Scottish medical missionaryDavid Livingstone became known for his exploration of the African continent. He is believed to have been the first European to set eyes on Victoria Falls in 1855. He is a key character in African history, being one of the first well-known Britons to believe his heart was in Africa.
As a result of the rise of nationalist and anti-colonial movements throughout the British Empire, in the aftermath of World War IIdecolonisation of Africa took place. Ethnic Africans were overwhelmingly the majority of population in the British colonies and protectorates and had long been denied equivalent political and economic power. These former colonies eventually became self-governing. The Cold War powers entered into the conflicts in this period. Often aided by Soviet expertise and weapons, black nationalistguerrilla forces such as the Mau Mau in Kenya, ZANU in Rhodesia and MK in South Africa fought for majority rule, which normally meant "one man, one vote".
Zimbabwe
The ruling white minority in Southern Rhodesia unilaterally declared independence as Rhodesia in 1965 but no provisions were made to incorporate the black African majority as political equals. Civil war lasted until 1979, as black nationalists fought against the white-dominated government.
In 1980, the first democratic general election was held in what was now independentZimbabwe and the country joined the Commonwealth. Subsequently, the country's white population declined sharply – thousands were intimidated, attacked, and driven off their property. Because of patterns of discrimination, whites had held the majority of property previously occupied by indigenous groups.[6] Charged with abusing human rights and undermining democracy, President Robert Mugabe and other Zimbabwean individuals and entities were subjected to a wide range of economic and political sanctions by the United States and other western nations.[7][8]
In 2002 Zimbabwe was suspended from the Commonwealth due to human rights abuses and electoral fraud.[9] In 2003, Zimbabwe voluntarily terminated its Commonwealth membership.[10]
Northern Rhodesia became a separate nation, Zambia.
The ethnic Afrikaners, who ruled the country from 1948 until 1994, entrenched a system of racial segregation known as apartheid, established a republic, and withdrew from the Commonwealth.[11] In 1955, 33,000 Dutch (34.8%),
Germans (33.7%),
French (13.2%),
people of colour (7%),
British (5.2%),
unknown origin (3.5%),
other Europeans (2.6%)
in Natal, which had an English-speaking majority of white voters, signed the Natal Covenant against the establishment of a republic.[13] Many of the British diaspora voted "No" in the 1960 referendum of white voters, but it was approved by a narrow margin and resulted in the establishment of a republic. The Natal majority voted against the republic and some residents called for secession from the Union after the referendum.[14]
The British diaspora population declined starting in the early 1990s as a result of a low birth rate relative to that of other population groups and emigration. Reasons for emigration included crime, corruption, poor service delivery and affirmative action.[19][20] A crude estimate of the British diaspora population is the number of white South Africans who speak English as a first language, representing 1.6 million people, 36% of the white population group and 3% of the total population in the South African National Census of 2011. This number is an overstatement as it includes people of other ancestral origins who have assimilated into the white English-speaking population. The English-speaking population is largest in the KwaZulu-Natal province and in cities such as Johannesburg and Cape Town.[1]
Despite the high emigration rate, many people of British descent continue to settle in South Africa, including many South African-born people who have returned home since the late-1990s, especially after the 2008 global economic crisis.[19][20] South Africa has been a top destination for British retirees,[21] and many White Zimbabweans of British descent settled in South Africa after Zimbabwean independence; some as a result of forced removal from their property. Over 200,000 British citizens live in South Africa, including more than 38,000 people who are being paid a UK State Pension.[22][23]
White Africans generally enjoy the outdoors lifestyle and sports. The braai is a popular way to get together with friends and family. Other popular pastimes include: visiting game reserves, hiking, camping and recreational fishing. There is a particular appreciation of country life and farming. Farmers themselves generally prefer holiday houses at the coast. In other ways, the culture of the British diaspora derives from their British ancestry. Afternoon tea – in fact, tea at any time of day – is still widespread as are hobbies such as gardening and reading. Families who live in rural areas are usually familiar with horseriding and shooting. White South African culture was encapsulated in the 1970s Chevrolet radio jingle "Braaivleis, rugby, sunny skies and Chevrolet" based on the United States slogan "Baseball, hot dogs, apple pie and Chevrolet".[24][25] Although nationwide television in South Africa was only introduced as lately as 1976, many older South Africans of British descent had little exposure to British television and humour as a result of an Equity union ban on British television programme sales to South Africa during apartheid.[26]
Many White Africans speak a unique dialect of English, developed by interaction with other local languages. South African English is influenced by Afrikaans and the Bantu languages. The considerable Afrikaans influence can be seen from words such as braai, trek, lekker and ja in common usage. Some Zulu and Xhosa words, such as shongololo, muti, ubuntu and fundi (meaning an "expert"), are also commonly used. Although South African slang is used by many younger South Africans, it would be unusual to hear it used amongst older people. The common greeting "howzit!" comes from the Afrikaans hoezit! (or "how is it?"); it can be likened to the US "howdy", the Australian "g'day", the Irish "howya?" or the Scottish "awrite?".
Zimbabwean English (ZimEng) shares many similarities with southern hemisphere English dialects (Australian, New Zealand, South African) yet is distinct from its closest relative, South African English. Traditionally Zimbabwean English was predominately influenced by British English, with the minor influence of Afrikaans (compared to South Africa) and African languages, generally used to describe flora and fauna, with terms such as kopje, dassie and bundu (Shona for bush).[27] This dialect came to be known as Rhodesian English, typified by speakers such as Prime Minister Ian Smith and P.K. van der Byl. After Zimbabwean independence from the UK in 1980, this dialect sharply fell out of favour and came to be regarded as an archaic, non-productive dialect, only spoken by the oldest generation of White Zimbabweans and nostalgic Rhodies and whenwes. Zimbabwean English evolved with the changing social, economic and political conditions in which Blacks and Whites interacted in Zimbabwe; with the old, conservative Rhodesian accent being effectively replaced by the more neutral and prestigious sounding cultivatedprivate school accent, which ironically retains some of its features.[28][29] Today, the main languages spoken in are English, Shona and Ndebele. Only 3.5%, mainly the White, Indian, coloured (mixed race) and foreign-born minorities, consider English their native language. The vast majority of English speakers are Black Zimbabweans, who are bilingual or even trilingual with Bantu languages such as Shona (75%), Ndebele (18%) and the other minority languages, and thus these speakers have an outsize role in influencing the direction of Zimbabwean English, despite traditional native speakers maintaining an important influence.[30]
Much like Australian and South African English, spoken English exists on a continuum from broad, general to cultivated (broad and general accents), based on an individual's background particularly, class and income and historically, ethnicity.[31] Affluent, middle class and highly educated Zimbabweans speak in a cultivated accent, influenced by older forms of southern British English, the now archaic Rhodesian English and South African English. The cultivated accent is sometimes humorously mocked by other speakers for its nasality and alleged pretentiousness, with speakers derided as the so-called nose brigades.[32]Robert Mugabe, Brendan Taylor, Pommie Mbangwa, Dave Houghton and journalists Peter Ndoro and Sophie Chamboko are notable speakers of a cultivated accent.[33]
Rural and urban working class speakers, on the other hand are heavily influenced by their native languages (these groups are also mocked as SRBs whose accents betray their strong rural background. Lower middle class black Zimbabweans are generally the most prominent in the mainstream media, fall in a spectrum between the two accents.[34] Speakers of this general Zimbabwean accent include Morgan Tsvangirai, Evan Mawarire, Simba Makoni and Tatenda Taibu. English is spoken by virtually all in the cities, but less so in rural areas.[27] Today English, the official language, enjoys status dominance and is the language of instruction in education, commerce, the government and the majority of the media.
Rhodes University in Grahamstown houses the Dictionary Unit for South African English.[35] The fourth edition of A Dictionary of South African English was published in 1991,[36] and the second edition of the Oxford South African Concise Dictionary was published in 2010.[37] The English Academy of Southern Africa, founded in 1961, is dedicated to promoting the effective use of English as a dynamic language in Southern Africa.[38]
A few South African English coinages are listed below:
bru
male friend, from Afrikaans broer meaning "brother"
an amount of time, could be anything from 5 seconds to 24 hours, could be past or future tense, from the Afrikaansnet-nou and nou-nou (e.g. "He went out just now." or "I'll be done with it now now.")
male friend, either shortened from bloke or from the Afrikaans diminutive 'outjie' (oldie, used as a term of affection much like 'guy' in English, with English pronunciation approximating 'oakie')
The British diaspora has influenced modern African arts, and has often incorporated other African cultures. Athol Fugard is a significant playwright. Born of an Irish Catholic father and an Afrikaner mother, he has always described himself as an Afrikaner but he wrote in English to reach a larger audience. Sharlto Copley is a significant film actor, producer and director. He starred in the Oscar-nominated science fiction filmDistrict 9, which was an international box office hit and received widespread critical acclaim. District 9 drew heavily on metaphoric references to South Africa's apartheid history as well as including many other more direct references to South African and African culture. Although English-speaking, Copley plays an Afrikaner bureaucrat who experiences a similar oppression to that he once imposed on alien refugees. He also starred in the film remake of the 1980s television show The A-Team.[citation needed]
The British diaspora and their forebears have been extensively involved in the founding and development of numerous educational institutions across Africa.[citation needed]
There are two categories of schools founded by the British diaspora or British missionaries, those originally intended for the education of the children of the British diaspora and those founded for the education of the indigenous population.
I do see very clearly that there may come a time, and that time not very remote, when the Australian colonies may be brought more into the position of one great and united people. I do see a time when the South African colonies may be brought together into one great Anglo-African people. And I see that if a grand and powerful congeries of free communities, such as I have grouped, in three parts of the world, become steadily formed, they may enter into an allegiance with the parent State, on something like a broad ground of equality.
The majority of white South Africans and Zimbabweans identify themselves as primarily South African and Zimbabwean respectively, regardless of their first language or ancestry.[46] The term English-speaking South African (ESSA) is sometimes used to distinguish anglophone South Africans from the rest of the population, particularly Afrikaners. Additionally, the inclusive term Zimbo or Anglo-Zimbabweans are terms sometimes used by academics to distance themselves, from the Rhodesian era, though the latter term overlaps with and can cause confusion with the large community of Britons of Zimbabwean descent.[47] Along with Anglo African these terms are somewhat analogous to those used in other English-speaking countries such as White Anglo Saxon Protestant, English Canadian and Anglo-Celtic Australian.[48][49]
The term Anglo-African has been used historically to describe people living in the British Empire in Africa,[52] although it has also been used to self-identify by people of mixed British and indigenous African ancestry.[53][54][55][56]The Anglo-African Who's Who and Biographical Sketch-Book published in London in 1905 contains details of prominent British and Afrikaner people in Africa at that time.[57]
'Cape Brit' is another term sometimes used to refer to South Africans of British descent. It refers to the Cape Colony where the immigrants to whom many South Africans can trace their origins from settled during its time as British colony. The term is considered an equivalent of 'Cape Dutch'.
Notable Africans of British descent
Explorers, politicians, civil servants, businesspeople and clergy
^ abCensus 2011: Census in brief(PDF). Pretoria: Statistics South Africa. 2012. p. 26. ISBN9780621413885. Archived(PDF) from the original on 13 May 2015. The number of people who described themselves as white in terms of population group and specified their first language as English in South Africa's 2011 Census was 1,603,575. The total white population with a first language specified was 4,461,409, and the total population was 51,770,560.
^Bannerman, Lucy (10 March 2012). "Dr Scott, I presume?". The Spectator. Retrieved 12 September 2013. Less than 40,000 of Zambia's 13-million-strong population are white
^"Census 2009 Summary: Ethnic Affiliation". Kenya National Bureau of Statistics. Archived from the original on 21 November 2013. Retrieved 28 June 2013. Out of a total Kenyan population of 38,610,097 in Census 2009, the ethnic affiliation given for 5,166 was Kenyan Europeans and that given for 27,172 was Europe.
^"Zimbabwe: Treatment of white Zimbabweans who are not farmers and available state protection". UNHCR. 22 July 2010. Retrieved 29 June 2013. According to an article in World Affairs, a bi-monthly international affairs journal published in Washington, DC (World Affairs n.d.), there were 296,000 white Zimbabweans in 1975, 120,000 in 1999, and 30,000 in 2010 (World Affairs 1 May 2010).
^ abc"South Africa". The Commonwealth. 15 August 2013. Retrieved 15 December 2013. Joined Commonwealth:1931 (Statute of Westminster; left in 1961, rejoined in 1994)
^Rossouw, Mandy (25 March 2011). "Is the DA the new black?". Mail & Guardian. Retrieved 16 July 2013. It is to be the poster boy for the new DA, a party that has been aggressively attempting to shake off the image of white, middle-class and predominantly English-speaking.
^Eligon, John (27 January 2012). "A South African Party's New Face, and Lightning Rod". The New York Times. Retrieved 16 July 2013. She is now the face of an effort to diversify the party's leadership, shed. Its stereotype as the party of South Africa's white elite and give it any hope of catching up to the A.N.C., which captured more than 65 percent of the vote to the alliance's 16 percent during the last national election in 2009.
^ abHaynie, Devon (27 July 2008). "More people returning to SA than leaving". Mail & Guardian. Retrieved 28 July 2013. The South African Department of Home Affairs says it does not track South Africans who move abroad and then return. Anecdotal evidence, however, indicates more South Africans have been returning to the country since the late-1990s.
^ abcWende, Hamilton (7 January 2011). "Hope returns – behind high walls". Mail & Guardian. Retrieved 28 July 2013. They are part of a growing number of mostly thirtysomething South Africans who have returned to the country in the past two years. Exact numbers are hard to find but a recent CNN report quoted a British employment survey which found that about 100 000 South African job-seekers were planning to return home ... The CNN report estimates that up to 20% of South African professionals, almost exclusively White, have left the country since 1995—a loss of about 800,000 people, from a White population of 4.5 million.
^Conway, Daniel (26 July 2010). "The changing lives of expats in South Africa". The Telegraph. Retrieved 28 July 2013. Furthermore, with its 'retirement visa' scheme, South Africa is a very popular destination for British retirees.
^"Brits Abroad". BBC. Retrieved 28 July 2013. An estimated 5.5m British people live permanently abroad ... South Africa: 212,000
^Osborne, Hilary (27 November 2012). "A UK expat's guide to South Africa". The Guardian. Retrieved 28 July 2013. The Republic of South Africa is home to more than 200,000 UK expats, drawn by a lower cost of living, warmer climate, beautiful beaches and amazing wildlife and game parks, as well as opportunities for an outdoors-focused lifestyle; plus the country's incredible scenery. Figures from the Department of Work and Pensions show there are more than 38,000 UK citizens living in South Africa and receiving the UK State Pension.
^Peter Trudgill, "Lesser-Known Varieties of English." Alternative Histories of English, ed. by R. J. Watts and P. Trudgill. Routledge, 2002
^Susan Fitzmaurice, "History, Social Meaning, and Identity in the Spoken English of White Zimbabweans." Developments in English: Expanding Electronic Evidence, ed. by Irma Taavitsainen et al. Cambridge University Press, 2015
^"DSAE". Rhodes University. 18 July 2011. Retrieved 14 July 2013.
^Branford, Jean and William (1991). A Dictionary of South African English (4th ed., 2.impr. ed.). Cape Town: Oxford University Press. ISBN9780195705959.
^Oxford South African Concise Dictionary (2nd ed.). Cape Town: Oxford University Press. 2010. ISBN9780195982183.
^Nkomo, Mokubung O.; Swartz, Derrick; Maja, Botshabelo, eds. (2006). Within the realm of possibility: From disadvantage to development at the University of Fort Hare and the University of the North. Pretoria: HSRC Press. p. 88. ISBN9780796921550. The Scots Presbyterian mission station of Lovedale was the centre of this process, with a reach that spread all over southern Africa, either by direct evangelisation, as in Malawi, or by the example of the quality and level of the education that could be obtained there. Lovedale became a centre of 'higher' education for black people for more than a century. Amongst many others, Seretse Khama of Botswana and Thabo Mbeki were pupils there.
^Alexander, Mary (30 June 2006). "Black, white – or South African?". SAinfo. Archived from the original on 24 July 2016. Retrieved 26 June 2013. With 82% defining themselves as 'South African', whites identify with the country the most, followed by coloureds and Indians. Five percent of whites consider themselves to be Africans, while 4% identify themselves according to race and 2% according to language or ethnicity.
^Donald G. McNeil Jr (11 October 1998). "Like Politics, All Political Correctness Is Local". The New York Times. Archived from the original on 12 October 2008. Meanwhile, English-speaking whites call uncouth Afrikaner ones 'hairybacks' or 'rockspiders,' while Afrikaners call the other whites 'rooinek' – rednecks, as in sunburned British soldiers – or worse.
^Africanus (December 1918). The adjustment of the German colonial claims – Dedicated to the American and British delegates of the peace conference. Bern. p. 7. Retrieved 15 July 2013. Sir Harry Johnston, the former Governor General of Central British Africa said after the conquest of German East Africa in the 'Daily News': ... Another well known Anglo-African and Colonial politician E. D. Morel in an article in the 'Labour Leader' entitled 'The Way Out' writes as follows: ...'{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)Harry Johnston (1858–1927) and E. D. Morel (1873–1924) are referred to as Anglo-Africans in this publication.
^Moses, Wilson Jeremiah (1988). The golden age of Black nationalism, 1850-1925. New York: Oxford University Press. p. 32. ISBN0-19-520639-8. A startling feature in the rhetoric of black institutional leadership on the eve of the Civil War was the popularity of the term, 'Anglo-African.' ... By 1900, 'Anglo-African' had been replaced by 'Afro-American' and such variants as 'Euro-African', and 'Negro-Saxon'.
^Rogers, Joel Augustus (1996). World's Great Men of Color, Volume 2. New York: Touchstone. p. 148. ISBN9780684815824. The festival was to be given at Gloucester with Coleridge-Taylor himself conducting the three choirs. As it was advertised that the conductor was an Anglo-African, the audience expected a white man. What was its surprise to see instead a dark-skinned Negro, quick-moving, slight of build, with an enormous head of high, thick, frizzly hair, broad nostrils, flashing white teeth, and a winning smile.
^Lee, Christopher J (2009). "'A generous dream, but difficult to realize': the making of the Anglo-African community of Nyasaland, 1929–1940". In Mohamed Adhikari (ed.). Burdened by race : Coloured identities in southern Africa. Cape Town: UCT Press. p. 209. ISBN978-1-91989-514-7. Because the area had only been colonised in the 1890s, the Anglo-African community of Nyasaland during the 1930s, for the most part, consisted of first-generation persons of 'mixed' racial descent. This is reflected in their preference of the term 'Anglo-African' over 'coloured' and 'half-caste'. Although all three were used, 'Anglo-African' had the advantage of emphasising their partial descent from colonists.
^Wills, Walter H; Barrett, R. J, eds. (1905). The Anglo-African Who's Who and Biographical Sketch-Book. London: George Routledge & Sons, Ltd. Retrieved 26 June 2013. But we may perhaps claim that, incomplete as it is, it contains many records of Anglo-Africans which are not readily available in any similar work of reference, and it is only necessary to add that we hope to remedy its sins of omission and commission in future editions.