South Africa

South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa, is the southernmost sovereign state in Africa. It is bounded on the south by 2,798 kilometers of coastline of southern Africa stretching along the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans, on the north by the neighbouring countries of Namibia, Botswana and Zimbabwe, and on the east by Mozambique and Swaziland, and surrounding the kingdom of Lesotho. South Africa is the 25th-largest country in the world by land area, and with close to 53 million people, is the world's 24th-most populous nation. It is the southernmost country on the mainland of the Old World or the Eastern Hemisphere.

South Africa is a multiethnic society encompassing a wide variety of cultures, languages, and religions. Its pluralistic makeup is reflected in the constitution's recognition of 11 official languages, which is among the highest number of any country in the world. Two of these languages are of European origin: Afrikaans developed from Dutch and serves as the first language of most white and coloured South Africans; English reflects the legacy of British colonialism, and is commonly used in public and commercial life, though it is fourth-ranked as a spoken first language.

2010 FIFA World Cup

The 2010 FIFA World Cup was the 19th FIFA World Cup, the world championship for men's national association football teams. It took place in South Africa from 11 June to 11 July 2010. The bidding process for hosting the tournament finals was open only to African nations; in 2004, the international football federation, FIFA, selected South Africa over Egypt and Morocco to become the first African nation to host the finals.

The matches were played in 10 stadiums in nine host cities around the country, with the final played at the Soccer City stadium in South Africa's largest city, Johannesburg. Thirty-two teams were selected for participation via a worldwide qualification tournament that began in August 2007. In the first round of the tournament finals, the teams competed in round-robin groups of four teams for points, with the top two teams in each group proceeding. These 16 teams advanced to the knockout stage, where three rounds of play decided which teams would participate in the final.

Xhosa Wars

The Xhosa Wars (also known as the Cape Frontier Wars or "Africa's 100 Years War"), were a series of nine wars or flare-ups (from 1779 to 1879) between the Xhosa tribes and European settlers in what is now the Eastern Cape in South Africa. These events were the longest-running military action in the history of African colonialism.

The reality of the conflicts between the Europeans and Xhosa involves a balance of tension. At times, tensions existed between the various Europeans in the Cape region, tensions between Empire administration and colonial governments, and tensions and alliances of the Xhosa tribes. Alliances with Europeans introduced to the Xhosa tribes the use of firearms; even so, the Xhosa lost most of their territory and were incorporated into the British Empire. The Xhosa include some groups that have adopted the Xhosa language and several groups that are now classed as being Xhosa, such as the Mfengu nation, that had an alliance with the Cape Colony.

Background

The first European settlers in the Cape were the Dutch who, in 1652, established a small supply station at present-day Cape Town for their trading ships to stop for supplies en route to and from the East Indies. European settlement in and around Cape Town later spread into the valleys. By the second half of the 18th century, Europeans, predominantly trekboers, moved eastward up the coast and encountered the Xhosa in the region of the Great Fish River. The Xhosa were already established in the area and herded cattle. Competition for land ensued, particularly after the arrival of several groups of British settlers in 1820.

Robertson, Western Cape

Robertson is a town in the Western Cape Province of South Africa known as the valley of wine and roses, at the heart of the wine route - Route 62.

History

The town was founded in 1853 and named after the Scottish Dutch Reformed Church Minister, Dr William Robertson.

Situated in the fertile Robertson Valley, farming and wagon building were the town's original industries. However, after the Second Anglo-Boer War of 1899, the wagon building industry collapsed when the railways took over the transport of all goods.

Robertson subsequently became famous for its ostrich farming, but this industry collapsed as well shortly after World War I and thus the farmers of the area turned to wine and fruit farming. Later, several successful racehorse stud farms were founded. Agriculture remains the mainstay of the town's economy up to the present day.

Tourism

Tourism has grown in recent years and the town has several Western Cape provincial heritage sites, such as the Pink Church (1859), the Museum (1860), the Edwardian-style house 12 Piet Retief Street (1904), the Victorian-style house 59 Van Reeneen Street (1914) and the Powder House (which was used as a store for gunpowder).

Apartheid

Apartheid (Afrikaans pronunciation: [ɐˈpartɦɛit]; an Afrikaans word meaning "separateness", or "the state of being apart", literally "apart-hood") was a system of racial segregation in South Africa enforced through legislation by the National Party (NP), the governing party from 1948 to 1994. Under apartheid, the rights, associations, and movements of the majority black inhabitants and other ethnic groups were curtailed, and white minority rule was maintained. Apartheid was developed after World War II by the Afrikaner-dominated National Party and Broederbond organizations. The ideology was also enforced in South West Africa, which was administered by South Africa under a League of Nations mandate (revoked in 1966 via United Nations Resolution 2145), until it gained independence as Namibia in 1990. By extension, the term is currently used for forms of systematic segregation established by the state authority in a country against the social and civil rights of a certain group of citizens due to ethnic prejudices.

South Africa (The Goodies)

"South Africa" is an episode of the award-winning British comedy television series The Goodies.

This episode is also known as "Apartheight" and as "A South African Adventure".

Written by The Goodies, with songs and music by Bill Oddie.

Plot

The Goodies are hired by a maniacally racist South African Tourist Agent to make an advertisement encouraging Britons to come to South Africa. However, the tourist agent is unhappy with what they have done, since they showed black people in South Africa having a good time. Tim points out that South Africa has many black people, but the Tourist Agent retorts that they are not having a good time. The enraged agent forces the Goodies to emigrate to South Africa.

The influx of tourist boats the Goodies' advertisement brings allows the black people an opportunity to get away from South Africa, leading to apartheid segregation disintegrating. To keep the economy going, apartheid is replaced by the new segregation of apartheight (apart-height). Tim and Graeme are tall enough not to be affected — but Bill is not quite tall enough. Bill, and the South African jockeys, are now treated as the second class citizens of South Africa, and are put under curfew. Bill is also forced to work for Tim and Graeme, who both take full advantage of Bill's newly disadvantaged position and treat him like a slave. Bill takes charge of the situation, and he and the jockeys rebel and eventually win out against their 'masters'.

South Africa (song)

South Africa is a single by Ian Gillan and former Whitesnake guitarist Bernie Marsden. It was released in 1988 in UK by Virgin Records to coincide with the Nelson Mandela 70th birthday concert at Wembley Stadium. The single was mixed by Jimbo Barton.

Tracklist

Personnel

Production notes

References