Today I’m going to begin
discussing the history of South Africa. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/South_Africa#History).
South Africa has a very long history of human habitation – it contains some of
the oldest human fossil sites in the world. The Bantu-speaking people had settlements
in Africa from the fourth or fifth century BC, and this was the dominant ethnic
group in South Africa at the time of initial European contact.
The first European voyage to land
in Southern Africa was in 1487, but it was not until 1652 that what would
become Cape Town was established on behalf of the Dutch East India Company. In
1795, Great Britain took over the Cape of Good Hope. Conflicts between the
native and European peoples in the area continued for several decades into the
19th century. The discovery of diamonds and gold in the late 19th
century intensified the European-South Africans’ struggle to control the
indigenous people, and led to the Boer Wars, which ended in 1902. In 1909, the
British Parliament granted nominal independence and created the Union of South
Africa on May 31, 1910. In 1931, the United Kingdom passed the Statute of
Westminster, making South Africa fully sovereign and independent from the British government.
In 1948, the racial segregation
begun by the Dutch and British colonial rule was strengthened under the
National Party. The South African people were legally segregated in what was
known as apartheid. Although the
minority, the whites enjoyed a high standard of living and controlled the black
majority. The black majority suffered disadvantage in every area, including
income, education, housing, and life expectancy. In 1955, the Freedom Charter, demanding
a nonracial society and end to discrimination, was adopted by the Congress
Alliance. More on that tomorrow!
Xoxo,
Diana
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