SOUTH AFRICA OCCUPIES MOST OF THE SOUTHERN TIP OF AFRICA, completely surrounding the tiny country of Lesotho.
|
CLIMATE |
|
|
|
The highest rainfall is in the southeast and on the Drakensberg range. The eastern Highveld is warm and sunny, with dramatic thunderstorms in summer. In the central Highveld and in the desert, it can get very hot, with noontime temperatures well above 86°F (30°C). Gale-force winds bring spells of cold weather to the western coast. Western Cape Province is cool and wet in the winter and mostly warm and dry in the summer.
| |
|
|
|
|
|
South Africa’s Early Settlers
South Africa has been inhabited for a very long time. Cave paintings tell us that communities of hunters, known as the San (SAHN) people, were living there around twenty-five thousand years ago. Their close relatives, the Khoi-Khoi (KOY-koy), arrived in the southwestern Cape region from northern Botswana between about 200 B.C.E. and 300 C.E. The Khoi-Khoi were mostly sheep and cattle herders.
Some time between 100 and 300 C.E., other Africans joined the San and Khoi-Khoi peoples. These new arrivals spoke languages belonging to the Bantu (BAN-too) group. The Bantu were cattle keepers and farmers. They also knew how to make pottery and produce metals, such as copper and iron, from ore.
|
FACTS AND FIGURES |
|
|
|
Official name: Republic of South Africa Status: Independent state Capitals: Pretoria (administrative), Cape Town (legislative), Bloemfontein (judicial) Other cities: Johannesburg, Durban, Port Elizabeth, East London Area: 471,445 square miles (1,221,043 square kilometers) Population: 44,200,000 Population density: 94 per square mile (36 per square kilometer) Peoples: 74 percent African (of which 22 percent Zulu; 19 percent Xhosa); 14 percent European descent; 9 percent mixed race; 3 percent Asian descent Official languages: Afrikaans, English, Ndebele, Pedi, Sotho, Swazi, Tsonga, Tswana, Venda, Xhosa, Zulu Currency: Rand National days: Human Rights’ Day (March 21); Family Day (April 17); Constitution Day (April 27); Youth Day (June 16); Women’s Day (August 9); Heritage Day (September 24); Day of Reconciliation (December 16); Day of Goodwill (December 26) Country’s name: The name describes the country’s geographical location.
| |
|
|
|
|
|
Over the next one thousand years, descendants of these ironworking farmers spread their settlements throughout the Highveld and the southeastern region. They traded and intermarried with the San. Cattle keeping and long-distance trade in iron, salt, gold, and ivory increased in importance and became sources of wealth for the region’s rulers. By the 1500s the ancestors of today’s Sotho (SOE-toe) and Tswana (TSWA-nah) peoples were forming distinct kingdoms on the Highveld. East of the Drakensberg (DRAH-kuhnz-buhrk) range, the Nguni, ancestors of today’s Zulu (ZOO-loo) and Xhosa (ZOE-sah), were forming small chiefdoms in the foothills, valleys, and coastal plains of the southeast during the 1600s and 1700s. The desert regions of the west were too dry for farming, and the dominant population remained the San, while the Khoi-Khoi grazed their cattle and sheep in the well-watered grasslands of the southwestern Cape.
During the 1500s and early 1600s, European merchant ships began sailing around South Africa in search of spices and other valuable goods from India and Southeast Asia. In 1652 Dutch merchants established a settlement at the Cape of Good Hope on behalf of a powerful international trading organization, the Dutch East India Company.
The East India Company brought in soldiers and built a fortress to protect the settlement from other Europeans. During the 1650s some of these soldiers began farming in the surrounding area. The East India Company imported slaves to work as farm laborers, builders, and servants. These slaves came from eastern and western Africa and from countries in the Indian Ocean and Southeast Asia, where the company traded. Local Khoi-Khoi herders opposed the Dutch settling on their land and fought unsuccessfully against them in two major wars, one in 1659 and the other from 1673 to 1677.
