The area of what is now South Africa was originally inhabited by Bushmen and Hottentots.
At the time of European contact, the dominant ethnic group were Bantu-speaking peoples who had migrated from other parts of Africa about one thousand years before.
The Cape of Good Hope was rounded by Bartholomew Dias in 1488. He called it the "Cape of Storms" and it was King John II of Portugal who changed the name to "Cape of Good Hope". He called it this because the cape gave the Portuguese a new opportunity to find a sea route to India.
Dias turned back to Portugal at the Great Fish River, a river running 400 miles (644 kilometres) through the South African province of the Eastern Cape.
The coast of Natal was sighted by Vasco da Gama in 1497. He named it Natal as Christmas in Portuguese was “Natale”. The Vasco Da Gama Memorial in Durban today immortalizes Vasco Da Gama's first sighting of South Africa.
The Dutch East India Company founded Cape Town in 1652 as a port of call on the way from the Netherlands to the East Indies. The first colonial administrator was Jan van Riebeeck who arrived in Cape Town on April 6, 1652 and was Commander of the Cape until 1662.
As there were very few native people living in the Cape, slaves were brought from Indonesia, Madagascar and India to work at the colony.
The Cape was under Dutch rule from 1652 to 1795 but they lost the colony to Great Britain following the 1795 Battle of Muizenberg.
Britain returned the Cape Colony following the 1802 Peace of Amiens. It was re-occupied by Britain following the Battle of Blaauwberg in 1806, and Cape Town and the hinterland were purchased by Britain in 1814 for £6 million.
In 1836 some 10,000 Dutch Boer wishing to escape from British rule, set out north on the Great Trek and founded the Republic of Transvaal and the Orange Free State.
The first newspaper in Afrikaans, Die Afrikaanse Patriot, was published in Paarl on January 15, 1876.
The discovery of diamonds in 1867 intensified British efforts to gain control over the indigenous peoples. The Boer Republics successfully resisted British encroachments into Transvaal during the First Boer War (1880–1881) using guerrilla warfare tactics. The British were defeated at Majuba and the Transvaal once again became independent.
The second Boer War was fought between 1899 and 1902 between the Boers and the British. The Treaty of Vereeniging ended the Boer War and ensured British control of South Africa. It was signed at Melrose House, Pretoria, on May 31, 1902. Transvaal and the Orange Free State became British colonies.
The Parliament of the United Kingdom passed the South Africa Act 1909, creating the Union of South Africa from the British Colonies of the Cape of Good Hope, Natal, Orange River Colony, and the Transvaal Colony.
The term ‘apartheid’ was coined in the late 1930s by the South African Bureau for Racial Affairs (SABRA), which called for a policy of ‘separate development’ of the races.
The National Party imposed apartheid in 1948, institutionalizing previous racial segregation.
In the 1950s the African National Congress (A&C) led a campaign of civil disobedience until it and other similar movements were, in 1960 declared illegal.
In 1964 the ANC leader Nelson Mandela was sentenced to life imprisonment for alleged sabotage.
South Africa was one of the few countries that was unable to watch the Moon Landing live in 1969. Television was banned in South Africa at the time because there were fears that it would promote race mixing against nonwhites as the country was under Apartheid.
By the 1980s, thousands of the apartheid regime opponents had been imprisoned without trial and more than 3 million people had been forcibly resettled in black townships.
International condemnation of police brutality followed the news of the death in detention of the Black community leader Steve Biko in 1977. By the mid 1980s there were calls for economic sanctions against South Africa.
The 1994 South African general election was the first democratic general election in the country in which black citizens could vote.
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| Location of South Africa By OCHA, |
At the time of European contact, the dominant ethnic group were Bantu-speaking peoples who had migrated from other parts of Africa about one thousand years before.
The Cape of Good Hope was rounded by Bartholomew Dias in 1488. He called it the "Cape of Storms" and it was King John II of Portugal who changed the name to "Cape of Good Hope". He called it this because the cape gave the Portuguese a new opportunity to find a sea route to India.
Dias turned back to Portugal at the Great Fish River, a river running 400 miles (644 kilometres) through the South African province of the Eastern Cape.
The coast of Natal was sighted by Vasco da Gama in 1497. He named it Natal as Christmas in Portuguese was “Natale”. The Vasco Da Gama Memorial in Durban today immortalizes Vasco Da Gama's first sighting of South Africa.
The Dutch East India Company founded Cape Town in 1652 as a port of call on the way from the Netherlands to the East Indies. The first colonial administrator was Jan van Riebeeck who arrived in Cape Town on April 6, 1652 and was Commander of the Cape until 1662.
 |
| Charles Davidson Bell's painting of Jan van Riebeeck arriving in Table Bay |
As there were very few native people living in the Cape, slaves were brought from Indonesia, Madagascar and India to work at the colony.
The Cape was under Dutch rule from 1652 to 1795 but they lost the colony to Great Britain following the 1795 Battle of Muizenberg.
Britain returned the Cape Colony following the 1802 Peace of Amiens. It was re-occupied by Britain following the Battle of Blaauwberg in 1806, and Cape Town and the hinterland were purchased by Britain in 1814 for £6 million.
In 1836 some 10,000 Dutch Boer wishing to escape from British rule, set out north on the Great Trek and founded the Republic of Transvaal and the Orange Free State.
The first newspaper in Afrikaans, Die Afrikaanse Patriot, was published in Paarl on January 15, 1876.
The discovery of diamonds in 1867 intensified British efforts to gain control over the indigenous peoples. The Boer Republics successfully resisted British encroachments into Transvaal during the First Boer War (1880–1881) using guerrilla warfare tactics. The British were defeated at Majuba and the Transvaal once again became independent.
 |
| Battle of Majuba |
The second Boer War was fought between 1899 and 1902 between the Boers and the British. The Treaty of Vereeniging ended the Boer War and ensured British control of South Africa. It was signed at Melrose House, Pretoria, on May 31, 1902. Transvaal and the Orange Free State became British colonies.
The Parliament of the United Kingdom passed the South Africa Act 1909, creating the Union of South Africa from the British Colonies of the Cape of Good Hope, Natal, Orange River Colony, and the Transvaal Colony.
The term ‘apartheid’ was coined in the late 1930s by the South African Bureau for Racial Affairs (SABRA), which called for a policy of ‘separate development’ of the races.
The National Party imposed apartheid in 1948, institutionalizing previous racial segregation.
In the 1950s the African National Congress (A&C) led a campaign of civil disobedience until it and other similar movements were, in 1960 declared illegal.
 |
| "For use by white persons" – apartheid sign |
In 1964 the ANC leader Nelson Mandela was sentenced to life imprisonment for alleged sabotage.
South Africa was one of the few countries that was unable to watch the Moon Landing live in 1969. Television was banned in South Africa at the time because there were fears that it would promote race mixing against nonwhites as the country was under Apartheid.
By the 1980s, thousands of the apartheid regime opponents had been imprisoned without trial and more than 3 million people had been forcibly resettled in black townships.
International condemnation of police brutality followed the news of the death in detention of the Black community leader Steve Biko in 1977. By the mid 1980s there were calls for economic sanctions against South Africa.
The 1994 South African general election was the first democratic general election in the country in which black citizens could vote.
 |
| Nelson Mandela the first black South African president By South Africa The Good News |
The flag of South Africa was adopted on April 27, 1994, at the beginning of South Africa's 1994 general election, to replace the flag that had been used since 1928. The previous flag was associated with the apartheid era and was seen as divisive and exclusionary.
The design of the current flag reflects South Africa's diverse cultural heritage and national unity. It features six colors: black, green, yellow, white, blue, and red, arranged in horizontal bands of equal size. The Y-shape in the center of the flag represents the convergence of different cultures, while the colors have specific meanings, such as green for the country's natural beauty and agriculture, and yellow for its mineral wealth.
FUN SOUTH AFRICA FACTS
South Africa is the 25th-largest country in the world. With close to 56 million people, South Africa is the world's 24th-most populous nation.
There are eleven official languages of South Africa: Afrikaans, English, Ndebele, Northern Sotho, Sotho, Swazi, Tsonga, Tswana, Venda, Xhosa and Zulu. No other country has as many.
80 percent of South Africans are of Sub-Saharan African ancestry. The remaining population consists of Africa's largest communities of white (9%), multiracial (8%) and Asian Indian (2%)
Njesuthi in the Drakensberg at 3,408 m (11,181 ft) is the highest part in South Africa.
At 2.5 miles deep, the Mponeng Gold Mine in South Africa is the world’s deepest mine.
South African mines produce nearly half the world’s gold and 90 per cent of the world’s platinum.
South African officials built in 1999 a special polling station in the remote Drakensberg mountain area where there was only one registered voter. Sure enough, he stayed home and didn't vote.
South Africa has separate legislative, executive, and judicial capitals: Cape Town, Pretoria, and Bloemfontein.
The Agulhas Current, off the coast of Durban, in South African, produces some of the biggest waves in the world. In this busy shipping area, waves can easily reach heights of over 100 feet (30 meters).
Source Daily Express
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