Pattern of South African Culture

Ever since the first European to visit the southernmost extremity of the African continent, the Portuguese navigator Bartholomew Diaz, made landfall in 1488, what is now known as South Africa (about midway on the route from Europe to India) has been an important location for trade, colonisation, and the expansion of evangelical Christianity. In 1652 the Dutch East India Company established the first permanent white settlement at present-day Cape Town and expelled the indigenous black residents, but under Jan van Riebeeck the minuscule community employed Africans as indentured and slave labour, thus inaugurating what became known as the 'native problem'. European women were few, and miscegenation, though outlawed, became a fact of life, so that a tripartite population of Blacks, Whites, and Coloreds was established, thus creating the bases for apartheid (or racial segregation). British culture was introduced to South Africa in 1814. But there was growing conflict between the old and new cultures that led to the South African (or Boer) War in 1899-1902, which was followed by the creation of the Union of South Africa in 1910. From that time to 1948 British culture predominated; since then Afrikaner culture has developed. The authors of the several chapters provide the historical contexts of recent developments and achievements, so that the reader can appreciate the milieu that has produced such famous individuals as Jan Christiaan Smuts, Paul Kruger, Christiaan Barnard, Desmond Tutu, Nadine Gordimer, Helen Suzman, Bobby Locke and Nelson Mandela.