Extractions: South Africa South Africa SOCIETY IS STILL BEING FORMED in South Africa in the 1990s. The region's earliest cultures have long since been displaced, and most people living in South Africa today are descendants of Africans who came to the region in the first millennium A.D. Thes e early populations did not remain in one place over the centuries, however. Instead, their settlement patterns changed as numerous small chiefdoms were thrown into upheaval by increasing conflicts over land, the arrival of European settlers after the sev enteenth century, and nineteenth-century Zulu expansionism. During the twentieth century, several million South Africans were displaced by the government, especially after the country's system of apartheid (see Glossary) invalidated many of their land cla ims. South Africa's turbulent social history should not obscure the fact that this region probably was home to some of the earliest humans on earth. Archaeological evidence suggests that human populations evolved in the broad region of south central and ea stern Africa, perhaps as early as 2 million years ago, but at least 200,000 years ago. Fossil remains of Homo sapiens in eastern South Africa have been tentatively dated to 50,000 years ago, and other remains show evidence of iron smelting about 1,700 yea rs ago in the area that became the northern Transvaal. The evolutionary links between the earliest inhabitants and twentieth-century African populations are not well known, but it is clear that San and Khoikhoi (also called Khoi) peoples have been in sout hern Africa longer than any other living population.
A WALK IN THE NIGHT: Notes For Viewing The Film early Dutch settlers and the indigenous Khoikhoi or people (and later with enslavedpeoples from the Ndebele, Pedi, Sotho, Swazi, Tsonga, tswana, Venda, Xhosa http://www.newsreel.org/guides/walk.htm
Extractions: Before the Film . . . Read the essay on A Walk in the Night . Note that this film depicts a killing. Although you don't need to know Hamlet Alex La Guma, the author of the story published in 1962 was an anti-apartheid activist from the Coloured community who died in exile in 1986. The original story was set in the 1950s in Cape Town's multi-racial District Six, which was ultimately razed by apartheid authorities. Although the protagonists are still from the Coloured community, the film version transports the story to post-apartheid Johannesburg. *** The local library may have the book A Walk in the Night and Other Stories by Alex La Guma, Northwestern University Press, 1985. After the film . . . 1. What are some of the various economic activities Dube highlights as Mike walks around the city after being fired? Why is his loss of a job at the steel mill such a blow and what alternative economic opportunities are open to him? 2. The problems of racism, crime and unemployment still exist in post-apartheid South Africa. Does the situation in South Africa's ghettoes remind you of the inner cities of the United States as characterized by drug addiction, police brutality and gangs? What would you say the film shows as the underlying causes of these social ills?
Today, The Basarwa, Who's Next? 19-25/4/02 The various tswana tribes only moved into the colonialists also massacred the indigenousinhabitants. day descendants of those invading peoples, whether Bantu http://www.survival-international.org/bush press mmegi5.htm
Extractions: This article appeared in Mmegi, The Reporter in Botswana, 19-25 April 2002 NB In Botswana, Bushmen are known by others as 'Basarwa', singular 'Mosarwa'. Botswana citizens are called 'Batswana', singular 'Motswana'. Today, the Basarwa, who's next? Mmegi's editorial (5 April) accuses the United Nations of discourtesy in its condemnation of Botswana's treatment of the Basarwa; it asks why these peoples should not be removed from the Central Kalahari Game Reserve (CKGR) when others in Botswana have been relocated to make way for diamond mines. Mmegi asks, 'What makes Basarwa in the CKGR more special...?' There is, however, another very simple answer to Mmegi's question, 'What makes Basarwa in the CKGR more special...?' I suggest it is this: they aren't! By this I mean that if a government cheats any member of its nation out of its land, it sends a warning signal to all its people. For if government can steal the most prized possession and livelihood from an entire sector of its citizenship, ignoring its own laws and international standards in the process, then what is going to protect anyone else? Who will be next 'in the way' of development? Whoever it is had better watch out, because the chances of them receiving a fair hearing and proper legal treatment are being thrown away in Botswana: washed away, just like the Basarwa's water which officials deliberately poured into the sand to force them off the land which has been theirs for thousands of years. The government has simply not been fair to the Gana and Gwi tribes, and the Bakgalagadi, of the CKGR. It evicted many of them in 1997 and then stopped, promising that no more would be forced out. This promise was still being repeated by government representatives as recently as this January, just days before police turned up in the Basarwa communities to dismantle their water pump. They threatened to shut people in their houses and burn them if they did not 'voluntarily' relocate. Officials said no more hunting would be allowed, and no one could even collect veld foods. With neither water nor food, many Basarwa reluctantly left, but others chose to remain, saying they would rather die in their own place than be trucked out to the ghastly resettlement camps. Their relatives were then stopped from taking supplies into the reserve. This was not a voluntary relocation for their 'development', it was an aggressive and overwhelming invasion against which the Basarwa were defenceless.
21 Pedi, Sotho, Swazi, Tsonga, tswana, Venda, Xhosa 21B. number of languages, endogenouspeoples, religions, centralistic The number of indigenous people decreased http://www.ieie.nsc.ru/~forsis/EXPO2000/21_CULTURAL_DIVERSITY.html
Extractions: Cultural Diversity number of languages, endogenous peoples, religions, centralistic organisation Sub-Saharan Africa Message: In the Sub-Saharan Africa several ethnic groups live together. The majority are black people (75%). Within this population group there are different tribes and still a lot of endogenous people. White, coloured and other racial destinations are minorities. Depending on the area and the nation the population belongs to all the known religions. In general the Muslims are a majority (Niger 80%, Nigeria 45%). The Christian religions are minority (except South Africa). The different religions in some cases are used for political interests (Sudan, Rwanda..) what lead to a civil war. Storyboard: Pictures of (South) African tribe leaders, dancing, screaming. Charts: Data: Niger: Religion 80% Muslims, 10-15% natural religions, Christian minority Nigeria: Religion: 45% Muslims, 26% Protestant, 12% Catholics, natural religions South Africa: Ethnic groups: black 75.2%, white 13.6%, Colored 8.6%, Indian 2.6%
Southern African Independence name Republic of Botswana Independence from Britain 1966 From around 1600 theindigenous San peoples were displaced by the migrating tswana. http://africanhistory.about.com/library/bl/bl-Independence-SA1.htm
People And Peoples (T-Z) The tswana language belongs to the Bantu branch of Tukano The Tukano are an indigenousSouth American Indian Vedda The Vedda are the aboriginal peoples of Sri http://www.sneaker.net.au/docs/encyclo/C7.HTM
1998 GUIDE TO SOUTH AFRICAN ARTS, CULTURE AND HERITAGE plans to build a huge R15million tswana cultural centre was defined not by its ownpeoples, but by to conform to outsiders' perceptions of indigenous culture. http://www.artsdiary.org.za/guide/villages.html
Culserv communities, like the Aymara and the tswana, are large Virtually every indigenouslanguage has an alphabet or some A great many peoples even have two or three http://faculty.ed.umuc.edu/~jmatthew/culserv.html
Extractions: The people of the world speak between 3,000 and 6,000 languages. Of these, 80 to 90 percent are spoken by indigenous peoples, representing almost all linguistic diversity today. A few native-language communities, like the Aymara and the Tswana, are large and robust, but most are small and fragile. Only 276 languages are spoken by a million or more people. Languages seem to be disappearing faster than ever before. I estimate that there are about 15 percent fewer languages now than in 1500 A.D. This is alarming in itself, but, just as important, the consequent reduction of cultural diversity may threaten humanity's survival. Our adaptive success as a specieswith over 5 billion people in such diverse environments as jungles, deserts, and the Arcticis due to "culture," implying the communication of ideas through language. Linguistic diversity relates to adaptational ideas about property, health care, food, children, power, and disputes. The loss of language diversity diminishes our ability to adapt because it decreases the pool of knowledge from which to draw. The existence or disappearance of languages has particular political and economic implications for native peoples themselves. Consider language-related politics in India, Belgium, Canada, Lithuania, and Estonia. Cultural uniquenessethnicity reinforces claims to a share of political power, land, jobs, and other resources in heterogeneous states. Language is a powerful force in legitimating those claims.
Languages, African An Overview one of the two most common indigenous languages of spoken by the Khoikhoi and Sanpeoples of southern Kinshasa; Fang and Bulu in Cameroon, tswana in southern http://www.africana.com/Articles/tt_162.htm
South African Languages | Khoesan Languages languages; and (iii) sign language ; and (b) promote and ensure respect for— (i)all languages commonly used by communities in South africa, including German http://www.cyberserv.co.za/users/~jako/lang/khoesan.htm
Extractions: There are two extinct South African languages from the same family and subgroup, these being Xirigowap and !Goragowap, known in English as Griqua and Korana respectively. It is possible that there are isolated unidentified individuals who still speak these languages as an L1. There are no communities who speak these extinct languages.Khoekhoegowap is an ancient language, related to others from its family, such as Naro to the east and Khwedam to the north. However Khoekhoegowap is distinct and not mutually intelligible.
