The history of South Africa in brief
Posted on 15. Mar, 2010 by admin in Explore
The modern history of South Africa has entered an era of reconciliation and unity after countless years of almost perpetual conflict. Immigration and colonialism have affected South African history arguably more than any other nation on the planet, and the positives to draw from this include a rich and diverse culture.
Experts believe native black South Africans travelled south from the continent’s Great Lakes during prehistoric times. Thousands of years later European settlers arrived, attracted by the rich mineral deposits. Today all constituent races and creeds including Asians, Indians and Jews consider themselves as equally South African as anyone.
Prehistory
From around 500BC groups of bushman began herding cattle in what is today South Africa. This primitive hunter-gatherer lifestyle soon became superseded by basic barter economic activities as concepts of personal property and community developed. Families joined together into tribes with chieftains assuming responsibility for key decisions.
Over the next thousand years of South Africa history distinct identities and practices developed. Some tribes such as the Xhosa, Zulu, Ndebele and Swazi chose to inhabit land near the coast and were the ancient ancestors of the Nguni community of today. The Sotho-Tswana descended from the Pedi, Tswana and Basotho tribes of these early times and made Highveld their home, with the Lemba, Venda, and Shangaan-Tsonga populating north-east regions.
Trade and colony
The Portuguese were the first of the Europeans to successfully navigate the perilous Cape of Good Hope but only on route to plunder the riches of the Orient. Eventually settlements were established in Mozambique for exporting gold and seafood. But as sea travel around became more popular, Cape Town’s Table Bay became a regular stop for scurvy-stricken sailors and eventually a fort was built after a Dutch ship was wrecked there in 1647.
The Dutch East India Company thought it wise to construct a permanent settlement at Cape Town to allow passing ships shelter and access to fresh supplies. These early colonisers had no real interest in the land itself and trading with the nearby Khoikhoi people was only conducted from necessity. Eventually some company employees stayed on the land as farmers in order to provide the station with meat and crops, so beginning a new era in the history of South Africa.
By the end of the 18th century the British had established themselves as the leading European naval force and they seized control of the Cape in 1795. But the British had little initial interest in South Africa other than its strategically location as a port. But this was not a happy period of South African history with grave tensions still apparent with the neighbouring Boers.
Thousands of Boers, dissatisfied with British rule and especially the abolition of slavery, then left their lands and underwent the Great Trek in search of a new home and greater autonomy. But after a dispute with the Zulu king Dingane over some cattle there was one of the bloodiest massacres in South African history in which hundred of Boer men, women and children were slaughtered.
The British needed labour to work on their sugar plantations but the Zulus, fierce warriors who inflicted severe casualties on the British over the years including 1,400 dead at the 1879 Battle of Isandlwana, were not inclined to play subservient labourers. So over the next half-century 150,000 Indians were brought in from the subcontinent to fill the void as another turning point in the history of South Africa.
Birth of a nation
After large deposits of diamonds were discovered near Kimberley in 1869, a new era in the history of South Africa began and Britain quickly annexed the land which had previously been under Boer control. Townships were established where white and black prospectors mixed together, greatly angering the conservative Boers who believed in their God-given racial superiority.
This eventually lead to full-scale conflict in 1880 with the start of the Anglo-Boer War. The Boers took the initial upper hand and established the South African Republic (ZAR) after a crushing victory at the Battle of Majuba Hill a year later. Then in 1886 gold was discovered in Witwatersrand. This led to further conflict but by June 1900 the last Boer stronghold of Pretoria had fallen.
The Union of South Africa of 1909 was a seminal moment in the history of South Africa as it brought the republics and colonies of Natal, Cape Colony, Orange Free State and Transvaal together. Dutch and English became official languages of the new nation although only whites were allowed to stand for election or vote.
Apartheid and reconciliation
In 1913 the Natives’ Land Act was passed which restricted black ownership to merely seven per cent of the nation’s land. This became a cornerstone of Aparteid regime with whites owning 90 per cent of land despite being only 20 per cent of the population. Black Africans were not allowed to buy or even rent land or work outside designated areas. Thousands of squatters were evicted from farms and forced into squalid and overcrowded townships.
This system of legalised discrimination continued until 1990 when the ruling national party president F.W. de Klerk overturned a ban on the African National Congress (ANC) and ordered the release of Nelson Mandela. Four years later the South African population took part in the first general elections in which both black and white citizens could take part.
The African National Congress won and Nelson Mandela became the first black South African president on May 9. Millions around the world watched this moment in the history of South Africa on television and the long process of reconciliation began. Although Violent crime increased sharply during the early 90s although since 1994 statistics show a fall decrease in violent crime.
