History

Not until 1910 did South Africa declare itself a union, and the complicated, diverse history of the country brackets that important date. Before Bartolomeu Dias of Portugal discovered the Cape of Good Hope, in the late 1400s, indigenous tribes—especially the Zulu and the Xhosa—controlled the area of land that is now South Africa in separate kingdoms. In 1652 the Dutch East India Company established an outpost at the Cape of Good Hope, bringing indentured servants and slaves from India and Southeast Asia. In 1795 the British arrived, on the pretext of protecting South Africa from the coming French Revolution. As disputes arose over mining, the Boers and the British began to clash violently, the First and Second Boer Wars, in the 1880s and 1890s, being the result. The second of those conflicts spawned modern-style concentration camps, in which the British housed displaced Boer and black Africans, mostly women and children. In 1902 the British declared victory.

The Union of South Africa was created in 1910, and in 1961 finally became an independent republic. For the first half of the 20th century, Boer activists and politicians regularly chafed against British rule. In 1948 the Boer-based National Party assumed parliamentary power and governed South Africa until the 1990s. It was under that party’s governance that the apartheid system was created; it flourished until 1990, when Nelson Mandela was released from a 27-year prison confinement and again became the leader of the African National Congress. In 1994, Mandela was officially elected the first president under the new constitution of South Africa (among subsequent presidents have been Thabo Mbeki, Kgalema Motlanthe, and Jacob Zuma).

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1. South Africa has nine provinces in all, the largest being the Eastern Cape and the Northern State. Pretoria, the capital of South Africa, and Johannesburg are both located in Gauteng, the most populous and financially active province. Cape Town, the country’s most visited destination, is located in the Western Cape. Swaziland and Lesotho are two countries enveloped in South Africa: Lesotho is situated completely in South Africa, and Swaziland shares a border with Mozambique.

2. The South African currency is called the rand, named after an area in South Africa famous for its gold mines. The symbol is an R.

3. Among the major newspapers in South Africa are the Mail & Guardian, the Times, and the Sunday Times. The Star is based in Johannesburg, and the Cape Times is based in Cape Town.

4. South Africa has 11 official languages. Afrikaans, Zulu, and Xhosa are the predominant indigenous languages of the country, while English is widely spoken and is the official language of business and commerce. Other native languages commonly spoken include Sesotho and Swati.

5. Smoking is prohibited in most public places, although restaurants may have separate smoking areas. 

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