South Africa - Its History, Geography, and People

This video is all about South Africa, a country shaped by its colonial history and former system of racial segregation called "Apartheid". But the new South Africa is called "The Rainbow Nation" because of its diversity and acceptance of all the peoples that have contributed to it.

It's also a land of surprising geographic diversity and amazing natural beauty.

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Producer, co-writer, video editor and host: Paul
Writer: James Watson

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Santiago González

Click the join button to become a video co-star

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Creative Commons images used in this video:

[GEOfocusChannel]

Hi, everyone! I hope you like the new video.

[njabulonxumalo]

I am half South African and half Canadian. But I am South African first before anything. I grew up and currently live in South Africa. I recently had the privilege to live in Canada for 6 years. But I decided to come home, because I love this place flaws and all. When asked by South Africans why I returned, I tell them for the aforementioned reason and they are puzzled (some look at me crazy). My fellow black South Africans argue "why leave a surplus of opportunities" (of the financial type) and my fellow white folk argue "why return to an unsafe environment". These two arguments (issues) are rooted in the impact Apartheid had, and the impact of it remains until this day.

I have seen and experienced different levels of standard of living in South Africa; lived in a township, suburb, attended a public school then a private school and I often visited my extended family in the rural areas of the Eastern Cape. And it's obvious the black population is the subset receiving the short end of the stick. Therefore they are the more desperate group, they are more likely to commit crime. What is disappointing is the privileged (overwhelmingly white population) do not connect the obvious dots. One of the points they bring up "why doesn't 'your' party do more for its people?", and because the party in power is predominantly black this question they pose disqualifies all black South Africans of being able to govern. Because the current party is mismanaging resources and the country in general, the privileged who are mostly oblivious to the lives that the millions of the under-served live project the characters of the ruling party onto the black population. There's a Western Cape (WC) movement that wants to separate WC from South Africa. Essentially the movement believes that the WC is well governed by the controlling provincial party, and does not want to be brought down by the rest of the country. The Western Cape undoubtedly does some things better than the rest of the country, some public services and maintenance of public areas. But again under served communities (Khayelitsha, Joe Slovo, Cape Flats, Mitchels Plain, Gugulethu etc ) in the WC live in poor conditions still. Which means the minority, of which are well off or in the upper middle class, are the main benefactors of this so called superior governance. If it is superior, it should work for all its constituents especially the struggling communities. And if Cape Exit movement believes so much in WC governance why separate? Why not help lift other South African communities to this level? Because it is a selfish movement. Cape Exit has no real interest in the improvement of the impoverished, they claim that it will benefit all in the Western Cape but its a vale they hide behind. This vale is somewhat similar to the ruling parties habit of leading-on black South Africans election after election cycle re-promising what they have in previous administration to secure their vote.

I appreciate this video. It listed the facts and does not try to say more than it should. But South Africa is not really going in the right direction, it is stagnant. But it will go in the right direction, I believe in South Africa and its people.

Huge investment in struggling communities is the biggest way to turn the outlook of this country, with a focus on making these communities self sustaining. Businesses and individuals should consider pooling money together for physical improvement of their environment and long term social goals. This is more likely to change South Africa than any ruling government. You should still vote though.

[GenericUsername]

As a South African I would like to add that even though South Africa is one of if not the most dangerous places in terms of crime and gang activity, etc. It is an extremely divided society. You will find one suburb that is extremely safe and very peaceful and the next full of gang activity. I fortunately live in one of the very safe bubbles and it is not too different from what you would find in any first world country

If anyone is curious about my country please feel free to ask👍

[kgosimagano]

South african here, and I'm very impressed with your video about my home country, Paul, accurate all the way. 100%

If you guys want to know anything about SA from a local, I'm your guy. Feel free to ask

[kevincasey]

I visited SA in 2004 and toured with friends for 6 weeks. It blew my mind, every second of every day was totally cool! This brought back a ton of memories. I love this channel! 😁

[Comrade_Jason]

Some perspective on the racial classifications:

My great-great-grandfather was considered Coloured, while the rest of my family were classified as White. He basically couldn't leave the house because if anyone saw him he would be reported. We have since done a DNA test and it's revealed we have Khoisan, Cameroonian, Bantu, Malaysian, Indian and various European ancestries.

[javlonbekmurodov]

Paul thank you for great content . And I will wait such kind of video from you about my country Uzbekistan .

[claudianowakowski]

Whenever I think of South Africa I think of Nelson Mandela. I really enjoyed learning about the geographic diversity of this country. It looks like a very beautiful place. Thank you for another great video.

[ahmadrafsan]

My takeaways are elevation and climate, by the way, I am a Bangladeshi cricket fan and South Africa is one of the Test-playing nations, i.e. it is one of the top cricket-playing nations and some South African cricketers are favourite to me

[dan_leo]

Thank you Paul for both your channels. I love geography and languages and you create great content. Moreover, it’s a way for me to watch content in English (which is not my first language).

[idraote]

Great video, Paul, thank you!

The idea I've made myself of South Africa is that of a land that is still growing into its own clothes which is understandable, considering how recent it is as a fully democratic nation.
Issues connected to race appear not to be solved yet, especially if we consider that what Westerners call "black" is a puzzle of different African peoples.
From what I've read, administration is also not as smooth as one would wish.

[tertiusgreyling]

Paul, kudos for a concise and accurate summary. As a South African this video is a great reference point for me. I knew you put a lot of effort into researching your content but until one sees a topic one is familiar with you just don’t know. This is a video I would recommend to anyone interested in a brief overview of SA.

As for something I would like outsiders to know about SA: as you mentioned, the systems in place still tend to group people by the ethnic groupings designed under apartheid. In my experience this means that many SAens tend to still think of themselves through that lens and unfortunately creates barriers between people. I was unaware of this until my wife (not from SA or from any of the defined ethnic groupings) pointed out that SAens appear to classify themselves by racial category first and nationality second. Hopefully this will change for the younger generations.

Great video! Thanks again.

[nilesmouser]

You do good work Paul. Keep it up. Fan of both channels.

[Juarqua]

One big thing is missing in this video though: Namibia (former Deutsch-Südwestafrika / German Southwestafrica) used to be governed for a very long time by South Africa, namely already since 1915(!) when it fell under British rule due to WW I. It only gained full sovereignty in 1990(!) - 75 years(!) after becoming a somewhat part of South Africa. As this is by all means a very long time it should have at least been mentioned in this video as another historic fact and former part of South Africa.

[ArunGoyal]

Thanks Paul, I was searching this one afrer your classic ones on SA languages

[Bighawkeye]

I was surprised to learn about the vast range of geographic diversity and how it affects the climate! I always imagined the interior of SAfrica to be flat, dry, and filled with scrubgrass

[Comrade_Jason]

Your "iSandlwana" pronunciation is kinda great. Not perfect, but way better than I could have expected for someone who isn't living in KwaZulu-Natal (Zulu kingdom+Natalia/Natal)

[tshepangmugandi]

Great video Paul.
One thing I'd like to add unto what was said regarding our history and how its eminence predates European settlement and colonization. None of the tribes, be them Bantu, Khoi, San, Boer, Brit, Indian, Chinese, Kushite, etc aren't indigenous to the land between the Atlantic and Indian Oceans. However, their united history is ever repetitive. At some point in time, the tribes of modern day South Africa contributed to foreign exchange, i.e Mapungubwe which encompasses modern South Africa, Botswana and Zimbabwe traded with Arabs, East Africans, Chinese, Indians and most definitely each other. Thanks for the video

[donaldklopper]

Almost 12 official languages... Sign language has been approved very recently as our 12th official language, and it's going through the final stages now to be added officially.

[suh-guy]

Hey Paul, thanks for not butchering the names of the locations.

Gauteng, Mpumalanga, KZN and Lesotho.