657, European settlers were assigned farms by the
colonial authorities in the arable regions around Cape Town, where wine and
wheat became the major products. Van Riebeeck considered it impolitic to
enslave the local Khoi and San aboriginals, so the VOC began to import large
numbers of slaves primarily from Dutch colonies in the Far East, in response to
the colonists´demand for labour. The offspring from miscegenation between the
Dutch settlers and the slaves became known officially as the Cape Coloureds
and the Cape Malays.

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By the early 1700s, the colonists had begun to spread into the hinterland
beyond the nearest mountain ranges. These relatively independent and mobile
farmers (trekboaers), who lived as pastoralists and hunters, were largely free
from supervision by the Dutch authorities.

As they intruded further upon the land and water sources, and stepped up their
demands for livestock and labour, more and more of the indigenous inhabitants
were dispossessed and incorporated into the colonial economy as servants.

Diseases such as smallpox, which was introduced by the Europeans in 1713,

decimated the Khoisan, contributing to the decline of their cultures. Unions
across the colour line took place and a new multiracial social order evolved,
based on the supremacy of European colonists. The slave population steadily
increased since more labour was needed. By the mid-1700s, there were more
slaves in the Cape than there were “free burghers” (European colonists). The
Asian slaves were concentrated in the towns, where they formed an artisan
class. They brought with them the Islamic religion, which gained adherents and
significantly shaped the working-class culture of the Western Cape. Slaves of
African descent were found more often on the farms of outlying districts.

The coming of the English

Records indicate that English people made initial contact with southern Africa
prior to the period of formal British colonization of the area. From the 16 th
century onwards, for instance, English explorers and traders who visited the
region began to introduce a vocabulary describing the land and its people.

Later experiences of the area are also on record during this early period
(Burman 1986). In the late 17 th century a group of English sailors was wrecked
on the Natal coast, and settled (in the present region of the coastal city of
Durban) amongst the native inhabitants (probably Zulu), by whom they were
amicably received. The sailors learned the language and customs of the local
people, and explored and traded extensively over a relatively large area. While
some were rescued after a few years of what appears to have been an
adventurous but comfortable life, a few remained behind, forming what could
possibly be regarded – a hundred years before the formal commencement of

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British colonization – as the first permanent settlement of English-speakers in
southern Africa.. Xhosa oral lore also tells of English-speaking castaways
(including a civilian woman by the name of Bessie) who were absorbed into a
particular clan, apparently in the late 18th century. To this day, there exists a
Xhosa clan with the name ‘abelungu’, the Xhosa term for white people. Besides
these early encounters, three initial historical phases in the formal
establishment of English-speakers in South Africa may be discerned:

1. Following Britain’s initial occupation of the Cape Colony in 1795, the first
major establishment in 1820 was of approximately 4,000 British immigrants on
farms along the Eastern Cape frontier. These settlers were mostly from
southern England, and primarily of working-class or lower-middle-class
backgrounds. During the formation of a classless frontier society with few
attachments to the home country, a ‘settler English’ developed which merged
features of the various English dialects originally spoken by the settlers (a
strongly influential dialect being Cockney), and which also revealed features
indicative of extensive interaction with the Dutch farming community already
established in the area.

2. The second major settlement was of approximately 4,000 British immigrants

in the colony of Natal between 1849 and 1851. Unlike the 1820 settlers, these
immigrants, the ‘Byrne settlers’, were typically of middle- and upper-middle-
class origin, and predominantly from the north of England. This group also
appears to have maintained stronger ties with Britain than did the 1820 settlers
(Branford 1991).

3. From 1870, the discovery of gold and diamonds, and the industrial revolution,
which led to further British immigration, extensive urbanization, and the
emergence of a stratified urban society. In terms of variety of English, the most
affluent class in this context was associated with an externally focused British
standard – Received Pronunciation. The variety of English which had developed
in Natal, however, emerged as the basis of a local norm for the aspiring middle
class, while Eastern Cape English assumed a low status, and became
associated with working-class speech.

“Cape Town became a British colony in 1806 thus marking the beginning of a
South African British culture which was strengthened with the arrival of the first
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settlers in 1820, who were responsible for its dispersion further north and east
as a result of the Great Trek: a major exodus from the Cape.

The Great Trek was a movement of Dutch-speaking colonists up into the interior
of southern Africa in search of land where they could establish their own
homeland, independent of British rule. The determination and courage of these
pioneers has become the single most important element in the folk memory of
Afrikaner Nationalism. However, far from being the peaceful and God-fearing
process which many would like to believe it was, the Great Trek caused a
tremendous upheaval in the interior for at least half a century.”

Boer people, republics and wars

After 1806, a number of Dutch-speaking inhabitants of the Cape Colony trekked

inland, first in small groups. Eventually, in the 1830s, large numbers of Boers
migrated in what came to be known as the Great Trek.

The reasons for their leaving the Cape colony were:

 The English language ruled.

 Religion was a very important aspect of the settlers´ culture and the bible
and church services were in Dutch. Similarly, schools, justice and trade up
to the arrival of the British, were all managed in the Dutch language. The
language law caused friction, distrust and dissatisfaction.
 The abolition of slavery by the British government on Emancipation Day, 1
December 1838. The farmers complained they could not replace the labour
of their slaves without losing an excessive amount of money. The farmers
had invested large amounts of capital in slaves. Owners who had purchased
slaves on credit or put them up as surety against loans faced financial ruin.

Regional geography during the period of the Anglo-Boer wars

There are wars of many names. For the British they were the Boer Wars, for the
Boers, the Wars of Independence. Many Afrikaaners today refer to them as the
Anglo-Boer Wars to denote the official warring parties.

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 -The South African Republic/Transvaal
(green)

-The Orange Free State (orange)

-The British Cape Colony (blue)

- Natalia Republic (red)

Natalia was a short-lived Boer republic established in 1839 by Boer

voortrekkers emigrating from the Cape Colony. Boer voortrekkers in 1838
established the Republic of Natalia in the surrounding region, with its capital at
Pietermaritzburg. There were several attacks, some failed and then finally, the
British won. The Boers accepted British annexation in 1844. Many of the Natalia
Boers who refused to acknowledge British rule trekked over the Drakensberg
mountains to settle in the Orange Free State and Transvaal republics.

Between 1835 and 1845, about 15,000 Voortrekkers (people of Dutch extract)
moved out of the (British) Cape Colony across the Gariep (Orange) River into
the interior of South Africa. Their 'Great Trek' was a rejection of the British
philanthropic policy with its equalisation of black and white at the Cape, and of
the political marginalisation they experienced on the eastern Cape frontier.

They established two independent republics - the Transvaal and the Orange
Free State - as recognised by Great Britain at the Sand River (1852) and
Bloemfontein (1854) Conventions.

The republicans acquired the name 'Boers', the Dutch and Afrikaans word for
farmers. Like the African societies within their borders, the stock farming Boers
enjoyed a pre-capitalist, near-subsistence economy. Only gradually effective
state administrations emerged.

First Boer war

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Causes of the War

The First Anglo-Boer is also known as the First Transvaal War of Independence
because the conflict arose between the British colonizers and the Boers from
the Transvaal Republic or Zuid-Afrikaansche Republiek (ZAR). The Boers had
some help from their neighbours in the Orange Free State.

There were several causes of the First Anglo-Boer War.

 The expansion of the British Empire.

 Problems within the Transvaal government.

 The British annexation of the Transvaal.

 The Boer opposition to British rule in the Transvaal.

The 4th Earl of Carnarvon was the British Secretary of State for the Colonies
under Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli, who was premier from 1868 to 1880. At
the time the British government wanted to expand the British Empire.

Carnarvon wanted to form a confederation of all the British colonies,

independent Boer republics and independent African groups in South Africa
under British control. By 1876 he realized that he would not be able to achieve
his goal peacefully. He was prepared to use force to make the confederation a
reality.

Second Boer war

The Causes

A number of interrelated factors led to the Second Anglo-Boer War. These

include:

 The conflicting political ideologies of imperialism and republicanism.

 The discovery of gold on the Witwatersrand.

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Conflicting political ideology

After the First Anglo-Boer War the British government did not give up its
ambition for unifying South Africa under Imperial British rule. The two Boer
republics of the Orange Free State and the South African Republic or Transvaal
still maintained their desire for independence. The Boer republics were a
stumbling block for the British Empire.

This Second Anglo-Boer War, also known as the South African War lasted
longer than the first, with British troops being supplemented by colonial troops
from Southern Rhodesia, Canada, India, Australia and New Zealand. It has
been estimated that the total number of British and colonial troops deployed in
South Africa during the war outnumbered the population of the two Boer
Republics by more than 150,000.

The Anglo-Boer War affected all race groups in South Africa. Black people were
conscripted or otherwise coerced by both sides into working for them either as
combatants or non-combatants to sustain the respective war efforts of both the
Boers and the British. The official statistics of blacks killed in action are
inaccurate. Most of the bodies were dumped in unmarked graves. It has,
however, been verified that 17,182 black people died mainly of diseases in the
Cape concentration camps alone, but this figure is not accepted historically as a
true reflection of the overall numbers. Concentration camp superintendents did
not always record the deaths of black inmates in the camps.

From the outset of hostilities in October 1899 to the signing of peace on 31 May
1902 the war claimed the lives of 22,000 imperial soldiers and 7,000 republican
fighters. In terms of the peace agreement known as the Treaty of Vereeniging,
the Boer republics acknowledged British sovereignty, while the British in turn
committed themselves to reconstruction of the areas under their control.

Union of South Africa

Background

During the Scramble for Africa in the late 19th century, Western European
powers divided Africa and its resources into political partitions at the Berlin

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Conference of 1884-85. By 1905, control of almost all African soil was claimed
by Western European governments, with the only exceptions being Liberia
(which had been settled by African-American former slaves) and Ethiopia
(which had successfully resisted colonisation by Italy). Britain and France had
the largest holdings, but Germany, Spain, Italy, Belgium, and Portugal also had
colonies. As a result of colonialism and imperialism, a majority of Africa lost
sovereignty and control of natural resources such as gold and rubber. Following
the concept of Rudyard Kipling's poem "The White Man's Burden", some
Europeans who benefited from colonisation felt that colonialism was needed to
civilise Africans.

Causes

On February 12th, 1941, United States President Franklin D. Roosevelt and

British Prime Minister Winston Churchill met to discuss the post-war world. The
result was the Atlantic Charter. It was not a treaty and was not submitted to the
British Parliament or the Senate of the United States for ratification, but it turned
to be a widely acclaimed document. One of the provisions, introduced by
Roosevelt, was the autonomy of imperial colonies. After World War II, the US
and the African colonies put pressure on Britain to abide by the terms of the
Atlantic Charter. After the war, some British considered African colonies to be
childish and immature; British colonisers introduced democratic government at
local levels in the colonies.

By the 1930s, the colonial powers had cultivated, sometimes inadvertently, a

small elite of leaders educated in Western universities and familiar with ideas
such as self-determination. These leaders came to lead the struggles for
independence, and included leading nationalists

The Union of South Africa was constituted through the South Africa Act entering
into force on 31 May 1910. On 11 December 1931 it got increased self-
governance powers through the Statute of Westminster, which removed the last
vestiges of British legal authority over South Africa.

In 1934, the Union of South Africa parliament enacted the Status of the Union
Act, which declared the country to be "a sovereign independent state", and was
followed by transformation into republic after the 1960 referendum.

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From 1948, South Africa was under apartheid regime until elections resulting
from the negotiations to end apartheid in South Africa on 27 April 1994 when
Nelson Mandela became president.

APARTHEID ERA (1948-1994)

Apartheid: an Afrikaans word meaning "separateness".

After the National Party gained power in South Africa in 1948, its all-white
government immediately began enforcing existing policies of racial segregation
under a system of legislation that it called apartheid. Under apartheid, non-white
South Africans (a majority of the population) would be forced to live in separate
areas from whites and use separate public facilities, and contact between the
two groups would be limited. Despite strong and consistent opposition to
apartheid within and outside of South Africa, its laws remained in effect for the
better part of 50 years. In 1991, the government of President F.W. de Klerk
began to repeal most of the legislation that provided the basis for apartheid.

ANC leader Nelson Mandela, released from prison in February 1990, worked
closely with President F.W. de Klerk's government to draw up a new constitution

18
for South Africa. After both sides made concessions, they reached agreement in
1993, and would share the Nobel Peace Prize that year for their efforts.

Birth of Apartheid

Racial segregation and white supremacy had become central aspects of South
African policy long before apartheid began. The controversial 1913 Land Act,
passed three years after South Africa gained its independence, marked the
beginning of territorial segregation by forcing black Africans to live in reserves
and making it illegal for them to work as sharecroppers.

The Great Depression and World War II brought increasing economic woes to
South Africa, and convinced the government to strengthen its policies of racial
segregation. In 1948, the Afrikaner National Party won the general election
under the slogan “apartheid” (literally “separateness”). Their goal was not only
to separate South Africa’s white minority from its non-white majority, but also to
separate non-whites from each other, and to divide black South Africans along
tribal lines in order to decrease their political power.

Apartheid becomes a law

By 1950, the government had banned marriages between whites and people of
other races, and prohibited sexual relations between black and white South
Africans. The Population Registration Act of 1950 provided the basic framework
for apartheid by classifying all South Africans by race, including Bantu (black
Africans), Coloured (mixed race) and white. A fourth category, Asian (meaning
Indian and Pakistani) was later added. In some cases, the legislation split
families; parents could be classified as white, while their children were classified
as colored.

Apartheid and separate development

Dr. Hendrik Verwoerd, who became prime minister in 1958, would refine
apartheid policy further into a system he referred to as “separate development.”
The Promotion of Bantu Self-Government Act of 1959 created 10 Bantu
homelands known as Bantustans. Separating black South Africans from each
other enabled the government to claim there was no black majority, and
reduced the possibility that blacks would unify into one nationalist organization.

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Every black South African was designated as a citizen as one of the Bantustans,
a system that supposedly gave them full political rights, but effectively removed
them from the nation’s political body.

In one of the most devastating aspects of apartheid, the government forcibly

removed black South Africans from rural areas designated as “white” to the
homelands, and sold their land at low prices to white farmers. From 1961 to
1994, more than 3.5 million people were forcibly removed from their homes and
deposited in the Bantustans, where they were plunged into poverty and
hopelessness.

Republic

On 31 May 1961, the country became a republic following a referendum in

which white voters narrowly voted in favour thereof (the British-dominated
Natalprovince rallied against the issue). Queen Elizabeth II was stripped of the
title Queen of South Africa, and the last Governor-General, namely Charles
Robberts Swart, became State President. As a concession to the Westminster
system, the presidency remained parliamentary appointed and virtually
powerless until P. W. Botha's Constitution Act of 1983, which (intact in these
regards) eliminated the office of Prime Minister and instated a near-unique
"strong presidency" responsible to parliament.

Opposition to apartheid

Resistance to apartheid within South Africa took many forms over the years,
from non-violent demonstrations, protests and strikes to political action and
eventually to armed resistance. Together with the South Indian National
Congress, the ANC organized a mass meeting in 1952, during which attendees
burned their pass books. A group calling itself the Congress of the People
adopted a Freedom Charter in 1955 asserting that “South Africa belongs to all
who live in it, black or white.” The government broke up the meeting and
arrested 150 people, charging them with high treason.

In 1960, at the black township of Sharpesville, the police opened fire on a group
of unarmed blacks associated with the Pan-African Congress (PAC), an
offshoot of the ANC. The group had arrived at the police station without passes,
inviting arrest as an act of resistance. At least 67 blacks were killed and more

20
than 180 wounded. Sharpesville convinced many anti-apartheid leaders that
they could not achieve their objectives by peaceful means, and both the PAC
and ANC established military wings, neither of which ever posed a serious
military threat to the state. By 1961, most resistance leaders had been captured
and sentenced to long prison terms or executed. Nelson Mandela, a founder of
Umkhonto we Sizwe (“Spear of the Nation”), the military wing of the ANC, was
incarcerated from 1963 to 1990; his imprisonment would draw international
attention and help garner support for the anti-apartheid cause.

Apartheid comes to an end

In 1976, when thousands of black children in Soweto, a black township outside

Johannesburg, demonstrated against the Afrikaans language requirement for
black African students, the police opened fire with tear gas and bullets. The
protests and government crackdowns that followed, combined with a national
economic recession, drew more international attention to South Africa and
shattered all illusions that apartheid had brought peace or prosperity to the
nation. The United Nations General Assembly had denounced apartheid in
1973, and in 1976 the UN Security Council voted to impose a mandatory
embargo on the sale of arms to South Africa. In 1985, the United Kingdom and
United States imposed economic sanctions on the country.

Under pressure from the international community, the National Party

government of Pieter Botha sought to institute some reforms, including abolition
of the pass laws and the ban on interracial sex and marriage. The reforms fell
short of any substantive change, however, and by 1989 Botha was pressured to
step aside in favor of F.W. de Klerk. De Klerk’s government subsequently
repealed the Population Registration Act, as well as most of the other legislation
that formed the legal basis for apartheid. A new constitution, which enfranchised
blacks and other racial groups, took effect in 1994, and elections that year led to
a coalition government with a nonwhite majority, marking the official end of the
apartheid system.

SOUTH AFRICAN INDEPENDENCE FROM WHITE MINORITY RULE: 1994

In 1652 Dutch settlers arrived at the Cape and set up a refreshment post for the

21
journey to the Dutch East Indies. With minimal impact on the local people
(Bantu speaking groups and Bushmen), the Dutch started to move inland and
colonize. The arrival of the British in the eighteenth century accelerated the
process. The Cape colony was ceded to the British in 1814. In 1816, Shaka
kaSenzangakhona became Zulu ruler, to be assassinated by Dingane in 1828.
The Great Trek of the Boers moving away from the British in the Cape started in
1836 -- leading to the founding of the Republic of Natal in 1838 and the Orange
Free State in 1854. Britain took Natal from the Boers in 1843. The Transvaal
was recognized as an independent state by the British in 1852 and the Cape
Colony was granted self-government in 1872. Zulu War and two Anglo-Boer
wars followed, and the country was unified under British dominion in 1910.
Independence for white minority rule came in 1934. In 1958 Dr. Hendrik
Verwoerd, the Prime Minister, introduced the Grand Apartheid policy. The
African National Congress, formed in 1912, finally came into power in 1994
when the first multiracial, multiparty elections were held.

NELSON MANDELA

22
Nelson Mandela (1918 – 2013) was a South African political activist who spent
over 20 years in prison for his opposition to the apartheid regime. During his
time at University, Nelson Mandela became increasingly aware of the racial
inequality and injustice faced by no\n-white people. In 1943, he decided to join
the ANC and actively take part in the struggle against apartheid.

During his time in prison, Mandela became increasingly well known throughout
the world. Mandela became the best known black leader and opposition to the
apartheid regime. Largely unbeknown to Mandela, his continued imprisonment
led to worldwide pressure for his release. Many countries implemented
sanctions on apartheid South Africa. Due to international pressure, from the
mid-1980s, the apartheid regime increasingly began to negotiate with the ANC
and Nelson Mandela in particular. On many occasions, Mandela was offered a
conditional freedom. However, he always refused to put the political ideals of
the ANC above his own freedom.

He was released in 1990 and, in 1994, was later elected the first leader of a
democratic South Africa. He was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize (jointly with
F.W. de Klerk) in 1993 for his work in helping to end racial segregation in South
Africa. He is considered the father of a democratic South Africa and widely
admired for his ability to bring together a nation, previously divided by apartheid.
Nelson Mandela is one of the most admired political leaders of the Twentieth
and Twenty First Century for his vision to forgive and forge a new ‘rainbow’
nation.

Nelson Mandela died on 5 December, 2013 after a long illness with his family at
his side. He was 95.

“I learned that courage was not the absence of fear, but the triumph over it. The
brave man is not he who does not feel afraid, but he who conquers that fear. “

– Nelson Mandela

23
 ECONOMY

The economy of South Africa is the second-largest in Africa, behind Nigeria.

South Africa accounts for 24 per cent of Africa's gross domestic product (PPP),
and it is ranked as an upper-middle-income economy by the World Bank.

Today South Africa enjoys a relatively stable mixed economy that draws on its
fertile agricultural lands, abundant mineral resources, tourist attractions, and
highly evolved intellectual capital.

South Africa has a diverse economy, with key sectors roughly contributing to
GDP* as follows:

Mining industry of South Africa

Diamond and gold discoveries played an important part in the growth of early
South African. A site northeast of Cape Town was discovered to have rich
deposits of diamonds, and thousands rushed to the area of Kimberley in an

24
attempt to profit from the discovery. The British later annexed the region of
Griqualand West, an area which included the diamond fields. In 1868, the
republic attempted to annex areas near newly discovered diamond fields,
drawing protests from the nearby British colonial government. These
annexations later led to the First Boer War of 1880-1881.

Gold was discovered in the area known as Witwatersrand, triggering what

would become the Witwatersrand Gold Rush of 1886. Like the diamond
discoveries before, the gold rush caused thousands of foreign expatriates to
flock to the region. This heightened political tensions in the area ultimately
contributing to the Second Boer War in 1899.Ownership of the diamond and
gold mines became concentrated in the hands of a few entrepreneurs, largely of
European origin, known as the Randlords. South Africa's and the world's
biggest diamond miners.

The gold mining industry continued to grow throughout much of the early 20th
century, significantly contributing to the tripling of the economic value of what
was then known as the Union of South Africa.

Coal: South Africa is the world's third largest coal exporter, and much of the
country's coal is used for power production. (about 40%) 77% of South Africa's
energy needs are provided by coal.

Platinum and palladium: South Africa produces more platinum and similar
metals than any other nation. In 2005, 78% of the world's platinum was
produced in South Africa, along with 39% of the world's palladium.

Chromium: Chromium is another leading product of South Africa's mining

industry. The metal, used in stainless steel and for a variety of industrial
applications, is mined at 10 sites around the country. South Africa's production
of chromium accounted for 100% of the world's total production in 2005.

Agriculture and food processing

The agricultural industry contributes around 10% of formal employment,

relatively low compared to other parts of Africa, as well as providing work for
casual labourers and contributing around 2.2% of GDP for the nation. However,

25
due to the aridity of the land, only 13.5% can be used for crop production, and
only 3% is considered high potential land.

The most important agricultural exports of South Africa include: edible fruit and
nuts, beverages, preserved food, tobacco, cereals, wool not carded or combed,
miscellaneous food, sugar, meat, milling products, malt and starch

Manufacturing

The manufacturing industry's contribution to the economy is relatively small,

providing just 13.3% of jobs and 17% of GDP. Labour costs are low, but not
nearly as low as in most other emerging markets, and the cost of the transport,
communications and general living is much higher.

BMW, Ford, Volkswagen, Daimler-Chrysler, General Motors and Toyota all

have production plants in South Africa.

Trade

Principal international trading partners of South Africa—besides other African

countries—include Germany, the United States, China, Japan, the United
Kingdom and Spain. Chief exports include corn, diamonds, fruits, gold, metals
and minerals, sugar, and wool. Machinery and transportation equipment make
up more than one-third of the value of the country's imports. Other imports
include chemicals, manufactured goods, and petroleum.

Labour market

South Africa has an extreme and persistent high unemployment rate of over
25%, which interacts with other economic and social problems such as
inadequate education, poor health outcomes and crime. The poor have limited
access to economic opportunities and basic services. According to a 2013
Goldman Sachs report, that number increases to 35% when including people
who have given up looking for work. A quarter of South Africans live on less
than US $1.25 a day.

26
Black Economic Empowerment: (BEE) is a racially selective programme
launched by the South African government to redress the inequalities of
Apartheid by giving certain previously disadvantaged groups (Blacks, Coloureds,
Indians, and Chinese) of South African citizens economic privileges previously
not available to them. Although race is the overriding factor, it includes
measures such as Employment Preference, skills development, ownership,
management, socioeconomic development, and preferential procurement.

South African Rand

The rand (sign: R; code: ZAR) is the currency of South Africa. The rand has the
symbol "R" and is subdivided into 100 cents, symbol "c". Unlike the dollar, the
decimal separator between a rand and cent is expressed by a comma.

The rand is the currency of the Common Monetary Area between South Africa,
Swaziland, Lesotho, and Namibia.

The cent was introduced in the then Union of South Africa on 14 February 1961,
three months before the Republic of South Africa was established.

Etymology: The rand takes its name from the Witwatersrand (literally "white
waters' ridge" in English), the ridge upon which Johannesburg is built and where
most of South Africa's gold deposits were found.

1,00 USD = 14,26 ZAR

1,00 ZAR = 0,07 USD

History of the rand

A Commission established in 1956 recommended giving up the British Pound

and associated terms pounds, shillings and pence in favor of a new currency
named “Rand.”

The South African Rand was introduced on February 14, 1961, replacing Round
Sterling as legal tender, at two Rand = 1 Pound 10 shillings. 1961 was also the
year the country became a republic and left the Commonwealth of Nations
following a whites-only referendum.

27
From 1982, the value of the currency started to erode due to mounting
international pressure and sanctions against the country because of its
apartheid policies. In July 1985, all foreign exchange transactions were
suspended for three days to try to stop the devaluation.

CULTURE

The culture of South Africa is known for its ethnic and cultural diversity. The
South African majority still has a substantial number of rural inhabitants who
lead largely impoverished lives. It is among these people, however, that cultural
traditions survive most strongly; as South Africans have become increasingly
urbanized and Westernised, aspects of traditional culture have declined.

Members of middle class, who are predominantly white but whose ranks include
growing numbers of people of colour, have lifestyles similar in many respects to
that of people found in Western Europe, North America and Australia. Members

28
of the middle class often study and work abroad for greater exposure to the
markets of the world.

Indian South Africans preserve their cultural heritage, languages and religious
beliefs, being either Christian, Hindu or Muslim and speaking English, with
Indian languages like Hindi, Telugu, Tamil or Gujarati being spoken less
frequently as second languages.

Poetry

South Africa has a rich tradition of oral poetry. Several influential African poets
became prominent in the 1970s such as Mongane Wally Serote, whose most
famous work, No Baby Must Weep, gave insight into the everyday lives of black
South Africans under apartheid.

Music

There is great diversity in music from South Africa. Many black musicians who
sang in Afrikaans or English during apartheid have since begun to sing in
traditional African languages, and have developed a unique style called Kwaito.
Of note is Brenda Fassie, who launched to fame with her song "Weekend
Special", which was sung in English.

South African music has been affected by the slave trade, missionaries, old
African instruments and European sensibilities.

Literature

There are 11 national languages in South Africa. South Africa's unique social
and political history has generated a rich variety of literatures, with themes
spanning pre-colonial life, the days of apartheid, and the lives of people in the
"new South Africa".

Many of the first black South African print authors were missionary-educated,
and many thus wrote in either English or Afrikaans. One of the first well known

29
novels written by a black author in an African language was Solomon Thekiso
Plaatje's Mhudi, written in 1930.

Notable white English-language South African authors include Nadine

Gordimer who became the first South African and the seventh woman to be
awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1991. Her most famous novel, July’s
People, was released in 1981, depicting the collapse of white-minority rule. She
wrote the book before the end of apartheid. The book was notably banned in
South Africa after its publication.

Disgrace: A novel by J. M. Coetzee, published in 1999. It won the Booker Prize.

The writer was also awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature four years after its
publication and the 2000 Commonwealth Writer’s Prize.

Beadwork adornment

Adornment is important in African culture for both men and women. Traditional
beadwork reflects not only an individual’s history and experiences – patterns
and colours have meanings; for example, blue is for loneliness or saying ‘I will
wait for you’ – it also distinguishes a person’s ethnic group, such as Xhosa, Zulu
or Ndebele.

In 1962, Nelson Mandela wore Xhosa beads at his sentencing (rather than his
usual suit), sending a message of African identity and defiance.

Gender roles

In general, all racial and ethnic groups in South Africa have long-standing
beliefs concerning gender roles, and most are based on the premise that
women are less important, or less deserving of power, than men. Most African
traditional social organisations are male centred and male dominated. Even in
the 1990s, in some rural areas of South Africa, for example, wives walk a few
paces behind their husbands in keeping with traditional practices. A minority of
ultra-conservative Afrikaners' religious beliefs, too, include a strong emphasis
on the theoretically biblically based notion that women's contributions to society

30
should normally be approved by, or be on behalf of, men. English speaking
whites tend to be the most liberal group, including on issues pertaining to
gender roles.

In the 20th century, economic and political developments presented South

African women with both new obstacles and new opportunities to wield
influence. For example, labour force requirements in cities and mining areas
have often drawn men away from their homes for months at a time, and, as a
result, women have borne many traditionally male responsibilities in the village
and home. Women have had to guarantee the day-to-day survival of their
families and to carry out financial and legal transactions that otherwise would
have been reserved for men.

RELIGION

Almost 80% of South African population adheres to the Christian faith. Other
major religious groups are Hindus, Muslims and Jews. A minority of South
African population does not belong to any of the major religions, but regard
themselves as traditionalists or of no specific religious affiliation. Freedom of

31
worship is guaranteed by the Constitution.

Church attendance in South Africa is favourable in both rural and urban areas.
Apart from the work of the churches, a number of Christian organizations
operate in South Africa doing missionary work, giving aid and providing training.

Rituals and Holy Places

All religions and ethnic subnational groups have founded shrines to their
tradition where momentous events have occurred, their leaders are buried, or
miracles are believed to have happened. The grave of Sheikh Omar, for
example, a seventeenth-century leader of resistance to Dutch rule in the East
Indies who was transported to the Cape and became an early leader of the
"Malay" community, is sacred to Cape Muslims. Afrikaners regard the site of the
Battle of Blood River (Ncome) in 1838 as sacred because their leader Andries
Pretorius made a covenant with their God promising perpetual devotion if
victory over the vastly more numerous Zulu army were achieved. The long
intergroup conflict over the land itself has led to the sacralization of many sites
that are well remembered and frequently visited by a great many South Africans
of all backgrounds.

Death and the Afterlife

In addition to the beliefs in the soul and afterlife of the varying world religions in
South Africa, continued belief in and consultation with family ancestors remains
strong among Black Africans. Among the important shrines where the ancestors
are said to have caused miracles are the caves of Nkokomohi and Matuoleng in
the eastern Free State, both sites of healing sacred to the Basotho, and the holy
city of Ekuphakameni in KwaZulu-Natal, built by Zulu Afro-Christian prophet and
founder of the Nazarite Jerusalem Church, Isaiah Shembe in 1916. Formal
communal graveyards, not a feature of pre-colonial African culture, have since
become a focus of ancestral veneration and rootedness in the land. Disused
graves and ancestral shrines have most recently figured in the land restitution

32
claims of expropriated African communities lacking formal deeds of title to their
former homes.

FOOD

Typical food
In South Africa, you'll find dishes influenced by the indigenous population, along
with the Dutch, French, Indians and Malaysians and as such it offers a vibrant
cuisine that's sure to excite the palate.

Biltong & droewors

Dry curing was a method used to preserve meat by the indigenous tribes of
South Africa before fridges were invented. Usually made from beef or game,
such as springbok, biltong (a thinly sliced, air-dried meat) and droewors (an air-
dried sausage) are traditionally eaten as snacks. The meat is cured in a mixture
of vinegar, salt, sugar and spices such as coriander and pepper, then hung to
dry. The finished product is prized by health enthusiasts for its high protein and
low fat content. Nowadays, biltong and droewors producers often add

33
flavourings such as chilli or garlic to the meat and use a variety of meats, such
as ostrich and wild boar.

Boerewors

This is a traditional South African sausage made from beef, mixed with either
pork or lamb and a mixture of spices. Boerewors are traditionally served in a
coiled shape, similar to the Cumberland sausage and cooked on a braai
(barbecue). The word boerewors comes from the Afrikaans and Dutch words
boer(farmer) and wors (sausage).

Cape Malay curry

In the 17th century, the Dutch and French landed and settled in Cape Town,
bringing slaves from Indonesia, India and Malaysia, along with their spices and
traditional cooking methods. When combined with local produce, the aromatic
spices such as cinnamon, saffron, turmeric and chilli created fragrant curries
and stews, which are still popular in the area today.

Malva pudding

A Dutch import, malva pudding is a sweet and sticky baked sponge pudding
made with apricot jam and served smothered in a hot cream sauce. This is
South Africa's answer to the British sticky toffee pudding, served in many
restaurants but mainly baked at home for Sunday lunch.

Chakalaka & pap

Chakalaka and pap are mainstays on every South African dinner table.
Chakalaka is a vegetable dish made of onions, tomatoes, peppers, carrots,
beans and spices, and is often served cold. Pap, meaning 'porridge', is similar
to American grits and is a starchy dish made from white corn maize. Chakalaka
and pap are often served together, along with braaied (barbecued) meat,
breads, salad and stews.

Braai/Shisa nyama

For a real taste of South Africa an authentic braai or shisa nyama ('burn the
meat' in Zulu) is an eating experience not to be missed. Braais originated in the
townships of Johannesburg, with butchers who set up barbecues in front of their
shops at weekends to grill their meat and sell it on the street. Nowadays, local

34
communities gather at braais at the weekends to share food. Pop along to soak
up the vibrant atmosphere, listen to music and take your pick from the meat on
offer, usually comprising of beef, chicken, pork, lamb and vors (sausages) – this
is not an outing for vegetarians!

Bunny chow

This street food of Durban has become popular across South Africa and is now
starting to hit our food markets back in London. Hollowed out loaves of bread,
stuffed with spicy curry were originally created by the immigrant Indian
community in the Natal area of Durban and served to workers for lunch. Try
chicken, pork or vegetarian varieties containing lentils and beans.

Amarula Don Pedro

This cocktail-come-dessert uses South African Amarula, a cream liqueur made

from the indigenous marula fruit, blended with ice cream. Find it in every bar or
take a bottle of Amarula home from duty-free to make your own!

Bobotie

Another dish thought to have been brought to South Africa by Asian settlers,
bobotie is now the national dish of the country and cooked in many homes and
restaurants. Minced meat is simmered with spices, usually curry powder, herbs
and dried fruit, then topped with a mixture of egg and milk and baked until set.

Melktert

Similar to the British custard tart or Portuguese pasteis de nata, melktert

consists of a pastry case filled with milk, eggs and sugar, which is usually
thickened with flour. The finished tart is traditionally dusted with cinnamon. A
real South African comfort food, it is served as a dessert, and also available in
many bakeries.

35
 SPORTS

The most popular sports in South Africa are Soccer, Cricket and Rugby.

Rugby has traditionally been the most popular sport in South Africa amongst
White South Africans. The national rugby team is nicknamed The Springboks.
South Africa hosted the 1995 Rugby World Cup, the first one hosted in Africa.

The Sprinboks

Their emblems are the Springbok and the King Protea.

Although South Africa was instrumental in the creation of the Rugby World Cup
competition, the Springboks did not compete in the first two World Cups in 1987
and 1991 because of anti-apartheid sporting boycotts of South Africa. The team
made its World Cup debut in 1995, when the newly democratic South Africa
hosted the tournament. The Springboks defeated the All Blacks 15–12 in the
final, which is now remembered as one of the greatest moments in South
Africa's sporting history, and a watershed moment in the post-Apartheid nation-
building process.

36
Cricket is traditionally the popular sport among the white British diaspora and
Indian South African communities, although it is now followed by members of all
races. The national cricket team is nicknamed The Proteas.

Soccer has historically been particularly popular amongst persons of African

descent and is South Africa's most popular sport. The South Africa national
soccer team, Bafana Bafana, has not enjoyed considerable success since the
early 20th Century.

South Africa was absent from international sport for most of the apartheid era
due to sanctions, but started competing globally after the end of apartheid.

LANGUAGES OF SOUTH
AFRICA
The Constitution of 1994 recognizes 11 official languages, namely English,
Afrikaans, and the nine major African languages (including isiZulu, isiXhosa,
seTswana and seSotho), as well as additional ‘community and religious
languages’ such as Khoi-San, Telegu, Hindi, Portuguese, Hebrew, and Arabic.

The 11 official languages are: Africaans, English, sePedi, seSotho, siSwazi,

xiTsonga, seTswana, tshiVenda, isiNdebele, isiXhosa and isiZulu.

Fewer than two percent of South Africans speak a first language other than an
official one. Most South Africans can speak more than one language. Dutch and
English were the first official languages of South Africa from 1910 to 1925.
Afrikaans was added as a part of Dutch in 1925, although in practice, Afrikaans
effectively replaced Dutch, which fell into disuse. When South Africa became a
republic in 1961 the official relationship changed such that Afrikaans was
considered to include Dutch, and Dutch was dropped in 1984, so between 1984
and 1994, South Africa had two official languages: English and Afrikaans.

Afrikaans, a language derived from Dutch, is the most widely spoken language
in the western half of the country (Western and Northern Cape). It is spoken as
first language by approximately 61 percent of whites and 76 percent of

37
Coloured (multiracial) people in the country. Afrikaans is also spoken widely
across the centre and north of the country, as a second (or third or even fourth)
language by Black South Africans living in farming areas.

Language distribution

According to the 2011 census, isiZulu is the mother tongue of 22.7% of South
Africa’s population, followed by isiXhosa at 16%, Afrikaans at 13.5%, English at
9.6%, Setswana at 8% and Sesotho at 7.6%.

The remaining official languages are spoken at home by less than 5% of the
population each.

SOUTH AFRICAN LANGUAGES 2011

Language Number of speakers* % of total

Afrikaans 6 855 082 13.5%

English 4 892 623 9.6%

isiNdebele 1 090 223 2.1%

isiXhosa 8 154 258 16%

isiZulu 11 587 374 22.7%

Sepedi 4 618 576 9.1%

Sesotho 3 849 563 7.6%

Setswana 4 067 248 8%

Sign language 234 655 0.5%

SiSwati 1 297 046 2.5%

Tshivenda 1 209 388 2.4%

Xitsonga 2 277 148 4.5%

38
Other 828 258 1.6%

TOTAL 50 961 443** 100%

* Spoken as a home language

** Unspecified and not applicable are excluded
Source: Census 2011

Most South Africans are multilingual, able to speak more than one language.
English- and Afrikaans-speaking people tend not to have much ability in
indigenous languages, but are fairly fluent in each other’s language. Most South
Africans speak English, which is fairly ubiquitous in official and commercial
public life. The country’s other lingua franca is isiZulu.

Afrikaans

Afrikaans is the third most common language in South Africa. It is spoken by

13.5% of the population, or 6 855 082 people – mainly “coloured” and white
South Africans. The language has its roots in 17th century Dutch, with
influences from English, Malay, German, Portuguese, French, and some African
languages.

Initially known as Cape Dutch, Afrikaans was largely a spoken language for
people living in the Cape, with proper Dutch the formal, written language.

Afrikaans came into its own with the growth of Afrikaner identity, being declared
an official language – with English – of the Union of South Africa in 1925. The
language was promoted alongside Afrikaner nationalism after 1948 and played
an important role in minority white rule in apartheid South Africa. The 1976
schoolchildren’s uprising was sparked by the proposed imposition of Afrikaans
in township schools.

Afrikaans is spoken mainly by white Afrikaners, coloured South Africans and

sections of the black population. Although the language has European roots,
today the majority of Afrikaans-speakers are not white.

39
Most Afrikaans speakers live in the Western Cape, where it is the language of
just less than half (48.4%) of the provincial population. It is also common in
Gauteng, where 12.2% of the provincial population consider Afrikaans to be
their home language.

Afrikaans is the dominant language in the Northern Cape, spoken by more than
half (53%) of the provincial population. Afrikaans is spoken by 12.4% of the
Free State’s population, 10.4% of the people of the Eastern Cape, and 8.8% of
the people of North West.

In addition, many native speakers of Bantu languages and English also speak
Afrikaans as a second language. It is taught in schools, with about 10.3 million
second-language students. One reason for the expansion of Afrikaans is its
development in the public realm: it is used in newspapers, radio programs, TV,
and several translations of the Bible have been published since the first one
was completed in 1933.

SOUTHAFRICAN ENGLISH

According to the 2011 census, English is spoken as a home language by almost

5- million people (or 8.2% of the population). South Africa’s Asian people, most
of whom are Indian in origin, are largely English-speaking, although many also

40
retain their languages of origin. There is also a significant group of Chinese
South Africans, also largely English-speaking but who also retain their
languages of origin as well.

The English language in South Africa (SAE) dates from the arrival of the British
at the Cape of Good Hope in 1795. As was the case in most colonies, English
was introduced first by soldiers and administrators, then by missionaries,
settlers, and fortune-seekers. English took root during the 19th century as a
southern African language, as a result of the British settlements of 1820 (in the
Eastern Cape), 1848–51 (in Natal), and the subsequent rushes to the diamond
mines of Kimberley and the gold mines of the Witwatersrand.

Modern South African English is part of a complex linguistic and cultural mix,
due to the 11 official languages which coexist in South Africa.

The position and role of English were deeply political from the start. English was
the language of power during the 19th century, and was imposed in 1822 as the
official language of the Cape Colony, replacing Dutch, the cause of great
resentment among citizens of Dutch descent–a resentment which was later
intensified and hardened among Afrikaners by the South African War of 1899-
1901.

For twentieth-century Afrikaner nationalists, the promotion of the Afrikaans

language was central, and under the National Party (1948–94) English was
displaced by Afrikaans in government, administration, the police, and the armed
forces. However, English was a major influence in business and higher
education. It was also the language of choice of the African National Congress
and other liberation movements, as it enabled communication both between
speakers of the country’s many languages and with the outside world.

SAE is a language of many paradoxes. There are 3 million first-language SAE-

speakers, about the same as the number of English-speakers in New Zealand,
but they are in a minority, greatly outnumbered by second- and third-language
speakers. English is perceived both as the language of communication and
aspiration, and as an oppressive juggernaut because of its global power. While
politicians often brand English as a ‘colonialist’ and disempowering force, many
black parents see it as a crucial instrument for their children’s advancement.

41
And while the government espouses multilingualism, in practice SAE is
dominant in public life, for reasons of practicality and cost-efficiency.

There is some social and regional variation within South African English. Social
variation within white South African English has been classified into three
groupings:

 Cultivated, closely approximating Received Pronunciation and

associated with upper class.
 General, a social indicator of the middle class.
 Broad, associated with the working class, and closely approximating the
second-language Afrikaans-English variety.

GRAMMATICAL FEATURES

The syntax of formal SAE is close to that of the international standard.

Colloquial SAE, however, has many features, such as:

(1) Sentence initiators such as affirmative no, as in How are you?—No, I'm fine,
probably from Dutch/Afrikaans, and the emphatic aikona as in Aikona fish (‘No
fish today’), of Nguni (Bantu) origin. The common informal phrase ja well no fine
(yes well no fine) has been adopted in solid written form as an affectionate
expression of ridicule (jawellnofine) for broad SAfrE usage, and has served to
name a South African television programme.

(2) The suffixed phrase and them, as in We saw Billy and them in town (‘Billy
and the others’), a form found also in Caribbean varieties.

(3) Busy as a progressive marker with stative verbs, as in We were busy waiting
for him, and often with a non animate subject, as in The rinderpest was busy
decimating their herds.

(4) The all-purpose response is it?, as in She had a baby last week.—Is it?,
heard also in Singapore and Malaysia, but closely parallel in use to Afrikaans Is
dit?

(5) Extensive use of Afrikaans ‘modal adverbs’, such as sommer (‘just’) in We

were sommer standing around.

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  It displays the use of a number of discourse markers borrowed from
Afrikaans e.g. the use of the interjection ag [trans: oh!; [ x]] in colloquial
speech e.g. Ag, go away man!
 The regular use of y’all (you all) for second person plural pronouns.
 Non-standard use of auxiliaries (e.g. We did move here a week already
meaning: “We had moved here a week previously”)
 The deletion of the adverbial suffix (We must move quick)
 Various non-standard forms of agreement or lack therefore (I’ve watched
this children).
 The mutual substitution of he and she (as a result of gender differences
not being marked in Bantu languages)

Sporadic countable use of uncountable nouns.

e.g. furnitures for piece of furniture.

Repetition of words for emphasis and rethorical purposes.

e.g. Do it small small do it slowly, bit by bit.

Common use of resumptive pronoun subjects.

e.g. My father he is very tall.

Yes-no questions answered to accord with form rather than meaning.

e.g. Didn’t you break that? Yes I didn’t.

Simple verbs used instead of their phrasal verb derivatives.

e.g. pick pick up.

Use of the all purpose response question “is it?”

e.g. He’s gone to town, is it? (BrEng: has he?)

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Non-negative “no” occurs as an introductory particle.

e.g. How are you? No, I’m fine thanks.

Possibility to delete object noun phrases (NPs) after verbs which must
have NPs in other varieties.

e.g. -Have you got?

xxX-Did you put?

LEXICAL FEATURES

SAE has become a particular regional version of English, firmly rooted in South
Africa by the influence of the languages surrounding it. South Africans are often
unaware of just how different SAE is from other Englishes in both vocabulary
and pronunciation.

Initial borrowings tended, as elsewhere, to be introduced as local colour in the

journals of visiting explorers and travellers describing the local peoples and their
cultures, the animals, plants, and geographical features of the country. Some of
the earliest SAE words (mainly from Dutch and the Khoi languages), such as
kloof, krantz, dagga, buchu, Boer, kraal, springbuck, and quagga (all 18th-
century borrowings) are still entrenched in SAE. Others, such as Hottentot (a
name given to the Khoi peoples in an attempt to imitate their click languages),
and particularly Kaffir (from 1589 onwards, a name given to the black peoples of
South Africa) are now considered deeply offensive and are no longer in use.

Dutch, and subsequently Afrikaans, has had the most powerful influence on
SAE. Veld, vlei, pan, koppie, nek, rand are words used to describe the country’s
natural features. Deurmekaar or in a dwaal is how a state of confusion is
described. Nogal has supplanted ‘what is more’. During apartheid,
administrative terms such as group areas, job reservation, reference book and
endorse out were translated from the Afrikaans equivalents.

Many SAE words have also been borrowed from the African languages of the
region: for example bonsella, indaba, donga, impala, mamba from the Nguni
languages, and tsetse, tsotsi, kgotla, marula from the Sotho languages.

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Words that does not exist in British or American English. Derived from
Afrikaans or African languages:

- “takkies” > “trainers”

- “jol” >“party”
- “lekker” >“nice”
- “braai” >“bbq”
- “donga” >“gully”

Malay words such as atchar, bobotie, sosatie, kaparrang, and kramat came
into SAE during the 19th century (via Afrikaans), originating in the community of
26 slaves and political exiles at the Cape, who were sent from what are now
Indonesia and Malaysia during the 17th and 18th centuries. But borrowings are
not the full story.

Some very well-known words, such as tackie, tickey, rondavel, and bundu have
mysterious origins.

Some specifically SAE words are examples of words once current in British
English, but now out of use there: geyser (a water-heater or boiler), robot (a
traffic light), and, until the 1960s, bioscope (a cinema), are examples.

Some English words mean something different in SAE: a bond is a mortgage, a

dam refers to the stretch of water rather than to the wall, just now means ‘in a
little while’, a packet is a plastic shopping bag, a café is a convenience store or
corner shop, and (in the context of traffic) a circle is a roundabout.

Non-lexical features of other South African languages have also made their way
into SAE, as in two ways of indicating emphasis — by reduplication (from
Afrikaans), as in now-now, soon-soon, and (from the African languages) by the
use of falling pitch, from high to low, as in ‘fa-a–a-ar away’.

Terms in common with GA:

- “Mom”
- “Freeway or highway”
- “Cellphone”

45
- “Buck”

PHONOLOGICAL AND PHONETICAL FEATURES

Like English in southern England, such as London, South African English is

non-rhotic (except for some Afrikaans-influenced speakers, see below) and
features the trap–bath split.

The two main phonological indicators of South African English are the
behaviour of the vowels in kit and bath. The kit vowel tends to be "split" so that
there is a clear allophonic variation between the close, front [ɪ] and a somewhat
more central [ ]. The bath vowel is characteristically open and back in the
General and Broad varieties of SAE. The tendency to monophthongise both /aʊ/
and /aɪ/ to [ ː] and [aː] respectively, are also typical features of General and
Broad SAE.

Features involving consonants include the tendency for voiceless plosives to be

unaspirated in stressed word-initial environments, [tj] tune and [dj] dune tend to
be realised as [tʃ] and [dʒ] respectively (See Yod coalescence), and /h/ has a
strong tendency to be voiced initially.

Vowels

Much can be said on this subtopic of SAE. The following subsection aims to
highlight a few of the most common characteristics that are to be found. South
African English has what is called a “kit-bit split”. This can be considered as
being the most distinctive feature of SAE. Basically it means that the words kit
[kɪt] and bit [bət] do not rhyme: The sound [ɪ] is used when it occurs next to
velars (consonants which are articulated with the back part of the tongue [the
dorsum] against the soft palate, the back part of the roof of the mouth, known
also as the velum) as in the case of the following words: kiss, gift, lick, big, sing
and kit after /h/ (hit), at the beginning of a word as is the case of the word “inn”,
and before /ʃ/ (fish). Some speakers also use this sound before /tʃ or dʒ/. On the
other hand, [ə] is used before words such as limb, dinner, limited and bit.

46
In Cultivated and General SAE the pronunciation of /æ/ is slightly raised (as in
trap). However, in Broad varieties, it is often raised to [ɛ]. This means that /æ/
almost becomes /ɛ/ for some speakers, as can be exemplified by the typical
SAE pronunciation of the very name of the country South Africa, which is
pronounced as South Efrica.

The /ʊ/ sound in the word foot is generally pronounced as high, back centralised
[ʊ]. It is interesting to note that there is very little lip rounding in comparison to
other L1 varieties of English worldwide. The pronunciation of [ʊ] with added lip-
rounding only occurs in Broad SAE in the case of Afrikaans English.

The / ː/ vowel sound in the case of words such as bath is usually a low and fully
back, [ ː]. This low and fully back [ ː] distinguishes SAE from the other
Southern Hemisphere varieties (AusE and NZE). Another indicator of SAE is
the unstressed vowel at the end of words such as happy, which is usually half-
long.

Consonants

Plosives

The following voiced and voiceless plosives (a consonant sound which is

produced by stopping the airflow in the vocal tract) are distinctive in South
African English: /p, b, t, d, k, g/. These sounds are generally unaspirated in all
positions of broad South African English thereby distinguishing it from the
remaining formerly mentioned subcategories, namely general and cultivated
South African English. On the other hand, in the other varieties of SAE a
voiceless plosive is aspirated (a strong burst of air which is produced with the
release of some obstruents) when it comes before a stressed syllable. In the
case of Broad South African English, this contrast is neutralised. Alternatively,
these speakers have a tendency to pronounce the /t/ and /d/ sounds with some
detention by articulating the tongue against the upper teeth.

Fricatives and Affricates

A velar fricative phoneme is one of the rare varieties that may be found in the
case of South African English. However, this only occurs in the case of words
that have been borrowed from Afrikaans, Xhosa, Scots and German as can be

47
verified by the words gogga /xoxə/ meaning insect in Afrikaans or the word
Bach in German.

A stereotypical feature of Broad South African Afrikaans English is the tendency

to pronounce the sound /θ/ as /f/. Thus, the “th” sound is merged with other
sounds as in the case of the Word three which is pronounced as free. This also
occurs in the case of Cockney English. Another tendency is to pronounce the
sound /h/ as a voiced /ɦ/ when it comes before a stressed vowel.

Sonorants

The sonorant phonemes of South African English are /m, (hw), w, n, l, r, j, ŋ/.

 General and Broad varieties have a wine–whine merger. but some

speakers of Cultivated SAE (particularly the elderly) still distinguish /hw/
from /w/.

 /n/ is normally alveolar, but it has an optional dental allophone [ ]

before dental consonants.

 /l/ has two allophones:

 Clear (neutral or somewhat palatalised) in syllable-initial position;

 In Cultivated variety, clear [l] is often also used word-finally

when another word begins with a vowel.

 Velarised [lˠ] (or uvularised [lʶ]) in syllable-final position.

 One source states that the dark /l/ has a "hollow

pharyngealised" quality [lˤ
],https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/South_African_English -
cite_note-FOOTNOTECollinsMees2013194-11 rather than
velarised or uvularised.

 In Cultivated and General varieties, /r/ is an approximant, usually

postalveolar or (less commonly) retroflex. In emphatic speech,
Cultivated speakers may realize /r/as a (often long) trill [r]. Older
speakers of the Cultivated variety may realize intervocalic /r/ as a tap [ɾ],
a feature which is becoming increasingly rare.

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  Broad SAE realizes /r/ as a tap [ɾ], sometimes even as a trill [r] - a
pronunciation which is at times stigmatised as a marker of this variety.
The trill [r] is more commonly considered a feature of the second
language Afrikaans English variety.

 Another possible realization of /r/ is uvular trill [ʀ], which has been
reported to occur in the Cape Flats dialect.

 South African English is non-rhotic, except for some Broad varieties

spoken in the Cape Province (typically in -er suffixes, as in writer). It
appears that postvocalic /r/ is entering the speech of younger people
under the influence of American English.

 Linking /r/ (as in for a while) is used only by some speakers.

 There is not a full agreement about intrusive /r/ (as in law and order) in
South African English:

 Lass (2002) states that it is rare, and some speakers with linking
/r/ never use the intrusive /r/.

 Bowerman (2004) states that it is absent from this variety.

 In contexts where many British and Australian accents use the intrusive
/r/, speakers of South African English who do not use the intrusive /r/
create an intervocalic hiatus. Phonetically, it can be realized in three
ways:

 Vowel deletion: [loːnoːdə]

 Adding a semivowel corresponding to the preceding vowel: [loːwə

noːdə];

 Inserting a glottal stop: [loːʔənoːdə]. This is typical of Broad

varieties.

 Before a high front vowel, /j/ is foritified to [ɣ] in Broad and some of the
General varieties.

PRONUNCIATION

49
As a result of the apartheid, there is no single, reasonably uniform SAE accent.
With some exceptions, communities lived and were educated separately
according to ethnic background, until the 1990s. There were thus many
varieties–white English-speaking SAE, white Afrikaans-speaking SAE, black
African SAE, Indian SAE, Coloured SAE. But things are changing: with urban
children of all backgrounds now being educated together, ethnically determined
differences in SAE are tending to break down.

The SAE of English-speakers is often confused with Australian or New Zealand

English. There are some common characteristics: NZE and SAE both centralize
the /I/ vowel, saying ‘pin’ as what sounds like ‘pun’ (while Australians tend
towards ‘peen’). All three varieties pronounce other vowels further forward in the
mouth than British speakers, so ‘penny’ sounds like ‘pinny’, ‘bad’ like ‘bed’, and ‘
bed’ like ‘bid’. Unlike in British English, SAE consonants are pronounced crisply:
glottal stops, as in ‘bu’er’ for ‘butter’, are not common.

AFRIKANERISMS

This list of "Afrikanerisms" comprises slang words and phrases influenced by

Afrikaans and other African languages. Typical users include people with
Afrikaans as their first language but who speak English as a second language;
and people living in areas where the population speaks both English and
Afrikaans. Many of these terms also occur widely amongst ethnic/native South
Africans. These terms do not occur in formal South African English.

 ag man – oh man; ag as the Afrikaans equivalent to "oh" (pronounced

\ach\ like German ACHtung), man pronounced as in English.baas – boss

 babbelbekkie – Someone who talks a lot

 babelaas / babbelas – hangover (of Zulu origin)

 bakgat – cool; expression of appreciation for something very well

accomplished

 china/chine – a friend; as in the greeting Howzit my china? Likely origin:

Cockney rhyming slang "China plate" (meaning "my mate"); from early
British immigrants.

50
 lank – lots/a lot

Sources:

 South Africa Government Online (http://www.gov.za/aboutsa/history.htm).

 Gough, David H. English in South Africa
(http://salanguages.com/english/esa.htm).
 Silva, Penny. Oxford English Dictionary (http://public.oed.com/aspects-
of-english/english-in-use/south-african-english).
 http://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-14094918
 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_South_Africa
 https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/explore/varieties-of-english/the-
vocabulary-of-south-african-english
 https://ipfs.io/ipfs/QmXoypizjW3WknFiJnKLwHCnL72vedxjQkDDP1mXW
o6uco/wiki/South_African_English.html
 http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/british/victorians/boer_wars_01.shtml
 http://www.sahistory.org.za/article/first-anglo-boer-war
 http://www.sahistory.org.za/article/second-anglo-boer-war-1899-1902

51