The Peopling of South Africa

Khoisan Peoples
1. Khoikhoi (pastoralists) - mostly killed in smallpox outbreak or absorbed into coloured population
2. San (hunters) - forced to retreat (Bantu) from early 17th century; mainly in Botswana today
Bantu Peoples
1. linguistic group; 'ntu' =human being; found in southern two thirds of Africa
  1. in SA - Nguni, Sotho, Venda, Tonga
    1. Peoples and 'homelands'
      1. Nguni - Zulu (Kwazulu),Xhosa (Ciskei and Transkei) Swazi (KaNgwane), South Ndebele (KwaNdebele)
        Zulu military conquest in mid 19th century known as mfecane; expaned absorbing groups; fluid ethnicity
        Buthelezi - leader of Inkatha Freedom Party; draws on myths of Zulu military history to mobilise
        Jacob Zuma is Zulu
        Nguni staple crop maize, avoid fish
      2. Sotho - North Sotho (Lebowa), South Sotho (QwaQwa), Tswana (Bophuthatswana)
        traditionally (19th C) lived between Orange River and Limpopo
      3. Venda (Vanda)
        south of Limpopo in NE of country
      4. Tsonga - Shangaan (Gazankulu)
2. Structures
  1. over 600 tribal authorities - how to incorporate these into democracy?
  2. structures fluid: strangers accepted, similarities in symbolism, rituals, law
3. 77% of total pop of 45m; herders and cultivators esp cattle; staple crop mize; ancient migration from east Africa; Zulu expansion led to 'mfecane'
  1. 'mfecane' = warfare in early 19th century; pressure on the European's 'eastern front'; Ndebele flee into 'Rhodesia'
Dutch/Boers/Afrikaners
1. 1652 - Jan van Riebeck founded Dutch East India company refreshment station
  1. bitter almond hedge; first attempt at apartheid (between Dutch and Khoikhoi) overcome by economic pressures
2. French Huguenots 1688 - 1700
  1. protestant refugees
3. Germans in 18th century
4. The Great Trek in 1830s/40s north eastwrds away from British control in the Cape (angered by anti slavery movement); aim to get to Natal
  1. Boer War 1899 - 1902
5. nationalism based on memory of suffering under British rule; death of 26,000 Boers in concentration camp; The Great Trek; Afrikaaner language; Dutch Reform Church; divine intervention in Battle of Blood River
  1. expressed through National Party (founded 1915; governed 1948 - 1994; disbanded 2005 under name of New National Party) & Herstigte Natiosale Party (ultra conservative)
British
1. 1795: French revolutionary armies invaded Holland; Britain occupied the Cape by arrangement with the Dutch King
  1. 1802 - 5: Cape restored to Dutch Republic
    1. 1805: Britain reoccupied the Cape and retained it until the Act of Union in 1910
      1. 1820: settlers in Eastern Cape; intended to secure eastern frontier; approx 5,000; large compared to existing population
        1848 1851: Byrne settlers in Natal (J.C. Byrne & Co.); British character in Natal
      2. SA became essentially independent within British Commonwealth post 1910
Coloured People
1. slave population 1652 - 1672: 75% of children born to slave women had European fathers
  1. slaves brought from West Africa, Mozambique, Dutch East Indies from 1650s
    1. import ended 1807 - 21
      1. emancipation 1839 : 39,000 mostly in Cape Town and hinterland
  2. 1685: intercourse with slave women prohibited but continued esp w soldiers and sailors
  3. children of mixed unions became a people apart from late 18th C; does not refer to white - bantu mix (bantu not in the area)
2. Khoikhoi also important contributors to group; san less so
  1. slave descendants predominant esp in W Cape - 85% of coloureds
3. mostly in the Cape; 'Cape coloureds'
Indians
1. 1860 - 1917: 140,000 inc 10% 'passenger' migrants (restricted from 1896) who paid their own passage
  1. indentured labour; brought to Natal; sugar plantations; cotton; later railways; N Natal coal mines, servants
    1. most stayed
  2. indentured = min. 25 women per 100 men whereas 'passenger' more like 50:50; 30% of contemporary Indians descended from 'passengers'
  3. movement controlled; excluded from OFC and N Natal until 1985; 80% in Natal today
    1. 1950 Census - only on Indian in OFC!
2. smallest group; over 80% live in KwaZulu Natal today
1820 - 1860: only 40,000 of all nationalities emigrated tp SA
1. labour was performed by slaves/coloureds/blacks >> only room for the employing class

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The Peopling of South Africa

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	Created by rosiep over 10 years ago