Africa
Highlights - Essential Info - Itineraries - History
Although South Africa has been inhabited for many thousands of years by the San and Hottentot peoples, and more recently by Bantu speaking tribes, it has been the history of the last few hundred years that has really shaped the country, its people and its politics. The first Europeans to settle in the country arrived in the Cape in 1652 under the leadership of Jan Van Riebeck and, over the next century and a half, Dutch and German farmers fanned out into the Cape Colony and beyond to work the land. These Europeans soon became known as Afrikaners.
In the 1820's, disillusioned with the British government of the time, a group of Afrikaners undertook what became known as the Great Trek and headed north towards Natal and the Free State in search of new lands. In a famous incident the Zulu king, Dingane, entered into false land negotiations with the trek leader Retief and his followers before leading them into a trap and killing them all. The Afrikaners immediately vowed revenge and near the town of Dundee the Battle of Blood River took place in 1838 in which over 3000 Zulus were killed without a single Afrikaner losing his life. During the following fifty years the Afrikaners declared various republics as independent which naturally caused friction with the British government; the Zulus also came into the conflict with the British as they planned the expansion of their own kingdom. Rorke's Drift and Isandlwana are just two of the battles that were fought between the British and Zulus.
Gold and diamonds were just some of the mineral riches that were discovered in the Afrikaner provinces, which led to the Anglo-Boer Wars at the end of the 19th century. The British ultimately proved too strong and the Peace of Vereeniging was signed in 1902. Five years later the British granted some of the former republics representative government which paved the way for Union of South Africa being declared in 1910 under the Prime Ministership of General Louis Botha. Almost immediately, repressive legislation was passed against the blacks and the Afrikaners took a thorough grip on power, despite the African National Congress's (ANC) attempts to the contrary. In 1948 the National Party introduced the concept of 'apartheid' which ratified even more repressive legislation against the coloured peoples and led to almost fifty years of often violent clashes with the police and government.
In 1961 Prime Minister Verwoerd withdrew the Union from the Commonwealth and the Republic of South Africa was born. However, the country was in turmoil with international sanctions biting hard into the economy and serious domestic discontent. It was not until the final white President, F W De Klerk, repealed the discriminatory laws in 1990/91 that serious negotiations started to take place with the black political parties, in particular the ANC under the recently freed Nelson Mandela. This finally led to democratic elections in 1994 which were won by Mandela and the ANC. South Africa has subsequently enjoyed a period of economic growth with foreign investment and political stability being a boon to a significant increase in tourism to the country.
