Photos of the People of South Africa

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The People of South Africa

During the period of Apartheid, people were classified as belonging to one of four defined race groups (Black, Whites, Coloureds and Indians or Asian). Even today, many people continue to use this classification. The overwhelming majority, almost 80%, is Black South African, also called “Bantu”, a word similar to that for “people” in many Bantu languages.

South African border control post
 
Two Zulu women
 
Zulu girls, Nkandla
 
Traditional Tembu woman
 
Boy of Butterworth
 
Three Fingo women
 
Xhosa woman and child
 
Girls in Mqanduli
 
Girl in Mqanduli
 
Xhosa women, Mqanduli
 
Young herd boy
 
Girl, Mtata river
 
Woman smoking her pipe
 
Boy with arm rings
 
Mpondo girl near Mlengana
 
Three Mpondo (Pondo) women
 
Mpondo medicine man and wife
 
Young Mpondo man
 
Small Mpondo children
 
Mpondo girl carrying a hoe
 
Mpondo men, Lusikisiki
 
Mpondo woman and child
 
Young Mpondo women
 
Young Mpondo woman with bottle
 
Young Mpondo woman
 
Xhosa boys
 
Xhosa Umkwetha
 
Shops, Mount Frere
 
Xesibe girls, Mount Ayliff
 
Griqua children, Kokstad
 
Boys of District Six
 
School children, District Six
 
Men of District Six
 
Garbage collectors
 
Happy children, Malay Quarter
 
Selling lemonade, Cape Town
 

The Zulu and Xhosa peoples, both Nguni ethnic groups, are the most numerous. The 10-12 million Zulus live mainly in KwaZulu-Natal, and approximately eight million isiXhosa-speaking people in Eastern Cape Province. Both bravely resisted the encroachment of whites, Boers and English, on their territories. The Xhosas descended from various groups with their own kingdoms in the 19th century, like the Thembu, Gcaleka, Mpondo (Pondo) and Xesibe. The Mfengu (Fengu) were people of various ethnicities that had migrated and assimilated with the Xhosa. During the Apartheid era, the homelands of Ciskei and Transkei were set up to be made independent Xhosa states.

The Coloured population lived mainly in the Cape region: Cape Coloureds descended mostly from Dutch and Khoisan peoples; the latter was the pastoral Khoekhoe (Khoikhoi), called “Hottentots” by Europeans and hunter-gathering San, called “Bushmen”. One of those groups was the Griquas, who, like the Boers, formed commandos and migrated inland. In the 19th century, a group under their leader Adam Kok III settled in what became the town of Kokstad in KwaZulu-Natal, where their descendants still live.

The white South Africans descended from Dutch, English and other European settlers and are culturally and linguistically divided into Afrikaners and English speakers. The Afrikaans language is derived from 17th-century Dutch spoken by the early settlers and heavily influenced by the languages with which it was surrounded; it became a creole partially, with simplified grammar, and its sound system changed from Dutch as well.