One country, eleven official languages
South Africa is divided into two major Bantu language groups, west of the Drakensberg-Karoo range: the BaSotho, the Sotho peoples of the north and south, and the Tswana, and to the east, the Nguni, the Zulu, Swazi, Xhosa and Ndebele peoples. Two other groups occupy a marginal position in Mpumalanga: the Tsonga on the Mozambican border and the Venda on the Zimbabwean border. There are eleven official languages in the country: English, Afrikaans, Zulu, Xhosa, Ndebele, Northern Sotho, Southern Sotho, Swazi, Tswana, Tsonga and Venda. The three main mother tongues spoken are Zulu with 23.8% of speakers, Xhosa with 17.6%, Afrikaans with 13.3% and English with 8.2%. However, almost everyone speaks English.
The Zulus: the emblematic people of South Africa
This very powerful group originated in the greenest part of the country, Natal. In the 1820s, under the command of Shaka, the Zulus spread terror throughout the sub-region. Their fighting spirit led them to confront other black tribes, but also the Boers and the British, whom they inflicted one of the most terrible corrections in colonial history. Today, the "Sons of Heaven" retain a certain political weight, thanks in particular to their king. Spoken by 23.8% of South Africans, the Zulu language is the country's primary language. Who does not know the music and traditional dances that have crossed the borders thanks to the famous "white Zulu", Johnny Clegg?
The Swazi people in Swaziland
The ancestors of today's Swazi people lived on the coast of Mozambique. Today, about half the population lives in the independent kingdom of Swaziland, a small landlocked state wedged between South Africa and Mozambique. A system of royal regiments, which were joined according to age, kept the Swazi people together in the face of aggressors. In South Africa, they are concentrated in the area of the former autonomous territory of KaNgwane.
The flexibility of the Xhosa people
On the east coast of South Africa, we find the most southern of all Bantu peoples: the Xhosa. They are known as the "red people" because their adults often wore red-dyed clothing. Unlike the Zulus, their traditional society is very loosely organized. There is no separation between the gods and the natural world in which man finds himself. At the beginning of the 18th century, the Xhosa were the first blacks to meet the whites. From the contact with the Bushmen, their language, the second in the country spoken by 17.6% of the population, retains the famous "clicks. For the record, Nelson Mandela was born in Mvezo, in Xhosa country.
The colours of the Ndebele people
The Ndebele live to the north-east and east of Pretoria. Strongly influenced by their neighboring Sotho, this small group has nevertheless developed an art form that is now recognized. Each Ndebele house is decorated with brightly colored geometric patterns. Some Ndebele women wear ornaments weighing 25 kg: the beaded copper rings are stacked around the neck and waist. According to tradition, their number would correspond to the reputation of the sexual health of the husband..
The Sotho: a group of northern peoples
We distinguish the Northern Sotho. This is a group of peoples who mainly speak Pedi. The warriors of Chief Mzilikazi put an end to the Pedi empire. The Northern Sotho are spread from the Zimbabwean border to Pretoria. The Lobedu people still revere the "Rain Queen" called Modjadji, a descendant of an exiled 16th century princess. The queen, whom her subjects see as immortal, never marries. She bore the children of anonymous men. One of her daughters becomes queen in her turn, receiving the power to make rain fall on the crops. The Ntwana of Mpumalanga, whose women wear rings around their necks and waists, like the Ndebele women, are also to be mentioned. The three colors are white, red and blue, which are found on the plumage of the eagle that heralds rain. Sepedi is the fourth most spoken language in the country.
The Southern Sotho or Lesothans
They live around Phuthaditjhaba, the ancient capital of the QwaQwa Bantustan. This is the amazing story of a group of clans that would become a people, then a nation, thanks to a great chief and French missionaries. Around 1825, their chief Moshesh gathered several tribes harassed by the Zulus and entrenched himself behind the mountainous fortress of Maluti. In his eagle's nest, he made himself king and solicited the help of the missionaries. In 1933, the Evangelical Mission of Paris sent him three young pastors, including Eugène Casalis from Bearn, who became his closest political advisor. For many years, the king and the missionaries conducted the affairs of the territory to the great annoyance of the Boers. Around 1860, the Catholic Church also became interested in the Sotho. Father Jean-François Allard founded a mission, Roma, which is today the university town of Lesotho.
Tswana people reintegrated into South Africa
The Tswana oral tradition tells us that this people is made up of many rival clans, scattered for centuries over a vast territory between present-day Botswana and Lesotho. In the 19th century, these tribes controlled much of the western Transvaal, before being dispersed by hordes of Zulus. Today, Botswana, with a density of 2 inhabitants per square kilometer, is populated by 80% Tswana. In South Africa, about 3 million Tswana live in the fragmented territory of the former independent Bantustan of Bophuthatswana between northern Pretoria and eastern Bloemfontein. In 1994, shortly before the South African elections, the Tswana staged a people's revolution to secure their reintegration into South Africa against the wishes of their president. Tourists often only know the famous Sun City resort, an African cocktail of Las Vegas and Disneyworld.
The best trackers in the bush: the Tsongas
Soshangana, an exiled Zulu chief, left Natal and went to Mozambique, where he subdued the Tsonga population to establish an empire. In 1894, in the hour of decline, the Tsonga migrated to the low plains of Mpumalanga and to the north of Natal. Around Kruger Park, the Tsonga, who call themselves Shangaan after their great chief, are considered the best trackers in the bush.
The Venda and the god Python
This very mysterious people gather in the northern region, mainly on the territory of the former independent bantustan of Venda. Traces of settlement date back to 1700 BC. The Venda belonged for a time to the Monomotapa empire in Zimbabwe. Fruitful commercial relations were established early on with the navigators of the Indian Ocean. Protected by the natural barrier of the Soutpansberg, these people have developed a very particular traditional culture around a sacred animal, the python. A priestess may give you permission to enter the sacred site of Lake Fundudzi, home of the Python god! After gaining independence from South Africa in 1979, and until 1994, the state's leaders based their authority on terror. Ritual killings preceded by atrocious mutilations were ordered at the highest level. In 1986, a manhunt was organized to impose circumcision. The Lemba, who live among the Venda, are considered to be the descendants of Semitic traders from the East.
The first hunter-gatherers: the San
More than 20,000 years ago, their territory stretched from the Horn of Africa to the Cape of Good Hope. Small, with an ochre complexion, very wrinkled skin and prominent cheekbones, the San, from the Dutch bosjesman, "man of the bush", bushman in English, bochiman in French, have the mongoloid type. They moved over great distances, in small groups, without being subject to any hierarchy. This people from the depths of time, which has only a few hundred representatives in Angola, Namibia, Botswana and South Africa, bequeathed to future generations thousands of paintings and engravings.
The herders: the Khoi people
Unlike the Bushmen, the Khoi practiced animal husbandry. They lived all over southern Africa, in semi-grouped habitats, forced to move often to renew the pastures. Nowadays, about 35,000 Khoi remain in Namibia: they are the Nama. In South Africa, mixed Khoi communities live well organized in Griquatown, Kokstad and at the gates of the Richtersveld.
A mixed race population and the mixed race people
The first mestizo populations, or coloureds as they are called here, were the descendants of white settlers and slave women deported from their country of origin and often raped by their master. Today, after more than three hundred years of interbreeding, they have European blood, African blood from slaves coming from Central and West Africa, Malagasy, Malay, Indonesian, Indian and other Asian peoples. They have built up a culture of their own, are the first speakers of Afrikaans, and lead a life as close as possible to that of white Africans. This community, mostly settled in Cape Town and the Karoo, has always played a thankless political role. This is why it is important to have a clear understanding of what is meant by "race" and "culture" in this context This "race" was favored by whites. This group is hard hit by alcoholism, as their pay was until recently "paid" in cash in the region where they live as the majority of the small hands in the big vineyards. In general, the Métis are Christian, often Catholic, with the exception of the Malays who are the descendants of Muslim activists expelled from the Asian colonies by the Dutch. They form more than 50% of the total population in the Western and Northern Cape provinces.
White people, Boers and English speakers
It is the only white tribe in Africa. Approximately 5 million inhabitants, or 9.4% of the population, a figure that has been declining due to the exile of some to Europe and the United States, but which has been experiencing a new phenomenon of return to the country since 2008. They are divided into two distinct camps that do not like each other very much: the Afrikaners or Boers, 60% of the white population, descendants of Dutch settlers, who speak Afrikaans, as well as the Cape Metis, are very conservative and fervently Christian, and the English-speaking people, 40% of the population, descendants of English settlers, who are rather democratic and progressive. The Afrikaners, with their uncommon determination and courage, their strong Christian faith, their African roots with no return ticket, their superiority complex born of their unique experience, and their congenital contempt for the English, are the Afrikaners, with the risks of simplification that this entails. However, the new generation is more open, but just as fearful of blacks. After the end of apartheid, some very conservative whites wanted to create their own all-white community, called Orania in the Free State, which today consists of white farmers living in another century, rather miserable and isolated. The English-speaking people are descended from the British settlers of 1820, the Natal traders or the gold and diamond miners. Traditionally more liberal than the Afrikaners, i.e., more left-wing, they adopted a colonial lifestyle without, however, discarding their European ties, in case one day they had to leave. The French Huguenots who arrived with the first Dutch settlers have obviously been assimilated into the Boers over the centuries, and only their surnames remain: 25% of Afrikaner names are of French origin. There are also small minorities of Portuguese and German descendants.
Indians and Asians
With 1.2 million inhabitants, it is the largest Indian community in the world living outside its borders. Its formation dates back to 1860, when large numbers of Indians from Madras were brought to South Africa to work on the sugar plantations as employees because the British were anti-slavery but were looking for cheap labor. More than 80% of the Indians still live in KwaZulu-Natal today, mainly in Durban, nicknamed the African Bombay. They all speak English, but also use their native languages. Two thirds of them are Hindus, the others Muslims. South Africa still has 13,000 Chinese, descendants of the 63,000 Asians who came to work in the gold mines at the beginning of the century.
A host country: foreign expatriates
Let's face it, South Africa is the Spanish Inn. There are 600,000 Portuguese, most of them returnees from Angola and Mozambique, 80,000 Greeks, 60,000 Italians and some 10,000 French. Jews form a minority of about 120,000 people, who are very active in business circles. About 500,000 people claim to be from one of the countries of the Southern African Development Community. While many business people live in Johannesburg, the Cape Town region is chosen for its quality of life by sun-seeking expatriates who work mainly in tourism.
Illegal immigrants, from 3 to 8 million?
In South Africa, illegal immigrants are mainly Mozambicans and Zimbabweans. According to Carien Engelbrecht, coordinator at Planact, the population of Johannesburg is made up of 10 to 30% undocumented immigrants, but it is obviously difficult to evaluate. Illegal immigration from French-speaking Africa (DRC, Burundi, Rwanda, Cameroon, Senegal) is in the tens of thousands. Some illegal immigrants take incredible risks to enter South Africa. They cross the Limpopo River full of crocodiles or wander through the Kruger Park, bearded by lions. In a letter to a local newspaper, a South African spoke out against the sad fate of the lions, shot for eating illegal aliens, as recounted in the book The Safari of Our Lives by Nadine Gordimer.
