The Peopling of South Africa

The Peopling of South Africa

1. Khoisan Peoples

   • Khoikhoi (pastoralists) - mostly killed in smallpox outbreak or absorbed into coloured population
   • San (hunters) - forced to retreat (Bantu) from early 17th century; mainly in Botswana today

2. Bantu Peoples

   • linguistic group; 'ntu' =human being; found in southern two thirds of Africa
     • in SA - Nguni, Sotho, Venda, Tonga
       • Peoples and 'homelands'
         • 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
         • Sotho - North Sotho (Lebowa), South Sotho (QwaQwa), Tswana (Bophuthatswana)
           • traditionally (19th C) lived between Orange River and Limpopo
         • Venda (Vanda)
           • south of Limpopo in NE of country
         • Tsonga - Shangaan (Gazankulu)
   • Structures
     • over 600 tribal authorities - how to incorporate these into democracy?
     • structures fluid: strangers accepted, similarities in symbolism, rituals, law
   • 77% of total pop of 45m; herders and cultivators esp cattle; staple crop mize; ancient migration from east Africa; Zulu expansion led to 'mfecane'
     • 'mfecane' = warfare in early 19th century; pressure on the European's 'eastern front'; Ndebele flee into 'Rhodesia'

3. Dutch/Boers/Afrikaners

   • 1652 - Jan van Riebeck founded Dutch East India company refreshment station
     • bitter almond hedge; first attempt at apartheid (between Dutch and Khoikhoi) overcome by economic pressures
   • French Huguenots 1688 - 1700
     • protestant refugees
   • Germans in 18th century
   • 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
     • Boer War 1899 - 1902
   • 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
     • expressed through National Party (founded 1915; governed 1948 - 1994; disbanded 2005 under name of New National Party) & Herstigte Natiosale Party (ultra conservative)

4. British

   • 1795: French revolutionary armies invaded Holland; Britain occupied the Cape by arrangement with the Dutch King
     • 1802 - 5: Cape restored to Dutch Republic
       • 1805: Britain reoccupied the Cape and retained it until the Act of Union in 1910
         • 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
         • SA became essentially independent within British Commonwealth post 1910

5. Coloured People

   • slave population 1652 - 1672: 75% of children born to slave women had European fathers
     • slaves brought from West Africa, Mozambique, Dutch East Indies from 1650s
       • import ended 1807 - 21
         • emancipation 1839 : 39,000 mostly in Cape Town and hinterland
     • 1685: intercourse with slave women prohibited but continued esp w soldiers and sailors
     • children of mixed unions became a people apart from late 18th C; does not refer to white - bantu mix (bantu not in the area)
   • Khoikhoi also important contributors to group; san less so
     • slave descendants predominant esp in W Cape - 85% of coloureds
   • mostly in the Cape; 'Cape coloureds'

6. Indians

   • 1860 - 1917: 140,000 inc 10% 'passenger' migrants (restricted from 1896) who paid their own passage
     • indentured labour; brought to Natal; sugar plantations; cotton; later railways; N Natal coal mines, servants
       • most stayed
     • indentured = min. 25 women per 100 men whereas 'passenger' more like 50:50; 30% of contemporary Indians descended from 'passengers'
     • movement controlled; excluded from OFC and N Natal until 1985; 80% in Natal today
       • 1950 Census - only on Indian in OFC!
   • smallest group; over 80% live in KwaZulu Natal today

7. 1820 - 1860: only 40,000 of all nationalities emigrated tp SA

   • labour was performed by slaves/coloureds/blacks >> only room for the employing class