South Africa, a country study

Have you ever heard a stated fact about a place, then heard the exact opposite? I have. South Africa is the place I'm talking about. I had a second grade teacher from South Africa. She was white, so she had not seen some of the worst of the country. She had some great memories that she shared with my class about South Africa, but she never said anything negative. The absence of these negative facts told my Second Grade self that South Africa was a great place to live. Then, about two years ago, I saw a Disney Channel movie called The Color of Friendship. This movie explained apartheid and how ignorant many people were of it. This movie inspired me to do this research paper on South Africa. I wanted to know the origin and purpose of this horrible thing called apartheid.

South Africa has a rich and somewhat dark history.

Topographical map of South Africa, continent versi...

Map of the South Africa in the beginning 1900s, wi...

English: Illustration of arms of the South African...

This country started prosperously but soon enacted unfair laws that caused many wars. The people of this country had some unique ways of running it. The first inhabitants of South Africa were the Khoisans two thousand years ago. These early people were hunter-gatherers (people who hunted animals and gathered plants to eat). In the1500's, there were two western tribes, both descendants of the Khoisan. One tribe, that raised cattle and sheep, called themselves the Khoikhoi. The other tribe were hunters and had no name for themselves, but the Khoikhoi called them the San. When the Dutch first arrived in the 1600's, they called the San "Bushman" and the Khoikhoi "Hottentots". Both the Khoikhoi and the San thought the nicknames were derogatory. There were many eastern tribes without names, but they all spoke the Bantu language. These groups had started migrating from northern South Africa at about 300 A.D.