Discover the Diversity of Africa!
Within Africa you will find many different cultures,
often within a few miles of each other.
Get a new appreciation for African cultures that date
back thousands of years!
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The more I find out about the background of Southafrica as
it is today and why things are the way they are, the more excited I get. In
my 30 years away from Germany and living along all the folks that were here
before me, I also unearth a lot of sad truths. The first humanitarian catasrophy
were the white settlers. Why did the colonists have to stick their fingers in
all the pies all over the world? They wanted power, more land, more richdom. One by one no noble motives. The white
missionaries might have had “noble” motives, but it all went horribly wrong. The indigenous belief systems are all still in
place, neighbouring with the Christians. (I never quite could find out what’s
going on here in this respect. Many people sit in church on Sundays, then go
home to a burial and effect absolutely un-Christian rituals, most involving
fresh blood being poured as a sacrifice to their ancestors.)
The Africans could just as well have gone on living with the
natural flow of the soil. But no, the Whites had a hitleresque urge to “civilize”
them. One of the many very tragic consequences of Europeans sticking their
noses into a country where they had no business whatsoever is, that the tribal
cultures and ways to dress fell victim to their westernisation. Today one can
hardly distinguish between the various and originally very distinct cultural
groups, as everybody put on the global uniform of T-shirts and jeans. Probably
they can recognize each other by way of language and sometimes looks.
Therefor my report on the different African groups, at least
in respect of their traditional attires and ways to prepare food, in the South Africa of today can only
be of a historic nature.
The saving grace for the white intruders was that the
African cultural groups don’t seem to be able to see eye to eye. They never
unite as one against a certain cause, in the contrary, even today there are
vicious wars between different tribes. Only one leader, King Shaka Zulu, was
ever able to at least unite a great number of his different Zulu tribes to build a formidable army
against the Khoisan, other black tribes and the white intruders from Europe.
This blog is meant to highlight the positive sides if SA and
to –hopefully – also get us out of the "Apartheid and all Whites are racists pigeonhole". It is unfair to name
South Africa and Apartheid in one breath, and that’s what especially the people
living ten thousands of kilometres away, do. There is so much more to it!!! The
Whites have been here for only 400 years and only 40 years of that the terrible
Apartheid system was in place, plus it is over since almost 20 years. The black
tribes from the north came 19.600 years after the Khoisan were firmly
established, a very short time before the white settlers
Neither the Blacks (Bantus) nor the Whites
can claim ownership of South Africa!!!
AFRICAN PEOPLE 1
The San are the oldest inhabitants of Southern Africa, where
they have lived for at least 20 000 years. The term San is commonly used to
refer to a diverse group of hunter-gatherers living in Southern Africa who
share historical and linguistic connections. The San were also referred to as
Bushmen, but this term has since been
abandoned as it is considered derogating.
Bushman child
In the 17th century, caused by an explosive
overpopulation in North African countries, a massive southwards migration of
Bantu Tribes occurred. These tribes forced the San and Khoisan deep into the
Namib desert or killed them and took over all fertile land in South Africa. So
the widely popular opinion that the “Blacks”, the Bantus were here first is
WRONG. They were here before the white settlers, yes, but they were in no way
indigenous to South Africa. The white settlers continued to decimate the San
and Khoisan population, they were hunted, captured, tortured and killed like
vermin.
Today there are only +- 50000 in Botswana and +- 40000 in
Namibia. 20.000 years ago they grew to 500.000) Only very few stayed in South
Africa and are forced to live in tented camps, where it is impossible for them
to thrive. So one could rightfully include the KhoiSans in the call “SAVE THE
RHINO AND THE BUSHMEN”. (Some modern comedians were even heard saying on stage:
“ Forget about the rhino, save the white man!”)
Medicine man
The Bantus who invaded the San’s and Khoi’s land from the
North were made up by 3 main groups: the Nguni, the Sothos and the Tsongas.
These formed almost countless “undertribes” .
And these will be making up one of the next posts,
Friendly greetings from
Barbara
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