Culture of South Africa

Due to the country's great ethnic diversity, South Africa has no single national culture. Ethnic and cultural assimilation have begun slowly to change this situation, but cultural differences still tend to correspond closely with racial ones, and each ethnic group may be identified with a more or less distinctive culture.

At least 77% of South Africans are black Africans. Despite the effects of urbanisation and westernisation (most black South Africans speak English or Afrikaans as well as an African mother tongue) the majority remain very poor and live rural and necessarily simple lives.

Culture among black South Africans is fairly consistent but by no means homogenous; marked distinctions can still be made along ethno-linguistic lines.

Zulus

Zulus (whose language, isiZulu, is spoken by about a quarter of South Africans) have maintained a high cultural and political profile since 1994.

Music is very important among Zulus, as it is throughout most of Africa, and many famous musicians have come from this group or incorporated Zulu elements in their music - Ladysmith Black Mambazo, Paul Simon and Johnny Clegg among them.

The Xhosa

The Xhosa, who share their Nguni heritage with the Zulu, the Swati and the Ndebele, are probably the second-most well-known black South African ethnic group. The most famous Xhosa is former president and national hero Nelson Mandela.

Xhosas are congregated most densely in the Eastern Cape, where their traditional culture involves amagqirha (herbalists, prophets and healers), iimbongi (praise singers who write poetry to praise or criticise the chief), and cattle as indicators of wealth.

A further two important black South African ethno-linguistic groups are the Basotho and the Tswana, both descendents of the Sotho people and significant and distinguishable ethnic minorities in South Africa.

The coloured community

Coloureds, descendants of white and black Africans, were first labelled as such by an apartheid regime that needed a catch-all term for individuals who didn't fall into any other category. Despite this, coloureds have since forged a distinct, vibrant and varied cultural identity of their own.

Dwelling mostly in the Northern Cape and Western Cape, about 80% of coloureds speak Afrikaans and about 20% English. The most popular representatives of Cape coloured culture are the Cape minstrels, who parade each year in a musical street celebration that originated in times of colonial slavery.

Asian Africans

South African Asians (the vast majority of whom are Indians) make up a small but economically influential portion of South Africa's populace. Most Indians live in Durban and other cities and towns in KwaZulu-Natal. There are also approximately 25,000 Chinese in South Africa, who live mostly in Johannesburg.

Afrikaans and English Speakers

White South Africans can be divided into Afrikaans-speakers and English-speakers, and these two groups maintain an historical rivalry that is friendlier now than it was in colonial times, having of course fought each other in two wars.

Just about all white South Africans are united, however, in their love of that famous South African pastime, the braaivleis (barbecue), and their support of the South African cricket and rugby teams.

Sport

Sport is a great unifier of South Africa's diverse cultural groups, all of whom are almost religiously passionate about it. Although different sports enjoy different cultural fan bases (soccer is mostly black-dominated, rugby mostly Afrikaner-dominated and cricket mostly English-dominated), the entire country rejoiced at the victory of the Springboks in the 1995 Rugby World Cup, which South Africa hosted, and over Bafana Bafana's 1996 victory in the African Cup of Nations soccer.

The country now looks forward to hosting the FIFA World Cup in 2010 as traditional sporting divisions fall away.

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