Africa South Africa

Location –Lies at the southern tip of Africa –Has seacoasts on two oceans The Atlantic Ocean The Indian Ocean –The country is larger than TX and CA put together

South Africa Cultures clash –Ancestors of most of today’s black South Africans arrived about 2,00 years ago during the Bantu migration. –Europeans arrived in RSA about 400 years ago –1652 Dutch settlers set up a colony at Cape Town on the southern tip of the continent. They called themselves the Boers. Later they became Afrikaners. –British and French settlers also settled in RSA. –For years black settlers battled with the white settlers.

South Africa –By 1800 the white settlers had forced the black settlers off of the best land. –British and Afrikaners also fought each other for control of RSA. Afrikaners created their own states to get away from the British. –Transval –Orange Free State Soon diamonds and gold were found in Transval. British prospectors pushed Afrikaners off their farms. The British and Afrikaners fought over the territory for three years

South Africa The British won White rule in South Africa –White led government of the new country passed several laws to keep land and wealth in white hands. Natives Land Act of 1913, stated that blacks could live in only 8 percent of the country. The rest of the land belonged to the whites apartheid system—an Afrikaner word meaning separateness.

South Africa –Apartheid laws placed every South African into a category based on race. –It was legal to discriminate on the basis of race. –I separated South Africans into four groups: »Blacks »Whites »Colored »Asians »Colored were people of mixed race »Asians usually meant people from India.

South Africa –Coloreds and Asians had few rights. –Blacks had no rights at all. –The Deadly Struggle against Apartheid

South Africa In the 1950s and 60s blacks and whites took to the streets in peaceful protest against Apartheid. South African police met them with deadly force. Hundreds were killed. Thousands thrown into jail.

South Africa Countries around the world joined in the movement against apartheid. Many nations stopped trading with RSA or lending it money. 1990s RSA President F. W. de Klerk, pushed through laws that tore down apartheid. April 1994 South Africans of all colors elected Nelson Mandela, a black man who had spend 28 years in prison for fighting apartheid.

South Africa –New Challenges Under Mandela’s government discrimination by race ended. Despite all efforts to the opposite, South Africa remains a divided society. Whites still control most of the country’s largest businesses.

South Africa Many whites do not like the changes in South Africa. Some whites fear their children’s education will suffer in schools attended by all races.

South Africa –Building a New Nation All South Africans are struggling to build the new South Africa. Mandela took steps to heal RSA –Truth and Reconciliation Commission—examines the crimes of the apartheid era –1998 the commission issued its final report which condemned acts of murder and torture by both white and black South Africans.

South Africa –The commission also granted amnesty to some peole who committed crimes. –It withheld amnesty from others which meant they could face trial. –June 1999, South Africa held its second election open to all races. –Mandela’s political party remained in power.