Suchergebnisse

The author begins with an account of early black settlement before the arrival of Europeans, describing the cultures of the indigenous hunting and herding peoples and of the Bantu-speaking mixed farmers who were the ancestors of three-quarters of the population of modern South Africa. He moves on to discuss the slave society at the Cape established by the Dutch East India Company and the subsequent conquest of the African societies throughout the entire region by Afrikaners, British colonists, and European troops. He examines the gold and diamond industries that set the precedent for a racially divided labor force; the South African War and the ensuing creation of the Union of South Africa, controlled by its white minority; the apartheid era in which racial discrimination intensified and South Africa became isolated from the rest of the world; and the past decade, which has seen the apartheid state begin to unravel as internal and external forces challenge the racist order