History and Culture - Southern Africa

Before European countries came to take over Africa, there were many other African tribes. The most well known tribe in southern Africa during 1400s would be the Shona. The Shona is best known for Great Zimbabwe, their stone-walled towns. They were founded in the late 1000s and it was a trading center. Later, their gold mines developed and became a large trade center and traded widely over the world. The evidence is there were chinese pircelain and other artifacts from Asia. but they only lasted till 1500s due to the decline of gold trade. Then the europeans came to Southern africa The Dutch, on the way to Asia, they had to go around the tip of South Africa, so they settled down and set up a trade station near the Cape of Good Hope. Afrikaners, who were Dutch, French, and German, settled in south Africa until the Great Britain took over the area of the cape. there was another tribe in near South Africa called the Zulu. They were strong, powerful tribe who conquered surrounding African people, and creating their empire. But the British, after series of battles defeated the Zulu. and in the early 1900s the government of South Africa, which was dominated by the Afrikaners were increasingly racist against the blacks. to defend their rights, the africans formed a ANC ( African national congress) and there was a policy which divided different races into : whites, blacks Coloureds, and Asian. So overall, the history of Southern part of africa is mainly different tribes and european countries taking over each other and during the early 1900s, there were problems related to racism.