BRIEF HISTORY OF SOUTH AFRICA

South Africa - A Brief History The history of Southern Africa goes back into the recesses of time. The oldest surviving inhabitants are members of the Khoisan language groups but there are not many left in modern South Africa. Most black South Africans belong to the people which migrated south from central Africa, settling in the Transvaal region sometime before AD 100. It is totally incorrect to call them Bantu people. The word Bantu means people so that comes out as people people. The Boers did not call them Africans for that would have implied, correctly, a prior ownership. The Boers called themselves Afrikaners to indicate, incorrectly, that it was their land. The first Europeans to reach the Cape of Good Hope were the Portuguese who arrived in 1488. But it was nearly two centuries later before permanent European settlement. In 1652 the Dutch East India Company established a provisioning station on the Cape. This settlement later attracted French Huguenot refugees, the Dutch, and Germans who began to spread and settle in the Cape. Collectively they are now the Afrikaners.By 1779, European settlements extended throughout the southern part of the Cape and east toward the Great Fish River. It was not a peaceful settlement. It was a land grab involving the subjugation of the Africans. The British gained control of the Cape of Good Hope at the end of the 18th century and immediately came in to conflict with the Afrikaners. In 1836, partly because the British had abolished slavery, many Afrikaner farmers - Boers - pulled up roots and went north in what was to be known as the Great Trek. This brought them into conflict with several African groups, specifically and especially the Zulus. Although they were beaten by the Boers in 1838 at the battle of Blood River they remained a potent force before being finally conquered in 1879. In 1852 and 1854, the independent Boer Republics of the Transvaal and Orange Free State were created. The relationships between the Boers and the British were always strained. When diamonds were discovered at Kimberley in 1870 and deposits in the Witwatersrand region of the Transvaal in 1886, the situation became even more tense. British intrigue and Boer resistance to change led to the Anglo-Boer Wars of 1880-81 and 1899-1902. Britain won the war - but only just and after a series of humiliating defeats - and the republics were incorporated into the British Empire. In May 1910, the two republics and the British colonies of the Cape and Natal formed the Union of South Africa, a self-governing dominion of the British Empire. Its constitution meant that all political power was kept in the hands of whites.In 1912, the South Africa Native National Congress was formed in Bloemfontein and eventually became known as the African National Congress. Its goals were the elimination of restrictions based on colour and an universal vote. The enfranchisement of and parliamentary representation for blacks. Despite these efforts, the government continued to pass laws limiting the rights and freedoms of Africans. That was the start of a long struggle, and in the 1960s the appalling Sharpeville massacre led to the banning of the party and the arrest and imprisonment of Nelson Mandela and many other anti-apartheid leaders. In May 1961, South Africa relinquished its dominion status and declared itself a republic. In February 1990, State President F.W. de Klerk announced the lifting of bans on all other anti-apartheid groups. Two weeks, later Nelson Mandela was released from prison. In 1991 all of the laws relating to apartheid were abolished. The country's first non-racial elections were held in 1994 and Nelson Mandela became President on May 10, 1994. He served until his retirement in 1999 and was succeeded as President by Thabo Mbeki. This article is reprinted from TourismWorld.com

This site is dedicated to our Prime Ministers and Presidents who by their efforts and personal strength made it to be heads of the state. Each leader here was right on his right. All the contributions that they have made is vital to the chain of events in the history of our country, we need not to feel ashed about our past, but to appreciate it and ambrace it with pride sense of pride, so that we can look back and learn were did we go wrong and how can we improve from what had happened. The present generation of both black and white of South Africa we need to create our own world based on the acceptance of one another and to create a platform to work together.