Culture of South Africa
Encyclopedia
South Africa is known for its ethnic and cultural diversity. Therefore, there is no single culture of South Africa.
The South African black majority still has a substantial number of rural inhabitants who lead largely impoverished lives. It is among these people, however, that cultural traditions survive most strongly; as blacks have become increasingly urbanised and Westernised
, aspects of traditional culture have declined. Urban blacks usually speak English or Afrikaans in addition to their native tongue. There are smaller but still significant groups of speakers of Khoisan languages
who are not included in the eleven official languages, but are one of the eight other officially recognised languages. There are small groups of speakers of endangered language
s, most of which are from the Khoi-San family, that receive no official status; however, some groups within South Africa are attempting to promote their use and revival.
Members of middle class, who are predominantly white but whose ranks include growing numbers of black, coloured and Indian people, have lifestyles similar in many respects to that of people found in Western Europe, North America and Australasia
. Members of the middle class often study and work abroad for greater exposure to the markets of the world.
Indian South Africans
preserve their cultural heritage, languages and religious beliefs, being either Christian, Hindu
or Sunni Muslim and speaking English, with Indian languages like Hindi, Telugu
, Tamil
or Gujarati
being spoken less frequently as second languages. The first Indians arrived on the Truro ship
as indentured labourers
in Natal to work the Sugar Cane Fields, while the rest arrived as traders. A post apartheid wave of South Asian (including Pakistani) immigration has also influenced South African Indian culture. There is a much smaller Chinese South African community, made up of early immigrants, apartheid-era immigrants from Taiwan
, and post-apartheid immigrants from mainland China
.
The oldest art objects in the world were discovered in a South African cave. Dating from 75,000 years ago, these small drilled snail shells could have no other function than to have been strung on a string as a necklace. South Africa was one of the cradles of the human species. One of the defining characteristics of our species is the making of art (from Latin 'ars' meaning worked or formed from basic material).
The scattered tribes of Khoisan
peoples moving into South Africa from around 10000 BC
had their own fluent art styles seen today in a multitude of cave paintings. They were superseded by Bantu/Nguni
peoples with their own vocabularies of art forms. In the 20th century, traditional tribal forms of art were scattered and re-melded by the divisive policies of apartheid.
New forms of art evolved in the mines and townships: a dynamic art using everything from plastic strips to bicycle spokes. The Dutch-influenced folk art of the Afrikaner
Trekboer
s and the urban white artists earnestly following changing European traditions from the 1850s onwards also contributed to this eclectic mix, which continues to evolve today.
Art Of South Africa
Contemporary South Africa has a vibrant art scene, with artists receiving international recognition. The recent 'Figures and Fictions' exhibition of South African photography at the Victoria and Albert Museum
in London included the work of Mikhael Subotzky, Zanele Muholi
, David Goldblatt
, Zwelethu Mthethwa
and Guy Tillim
. Contemporary South African artists whose work has been met with international acclaim include Marlene Dumas
and William Kentridge
.
Herbert Baker
, among the country's most influential architects, designed the Union Buildings
in Pretoria
. Other buildings of note include the Rhodes memorial
and St George's Cathedral
in Cape Town
, and St John's College
in Johannesburg
.
Cape Dutch architecture
was prominent in the early days (17th century) of the Cape Colony
, and the name derives from the fact that the initial settlers of the Cape were primarily Dutch. The style has roots in mediaeval Holland, Germany, France and Indonesia. Houses in this style have a distinctive and recognisable design, with a prominent feature being the grand, ornately rounded gables, reminiscent of features in townhouses of Amsterdam
built in the Dutch style.
The rural landscape of South Africa is populated with traditional African architecture.
South Africa's unique social and political history has generated a rich variety of literatures, with themes spanning precolonial life, the days of apartheid, and the lives of people in the "new South Africa".
Many of the first black South African print authors were missionary-educated, and many thus wrote in either English or Afrikaans
. One of the first well known novels written by a black author in an African language was Solomon Thekiso Plaatje
's Mhudi, written in 1930.
Notable white English-language South African authors include Nadine Gordimer
who was, in Seamus Heaney
's words, one of "the guerrillas of the imagination", and who became the first South African and the seventh woman to be awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1991. Her most famous novel, July's People
, was released in 1981, depicting the collapse of white-minority rule.
Athol Fugard
, whose plays have been regularly premiered in fringe theatre
s in South Africa, London (The Royal Court Theatre
) and New York. Olive Schreiner
's The Story of an African Farm
(1883) was a revelation in Victorian literature: it is heralded by many as introducing feminism into the novel form.
Alan Paton
published the acclaimed novel Cry, the Beloved Country
in 1948. He told the tale of a black priest who comes to Johannesburg
to find his son, which became an international best-seller. During the 1950s, Drum magazine became a hotbed of political satire, fiction, and essays, giving a voice to urban black culture.
Afrikaans-language writers also began to write controversial material. Breyten Breytenbach
was jailed for his involvement with the guerrilla movement against apartheid. Andre Brink
was the first Afrikaner
writer to be banned by the government after he released the novel A Dry White Season
about a white South African who discovers the truth about a black friend who dies in police custody.
John Maxwell (JM) Coetzee
was also first published in the 1970s, and became internationally recognised in 1983 with his Booker Prize winning novel Life & Times of Michael K
. His 1999 novel Disgrace won him his second Booker Prize as well as the 2000 Commonwealth Writers' Prize
. He is also the recipient of the Nobel Prize for Literature
in 2003.
J. R. R. Tolkien
, author of The Hobbit
, The Lord of the Rings
and The Silmarillion
, was born in Bloemfontein
in 1892.
. Several influential African poets became prominent in the 1970s such as Mongane Wally Serote
, whose most famous work, No Baby Must Weep, gave insight into the every day lives of black South Africans under apartheid. Another famous black novelist, Zakes Mda
, transitioned from poetry and plays to becoming a novelist in the same time period. His novel, The Heart of Redness won the 2001 Commonwealth Writers Prize and was made a part of the school curriculum across South Africa.
in 1980, set in the Kalahari. This is about how life in a traditional community of Bushmen
is changed when a Coke
bottle, thrown out of an aeroplane, suddenly lands from the sky. The late Jamie Uys
, who wrote and directed The Gods Must Be Crazy, also had success overseas in the 1970s with his films Funny People and Funny People II, similar to the TV series Candid Camera
in the US. Leon Schuster
's You Must Be Joking! films are in the same genre, and hugely popular among South Africans.
Arguably, the most high-profile film portraying South Africa in recent years was "District 9
". Directed by Neill Blomkamp
, a native South African, and produced by Peter Jackson
, the action/science-fiction film depicts a sub-class of alien refugees forced to live in the slums of Johannesburg
in what many saw as a creative allegory for apartheid. The film was a critical and commercial success worldwide, and was nominated for Best Picture at the 82nd Academy Awards
.
Other notable exceptions are the film Tsotsi
, which won the Academy Award for Foreign Language Film at the 78th Academy Awards
in 2006 as well as U-Carmen e-Khayelitsha, which won the Golden Bear
at the 2005 Berlin International Film Festival
.
. Of note is Brenda Fassie
, who launched to fame with her song "Weekend Special", which was sung in English. More famous traditional musicians include Ladysmith Black Mambazo
, while the Soweto String Quartet
performs classic music with an African flavour. White and Coloured South African singers are historically influenced by European musical styles.
South Africa has produced world-famous jazz musicians, notably Hugh Masekela
, Jonas Gwangwa
, Abdullah Ibrahim
, Miriam Makeba
, Jonathan Butler
, Chris McGregor
, and Sathima Bea Benjamin
. Afrikaans music covers multiple genres, such as the contemporary Steve Hofmeyr
and the punk rock
band Fokofpolisiekar
. Crossover artists such as Verity
(internationally recognised for innovation in the music industry) and Johnny Clegg and his bands Juluka
and Savuka
have enjoyed various success underground, publicly, and abroad.
The South African music scene includes Kwaito, a new music genre that had developed in the mid 80s and has since developed to become the most popular socio-economic form of representation among the populace. Some may argue that the political aspects of Kwaito have diminished after Apartheid, and the relative interest in politics has become a minor aspect of daily life. Others argue that in a sense, Kwaito is in fact a political force that shows activism in its apolitical actions.
Today, major corporations like Sony
, BMG
, and EMI
have appeared on the South African scene to produce and distribute Kwaito music. Due to its overwhelming popularity, as well as the general influence of DJs, who are among the top 5 most influential types of people within the country, Kwaito has taken over radio, television, and magazines.
South African cuisine is heavily meat-based and has spawned the distinctively South African social gathering known as a braai
, or barbecue. Braai is widely popular, especially with whites, and includes meat, especially boerewors
or spicy sausages, and mielies (maize) or Mielie-meal
, often as a porridge, or pearl millet
, a staple food of black South Africans. Pastries such like koeksisters and desserts like melktert
(milk tart) are also universally popular. Vegetarianism is becoming widely accepted.
India
n food like curry
is also popular, especially in Durban
with its large Indian
population. Another local Indian Durban speciality is the 'bunny' or bunny chow
, which consists of a hollowed-out loaf of white bread filled with curry.
The Portuguese
community has also made its mark, with spicy peri-peri chicken being a favourite. The South African Portuguese-themed restaurant chain Nando's
now has restaurants in the UK, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Malaysia and Kenya
.
s lying in valleys around Stellenbosch, Franschoek, Paarl
and Barrydale
. South African wine
has a history dating back to 1659, and at one time Constantia
was considered one of the greatest wines in the world. Access to international markets has unleashed a burst of new energy and new investment. Production is concentrated around Cape Town
, with major vineyard and production centres at Paarl
, Stellenbosch and Worcester
.
There are about 60 appellations within the Wine of Origin (WO) system, which was implemented in 1973 with a hierarchy of designated production regions, districts and wards. WO wines must be made 100% from grapes from the designated area. "Single vineyard" wines must come from a defined area of less than 5 hectares. An "Estate Wine" can come from adjacent farms, as long as they are farmed together and wine is produced on site. A ward is an area with a distinctive soil type and/or climate, and is roughly equivalent to a European appellation.
Learners have twelve years of formal schooling, from grade 1 to 12. Grade R is a pre-primary foundation year.
Primary schools span the first seven years of schooling. High School education spans a further five years. The Senior Certificate
examination takes place at the end of grade 12 and is necessary for tertiary studies at a South African university.
See: Matriculation in South Africa
; High school: South Africa.
Public universities in South Africa are divided into three types: traditional universities, which offer theoretically oriented university degrees; universities of technology ("Technikon
s"), which offer vocational oriented diplomas and degrees; and comprehensive universities, which offer both types of qualification. Public institutions are usually English medium, although instruction may take place in Afrikaans
as well. There are also a large number of other educational institutions in South Africa – some are local campuses of foreign universities, some conduct classes for students who write their exams at the distance-education University of South Africa
and some offer unaccredited or non-accredited diplomas.
See: List of universities in South Africa; List of post secondary institutions in South Africa; :Category:Higher education in South Africa.
Public expenditure on education was at 5.4 % of the 2002–05 GDP.
Under Apartheid, schools for blacks were subject to discrimination through inadequate funding and a separate syllabus called Bantu Education
which was only designed to give them sufficient skills to work as labourers. Redressing these imbalances has been a focus of recent education policy; see Education in South Africa: Restructuring.
's religious beliefs, too, include a strong emphasis on the theoretically biblically based notion that women's contributions to society should normally be approved by, or be on behalf of, men. English speaking whites tend to be the most liberal group, including on issues pertaining to gender roles.
20th century economic and political developments presented South African women with both new obstacles and new opportunities to wield influence. For example, labour force requirements in cities and mining areas have often drawn men away from their homes for months at a time, and, as a result, women have borne many traditionally male responsibilities in the village and home. Women have had to guarantee the day-to-day survival of their families and to carry out financial and legal transactions that otherwise would have been reserved for men.
) are often victims of beating or rape. This has been posited, in part, to be because of the perceived threat they pose to traditional male authority. Although evidence of hatred may influence rulings on a case-by-case basis, South Africa has no specific "hate crime" legislation; human rights organisations have criticised the South African police for failing to address the matter of bias motivated crimes.
For example, the NGO ActionAid
has condemned the continued impunity
and accused governments of turning a blind eye to reported murders of lesbians in homophobic attacks in South Africa; as well as to so-called “corrective” rapes
, including cases among pupils, in which cases the male rapists purport to raping the lesbian victim with the intent of thereby “curing” her of her sexual orientation. Human rights watchdogs believe that much of the sexism
and homophobia
that erupts is tied to male frustration with unemployment and poverty.
at Groote Schuur Hospital
in December 1967. Max Theiler
developed a vaccine against Yellow Fever, Allan McLeod Cormack
pioneered x-ray Computed tomography
, and Aaron Klug
developed crystallographic electron microscopy techniques. These advancements were all (with the exception of that of Barnard) recognised with Nobel Prize
s. Sydney Brenner
won most recently, in 2002, for his pioneering work in molecular biology
.
Mark Shuttleworth
founded an early Internet security company Thawte
, that was subsequently bought out by world-leader VeriSign
. Despite government efforts to encourage entrepreneurship in biotechnology, IT and other high technology fields, no other notable groundbreaking companies have been founded in South Africa. However, it is the expressed objective of the government to transition the economy to be more reliant on high technology, based on the realisation that South Africa cannot compete with Far Eastern economies in manufacturing, nor can the republic rely on its mineral wealth in perpetuity.
South Africa has cultivated a burgeoning astronomy community. It hosts the Southern African Large Telescope
, the largest optical telescope in the southern hemisphere. South Africa is currently building the Karoo Array Telescope as a pathfinder for the $20 billion Square Kilometer Array project. South Africa is a finalist, with Australia, to be the host of the SKA.
and cricket
. Other sports with significant support are swimming, athletics, golf, boxing, tennis and netball. Although soccer commands the greatest following among the youth, other sports like basketball, surfing and skateboarding are increasingly popular.
Famous boxing personalities include Baby Jake Jacob Matlala, Vuyani Bungu
, Welcome Ncita
, Dingaan Thobela
, Gerrie Coetzee
and Brian Mitchell. Soccer players who have played for major foreign clubs include Lucas Radebe
and Philemon Masinga
(both formerly of Leeds United
), Quinton Fortune (Atletico Madrid and Manchester United
), Benni McCarthy
(Ajax Amsterdam
, F.C. Porto, Blackburn Rovers
and West Ham United
), Aaron Mokoena
(Ajax Amsterdam, Blackburn Rovers and Portsmouth
), Delron Buckley
(Borussia Dortmund
) and Steven Pienaar
(Ajax Amsterdam and Everton
). Durban Surfer Jordy Smith
won the 2010 Billabong J-Bay competition making him the no 1 ranked surfer in the world. South Africa produced Formula One
motor racing's 1979 world champion Jody Scheckter
. Famous current cricket players include Herschelle Gibbs
, Graeme Smith
, Jacques Kallis
, JP Duminy, etc. Most of them also participate in the Indian Premier League
.
South Africa has also produced numerous world class rugby players, including Francois Pienaar
, Joost van der Westhuizen
, Danie Craven
, Frik du Preez
, Naas Botha and Bryan Habana
. South Africa hosted and won the 1995 Rugby World Cup
and won the 2007 Rugby World Cup in France
. It followed the 1995 Rugby World Cup by hosting the 1996 African Cup of Nations
, with the national team
going on to win the tournament. It also hosted the 2003 Cricket World Cup
, the 2007 World Twenty20 Championship
, and it was the host nation for the 2010 FIFA World Cup
, which was the first time the tournament was held in Africa. FIFA president Sepp Blatter
awarded South Africa a grade 9 out of 10 for successfully hosting the event.
In 2004, the swimming team of Roland Schoeman, Lyndon Ferns
, Darian Townsend
and Ryk Neethling
won the gold medal at the Olympic Games in Athens, simultaneously breaking the world record in the 4x100 freestyle relay. Penny Heyns won Olympic Gold in the 1996 Atlanta Olympic Games.
In golf, Gary Player
is generally regarded as one of the greatest golfers of all time, having won the Career Grand Slam
, one of five golfers to have done so. Other South African golfers to have won major tournaments include Bobby Locke
, Ernie Els
, Retief Goosen
, Trevor Immelman
and Louis Oosthuizen
.
movement, with many Scouting traditions and ceremonies coming from the experiences of Robert Baden-Powell
(the founder of Scouting) during his time in South Africa as a military officer in the 1890s. The South African Scout Association
was one of the first youth organisations to open its doors to youth and adults of all races in South Africa. This happened on 2 July 1977 at a conference known as Quo Vadis.
The South African black majority still has a substantial number of rural inhabitants who lead largely impoverished lives. It is among these people, however, that cultural traditions survive most strongly; as blacks have become increasingly urbanised and Westernised
Western world
The Western world, also known as the West and the Occident , is a term referring to the countries of Western Europe , the countries of the Americas, as well all countries of Northern and Central Europe, Australia and New Zealand...
, aspects of traditional culture have declined. Urban blacks usually speak English or Afrikaans in addition to their native tongue. There are smaller but still significant groups of speakers of Khoisan languages
Khoisan languages
The Khoisan languages are the click languages of Africa which do not belong to other language families. They include languages indigenous to southern and eastern Africa, though some, such as the Khoi languages, appear to have moved to their current locations not long before the Bantu expansion...
who are not included in the eleven official languages, but are one of the eight other officially recognised languages. There are small groups of speakers of endangered language
Endangered language
An endangered language is a language that is at risk of falling out of use. If it loses all its native speakers, it becomes a dead language. If eventually no one speaks the language at all it becomes an "extinct language"....
s, most of which are from the Khoi-San family, that receive no official status; however, some groups within South Africa are attempting to promote their use and revival.
Members of middle class, who are predominantly white but whose ranks include growing numbers of black, coloured and Indian people, have lifestyles similar in many respects to that of people found in Western Europe, North America and Australasia
Australasia
Australasia is a region of Oceania comprising Australia, New Zealand, the island of New Guinea, and neighbouring islands in the Pacific Ocean. The term was coined by Charles de Brosses in Histoire des navigations aux terres australes...
. Members of the middle class often study and work abroad for greater exposure to the markets of the world.
Indian South Africans
Indian South Africans
Indian South Africans are people of Indian descent living in South Africa and mostly live in and around the city of Durban, making it 'the largest 'Indian' city outside India'. Most Indians in South Africa are descendents of migrants from colonial India during late 19th-century through early...
preserve their cultural heritage, languages and religious beliefs, being either Christian, Hindu
Hinduism
Hinduism is the predominant and indigenous religious tradition of the Indian Subcontinent. Hinduism is known to its followers as , amongst many other expressions...
or Sunni Muslim and speaking English, with Indian languages like Hindi, Telugu
Telugu language
Telugu is a Central Dravidian language primarily spoken in the state of Andhra Pradesh, India, where it is an official language. It is also spoken in the neighbouring states of Chattisgarh, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Orissa and Tamil Nadu...
, Tamil
Tamil language
Tamil is a Dravidian language spoken predominantly by Tamil people of the Indian subcontinent. It has official status in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu and in the Indian union territory of Pondicherry. Tamil is also an official language of Sri Lanka and Singapore...
or Gujarati
Gujarati language
Gujarati is an Indo-Aryan language, and part of the greater Indo-European language family. It is derived from a language called Old Gujarati which is the ancestor language of the modern Gujarati and Rajasthani languages...
being spoken less frequently as second languages. The first Indians arrived on the Truro ship
Truro (ship)
The Truro was the ship containing the first batch of 342 indentured Indian labourers to arrive in Durban on 16 November 1860. The second batch of 342 arrived in Durban on board the Belvedere 10 days later. Passenger lists have been made available online...
as indentured labourers
Indentured servant
Indentured servitude refers to the historical practice of contracting to work for a fixed period of time, typically three to seven years, in exchange for transportation, food, clothing, lodging and other necessities during the term of indenture. Usually the father made the arrangements and signed...
in Natal to work the Sugar Cane Fields, while the rest arrived as traders. A post apartheid wave of South Asian (including Pakistani) immigration has also influenced South African Indian culture. There is a much smaller Chinese South African community, made up of early immigrants, apartheid-era immigrants from Taiwan
Taiwan
Taiwan , also known, especially in the past, as Formosa , is the largest island of the same-named island group of East Asia in the western Pacific Ocean and located off the southeastern coast of mainland China. The island forms over 99% of the current territory of the Republic of China following...
, and post-apartheid immigrants from mainland China
Overseas Chinese
Overseas Chinese are people of Chinese birth or descent who live outside the Greater China Area . People of partial Chinese ancestry living outside the Greater China Area may also consider themselves Overseas Chinese....
.
Art
The scattered tribes of Khoisan
Khoisan
Khoisan is a unifying name for two ethnic groups of Southern Africa, who share physical and putative linguistic characteristics distinct from the Bantu majority of the region. Culturally, the Khoisan are divided into the foraging San and the pastoral Khoi...
peoples moving into South Africa from around 10000 BC
Anno Domini
and Before Christ are designations used to label or number years used with the Julian and Gregorian calendars....
had their own fluent art styles seen today in a multitude of cave paintings. They were superseded by Bantu/Nguni
Nguni people
-History:The ancient history of the Nguni people is wrapped up in their oral history. According to legend they were a people who migrated from Egypt to the Great Lakes region of sub-equatorial Central/East Africa...
peoples with their own vocabularies of art forms. In the 20th century, traditional tribal forms of art were scattered and re-melded by the divisive policies of apartheid.
New forms of art evolved in the mines and townships: a dynamic art using everything from plastic strips to bicycle spokes. The Dutch-influenced folk art of the Afrikaner
Afrikaner
Afrikaners are an ethnic group in Southern Africa descended from almost equal numbers of Dutch, French and German settlers whose native tongue is Afrikaans: a Germanic language which derives primarily from 17th century Dutch, and a variety of other languages.-Related ethno-linguistic groups:The...
Trekboer
Trekboer
The Trekboers were nomadic pastoralists descended from almost equal numbers of Dutch colonists, French Huguenots and German Protestants. The Trekboere began migrating from the areas surrounding what is now Cape Town during the 17th century throughout the 18th century.-Origins:The Trekboere were...
s and the urban white artists earnestly following changing European traditions from the 1850s onwards also contributed to this eclectic mix, which continues to evolve today.
Art Of South Africa
Art of South Africa
South African art is the creative output of human beings from South Africa.The oldest art objects in the world were discovered in a South African cave. Dating from 75,000 years ago, these small drilled snail shells could have no other function than to have been strung on a string as a necklace....
Contemporary South Africa has a vibrant art scene, with artists receiving international recognition. The recent 'Figures and Fictions' exhibition of South African photography at the Victoria and Albert Museum
Victoria and Albert Museum
The Victoria and Albert Museum , set in the Brompton district of The Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, London, England, is the world's largest museum of decorative arts and design, housing a permanent collection of over 4.5 million objects...
in London included the work of Mikhael Subotzky, Zanele Muholi
Zanele Muholi
Zanele Muholi is a South African photographer and visual activist.-Overview:Zanele Muholi is a South African photographer and visual activist.-Early life:...
, David Goldblatt
David Goldblatt
David Goldblatt is a South African photographer noted for his portrayal of South Africa during the period of apartheid and more recently that country's landscapes.-Life and work:...
, Zwelethu Mthethwa
Zwelethu Mthethwa
Zwelethu Mthethwa is a South African painter and photographer.Mthethwa, a native of Durban, received his diplomas at the Michaelis School of Fine Art, University of Cape Town. He received a Fulbright Scholarship that allowed him to study at the Rochester Institute of Technology, where he received...
and Guy Tillim
Guy Tillim
Guy Tillim is a South African photographer known for his black and white and later digital work, mainly of third world Africa and often of war- and trouble-stricken areas....
. Contemporary South African artists whose work has been met with international acclaim include Marlene Dumas
Marlene Dumas
Marlene Dumas is a South African born artist and painter who lives and works in Amsterdam, The Netherlands. Stressing both the physical reality of the human body and its psychological value, Dumas tends...
and William Kentridge
William Kentridge
William Kentridge is a South African artist best known for his prints, drawings, and animated films. These are constructed by filming a drawing, making erasures and changes, and filming it again. He continues this process meticulously, giving each change to the drawing a quarter of a second to two...
.
Architecture
The architecture of South Africa mirrors the vast ethnic and cultural diversity of the country and its historical colonial period. In addition, influences from other, distant, countries, have contributed to the variety of the South African architectural landscape.Herbert Baker
Herbert Baker
Sir Herbert Baker was a British architect.Baker was the dominant force in South African architecture for two decades, 1892–1912....
, among the country's most influential architects, designed the Union Buildings
Union Buildings
The Union Buildings form the official seat of the South African government and also house the offices of the President of South Africa. The imposing buildings are located in Pretoria, atop Meintjieskop at the Northern end of Arcadia, close to historic Church Square and the Voortrekker Monument...
in Pretoria
Pretoria
Pretoria is a city located in the northern part of Gauteng Province, South Africa. It is one of the country's three capital cities, serving as the executive and de facto national capital; the others are Cape Town, the legislative capital, and Bloemfontein, the judicial capital.Pretoria is...
. Other buildings of note include the Rhodes memorial
Rhodes Memorial
Rhodes Memorial on Devil's Peak in Cape Town, South Africa, is a memorial to English-born South African politician Cecil John Rhodes designed by Sir Herbert Baker.-Location:...
and St George's Cathedral
St. George's Cathedral, Cape Town
St George's Cathedral is the Anglican cathedral in Cape Town, South Africa. It is the seat of the Archbishop of Cape Town....
in Cape Town
Cape Town
Cape Town is the second-most populous city in South Africa, and the provincial capital and primate city of the Western Cape. As the seat of the National Parliament, it is also the legislative capital of the country. It forms part of the City of Cape Town metropolitan municipality...
, and St John's College
St John's College (Johannesburg, South Africa)
St John's College is a private school for boys in Houghton, Johannesburg, Gauteng, South Africa.-History:St John's College was founded in Johannesburg on 1 August 1898 and is an Anglican school....
in Johannesburg
Johannesburg
Johannesburg also known as Jozi, Jo'burg or Egoli, is the largest city in South Africa, by population. Johannesburg is the provincial capital of Gauteng, the wealthiest province in South Africa, having the largest economy of any metropolitan region in Sub-Saharan Africa...
.
Cape Dutch architecture
Cape Dutch architecture
-Introduction:Cape Dutch architecture is an architectural style found in the Western Cape of South Africa. The style was prominent in the early days of the Cape Colony, and the name derives from the fact that the initial settlers of the Cape were primarily Dutch...
was prominent in the early days (17th century) of the Cape Colony
Cape Colony
The Cape Colony, part of modern South Africa, was established by the Dutch East India Company in 1652, with the founding of Cape Town. It was subsequently occupied by the British in 1795 when the Netherlands were occupied by revolutionary France, so that the French revolutionaries could not take...
, and the name derives from the fact that the initial settlers of the Cape were primarily Dutch. The style has roots in mediaeval Holland, Germany, France and Indonesia. Houses in this style have a distinctive and recognisable design, with a prominent feature being the grand, ornately rounded gables, reminiscent of features in townhouses of Amsterdam
Amsterdam
Amsterdam is the largest city and the capital of the Netherlands. The current position of Amsterdam as capital city of the Kingdom of the Netherlands is governed by the constitution of August 24, 1815 and its successors. Amsterdam has a population of 783,364 within city limits, an urban population...
built in the Dutch style.
The rural landscape of South Africa is populated with traditional African architecture.
Literature
Many of the first black South African print authors were missionary-educated, and many thus wrote in either English or Afrikaans
Afrikaans
Afrikaans is a West Germanic language, spoken natively in South Africa and Namibia. It is a daughter language of Dutch, originating in its 17th century dialects, collectively referred to as Cape Dutch .Afrikaans is a daughter language of Dutch; see , , , , , .Afrikaans was historically called Cape...
. One of the first well known novels written by a black author in an African language was Solomon Thekiso Plaatje
Sol Plaatje
Solomon Tshekisho Plaatje was a South African intellectual, journalist, linguist, politician, translator, and writer. The Sol Plaatje Local Municipality, which includes the city of Kimberley, was named after him.-Early life:...
's Mhudi, written in 1930.
Notable white English-language South African authors include Nadine Gordimer
Nadine Gordimer
Nadine Gordimer is a South African writer and political activist. She was awarded the 1991 Nobel Prize in Literature when she was recognised as a woman "who through her magnificent epic writing has – in the words of Alfred Nobel – been of very great benefit to humanity".Her writing has long dealt...
who was, in Seamus Heaney
Seamus Heaney
Seamus Heaney is an Irish poet, writer and lecturer. He lives in Dublin. Heaney has received the Nobel Prize in Literature , the Golden Wreath of Poetry , T. S. Eliot Prize and two Whitbread prizes...
's words, one of "the guerrillas of the imagination", and who became the first South African and the seventh woman to be awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1991. Her most famous novel, July's People
July's People
July's People is a 1981 novel by 1991 Nobel laureate Nadine Gordimer. Nadine Gordimer wrote this book before the end of apartheid as her prediction of how it would end.-Banning:The book was notably banned in South Africa after its publication....
, was released in 1981, depicting the collapse of white-minority rule.
Athol Fugard
Athol Fugard
Athol Fugard is a South African playwright, novelist, actor, and director who writes in English, best known for his political plays opposing the South African system of apartheid and for the 2005 Academy-Award winning film of his novel Tsotsi, directed by Gavin Hood...
, whose plays have been regularly premiered in fringe theatre
Fringe theatre
Fringe theatre is theatre that is not of the mainstream. The term comes from the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, which name comes from Robert Kemp, who described the unofficial companies performing at the same time as the second Edinburgh International Festival as a ‘fringe’, writing: ‘Round the fringe...
s in South Africa, London (The Royal Court Theatre
Royal Court Theatre
The Royal Court Theatre is a non-commercial theatre on Sloane Square, in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea. It is noted for its contributions to modern theatre...
) and New York. Olive Schreiner
Olive Schreiner
Olive Schreiner was a South African author, anti-war campaigner and intellectual. She is best remembered today for her novel The Story of an African Farm which has been highly acclaimed ever since its first publication in 1883 for the bold manner in which it dealt with some of the burning issues...
's The Story of an African Farm
The Story of an African Farm
For the 2004 film of The Story of an African Farm see The Story of an African Farm The Story of an African Farm was South African author Olive Schreiner's first published novel...
(1883) was a revelation in Victorian literature: it is heralded by many as introducing feminism into the novel form.
Alan Paton
Alan Paton
Alan Stewart Paton was a South African author and anti-apartheid activist.-Family:Paton was born in Pietermaritzburg, Natal Province , the son of a minor civil servant. After attending Maritzburg College, he earned a Bachelor of Science degree at the University of Natal in his hometown, followed...
published the acclaimed novel Cry, the Beloved Country
Cry, The Beloved Country
Cry, the Beloved Country is a novel by South African author Alan Paton. It was first published in New York City in 1948 by Charles Scribner's Sons and in London by Jonathan Cape; noted American publisher Bennett Cerf remarked at that year's meeting of the American Booksellers Association that there...
in 1948. He told the tale of a black priest who comes to Johannesburg
Johannesburg
Johannesburg also known as Jozi, Jo'burg or Egoli, is the largest city in South Africa, by population. Johannesburg is the provincial capital of Gauteng, the wealthiest province in South Africa, having the largest economy of any metropolitan region in Sub-Saharan Africa...
to find his son, which became an international best-seller. During the 1950s, Drum magazine became a hotbed of political satire, fiction, and essays, giving a voice to urban black culture.
Afrikaans-language writers also began to write controversial material. Breyten Breytenbach
Breyten Breytenbach
Breyten Breytenbach is a South African writer and painter with French citizenship.-Biography:Breyten Breytenbach was born in Bonnievale, Western Cape, approximately 180 km from Cape Town and 100 km from the southernmost tip of Africa at Cape Agulhas...
was jailed for his involvement with the guerrilla movement against apartheid. Andre Brink
André Brink
André Philippus Brink, OIS, is a South African novelist. He writes in Afrikaans and English and is a Professor of English at the University of Cape Town....
was the first Afrikaner
Afrikaner
Afrikaners are an ethnic group in Southern Africa descended from almost equal numbers of Dutch, French and German settlers whose native tongue is Afrikaans: a Germanic language which derives primarily from 17th century Dutch, and a variety of other languages.-Related ethno-linguistic groups:The...
writer to be banned by the government after he released the novel A Dry White Season
A Dry White Season
A Dry White Season is a film released in 1989 by Davros Films and Sundance Productions and distributed by MGM. It was directed by Euzhan Palcy and produced by Paula Weinstein, Mary Selway and Tim Hampton. The screenplay was by Colin Welland and Euzhan Palcy, based upon André Brink's novel of the...
about a white South African who discovers the truth about a black friend who dies in police custody.
John Maxwell (JM) Coetzee
John Maxwell Coetzee
John Maxwell Coetzee ; is an author and academic from South Africa. He is now an Australian citizen and lives in Adelaide, South Australia...
was also first published in the 1970s, and became internationally recognised in 1983 with his Booker Prize winning novel Life & Times of Michael K
Life & Times of Michael K
Life & Times of Michael K is a 1983 novel by South African-born author J. M. Coetzee, winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature for the year 2003. The book itself won the Booker Prize for 1983...
. His 1999 novel Disgrace won him his second Booker Prize as well as the 2000 Commonwealth Writers' Prize
Commonwealth Writers' Prize
Commonwealth Writers is an initiative by the Commonwealth Foundation to unearth, develop and promote the best new fiction from across the Commonwealth. It's flagship are two literary awards and a website...
. He is also the recipient of the Nobel Prize for Literature
Nobel Prize
The Nobel Prizes are annual international awards bestowed by Scandinavian committees in recognition of cultural and scientific advances. The will of the Swedish chemist Alfred Nobel, the inventor of dynamite, established the prizes in 1895...
in 2003.
J. R. R. Tolkien
J. R. R. Tolkien
John Ronald Reuel Tolkien, CBE was an English writer, poet, philologist, and university professor, best known as the author of the classic high fantasy works The Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings, and The Silmarillion.Tolkien was Rawlinson and Bosworth Professor of Anglo-Saxon at Pembroke College,...
, author of The Hobbit
The Hobbit
The Hobbit, or There and Back Again, better known by its abbreviated title The Hobbit, is a fantasy novel and children's book by J. R. R. Tolkien. It was published on 21 September 1937 to wide critical acclaim, being nominated for the Carnegie Medal and awarded a prize from the New York Herald...
, The Lord of the Rings
The Lord of the Rings
The Lord of the Rings is a high fantasy epic written by English philologist and University of Oxford professor J. R. R. Tolkien. The story began as a sequel to Tolkien's earlier, less complex children's fantasy novel The Hobbit , but eventually developed into a much larger work. It was written in...
and The Silmarillion
The Silmarillion
The Silmarillion is a collection of J. R. R. Tolkien's mythopoeic works, edited and published posthumously by his son Christopher Tolkien in 1977, with assistance from Guy Gavriel Kay, who later became a noted fantasy writer. The Silmarillion, along with J. R. R...
, was born in Bloemfontein
Bloemfontein
Bloemfontein is the capital city of the Free State Province of South Africa; and, as the judicial capital of the nation, one of South Africa's three national capitals – the other two being Cape Town, the legislative capital, and Pretoria, the administrative capital.Bloemfontein is popularly and...
in 1892.
Poetry
South African has a rich tradition of oral poetryOral poetry
Oral poetry can be defined in various ways. A strict definition would include only poetry that is composed and transmitted without any aid of writing. However, the complex relationships between written and spoken literature in some societies can make this definition hard to maintain, and oral...
. Several influential African poets became prominent in the 1970s such as Mongane Wally Serote
Mongane Wally Serote
Mongane Wally Serote is a South African poet and writer. He was born in Sophiatown, Johannesburg and went to school in Alexandra, Lesotho and Soweto. He first became involved in Black Consciousness when he was finishing high school in Soweto...
, whose most famous work, No Baby Must Weep, gave insight into the every day lives of black South Africans under apartheid. Another famous black novelist, Zakes Mda
Zakes Mda
Zakes Mda , legally Zanemvula Kizito Gatyeni Mda , is a South African novelist, poet and playwright. He has won major South African and British literary awards for his novels and plays.-Early life and education:...
, transitioned from poetry and plays to becoming a novelist in the same time period. His novel, The Heart of Redness won the 2001 Commonwealth Writers Prize and was made a part of the school curriculum across South Africa.
Cinema
While many foreign films have been produced about South Africa (usually involving race relations), few local productions are known outside South Africa itself. One exception was the film The Gods Must Be CrazyThe Gods Must Be Crazy
The Gods Must Be Crazy is a 1980 film, written and directed by Jamie Uys. The film is the first in The Gods Must Be Crazy series of films. Set in Botswana and South Africa, it tells the story of Xi, a Sho of the Kalahari Desert whose band has no knowledge of the world beyond...
in 1980, set in the Kalahari. This is about how life in a traditional community of Bushmen
Bushmen
The indigenous people of Southern Africa, whose territory spans most areas of South Africa, Zimbabwe, Lesotho, Mozambique, Swaziland, Botswana, Namibia, and Angola, are variously referred to as Bushmen, San, Sho, Barwa, Kung, or Khwe...
is changed when a Coke
Coca-Cola
Coca-Cola is a carbonated soft drink sold in stores, restaurants, and vending machines in more than 200 countries. It is produced by The Coca-Cola Company of Atlanta, Georgia, and is often referred to simply as Coke...
bottle, thrown out of an aeroplane, suddenly lands from the sky. The late Jamie Uys
Jamie Uys
Jacobus Johannes Uys , better known as Jamie Uys, was a South African film director.-Early life:Prior to his foray into film, Uys was a math teacher in his hometown of Boksburg. He then married Hettie, a fellow math teacher and the couple started farming and opening trading posts along the Palala...
, who wrote and directed The Gods Must Be Crazy, also had success overseas in the 1970s with his films Funny People and Funny People II, similar to the TV series Candid Camera
Candid Camera
Candid Camera is a hidden camera/practical joke reality television series created and produced by Allen Funt, which initially began on radio as Candid Microphone June 28, 1947...
in the US. Leon Schuster
Leon Schuster
Leon Ernest "Schuks" Schuster is a South African filmmaker, comedian, actor, presenter and singer.- Early life :Schuster was drawn to the filmmaking process at an early age...
's You Must Be Joking! films are in the same genre, and hugely popular among South Africans.
Arguably, the most high-profile film portraying South Africa in recent years was "District 9
District 9
District 9 is a 2009 South African science fiction thriller film directed by Neill Blomkamp. It was written by Blomkamp and Terri Tatchell, and produced by Peter Jackson and Carolynne Cunningham. The film stars Sharlto Copley, Jason Cope, and David James...
". Directed by Neill Blomkamp
Neill Blomkamp
Neill Blomkamp is an Afrikaner-Canadian film and advertisement writer and director. Blomkamp employs a documentary-style, hand-held, cinéma vérité technique, blending naturalistic and photo-realistic computer-generated effects. He is best known as the co-writer and director of critically acclaimed...
, a native South African, and produced by Peter Jackson
Peter Jackson
Sir Peter Robert Jackson, KNZM is a New Zealand film director, producer, actor, and screenwriter, known for his The Lord of the Rings film trilogy , adapted from the novel by J. R. R...
, the action/science-fiction film depicts a sub-class of alien refugees forced to live in the slums of Johannesburg
Johannesburg
Johannesburg also known as Jozi, Jo'burg or Egoli, is the largest city in South Africa, by population. Johannesburg is the provincial capital of Gauteng, the wealthiest province in South Africa, having the largest economy of any metropolitan region in Sub-Saharan Africa...
in what many saw as a creative allegory for apartheid. The film was a critical and commercial success worldwide, and was nominated for Best Picture at the 82nd Academy Awards
82nd Academy Awards
The 82nd Academy Awards ceremony, presented by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences , honored the best films of 2009 and took place March 7, 2010, at the Kodak Theatre in Hollywood, Los Angeles beginning at 5:30 p.m. PST / 8:30 p.m. EST. The ceremony was scheduled well after...
.
Other notable exceptions are the film Tsotsi
Tsotsi
Tsotsi is a 2005 film written and directed by Gavin Hood. The film is an adaptation of the novel Tsotsi, by Athol Fugard. The soundtrack features Kwaito music performed by popular South African artist Zola as well as a score by Mark Kilian and Paul Hepker featuring the voice of South African...
, which won the Academy Award for Foreign Language Film at the 78th Academy Awards
78th Academy Awards
The 78th Academy Awards honored the best films of 2005 and were held on March 5, 2006, at the Kodak Theatre in Hollywood, California. They were hosted by The Daily Show host Jon Stewart, with Tom Kane making his first appearance as the show's announcer...
in 2006 as well as U-Carmen e-Khayelitsha, which won the Golden Bear
Golden Bear
According to legend, the Golden Bear was a large golden Ursus arctos. Members of the Ursus arctos species can reach masses of . The Grizzly Bear and the Kodiak Bear are North American subspecies of the Brown Bear....
at the 2005 Berlin International Film Festival
Berlin International Film Festival
The Berlin International Film Festival , also called the Berlinale, is one of the world's leading film festivals and most reputable media events. It is held in Berlin, Germany. Founded in West Berlin in 1951, the festival has been celebrated annually in February since 1978...
.
Music
There is great diversity in music from South Africa. Many black musicians who sang in Afrikaans or English during apartheid have since begun to sing in traditional African languages, and have developed a unique style called KwaitoKwaito
Kwaito is a music genre that emerged in Johannesburg, South Africa, during the 1990s. It is a variant of house music featuring the use of African sounds and samples. Typically at a slower tempo range than other styles of house music, Kwaito often contains catchy melodic and percussive loop samples,...
. Of note is Brenda Fassie
Brenda Fassie
Brenda Fassie , was a South African pop singer. She was known for her "outrageousness" and widely considered a voice for disenfranchised blacks during apartheid. She was affectionately known as the Queen of African Pop and her nickname amongst fans was Mabrr.-Biography:Brenda was born in Langa,...
, who launched to fame with her song "Weekend Special", which was sung in English. More famous traditional musicians include Ladysmith Black Mambazo
Ladysmith Black Mambazo
Ladysmith Black Mambazo is a male choral group from South Africa that sings in the vocal styles of isicathamiya and mbube. They rose to worldwide prominence as a result of singing with Paul Simon on his album, Graceland and have won multiple awards, including three Grammy Awards...
, while the Soweto String Quartet
Soweto String Quartet
The Soweto String Quartet is a string quartet from Soweto in South Africa composed of Reuben Khemese, Makhosini Mnguni, Sandile Khemese and Thami Khemese. Their music is a fusion of the "dance rhythms of Kwela, the syncopated guitars of Mbaqanga, the saxophones and trumpets of swaying African jazz...
performs classic music with an African flavour. White and Coloured South African singers are historically influenced by European musical styles.
South Africa has produced world-famous jazz musicians, notably Hugh Masekela
Hugh Masekela
Hugh Ramopolo Masekela is a South African trumpeter, flugelhornist, cornetist, composer, and singer.-Early life:Masekela was born in Kwa-Guqa Township, Witbank, South Africa. He began singing and playing piano as a child...
, Jonas Gwangwa
Jonas Gwangwa
Jonas Mosa Gwangwa has been an important figure in South African jazz for over 40 years. He first gained significance playing trombone with The Jazz Epistles...
, Abdullah Ibrahim
Abdullah Ibrahim
Abdullah Ibrahim , born Adolph Johannes Brand, 9 October 1934 in Cape Town, South Africa, and formerly known as Dollar Brand, is a South African pianist and composer...
, Miriam Makeba
Miriam Makeba
Miriam Makeba , nicknamed Mama Africa, was a Grammy Award winning South African singer and civil rights activist....
, Jonathan Butler
Jonathan Butler
Jonathan Butler is a singer-songwriter and guitarist. His music is often classified as R&B, jazz fusion or worship music.-Biography:...
, Chris McGregor
Chris McGregor
Christopher McGregor , was a South African jazz pianist, bandleader and composer born in Somerset West, South Africa.- Early influences :...
, and Sathima Bea Benjamin
Sathima Bea Benjamin
Sathima Bea Benjamin , is a South African vocalist and composer born in Johannesburg, raised in Cape Town, and now based in New York City.-Early life:...
. Afrikaans music covers multiple genres, such as the contemporary Steve Hofmeyr
Steve Hofmeyr
-Career:Hofmeyr matriculated in 1982 at Grey College. After two years compulsory army and border duty, he went to Pretoria Technikon Drama School.-Recording star and performer:...
and the punk rock
Punk rock
Punk rock is a rock music genre that developed between 1974 and 1976 in the United States, the United Kingdom, and Australia. Rooted in garage rock and other forms of what is now known as protopunk music, punk rock bands eschewed perceived excesses of mainstream 1970s rock...
band Fokofpolisiekar
Fokofpolisiekar
Fokofpolisiekar is an Afrikaans punk rock band from Bellville, near Cape Town, South Africa. Due to the obscenity in the name, they are also commonly known simply as Polisiekar or FPK.-Band history:...
. Crossover artists such as Verity
Verity Price
Verity is a singer, songwriter, actress and motivational speaker from Cape Town, South Africa.-Biography:Verity was born in Zimbabwe and raised in South Africa. She won the Catch a Rising Star talent search in Florida in 2002 and was awarded a US working visa as an artist of outstanding ability in...
(internationally recognised for innovation in the music industry) and Johnny Clegg and his bands Juluka
Juluka
Juluka was a South African music band formed in 1969 by Johnny Clegg and Sipho Mchunu. Juluka means "sweat", and was the name of a bull owned by Mchunu.-Career:...
and Savuka
Savuka
Savuka was a band formed in 1986 by English-born South African Johnny Clegg after the disbanding of his first band, Juluka. Both of his bands were inter-racial in the racially segregated Apartheid South Africa...
have enjoyed various success underground, publicly, and abroad.
The South African music scene includes Kwaito, a new music genre that had developed in the mid 80s and has since developed to become the most popular socio-economic form of representation among the populace. Some may argue that the political aspects of Kwaito have diminished after Apartheid, and the relative interest in politics has become a minor aspect of daily life. Others argue that in a sense, Kwaito is in fact a political force that shows activism in its apolitical actions.
Today, major corporations like Sony
Sony
, commonly referred to as Sony, is a Japanese multinational conglomerate corporation headquartered in Minato, Tokyo, Japan and the world's fifth largest media conglomerate measured by revenues....
, BMG
BMG
Bertelsmann Music Group, , was a division of Bertelsmann before its completion of sale of the majority of its assets to Japan's Sony Corporation of America on October 1, 2008. It was established in 1987 to combine the music label activities of Bertelsmann...
, and EMI
EMI
The EMI Group, also known as EMI Music or simply EMI, is a multinational music company headquartered in London, United Kingdom. It is the fourth-largest business group and family of record labels in the recording industry and one of the "big four" record companies. EMI Group also has a major...
have appeared on the South African scene to produce and distribute Kwaito music. Due to its overwhelming popularity, as well as the general influence of DJs, who are among the top 5 most influential types of people within the country, Kwaito has taken over radio, television, and magazines.
Cuisine
Braai
The word braaivleis is Afrikaans for "grilled meat."The word braai is Afrikaans for "barbecue" or "grill" and is a social custom in South Africa, Botswana, Namibia, Lesotho, Zimbabwe and Zambia. The term originated with the Afrikaner people, but has since been adopted by South Africans of many...
, or barbecue. Braai is widely popular, especially with whites, and includes meat, especially boerewors
Boerewors
Boerewors is a sausage, popular in South African cuisine. The name comes from the Afrikaans words and , and is pronounced , with a trilled .-History:...
or spicy sausages, and mielies (maize) or Mielie-meal
Mielie-meal
In South Africa, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Malawi, and many other parts of sub-Saharan Africa, a relatively coarse flour made from maize ....
, often as a porridge, or pearl millet
Pearl millet
Pearl millet is the most widely grown type of millet. Grown in Africa and the Indian subcontinent since prehistoric times, it is generally accepted that pearl millet originated in Africa and was subsequently introduced into India. The center of diversity, and suggested area of domestication, for...
, a staple food of black South Africans. Pastries such like koeksisters and desserts like melktert
Melktert
Meaning "milk tart" in Afrikaans, melktert is a South African dessert. It is a sweet pastry crust containing a creamy filling made from milk, flour, sugar and eggs. The ratio of milk to egg is higher than in a traditional European custard tart or Chinese egg tart, resulting in a lighter texture...
(milk tart) are also universally popular. Vegetarianism is becoming widely accepted.
India
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
n food like curry
Curry
Curry is a generic description used throughout Western culture to describe a variety of dishes from Indian, Pakistani, Bangladeshi, Sri Lankan, Thai or other Southeast Asian cuisines...
is also popular, especially in Durban
Durban
Durban is the largest city in the South African province of KwaZulu-Natal and the third largest city in South Africa. It forms part of the eThekwini metropolitan municipality. Durban is famous for being the busiest port in South Africa. It is also seen as one of the major centres of tourism...
with its large Indian
Asians in South Africa
The majority of the Asian South African population is Indian in origin, most of them descended from indentured workers transported to work in the 19th century on the sugar plantations of the eastern coastal area, then known as Natal. They are largely English speaking, although many also retain the...
population. Another local Indian Durban speciality is the 'bunny' or bunny chow
Bunny chow
Bunny chow, often referred to as a Bunny is a South African fast food dish consisting of a hollowed out loaf of bread filled with curry, that originated in the Durban Indian community. Bunny chow is also called a kota in many parts of South Africa.-History:The bunny chow was created in Durban,...
, which consists of a hollowed-out loaf of white bread filled with curry.
The Portuguese
Portugal
Portugal , officially the Portuguese Republic is a country situated in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula. Portugal is the westernmost country of Europe, and is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the West and South and by Spain to the North and East. The Atlantic archipelagos of the...
community has also made its mark, with spicy peri-peri chicken being a favourite. The South African Portuguese-themed restaurant chain Nando's
Nando's
Nando's is a casual dining restaurant group originating from South Africa with a Portuguese/Mozambican theme. Founded in 1987, Nando's operates in thirty countries on five continents....
now has restaurants in the UK, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Malaysia and Kenya
Kenya
Kenya , officially known as the Republic of Kenya, is a country in East Africa that lies on the equator, with the Indian Ocean to its south-east...
.
Wine
South Africa has developed into a major wine producer, with some of the best vineyardVineyard
A vineyard is a plantation of grape-bearing vines, grown mainly for winemaking, but also raisins, table grapes and non-alcoholic grape juice...
s lying in valleys around Stellenbosch, Franschoek, Paarl
Paarl
Paarl is a town with 191,013 inhabitants in the Western Cape province of South Africa. Its the third oldest European settlement in the Republic of South Africa and the largest town in the Cape Winelands. Due to the growth of the Mbekweni township, it is now a de facto urban unit with Wellington...
and Barrydale
Barrydale
Barrydale is a village located on the border of the Overberg and Klein Karoo regions of the Western Cape Province in South Africa. Named after James Barry, it is situated at the northern end of the Tradouw's pass which winds its way through the mountains to Swellendam.-History:Barrydale's history...
. South African wine
South African wine
South African wine has a history dating back to 1659, and at one time Constantia was considered one of the greatest wines in the world. Access to international markets has unleashed a burst of new energy and new investment. Production is concentrated around Cape Town, with major vineyard and...
has a history dating back to 1659, and at one time Constantia
Constantia, Cape Town
Constantia is an affluent suburb of Cape Town, South Africa, situated about 15 kilometres south of the centre of Cape Town. The Constantia Valley lies to the east of and at the foot of the Constantiaberg mountain. Constantia Nek is a low pass linking to Hout Bay in the west.-History:Constantia is...
was considered one of the greatest wines in the world. Access to international markets has unleashed a burst of new energy and new investment. Production is concentrated around Cape Town
Cape Town
Cape Town is the second-most populous city in South Africa, and the provincial capital and primate city of the Western Cape. As the seat of the National Parliament, it is also the legislative capital of the country. It forms part of the City of Cape Town metropolitan municipality...
, with major vineyard and production centres at Paarl
Paarl
Paarl is a town with 191,013 inhabitants in the Western Cape province of South Africa. Its the third oldest European settlement in the Republic of South Africa and the largest town in the Cape Winelands. Due to the growth of the Mbekweni township, it is now a de facto urban unit with Wellington...
, Stellenbosch and Worcester
Worcester, Western Cape
Worcester is a town in the Western Cape, South Africa. It is located 120 km north-east of Cape Town on the N1 highway north to Johannesburg....
.
There are about 60 appellations within the Wine of Origin (WO) system, which was implemented in 1973 with a hierarchy of designated production regions, districts and wards. WO wines must be made 100% from grapes from the designated area. "Single vineyard" wines must come from a defined area of less than 5 hectares. An "Estate Wine" can come from adjacent farms, as long as they are farmed together and wine is produced on site. A ward is an area with a distinctive soil type and/or climate, and is roughly equivalent to a European appellation.
Education
Primary schools span the first seven years of schooling. High School education spans a further five years. The Senior Certificate
National Senior Certificate
The National Senior Certificate or NSC is the equivalent of a high school diploma and is the school-leaving certificate in South Africa. This certificate is commonly known as the matriculant certificate, as grade 12 is known as the matriculation grade...
examination takes place at the end of grade 12 and is necessary for tertiary studies at a South African university.
See: Matriculation in South Africa
Matriculation in South Africa
In South Africa, matriculation is a term commonly used to refer to the final year of high school and the qualification received on graduating from high school, although strictly speaking, it refers to the minimum university entrance requirements. The first formal examination was conducted in...
; High school: South Africa.
Public universities in South Africa are divided into three types: traditional universities, which offer theoretically oriented university degrees; universities of technology ("Technikon
Technikon
Technikon is a term used in South Africa to refer to a University of Technology. A synonym is "Technical University".Technikons focus mainly on providing high quality education and giving a hands-on approach to education and training...
s"), which offer vocational oriented diplomas and degrees; and comprehensive universities, which offer both types of qualification. Public institutions are usually English medium, although instruction may take place in Afrikaans
Afrikaans
Afrikaans is a West Germanic language, spoken natively in South Africa and Namibia. It is a daughter language of Dutch, originating in its 17th century dialects, collectively referred to as Cape Dutch .Afrikaans is a daughter language of Dutch; see , , , , , .Afrikaans was historically called Cape...
as well. There are also a large number of other educational institutions in South Africa – some are local campuses of foreign universities, some conduct classes for students who write their exams at the distance-education University of South Africa
University of South Africa
The University of South Africa is a distance education university, with headquarters in Pretoria, South Africa. With approximately 300 000 enrolled students, it qualifies as one of the world's mega universities.-History:...
and some offer unaccredited or non-accredited diplomas.
See: List of universities in South Africa; List of post secondary institutions in South Africa; :Category:Higher education in South Africa.
Public expenditure on education was at 5.4 % of the 2002–05 GDP.
Under Apartheid, schools for blacks were subject to discrimination through inadequate funding and a separate syllabus called Bantu Education
Bantu Education Act
Bantu Education Act of 1953 was a South African law which codified several aspects of the apartheid system. Its major provision was enforced separation of races in all educational institutions. Even universities were made 'tribal', and all but three Missionary schools chose to close down when the...
which was only designed to give them sufficient skills to work as labourers. Redressing these imbalances has been a focus of recent education policy; see Education in South Africa: Restructuring.
Gender roles
In general, all racial and ethnic groups in South Africa have long-standing beliefs concerning gender roles, and most are based on the premise that women are less important, or less deserving of power, than men. Most African traditional social organisations are male centred and male dominated. Even in the 1990s, in some rural areas of South Africa, for example, wives walk a few paces behind their husbands in keeping with traditional practices. A minority of ultra-conservative AfrikanerAfrikaner
Afrikaners are an ethnic group in Southern Africa descended from almost equal numbers of Dutch, French and German settlers whose native tongue is Afrikaans: a Germanic language which derives primarily from 17th century Dutch, and a variety of other languages.-Related ethno-linguistic groups:The...
's religious beliefs, too, include a strong emphasis on the theoretically biblically based notion that women's contributions to society should normally be approved by, or be on behalf of, men. English speaking whites tend to be the most liberal group, including on issues pertaining to gender roles.
20th century economic and political developments presented South African women with both new obstacles and new opportunities to wield influence. For example, labour force requirements in cities and mining areas have often drawn men away from their homes for months at a time, and, as a result, women have borne many traditionally male responsibilities in the village and home. Women have had to guarantee the day-to-day survival of their families and to carry out financial and legal transactions that otherwise would have been reserved for men.
Sexual orientation
Although the Constitutional and legal system in South Africa theoretically ensure equality, social acceptance is generally lacking, especially outside of urban areas. Gay women from smaller towns (especially the townshipsTownship (South Africa)
In South Africa, the term township and location usually refers to the urban living areas that, from the late 19th century until the end of Apartheid, were reserved for non-whites . Townships were usually built on the periphery of towns and cities...
) are often victims of beating or rape. This has been posited, in part, to be because of the perceived threat they pose to traditional male authority. Although evidence of hatred may influence rulings on a case-by-case basis, South Africa has no specific "hate crime" legislation; human rights organisations have criticised the South African police for failing to address the matter of bias motivated crimes.
For example, the NGO ActionAid
ActionAid
ActionAid was founded in 1972 as a child sponsorship charity when 88 UK supporters sponsored 88 children in India and Kenya, the focus primarily being to provide children with an education. Global accounts are now reported in Euros and in 2007 and 2008 turnover was close to 180m Euros...
has condemned the continued impunity
Impunity
Impunity means "exemption from punishment or loss or escape from fines". In the international law of human rights, it refers to the failure to bring perpetrators of human rights violations to justice and, as such, itself constitutes a denial of the victims' right to justice and redress...
and accused governments of turning a blind eye to reported murders of lesbians in homophobic attacks in South Africa; as well as to so-called “corrective” rapes
Corrective rape
Corrective rape is a criminal practice first seen in South Africa, whereby lesbian women are raped by men, sometimes under supervision by members of their families or local communities, purportedly as a means of "curing" them of their homosexuality....
, including cases among pupils, in which cases the male rapists purport to raping the lesbian victim with the intent of thereby “curing” her of her sexual orientation. Human rights watchdogs believe that much of the sexism
Sexism
Sexism, also known as gender discrimination or sex discrimination, is the application of the belief or attitude that there are characteristics implicit to one's gender that indirectly affect one's abilities in unrelated areas...
and homophobia
Homophobia
Homophobia is a term used to refer to a range of negative attitudes and feelings towards lesbian, gay and in some cases bisexual, transgender people and behavior, although these are usually covered under other terms such as biphobia and transphobia. Definitions refer to irrational fear, with the...
that erupts is tied to male frustration with unemployment and poverty.
Science and technology
Several important scientific and technological developments have originated in South Africa. The first human-to-human heart transplant was performed by cardiac surgeon Christiaan BarnardChristiaan Barnard
Christiaan Neethling Barnard was a South African cardiac surgeon who performed the world's first successful human-to-human heart transplant.- Early life :...
at Groote Schuur Hospital
Groote Schuur Hospital
Groote Schuur Hospital is a large, government-funded, teaching hospital situated on the slopes of Devil's Peak in the city of Cape Town, South Africa...
in December 1967. Max Theiler
Max Theiler
Max Theiler was a South African/American virologist. He was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1951 for developing a vaccine against yellow fever.-Career development:...
developed a vaccine against Yellow Fever, Allan McLeod Cormack
Allan McLeod Cormack
Allan MacLeod Cormack was a South African-born American physicist who won the 1979 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for his work on X-ray computed tomography ....
pioneered x-ray Computed tomography
Computed tomography
X-ray computed tomography or Computer tomography , is a medical imaging method employing tomography created by computer processing...
, and Aaron Klug
Aaron Klug
Sir Aaron Klug, OM, PRS is a Lithuanian-born British chemist and biophysicist, and winner of the 1982 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his development of crystallographic electron microscopy and his structural elucidation of biologically important nucleic acid-protein complexes.-Biography:Klug was...
developed crystallographic electron microscopy techniques. These advancements were all (with the exception of that of Barnard) recognised with Nobel Prize
Nobel Prize
The Nobel Prizes are annual international awards bestowed by Scandinavian committees in recognition of cultural and scientific advances. The will of the Swedish chemist Alfred Nobel, the inventor of dynamite, established the prizes in 1895...
s. Sydney Brenner
Sydney Brenner
Sydney Brenner, CH FRS is a South African biologist and a 2002 Nobel prize in Physiology or Medicine laureate, shared with H...
won most recently, in 2002, for his pioneering work in molecular biology
Molecular biology
Molecular biology is the branch of biology that deals with the molecular basis of biological activity. This field overlaps with other areas of biology and chemistry, particularly genetics and biochemistry...
.
Mark Shuttleworth
Mark Shuttleworth
Mark Richard Shuttleworth is a South African entrepreneur who was the second self-funded space tourist. Shuttleworth founded Canonical Ltd. and as of 2010, provides leadership for the Ubuntu operating system...
founded an early Internet security company Thawte
Thawte
Thawte Consulting is a certificate authority for X.509 certificates. Thawte was founded in 1995 by Mark Shuttleworth in South Africa and is the second largest public CA on the Internet.-Origins:...
, that was subsequently bought out by world-leader VeriSign
VeriSign
Verisign, Inc. is an American company based in Dulles, Virginia that operates a diverse array of network infrastructure, including two of the Internet's thirteen root nameservers, the authoritative registry for the .com, .net, and .name generic top-level domains and the .cc and .tv country-code...
. Despite government efforts to encourage entrepreneurship in biotechnology, IT and other high technology fields, no other notable groundbreaking companies have been founded in South Africa. However, it is the expressed objective of the government to transition the economy to be more reliant on high technology, based on the realisation that South Africa cannot compete with Far Eastern economies in manufacturing, nor can the republic rely on its mineral wealth in perpetuity.
South Africa has cultivated a burgeoning astronomy community. It hosts the Southern African Large Telescope
Southern African Large Telescope
The Southern African Large Telescope is a 66m2 area optical telescope with a nominally 9.2 meter aperture but up to about 11.1m x ~9.8 m diameter aperture, and designed mainly for spectroscopy. It is located close to the town of Sutherland in the semi-desert region of the Karoo, South Africa...
, the largest optical telescope in the southern hemisphere. South Africa is currently building the Karoo Array Telescope as a pathfinder for the $20 billion Square Kilometer Array project. South Africa is a finalist, with Australia, to be the host of the SKA.
Sports
South Africa's most popular sports are soccer, rugbyRugby union
Rugby union, often simply referred to as rugby, is a full contact team sport which originated in England in the early 19th century. One of the two codes of rugby football, it is based on running with the ball in hand...
and cricket
Cricket
Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of 11 players on an oval-shaped field, at the centre of which is a rectangular 22-yard long pitch. One team bats, trying to score as many runs as possible while the other team bowls and fields, trying to dismiss the batsmen and thus limit the...
. Other sports with significant support are swimming, athletics, golf, boxing, tennis and netball. Although soccer commands the greatest following among the youth, other sports like basketball, surfing and skateboarding are increasingly popular.
Famous boxing personalities include Baby Jake Jacob Matlala, Vuyani Bungu
Vuyani Bungu
Vuyani Bungu was a professional boxer. Known as "Carousel Kid" or "The Beast", Bungu was a force in the super bantamweight division throughout the 1990s.-Professional career:...
, Welcome Ncita
Welcome Ncita
Welcome Ncita was a professional boxer and IBF Super Bantamweight Champion. Ncita was born in Mdantsane, South Africa.Known as "The Hawk", Ncita turned professional in 1984 and in 1994 captured the International Boxing Federation Super Bantamweight Title with a victory over Fabrice Benichou in a...
, Dingaan Thobela
Dingaan Thobela
Dingaan Bongane Thobela , is a professional boxer in the Super Middleweight division."Rose of Soweto" The Dingaan Thobela story , the intimate biography written by Internationally renowned Deon Potgieter is available for order through all leading on-line stores world wide e.g.; Amazon, Barnes &...
, Gerrie Coetzee
Gerrie Coetzee
Gerhardus Christian Coetzee , better known as Gerrie Coetzee, is a South African former boxer. He made history twice: he was the first boxer from the African continent ever to fight for the World Heavyweight Title, and the first to win the World Heavyweight Title...
and Brian Mitchell. Soccer players who have played for major foreign clubs include Lucas Radebe
Lucas Radebe
Lucas Valeriu Radebe is a former Leeds United and South African football player. During his career, Radebe was renowned for being a world-class centre back and a great ambassador for the sport....
and Philemon Masinga
Philemon Masinga
Philemon "Phil" Raoul Masinga is a South African former international footballer. He represented South Africa in 58 international games, scoring 18 goals....
(both formerly of Leeds United
Leeds United A.F.C.
Leeds United Association Football Club are an English professional association football club based in Beeston, Leeds, West Yorkshire, who play in the Football League Championship, the second tier of the English football league system...
), Quinton Fortune (Atletico Madrid and Manchester United
Manchester United F.C.
Manchester United Football Club is an English professional football club, based in Old Trafford, Greater Manchester, that plays in the Premier League. Founded as Newton Heath LYR Football Club in 1878, the club changed its name to Manchester United in 1902 and moved to Old Trafford in 1910.The 1958...
), Benni McCarthy
Benni McCarthy
Benedict Saul "Benni" McCarthy is a South African footballer who is currently contracted to Orlando Pirates in South Africa.McCarthy holds the record of international goals for a South African...
(Ajax Amsterdam
Ajax Amsterdam
Amsterdamsche Football Club Ajax , also referred to as AFC Ajax, Ajax Amsterdam or simply Ajax , is a professional football club from Amsterdam, Netherlands...
, F.C. Porto, Blackburn Rovers
Blackburn Rovers F.C.
Blackburn Rovers Football Club is an English professional association football club based in the town of Blackburn, Lancashire. The team currently competes in the Premier League, the top tier of English football....
and West Ham United
West Ham United F.C.
West Ham United Football Club is an English professional football club based in Upton Park, Newham, East London. They play in The Football League Championship. The club was founded in 1895 as Thames Ironworks FC and reformed in 1900 as West Ham United. In 1904 the club relocated to their current...
), Aaron Mokoena
Aaron Mokoena
Teboho Aaron Mokoena is a South African footballer who plays for and captains Football League Championship club Portsmouth and the South African national team.-Early career:...
(Ajax Amsterdam, Blackburn Rovers and Portsmouth
Portsmouth F.C.
Portsmouth Football Club is an English football club based in the city of Portsmouth. The club is nicknamed Pompey. Portsmouth's home matches have been played at Fratton Park since the club's formation in 1898. The team currently play in the Football League Championship after being relegated from...
), Delron Buckley
Delron Buckley
Delron Sebastian Buckley is a South African footballer playing for Karlsruher SC.-Club career:Buckley's soccer career began with his local team Butcherfille Rovers Durban, but when he was 17 years old he was signed by German club VfL Bochum...
(Borussia Dortmund
Borussia Dortmund
Ballspielverein Borussia Dortmund, commonly BVB, are a German sports club based in Dortmund, North Rhine-Westphalia. Dortmund are one of the most successful clubs in German football history. Borussia Dortmund play in the Bundesliga, the top league of German football...
) and Steven Pienaar
Steven Pienaar
Steven Jerome Pienaar is a South African footballer who plays for English Premier League club Tottenham Hotspur. He can play on either the right or left wing and is also a member of the South African national team. Pienaar has previously played for Ajax Cape Town, Ajax, Borussia Dortmund and Everton...
(Ajax Amsterdam and Everton
Everton F.C.
Everton Football Club are an English professional association football club from the city of Liverpool. The club competes in the Premier League, the highest level of English football...
). Durban Surfer Jordy Smith
Jordy Smith
Jordan Michael "Jordy" Smith is a South African professional surfer competing on the World Championship Tour . In 2007 Smith won surfing's World Qualifying Series, the second-tier tour which leads to qualification for the WCT....
won the 2010 Billabong J-Bay competition making him the no 1 ranked surfer in the world. South Africa produced Formula One
Formula One
Formula One, also known as Formula 1 or F1 and referred to officially as the FIA Formula One World Championship, is the highest class of single seater auto racing sanctioned by the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile . The "formula" designation in the name refers to a set of rules with which...
motor racing's 1979 world champion Jody Scheckter
Jody Scheckter
Jody David Scheckter is a South African former auto racing driver, the Formula One World Drivers Champion.-Career:Scheckter was born in East London, South Africa and educated at Selborne College.-Formula One:...
. Famous current cricket players include Herschelle Gibbs
Herschelle Gibbs
Herschelle Herman Gibbs is a South African cricketer, more specifically a batsman.Gibbs was schooled at St Joseph's Marist College and then Diocesan College in Rondebosch...
, Graeme Smith
Graeme Smith
Graeme Craig Smith is a South African cricketer and captain of the South African cricket team Test Match side, having succeeded Shaun Pollock after the 2003 Cricket World Cup...
, Jacques Kallis
Jacques Kallis
Jacques Henry Kallis is a South African cricketer. As an all-rounder he is a formidable right-handed batsman and fast-medium swingbowler. He is one of the greatest all-rounders of all time, being the only cricketer in the history of the game to hold more than 12,000 runs and 250 wickets in both...
, JP Duminy, etc. Most of them also participate in the Indian Premier League
Indian Premier League
The Indian Premier League is a professional league for Twenty20 cricket competition in India. It was initiated by the Board of Control for Cricket in India , headquartered in Mumbai, and is supervised by BCCI Vice President Rajeev Shukla, who serves as the league's Chairman and Commissioner...
.
South Africa has also produced numerous world class rugby players, including Francois Pienaar
Francois Pienaar
Jacobus Francois Pienaar is a South African former rugby union player. He played flanker for South Africa from 1993 until 1996, winning 29 international caps, all of them as captain. He is best known for leading South Africa to victory in the 1995 Rugby World Cup...
, Joost van der Westhuizen
Joost van der Westhuizen
Joost van der Westhuizen is a former South African rugby union footballer who was the Springboks' first choice scrum-half in the mid-to-late 1990s and early 2000s. He was capped 89 times for the Springboks and scored 38 tries...
, Danie Craven
Danie Craven
Daniël Hartman Craven , more famously known as Danie Craven or simply Doc Craven, is a former Western Province, Eastern Province, Northern Transvaal and Springbok rugby union player as well as arguably South Africa's best and best-known rugby administrator...
, Frik du Preez
Frik du Preez
Frederik Christoffel Hendrik "Frik" du Preez is a former South African rugby union player who represented Northern Transvaal and the Springboks. He was born on a farm near Rustenburg and went to school at the Parys High School in Parys...
, Naas Botha and Bryan Habana
Bryan Habana
Bryan Gary Habana is a South African rugby union player who plays as a wing for the Western Province in the Currie Cup, the Stormers in Super 14, and the 2007 Rugby World Cup champions Springboks...
. South Africa hosted and won the 1995 Rugby World Cup
1995 Rugby World Cup
The 1995 Rugby World Cup was the third Rugby World Cup. It was hosted and won by South Africa, and was the first Rugby World Cup in which every match was held in one country....
and won the 2007 Rugby World Cup in France
France national rugby union team
The France national rugby union team represents France in rugby union. They compete annually against England, Ireland, Italy, Scotland and Wales in the Six Nations Championship. They have won the championship outright sixteen times, shared it a further eight times, and have completed nine grand slams...
. It followed the 1995 Rugby World Cup by hosting the 1996 African Cup of Nations
1996 African Cup of Nations
-Group B:---------------------Group C:------------ withdrew, so their three matches were canceled.*vs. , January 16, 1996*vs. , January 19, 1996*vs...
, with the national team
South Africa national football team
The South Africa national football team represents South Africa in association football and is controlled by the South African Football Association, the governing body for football in South Africa. South Africa's home ground is Soccer City, known as FNB Stadium due to a naming rights deal, in...
going on to win the tournament. It also hosted the 2003 Cricket World Cup
2003 Cricket World Cup
-Group stage tables and results:The top three teams from each pool qualify for the next stage, carrying forward the points already scored against fellow qualifiers, plus a quarter of the points scored against the teams that failed to qualify.-Pool A:...
, the 2007 World Twenty20 Championship
ICC World Twenty20
The ICC World Twenty20 or ICC World T20 also referred to as the T20 World Cup is the international championship of Twenty20 cricket. The event is organised by the sport's governing body, the International Cricket Council...
, and it was the host nation for the 2010 FIFA World Cup
2010 FIFA World Cup
The 2010 FIFA World Cup was the 19th FIFA World Cup, the world championship for men's national association football teams. It took place in South Africa from 11 June to 11 July 2010...
, which was the first time the tournament was held in Africa. FIFA president Sepp Blatter
Sepp Blatter
Joseph S. Blatter , commonly known as Sepp Blatter, is a Swiss football administrator, who serves as the 8th and current President of FIFA . He was elected on 8 June 1998, succeeding João Havelange. He was re-elected as President in 2002, 2007, and 2011...
awarded South Africa a grade 9 out of 10 for successfully hosting the event.
In 2004, the swimming team of Roland Schoeman, Lyndon Ferns
Lyndon Ferns
Lyndon Ferns is a retired Olympic gold-medalist and former world record swimmer from South Africa. He swam for South Africa at the 2004 and 2008 Olympics....
, Darian Townsend
Darian Townsend
Darian Roy Townsend is a college and international swimmer from South Africa who is an Olympic gold medalist.Townsend was born in Pinetown, KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa....
and Ryk Neethling
Ryk Neethling
Ryk Neethling is a South African swimmer. He won an Olympic gold medal in the 4×100 m freestyle relay at the 2004 Summer Olympics. He is the former joint owner of the 4×100 m freestyle relay world record and holds several South African records...
won the gold medal at the Olympic Games in Athens, simultaneously breaking the world record in the 4x100 freestyle relay. Penny Heyns won Olympic Gold in the 1996 Atlanta Olympic Games.
In golf, Gary Player
Gary Player
Gary Player DMS; OIG is a South African professional golfer. With his nine major championship victories, he is widely regarded as one of the greatest players in the history of golf. He was inducted into the World Golf Hall of Fame in 1974. Player has won 165 tournaments on six continents over six...
is generally regarded as one of the greatest golfers of all time, having won the Career Grand Slam
Grand Slam (golf)
The Grand Slam in golf is winning all the golf's major championships in the same calendar year.-The Men's Grand Slam:The Grand Slam in men's golf is an unofficial concept, having changed over time. In the modern era, The Grand Slam is generally considered to be winning all four of golf's major...
, one of five golfers to have done so. Other South African golfers to have won major tournaments include Bobby Locke
Bobby Locke
Arthur D'Arcy "Bobby" Locke was the first internationally successful South African professional golfer. He won four Open Championships.-Early years:...
, Ernie Els
Ernie Els
Theodore Ernest "Ernie" Els is a South African professional golfer, who has been one of the top professional players in the world since the mid-1990s. A former World No. 1, he is known as "The Big Easy" due to his imposing physical stature along with his fluid, seemingly effortless golf swing...
, Retief Goosen
Retief Goosen
Retief Goosen is a South African professional golfer who has been in the top ten in the Official World Golf Rankings for over 250 weeks between 2001 and 2007. His main achievements have been two U.S...
, Trevor Immelman
Trevor Immelman
Trevor John Immelman is a South African professional golfer and winner of the 2008 Masters Tournament.-Early years:Immelman was born in Cape Town, South Africa. Born into a golfing family , he took up golf at the age of five. He attended Hottentots Holland High School...
and Louis Oosthuizen
Louis Oosthuizen
Lodewicus Theodorus "Louis" Oosthuizen is a South African professional golfer, who won the 2010 Open Championship.-Early life and career:...
.
Scouting
South Africa has also had a large influence in the ScoutingScouting
Scouting, also known as the Scout Movement, is a worldwide youth movement with the stated aim of supporting young people in their physical, mental and spiritual development, that they may play constructive roles in society....
movement, with many Scouting traditions and ceremonies coming from the experiences of Robert Baden-Powell
Robert Baden-Powell, 1st Baron Baden-Powell
Robert Stephenson Smyth Baden-Powell, 1st Baron Baden-Powell, Bt, OM, GCMG, GCVO, KCB , also known as B-P or Lord Baden-Powell, was a lieutenant-general in the British Army, writer, and founder of the Scout Movement....
(the founder of Scouting) during his time in South Africa as a military officer in the 1890s. The South African Scout Association
South African Scout Association
The South African Scout Association is the World Organization of the Scout Movement recognized Scouting association in South Africa. Scouting began in the United Kingdom in 1907 through the efforts of Robert Baden-Powell and rapidly spread to South Africa, with the first Scout troops appearing in...
was one of the first youth organisations to open its doors to youth and adults of all races in South Africa. This happened on 2 July 1977 at a conference known as Quo Vadis.