Why is the majority of people in South Africa white while the rest of Africa in black?

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Bronwen

It was the first country in Africa to be heavily colonized by whites from Europe.

Colonization in South Africa began about the same time as European colonization of what is now the USA, if I am not mistaken. Because of the good ports available, and since rounding the Cape of Good Hope was important to international shipping and trading for vessels going back and forth between Europe and Asia, it never lost its importance as a shipping and transit center. Many of the things that were exported from Africa were actually shipped south in the continent, and then put on ships in South Africa.

There were other countries in Africa which were heavily colonized by white Europeans, but South Africa remained the most important due to its geographical location. It was a colony of Great Britain until the early part of the 20th century, when it won its independence.

And by the way, the majority of people in South Africa are not white, they are black Africans. It's just that the segregating system of apartheid made it so in that particular country, all of the people in power, at least until the end of apartheid, were white, which made them more visible.

jovvijo

There are way way way waaaaaaaaay more black people!

Gosh, I guess white folk are just here because we feel so welcome!

Darth Vader

Because it is wintertime now in South Africa and the frost on their skins turn them white. In the summer most turn black again when the frost melts.

Don J

The MAJORITY (80%) of people in South Africa are BLACK!

(Simply researching your question before you ask it will save you a LOT of silly embarrassment........)

OK fair enough, THAT's a better question, I withdraw the "idiot" remark and I suppose now that you have actually posted a sensible question, I find myself obligated to post a sensible answer..........

No, actually while I usually prefer to answer directly, I'm going to give you the "Wikipedia" reference because its quite a complex answer....

- One thing not in the web reference is the fact that after almost 500 years the "white" population is no longer actually really related to Europe. The "Afrikaner" is a mix of Dutch, English, French Hugonauts (protestant religious refugees). and 18th century German refugees. After so many centuries, the Afrikaner also has quite a bit of black African blood mixed in, which was one of the motivations behind the fascist and racist "apartheid" (segregation) laws of the 1940s by the Nationalist Party (and based on Adoph Hitler's "Darwinist" racial theories) aimed at erradicating racial mixing and maintaining the Blacks and "Coloreds" (mixed race, Indians, Chinese etc.) in an inferior position. The "Afrikaner" does not consider himself a "white European." One of the reasons that almost all have stayed despite "Majority Rule" is that they consider themselves African, which is exactly what the word "Afrikaner" means in English. (It might interest many to know that since the fall of the fascist apartheid state in South Africa, the rate of inter-racial marriage between blacks and whites in South Africa is approximately 300% higher than in the United States.....)

I'd been thinking that I'm the least educated on this forum. Now I know that I am at that least I am better than you. I'm relieved!!!!

Tsepo

I would strongly suggest that you develop a liking for reading.

-One Love-

Actually, the majority of SA is not white.

General Proud

i take it you're from america?

julle mense is so dom soos grond.

heavy D

F@k boet, were do you come from ?

clint_slicker

The majority of people in South Africa are Black. The whites are a minority.

The first white people settled in South Africa in 1652, these were the Dutch, Dutch East India Company, and called themselves the Afrikaners. The British gained control in 1803 after the Dutch East India Company went bankrupt.

During Apartheid blacks were not considered citizens of south Africa but temporary workers. Many blacks legally became citizens of particular bantustans (homelands) that were nominally sovereign nations but operated more akin to United States Indian Reservations, Canadian First Nations reserves, or Australian aboriginal reserves. The apartheid separated people into Blacks, Whites, Coloured and Asian (Indian, pakistan,etc). Some eighty-seven percent of the land was reserved for whites, coloureds and Indians. Black land was divided into ten 'homelands' for blacks and some were given independence, though this was never recognised by any other country. Once the homelands were granted 'independence', those who were designated as belonging to such a homeland had their South African citizenship revoked, and replaced with homeland citizenship. These people would now have passports instead of passbooks. Those remaining parts of the 'autonomous' homelands also had their South African citizenship circumscribed, and remained less than South African. The South African government attempted to draw an equivalence between their view of black "citizens" of the "homelands" and the problems other countries faced through entry of illegal immigrants.

Crime continues to be a major problem in South Africa. According to a survey for the period 1998â€“2000 compiled by the United Nations, South Africa was ranked second for assault and murder (by all means) per capita, in addition to being ranked second for rape and first for rapes per capita. Total crime per capita is tenth out of the sixty countries in the data set. Nevertheless, crime has had a pronounced effect on society: many wealthier South Africans moved into gated communities, abandoning the central business districts of some cities for the relative security of suburbs. This effect is most pronounced in Johannesburg, although the trend is noticeable in other cities as well. Many emigrants from South Africa also state that crime was a big motivator for them to leave. Crime against the farming community has continued to be a major problem.

Reb Da Rebel

Now we know the teachers passed you only to get rid of you... ag shame booby

andy c

Well, to tell you the truth the majority of South Africans are black. Blacks were the majority before 1994 (the fall of aparthied), and they still are today. It's just seemed that whites were the majority because they were in the spotlight all of these years. The reason why there's whites to begin with is because it was colonized by the Dutch and the British for its location. Many of those settlers still remain and they make up like 10% of the population. There's far many more whites in SA than any other country in Africa. Namibia has a few as well, and Zimbabwe had some back when it was still called Rhodesia. They changed the name in the early 80s and the whites were sort of kicked out or left.

Vango

What comic book do you ise as source?
1) About 79% of the SA population is black. The rest is white and brown.
2) The rest of Africa isn't only black. The North African nationalities are Arab/ Mediterranean.

My guess is there are many South Africans working in your country and all you've met are white. There are good reasons for that, but that's another answer to another question...

Answer to revision: about the same reason why there are white people in North America.

cakes4africa

Because it is such a good country, the weather is marvellous, and the people (not including the baddies) are friendly and everything is civilised, just like the whities are used to in their own country.And the rest of Africa is not totally black, either. Check the history of the African countries before you ask such silly questions.

london.oval

General, "so dom soos grond? Who dom is grond?

No listen sweetness - I mean really now, can you not just investigate a little before posting such a truly dumb question?

bean

No the majority of people in SA are black, but yes their are more whites in the South of Africa than in the North ... no idea why.
Maybe its because home affairs is so slow and the whites never got passports?

mo m

What the Fuk, does africa = black, u shithead

poepies

What does it matter? Why are the black people? Why are there white people? Why are there so many languages? Why can't everybody be happy? Why can't everybody be rich? Why can't everybody live in peace and why the hell should there be such idiots like you on earth????

rockstar86

Because South Africa was colonized by the Dutch and the English. They are still around because South Africa is a stable economy not to mention a very beautiful country. Zimbabwe too had white people but got thrown out by Mugabe

Alf Garnett 8

Evolution.

Tweety

Because whites help the country to grow economically. their the "brains in the thinking".

WRRRRRR

You are probably referring to the legitimate prison population.

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