6 Jun 2008
It is commonly believed that the first person to land in South Africa from Europe was Jan van Riebeeck. Wrong! It was Bartholomew Diaz in 1486 when he landed at Angra Pequena, nowadays called Luderitz Bay and it is in Namibia. In those days Namibia was legally part of the Republic of South Africa and it was known as South West Africa. However, the whites were not the first inhabitants of the land. The Khoisan people were there before them. They were not the first either – before them were two nations, the Khoi and the San. It is from one of these two races that all mankind is born. South Africa is, therefore the cradle of mankind!
The first church in South Africa was the Dutch Reformed Church because it was the church of the United Netherlands and Jan van Riebeeck was a citizen of the United Netherlands. Wrong! It was the Roman Catholic Church. When Bartholomew Diaz landed here, he stuck the cross of the Catholic Church into South African soil. Jan van Riebeeck did not come on behalf of the United Netherlands – he came on behalf of the Dutch East India Company, a company duly registered in accordance with the laws of the United Netherlands. Indonesia was, in those days a colony of the United Netherlands.
The Afrikaners are the smallest minority group in South Africa and there are many other groups much larger than them. Wrong. There are more Afrikaners than English. Herewith excerpt from the CIA fact sheet reflecting the census results of 2001 and you will note that they are the third largest group in South Africa. “IsiZulu 23.8%, IsiXhosa 17.6%, Afrikaans 13.3%, Sepedi 9.4%, English 8.2%, Setswana 8.2%, Sesotho 7.9%, Xitsonga 4.4%, other 7.2% (2001 census)”
The South African national dish originates from the Afrikaans speaking Boers and consists of barbecued meat and sausage. Wrong, the South African National dish is Bobotie and it originated in Indonesia. It is eaten by almost all groups and few would turn a plate down. Many variations exist on the theme. It consists of minced lamb with various spices, usually a Malay curry spices as well as raisons or almonds covered with a covering of egg custard. A few lemon leaves are inserted and it is baked. Eaten hot or cold, it is delicious.
Apartheid has been part of the South African way of life since the end of the South African War. Wrong. The Afrikaners did not win the war. Lord Kitchener and the British Army won the war - even though most Europeans considered the tactics used irregular. The English and the Afrikaner never really reconciled thereafter. Everyone who spoke Afrikaans was classified Afrikaner, regardless of the race and even then Colour played no part. In 1921 during the Rand Revolt, the Communist party tried to unite the Boers using the following slogan - “White Workers Unite for a White South Africa” - the sight of this slogan along with the hammer and sickle flag became the call to all Afrikaners to unite against the gold mines. Notwithstanding this, in 1924 the National Party came into power until 1933, when a coalition government had to be formed since the lost. Only in 1948 when the Afrikaans government won the election, did they brutal racial segregation policies become enforced and Apartheid began.
Posted by Stefano in Culture | Trackback |
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6 Jun 2008 At 20:44
If you consider Afrikaners to be “… Afrikaans-speaking people who have been established in Southern Africa since the 17th century and are mainly of northwestern European descent.” as wiki defines them then you have your stats a little mixed up.
“Minority group”, naturally, applies to racial divides. The stats you have shown are language groups.
HTH