South Africa
Some of the earliest human remains in the fossil record are found in South Africa. By about A.D. 500, Bantu speaking groups began settling into what is now northeastern South Africa displacing Khoisan speaking groups to the southwest. Dutch traders landed at the southern tip of present-day South Africa in 1652 and established a stopover point on the spice route between the Netherlands and the Far East, founding the city of Cape Town. After the British seized the Cape of Good Hope area in 1806, many of the settlers of Dutch descent (Afrikaners, also called "Boers" (farmers) at the time) trekked north to found their own republics, Transvaal and Orange Free State. In the 1820s, several decades of wars began as the Zulus expanded their territory, moving out of what is today southeastern South Africa and clashing with other indigenous peoples and with expanding European settlements. The discovery of diamonds (1867) and gold (1886) spurred wealth and immigration from Europe.
Full article link:
CIA World Factbook: South Africa
CIA World Factbook: South Africa (One page summary)
South African Languages
South Africa has 11 official languages. They are (1) Afrikaans, (2) English, (3) Ndebele (which Africans call isiNdebele), (4) Sepedi, (5) Sesotho, (6) Swazi (siSwati), (7) Tsonga (Xitsonga), (8) Tswana (Setswana), (9) Venda (Tshivenda), (10) Xhosa (isiXhosa), and (11) Zulu (isiZulu). All these languages except Afrikaans and English are Bantu languages. Afrikaans developed from Dutch, but it also has words from other European languages and from Asian and African languages. South African English resembles British English with the addition of some words from Afrikaans and Bantu languages.
Full article link:
World Book Advanced: "South Africa"
Saunders, Christopher. "South Africa." World Book Advanced, World Book, 2020, www-worldbookonline-com.bw.opal-libraries.org/advanced/article?id=ar520940. Accessed 22 Apr. 2020.
