South Africa Essay Research Paper Language and

South Africa Essay, Research Paper

Language and Religion

Afrikaans and English are the official languages. Afrikaans, derived from Dutch, is the mother tongue of the Afrikaners and the principal language of the Coloreds. More Afrikaners are bilingual than English-speakers. Most urban blacks speak English and Afrikaans in addition to their native language. The Bantu languages are not mutually intelligible. Many blacks speak Fanakalo, a lingua franca that developed among black workers in the mines.

The politically influential Dutch Reformed church, which professes a fundamentalist-type Calvinist Protestantism, has almost 4 million members, of whom 2 million are Afrikaners and 1.2 million are Coloreds. The Roman Catholic Church claims 2.4 million adherents. The Anglicans, whose spiritual leader is Bishop Desmond TUTU (a black awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1984 for his leadership in the struggle against apartheid), claims 2 million members, as do the Methodists. Most Africans belong to black independent churches or follow traditional religious practices. Three-fourths of the Asians are Hindu. The Jewish community numbers less than 140,000.

Health and Education

Wide disparities exist between races in health indicators and facilities. Life expectancy at birth is 59 years for blacks and Coloreds, 65 years for Asians, and 72 years for whites. Gastroenteritis, malnutrition, and tuberculosis are major causes of death among blacks, and the black infant mortality rate is more than six times the rate for whites. Medical facilities for whites are superior to those for other races.

Education has been under the control of a single government agency since 1985 except in the homelands, each of which has its own education department. Schooling is compulsory for all whites and most Coloreds between the ages of 7 and 1, and for Asians between 7 and 14. Compulsory education for blacks between the ages of 7 and 16 began to be phased in in 1981, but many black children do not attend school. Expenditures for black education have increased, however, and modest moves to integrate some public schools began in 1991. Ten universities cater to whites–five teaching in Afrikaans, four in English and one in both languages. There are five universities for blacks, and one each for Coloreds and Asians. The University of South Africa, a correspondence university, is open to all races. Nonwhite students are gradually being admitted to white universities.

ECONOMIC ACTIVITY

The discovery of diamonds near Kimberley (1867) and gold on the Witwatersrand (1886) helped transform South Africa from a land of subsistence farmers into a modern industrial state controlled by the white minority but reliant on black labor. Minerals provided the stimulus for railroad expansion from the coast to the interior. The mines brought black Africans into the wage economy and created demands for explosives, machinery, energy, and many other goods and services. Development occurred unevenly, however; white areas witnessed rapid industrialization and economic growth, while the homelands remained economically disadvantaged with limited manufacturing, few industrial resources, high unemployment, and only marginal subsistence agriculture.

The economy developed as private investment from Western Europe and the United States increased. Today South Africa is the strongest industrial state on the African continent. In the 1980s the United States and various other nations imposed limited economic sanctions on South Africa in an effort to end apartheid. Foreign-owned companies were pressed to dispose of their South African investments, and those that remained in South Africa were asked to adhere to the Sullivan Principles, which called for nondiscrimination in the workplace.

GOVERNMENT

A constitution approved by white voters in 1983 replaced the formerly all-white parliament with a multiracial, tricameral legislature. Each chamber exercises authority over the affairs of its own community. Foreign policy, defense, taxes, law and order, and other general affairs are considered by standing committees representing all three chambers. The membership of the three chambers–white (178), Asian (45), colored (85)–guarantees whites a legislative majority. Many Colored and Asian voters boycotted the 1984 elections, and the new constitution, which continued to deny parliamentary representation to blacks, set off a wave of violent protests in black communities.

The new constitution abolished the presidency and prime ministership and made the head of government a state president with power to appoint the cabinet and control of the President’s Council (a multiracial body that replaced the upper house of parliament in 1980 and can resolve disputes among the legislative chambers). P. W. BOTHA, head of the national party that has held power since 1948, became state president in 1984, when the new constitution came into effect. Botha resigned the presidency in August 1989 and was succeeded by F. W. de Klerk, who had become party leader in February and remained in office after legislative elections in September.

Under the theory of separate development, blacks were to have voting rights only in the homelands. All blacks were to be designated citizens of one of the ten homelands and be stripped of their South African citizenship, as the homelands were declare