Human Geography of Southern Africa

Fossils that predate those of modern humans can be found in Southern Africa. Fossils of the first true humans are found north of the subregion in the valleys of Tanzania and Kenya. The first people to live in Southern Africa were the San, who arrived more than 20,000 years ago. Today, their descendants live in Botswana, Namibia, and Angola.

The Bantu peoples originated in central Africa, but began spreading across the continent some 3,500 years ago. The term Bantu refers to a group of about 500 related languages and to the various peoples who speak them. By about A.D. 300, Bantu peoples had migrated to Southern Africa.

One of the Bantu peoples, the Shona, established a city called Great Zimbabwe. By A.D. 1000, Great Zimbabwe had a population of between 12,000 and 20,000 people. The inhabitants farmed, raised cattle, and mined and traded gold. For 400 years, Great Zimbabwe was the center of a huge trading empire. Sometime in the 1400s, however, the city was abandoned. No one knows why. All that remains are ruins in southeastern Zimbabwe.

Madagascar’s population is also the result of migration. Around A.D. 800, a small group of people sailed in outrigger canoes from islands in Southeast Asia to Madagascar. These people were the Malagasy, and their descendants populated the entire island, later mixing with migrants from the African continent. DNA tests confirm the ancestry of Madagascar is evenly split between Indonesia and East Africa. Despite sharing ancestry, as well as the many political and economic ties to Africa, many Malagasy do not consider themselves to be African.

European Influences 

Great Zimbabwe had faded away by the time the first Europeans arrived in Southern Africa. In the 1480s, Portuguese explorers, priests, and traders sailed into the Kingdom of Kongo in what is now the northern tip of Angola. At first, relations between the Portuguese and Kongo were peaceful, but it did not last.

By the mid-1500s, an active slave trade was running throughout Southern Africa. Coastal African kings sent raiding parties inland to capture people. The captives were then traded to the Portuguese for firearms and other manufactured goods.

The Portuguese established slave and trading posts on both the east and west coasts of Southern Africa. They either traded or warred with the various kingdoms they encountered, and they shipped much gold, silver, and ivory back to Europe. In the 1600s, other European powers expanded into Africa, causing Portuguese power to wane. By the mid-1700s, Dutch, British, and local African forces had confined the Portuguese to Angola and Mozambique. Only small settlements near the coast remained subject to Portuguese control.

In 1652 the Dutch East India Company established a settlement on the Cape of Good Hope. Dutch settlers took more and more land from the local African inhabitants, expanding well beyond the influence of the Dutch East India Company.

The Dutch were aided in their expansion by disease. As in the Americas, the local population had no immunity to European diseases and many died. After a few generations, the Dutch settlers referred to themselves as Afrikaners, which means “Africans.” They were also called Boers, the Dutch word for “farmers.”

Most of the Boers used slave labor on their farms. At first, enslaved people were brought in from areas farther north, but later the Boers enslaved local people as well. In order to communicate, the Afrikaners and the Africans developed a pidgin dialect that eventually evolved into Afrikaans, a new language.

At the start of the 1800s, Cape Colony was home to 22,000 whites, 25,000 enslaved blacks, and tens of thousands of free blacks. In 1806 Great Britain seized control of Cape Colony. A year later, Britain outlawed the slave trade in all its colonies. This had a positive effect in that the British and Afrikaners were now prohibited from capturing and enslaving Africans. It did not benefit people already enslaved, who were not freed by the ending of the trade.

European contact with Madagascar was sporadic and varied. The Portuguese, British, and French tried to gain influence on the island. The French established a settlement in 1642, but it did not last. Trade continued, and both the French and the British allied themselves with various local groups and leaders. In 1896 Madagascar became a French colony.

In 1884 Germany’s new colonial goals led to the establishment of two colonies on the mainland of Africa. One, German East Africa, was farther north on the continent but did include some of what is today Mozambique. The other, German Southwest Africa, later became the country of Namibia. After losing World War I, Germany was stripped of all its African colonies. German East Africa was divided between Great Britain and Belgium. German Southwest Africa was renamed Southwest Africa, and it was placed under the control of South Africa.

Shaka 

One of the most important Africans in the history of Southern Africa was Shaka. He was the son of a Zulu chief and a Langeni princess. Shaka was raised by his mother among the Langeni and the Mthethwa. Both Shaka and his mother were treated cruelly and resented by both groups.

Shaka’s father died in 1816, when Shaka was about 30 years old. He took over the Zulu clan his father had led. He reorganized, rearmed, and retrained the Zulu army. He also instituted a draft system.

The new weapons and tactics were devastatingly effective against the other clans. Shaka’s army killed hundreds of thousands of other African people. Refugees fled inland and those who remained were incorporated into the Zulu empire.

After his assassination in 1828, the Zulu empire lived on, ruled by various relatives of Shaka. Over time, the Boers and the British began encroaching on Zulu territory. The Boers captured much of southern Zululand, but were forced to give it back. Then, in 1879, the British declared war. The Zulu army of 50,000 soldiers won the first battle in an enormous victory, but it prompted the British to send even more soldiers and supplies. The war ended with the division of the Zulu empire into 13 smaller territories. Even so, Zulu resistance to British rule continued until the first decade of the 1900s.

Cecil Rhodes 

One of the most important Europeans in the history of Southern Africa was Cecil Rhodes. He moved from England to Cape Colony (South Africa) in 1870, at the age of 17. He bought up gold and diamond mines throughout the area. By 1891, the company he started, De Beers, produced 90 percent of the world’s diamonds.

Rhodes was elected to the parliament of Cape Colony in 1881 and remained in government the rest of his life. He served as prime minister of the colony from 1890 to 1896. A committed imperialist, he used his wealth and power to further his dream of expanding British control to all of Africa.

Rhodes tried to reconcile the Dutch Boers and the British, but under British rule. He expanded British influence north into what is today Botswana, Zambia, and Zimbabwe. The latter two were once combined as the colony of Rhodesia, which was named after Rhodes.

Rhodes’s life can be seen as a metaphor for European involvement in Africa. To him, Africa was a resource to be exploited and brought under “civilized” control. Local populations were dealt with ruthlessly—although, in Rhodes’s case, generally without violence—and then ignored. The land and riches Africans once controlled were taken over by Europeans.

Independence 

After World War I, unrest against colonial rule began to grow across Africa. In 1910 the Union of South Africa was created from four British colonies. Most other countries in Southern Africa were freed from European control in the 1960s and 1970s. Namibia became independent from South Africa in 1990.

Each country had a different road to independence. In Botswana, for example, independence was quick and peaceful. In Angola, however, guerrilla forces fought the Portuguese army for 14 years. Mozambique gained independence in 1976, but fought a civil war until 1992.

In some countries, problems continued after independence. Rhodesia divided into two parts. The northern part became Zambia in 1964 with a black African majority government. In Southern Rhodesia whites took control and declared an independent country in 1965. Black Africans living there did not win the right to vote or run for office until 1978. It came only after a long period of civil war. Once black majority rule was established, the country was renamed Zimbabwe. Robert Mugabe became its first prime minister in 1980. His rule has become more brutal and repressive as political opposition to him has increased.

In South Africa, society had been segregated into blacks, whites, and South African coloured (mixed race) since colonial days. In 1948 the government established a policy called apartheid, an Afrikaans word meaning “separateness.” Under apartheid, blacks and coloureds were required to live in specific places. They were allowed certain jobs, needed permits to leave their neighborhoods, and were prohibited from having social contact with whites. Civil protests and international boycotts during the 1970s and 1980s ended the policy of white minority rule and apartheid. In 1994 South Africa’s first black president, Nelson Mandela, was elected. In 1995 he established a Truth and Reconciliation Commission to reveal the abuses that occurred under apartheid and provide restitution to its victims. South Africa had its first black majority government in modern times.Population Patterns 

How have natural resources helped to determine the location of many settlements in Southern Africa? 

Parts of the Southern Africa subregion are heavily populated while others are practically uninhabited. In general, the population increases as one moves from west to east, from the Atlantic to the Indian Ocean. Madagascar follows the same pattern of a west-to-east increase. The explanation for most of the sparsely populated western areas is physical geography. Much of Botswana and Namibia is desert that can support few people.

Throughout history, major cities have often grown up along trade routes. Until the mid-1800s, trade routes mostly involved waterways. Since Southern Africa has almost no navigable rivers, the first trade centers were located along the coast.

A second factor that affected population distribution was natural resources. In 1886 the discovery of gold in the interior of Cape Colony led to a gold rush. One town that was established near the mines, Johannesburg, is now the largest and most important city in South Africa. Many settlements in the subregion were established due to the discovery of gold. Pretoria (Tshwane), the administrative capital of South Africa, was first settled by Boers who were attracted not to mineral wealth but to the fertile farmland in the valley and the favorable climate.

Like many other places, Southern Africa has been affected by urbanization. People hoping to better their lives migrate to cities in search of jobs. The most populated urban areas are Cape Town, Port Elizabeth, Durban, and Johannesburg in South Africa and Maputo in Mozambique. Some neighborhoods in these cities are wealthy and modern, with expensive homes and fashionable shopping areas. Others are very poor, and many people live without electricity or sanitation.

Society and Culture Today  

How do traditions play a role in the lives of the peoples of the subregion? 

The effects of centuries of European influence are still felt in Southern Africa. Colonizing powers divided the continent among themselves with no regard for the traditional territories occupied by the local people. As a result, most of the major ethnic groups—Shona, San, Ambo, Makua, and Ndebele—are distributed in different countries with no defined national territories.

Hundreds of local languages are spoken. However, many countries use the European language of their colonizers to facilitate communication. As a result, French, German, and English are spoken in many places. In South Africa, white Afrikaners form an ethnic group. Their language, Afrikaans, is one of the country’s 11 official languages, along with English and nine local languages such as Zulu.

Christian missionaries worked throughout Africa during colonial times. As a result, Christianity is the most common religion in Southern Africa. Many people still practice traditional religions, however, which involve nature spirits, animal sacrifice and worship, and worshiping the spirits of one’s ancestors.

In urban areas, people attend movies, shop in malls, watch television, surf the Internet, and listen to music by African artists. Those living in poverty, both in urban and rural areas, do not have these opportunities. Their leisure activities center on the family and traditional activities such as games, singing, and dancing.

Poverty is an issue throughout the subregion. In Mozambique in 2008, protests against the high prices of necessities such as fuel led to deadly riots. The pattern repeated itself in 2010. When the price of bread rose by 30 percent, there was rioting, Thirteen people were killed and more than 400 were arrested.

Poverty also affects life expectancy, which has been decreasing for decades because of the HIV/AIDS epidemic that was severe in Africa. The situation is improving, however. In 2012, researchers announced that life expectancy in South Africa had increased by five years since 2005. The increase is due to the world’s largest drug treatment effort for people with HIV/AIDS.

Education also varies with income. Large cities have colleges and universities, and the children of wealthy families generally get a good education. However, the children of poor families attend school for only a few years, if at all, and often leave school early. As in many less developed countries, girls usually get much less schooling than boys.

The status of girls and women is an issue in many parts of Southern Africa. In rural areas, women generally do not have the same rights as men. For example, traditional laws often prohibit women from inheriting or even owning property. Most Southern African countries have laws that require gender equality, but traditional laws are often observed instead. To help women, local and international organizations have been working to improve the financial status of African women.

The organizations make small loans to help women set up small businesses, such as growing vegetables or making clothes. These loans are mostly made to women in rural areas, and often lead to women becoming the business leaders in a village or community.

Economic Activities 

What role does mining play in the economy of Southern Africa? 

Most people in Southern Africa are farmers. Over 80 percent of the residents of Angola and Mozambique are agricultural workers. Most of the farms are used for subsistence farming. With increased global markets, commercial farming has gained in importance. For example, sugar plantations dot the coasts of Angola, South Africa, and Mozambique, while oil palm, cacao, and peanuts are grown in South Africa and Zimbabwe. Fresh flowers and vegetables are grown on commercial farms and exported to European cities.

Control of farmland is a big issue in much of Africa. European colonists claimed much of the best land. A land reform program in Zimbabwe gave land owned by white farmers back to Africans. The result was chaos, violence, and corruption. The land reform led to the failure of Zimbabwe’s economy. Zimbabwe’s agricultural workforce includes about 50 percent of the country’s people.

Mining has always been important to the economy of Southern Africa. One section of the Highveld in South Africa, the Witwatersrand, has been mined since the 1880s. This area has produced about one-third of the gold ever mined in the world. Gold is also found in other parts of South Africa and in Zimbabwe. Most of the world’s diamonds come from mines near the Witwatersrand, Botswana, and along the coast near the Namibia-South Africa border. Copper and cobalt are mined in Zimbabwe, Namibia, and Zambia.

Since the 1960s, many countries in Southern Africa have been trying to encourage and support manufacturing. Foreign loans have financed the development of manufacturing. Today, factories produce materials such as paper goods, cement, electric motors, and tractors. Compared to other developing regions, Southern Africa’s manufacturing sector is still small, but it is growing.