What Makes South Africa the Country that it is Today

     The region that we now call South Africa today was once inhabited by the San people, who were hunters and gatherers, some 10,000 years ago. Most of these people spoke the Bantu language. There were two main white colonizations in South Africa. The Dutch were the first white settlers to come to South Africa in the year 1652, while they were on their way to India for spices. These people became famers known as “burghers.” They had relations with the native people, which produced the “colored” population of South Africa. After the Dutch, there were many German settlers, as well as Scandinavian, French Huguenots, and Calvinists.

     The second colonization of people was when the British came to the region in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. The British did not get along with the Boers, Dutch/German and San descent people who spoke Afrikaans, who were in South Africa. The Boers moved away from the British in an event called “the Great Trek.” When the British won the Boer Wars (1899-1902), a new country was formed. South Africa was formed in 1910. In this new country, blacks had no say in anything. The 1913 Native Land Act gave a tiny bit of land to the majority of the inhabitants of the country; this was the ground for Apartheid later on.

     Apartheid was a system of racial segregation by law. It separated people into the groups of white (including South Koreans as an honorary member because of trade), black, colored, and Asian/Indian. In 1950, the Group Areas Act separated cities by what race you were classified as. This created townships outside of the city centers where 1.5 million Africans moved into. In 1958, homeland nations were created. This meant that the colored and blacks of South Africa were no longer citizens of the country, so they tried to set up their own countries. However, the United Nations would not recognize then as sovereign states. By 1960, anyone who opposed Apartheid was jailed or exiled.
   
    In 1976, the Soweto Uprising took place. This was televised around the world. The uprising started in schools. Afrikaans were going to teach in black schools, and the people started to become oppressed by language. The students rose against this, and 600 people were killed. Many countries started to fight against the Apartheid by stopping trade to South Africa, as well as banning sports to go to the country. The Olympics was banned from the country. In 1977, no international sports was voted one of the top three most harmful affects of the Apartheid. By the 1980s, 25 countries placed sanctions on trade to and from South Africa. There was a large divestment in enterprises, and there were cultural protests as well. Apartheid ended in 1994, and Nelson Mandela became the first democratically elected president of South Africa.