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The People of Southern Africa
Southern Africa information - tourism, culture,
language, history, art, heritage, Bantu, San bushmen, Zulu,
Nguni, Swazi, Xhosa, Ndebele, Sotho, Tswana, Venda, Lemba,
Shangaa-Tsonga.
South Africa is a splendid melting pot of different
race, language, creed, culture, and colour groups. Many modern
day groups lay claim to being related to the original southern
Africans, but with discoveries of human occupation dating
back some two and a half million years at Sterkfontein Caves
in Gauteng, almost all groups would be able to lay claim to
some form of common heritage.
It is generally accepted that in relativly modern
history South Africa was originally populated by San hunter-gatherers.
Som two thousand years ago many of these communities turned
to pastoralism by acquiring live stock from Bantu-speaking
people migrating south of the Limpopo River. The Nguni, made
up of Swazi, Zulu, Xhosa and Ndebele moved into present day
KwaZulu-Natal and Eastern Cape whilst the Sotho and Tswana
moved into central South Africa and the Venda, Lemba and Shangaa-Tsonga
laid claim to the north.
The first permanent white settlers were the
Dutch who arrived under the leadership of Jan van Riebeeck
in 1652 to establish a trading station in the Cape. The number
of white people expanded greatly in the 1800's with the arrival
of large groupls of British settlers and later those seking
their fortunes on the mies. In the 1860's many Indian labourers
were brought into work on the east coast's sugar plantations.
The ten main indigenous black groups of southern
Africa today are San, Xhosa, Zulu, Ndebele, Venda, Tsonga,
Basotho, Tswana, and Pedi and the Ntwana althoug many other
sub-groups exist.
The Xhosa
Xhosa is a linguistic rather than ethnic term
and it was the dialect spoken in what today is the mostly
the Eastern Cape. These Xhosa-speaking people were also known
as Cape Nguni and they were historically hunters, herdsman
and subsitance farmers.
The Tsonga
A relatively small group that live close to
the Kruger National Park in Mpumalanga and the Limpopo Province.
The Tsonga were traders who migrated from present-day Mozambique
in the early 1800's.
The San
The ancestors of the San were nomads who huntd
animals and gathered plants. They were probably the earliest
inhabitants of southern Africa, with archeological sites dating
back 10 000 years containing artefacts that link them with
present day San.
The Pedi
The Pedi are another group that were part of
the Sotho speaking people and are also known as Northern Sotho.
They populate areas within present day Mpumalanga and the
Limpopo Province.
The Ntwana
This small and relatively unknown group of Tswana
origin and Pedi influences, is ocnentrated around the chief
village, Kwarrielaagte in Mpumalanga, which was a white farm
that was purchased by them in 1903.
The Venda
Found mostly in the north of the Limpopo Province
(although also found in south-eastern Zimbabwe). The Venda's
origins come from an amalgamation of groups such as Khoisan,
Nguni and the early Iron Age people and have historic links
with the Great Zimbabwe Kingdom.
The Basotho
Today the main concentraion of the Basotho live
in Lesotho and the Free State although they used to live throughout
the Highveld area. They are part of the larger Sotho structure
and were fused together as a nation under chief Moshoeshoe
in the 1800's when he successfully warded off Shaka's armies
by defending themselves in the mountains of Lesotho.
The Tswana
Also part of the Sotho group, the Tswana historically
lived on the Highveld with the Basotho and are now spread
from the east of Northern Cape, southern Botswana, throughout
the North West Province, Gauteng and northwest of the Limpopo
Province. Today they are divided into many local chiefdoms
whose size differ enormously
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