South Africa. Rainbow Nation

In 1994, Nelson Mandela was elected President of South Africa. In his acceptance speech he promised, "We shall build the society in which all South Africans, both black and white, will be able to walk tall, without any fear in their hearts... a rainbow nation at peace with itself and the world." The colours of the rainbow can now be seen in the South African flag.

Today's rainbow nation of South Africa is made up of many different peoples. Southern Africa was originally populated by Bushmen called the San. Gradually, the Hottentot people moved in, pushing the San southwest, towards the Atlantic coast.

On the east coast lived the Nguni peoples, the Zulu, Xhosa, Swazi and Ndebele. The central areas of the country were inhabited by the Sotho and Tswana. All of these were cattle herdsmen who lived in tribal groups.

In 1652, Jan van Riebeek was sent by the Dutch East India Company to start the settlement that is now Cape Town. This provided provisions for ships sailing from Europe to India. Dutch settlers soon followed. These were the Boers, who were farmers. In fact, their name means farmers in Dutch. Later, they became known as Afrikaners, the people who speak Afrikaans, a language based on Dutch which over the years has become a separate language.

Settlers from other European countries also came to South Africa. French Protestants came to escape religious persecution. During the Napoleonic Wars the British occupied the Cape Colony, as South Africa was called then. They imposed British laws and many British colonists arrived. By the 1830s, the Boers had decided that they no longer wished to live under British rule. They established the Boer republics of the Orange Free State, the Transvaal and Natal. They conquered the Zulus, but before long were once again under British domination.

In the same period many other peoples were added to South Africa's racial mixture. Muslim Malay slaves were brought over to work on sugar plantations, until slavery was abolished in the British Empire in 1828. After that, labourers came from India to do the work.

The result is that today's rainbow nation includes five million whites, 3.5 million people of mixed race and 1.5 million people of Asian origin. There are 38 million black South Africans.

“In the English-speaking World”