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Population
The country's black majority still has a substantial number of rural inhabitants who lead largely impoverished lives. It is among these people, however, that cultural traditions survive most strongly; as blacks have become increasingly urbanised and westernised, aspects of traditional culture have declined. Urban blacks usually speak English or Afrikaans in addition to their native tongue. There are smaller but still significant groups of speakers of Khoisan languages which are not official languages, but are one of the eight officially recognised languages. There are small groups of speakers of endangered languages, most of which are from the Khoi-San family, that receive no official status; however, some groups within South Africa are attempting to promote their use and revival.
The middle class lifestyle, predominantly of the white minority but with significant numbers of black, Coloured and Indian people, is similar in many respects to that of people found in Western Europe, North America and Australasia. Members of the middle class often study and work abroad for greater exposure to the world's markets.
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Despite considerable discrimination under apartheid, Coloureds tend to relate more to white South African culture rather than black South African culture, especially Afrikaans-speaking Coloured people whose language and religious beliefs are similar or identical to white Afrikaners. The exceptions are coloured individuals and families who were personally involved in the struggle against apartheid and who prefer to be called black. Such cases are generally in the minority.
Asians, predominantly of Indian origin, preserve their own cultural heritage, languages and religious beliefs, being either Christian, Hindu or Sunni Muslim and speaking English, with Indian languages like Hindi, Telugu, Tamil or Gujarati being spoken less frequently. Most Indians live lifestyles similar to that of whites. The first Indians arrived on the famous Truro ship as indentured labourers in Natal to work the Sugar Cane Fields. There is a much smaller Chinese community in South Africa, although its numbers have increased due to immigration from Republic of China.
The largest provincial population is in KwaZulu-Natal, with 9.4 million counted in the 2001 census but the most densely populated province is Gauteng, with some 8.8 million people occupying just 1.4% of the country's land area. The most sparsely populated, with less than a million people, is the dry Northern Cape, by far the biggest in terms of area as it occupies nearly 30% of the country.
Perhaps surprisingly in a country with comparatively few major urban centres and a great deal of wide open space, slightly more than 50% of the population live in urban areas. This is not only because of the number of rural people who have moved to towns to find work, but also because much of the wide open space is arid and therefore sparsely populated.
The most rural area is Limpopo Province. Gauteng, with both Johannesburg and Pretoria within its boundaries, is almost entirely urban. Other areas of high urban concentration are around Cape Town, Durban, Port Elizabeth/East London and, in the interior, Bloemfontein.
Languages
South Africa has eleven official languages: Afrikaans, English,
Ndebele, Northern Sotho, Southern Sotho, Swati, Tsonga, Tswana, Venda,
Xhosa and Zulu. In this regard it is second only to India in number.
While each language is technically equal to every other, some languages
are spoken more than others.
There are eleven official names for South Africa, one in each of the official national languages.
According to the 1996 National Census, the three most spoken first
home languages are Zulu (9.2 million), Xhosa (7.2 million) and
Afrikaans (5.8 million). The three most spoken second home languages
are English (2.2 million), Afrikaans (1.1 million) and Zulu (0.5
million). The four most spoken home languages are Zulu (9.8 million),
Xhosa (7.5 million), Afrikaans (6.9 million) and English (5.7 million).
The 1996 census does not include information about languages spoken
elsewhere than at home.
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Map showing principal South African languages by municipality.
Lighter shades indicate a non-majority plurality.
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Afrikaans |
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Tsonga
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Ndebele
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Setswana
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Northern Sotho
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Venda
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Southern Sotho
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isiXhosa
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Swati
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isiZulu
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The country also recognises eight non-official languages: Fanagalo,
Khoe, Lobedu, Nama, Northern Ndebele, Phuthi, San and South African
Sign Language. These non-official languages may be used in certain
official uses in limited areas where it has been determined that these
languages are prevalent. Nevertheless, their populations are not such
that they require nationwide recognition.
Many of the "unofficial languages" of the San and Khoikhoi people
contain regional dialects stretching northward into Namibia and
Botswana, and elsewhere. These people, who are a physically distinct
population from other Africans, have their own cultural identity based
on their hunter-gatherer societies. They have been marginalised to a
great extent, and many of their languages are in danger of becoming
extinct.
Many white South Africans also speak other European languages, such
as Portuguese (also spoken by Angolan and Mozambican blacks), German
and Greek, while many Asians and Indians in South Africa speak South
Asian languages, such as Telugu, Hindi, Gujarati and Tamil.
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