White African
Encyclopedia
White Africans are people of Europe
an descent living in Africa
, who identify themselves as White
.
This definition excludes the predominantly White or Caucasian Berber and Arab populations of North Africa, many of whom also have actual European ancestry as a result of centuries of historical population movements across the Mediterranean. Being ethnically and culturally (North) Africans indigenous to (and majorities in) their respective countries, they do not share the characteristics of European settlement: a distinct alien non-african minority which established itself during the colonial period. Hence their exclusion from this article.
Africans of European descent are mostly of Dutch
, British
, French
, Portuguese
, German
, Flemish, and to a lesser extent, Italian, Spanish
, Austrian
, Scandinavia
n, Greek
, Lithuanian, Belgian, Swiss, and Irish
ancestry.
Prior to the post-World War II
decolonization
era, Whites numbered up to 10 million persons and were represented in every part of Africa, especially South Africa
(English and Boer
), Algeria
(French), Rhodesia
(English and Boer
), Angola
(Portuguese), and Mozambique
(Portuguese). However, many left during and after the independence of the colonies. Some, such as the Italians in Libya, were expelled by post-colonial governments. Nevertheless, White Africans remain a substantial minority in some African states, with white percentages sometimes reaching above 3% (such as in some Southern African countries).
The African country with the largest White African population (and arguably the highest percentage) is South Africa
, at approximately 4.6 million (9.2% of the population). Although White Africans no longer have the exclusive rule of African nations, they often still hold a substantial ownership of the economy and land in specific regions or countries. At most about 0.65% of Africa's population, or 6.5 million out of 1 billion, is white of European descent.
Dutch settlement, under the Dutch East India Company
, began in the Cape of Good Hope
(present-day Cape Town) in southern Africa in 1652, making it the oldest European-based culture in Sub-Saharan Africa. By the late nineteenth century, the descendants of the Dutch (known as Afrikaner
s) had crossed the Limpopo
river into Mashonaland
, now part of Zimbabwe
. Their numbers increased during Apartheid due to mass migration and an above replacement fertility rate, and soon numbered beyond 2 million. This made them the biggest ever white ethnic group on the African continent.
s are present in all parts of the nation, apart from the south-east, where they number very few. English speaking whites are generally concentrated in KwaZulu-Natal, Johannesburg and Cape Town. Other white groups (such as Portuguese and Germans) live mostly in Johannesburg or Cape Town. The greatest percentages and populations of White South Africans are in Gauteng
(which includes Johannesburg and Pretoria) and the Western Cape
(which includes Cape Town). The province with the smallest percentage of Whites is Limpopo, with only 2.2%.
s feared for their safety as the British
approached closer to their lands to gain access to natural resources
. For this reason, many started to migrate further North, and with the British already controlling Rhodesia
(modern day Zimbabwe
), their attention turned to Namibia
, Botswana
, and Angola
. This journey, called the Dorsland Trek
, went all the way through Botswana and into south-west Angola, which was under Portuguese control at the time. Additionally, during the pre-World War I
era, Namibia was a German territory, leading to significant German immigration to present day Namibia.
During the apartheid era, many other Afrikaners moved into the country because of the vast space and untapped resources. Current estimates for the Afrikaner population in Namibia vary from 80,000 to 150,000. Currently over 50% of the agricultural land is held by white Namibians (the majority thought to be Afrikaners).
(known as Enkeldoorn before 1982). The village was the first white settlement in Rhodesia, and was at one point predominantly white. Persistant persecution of whites in Zimbabwe by Mugabe and party supporters has led to emigration and population decline.
, where they settled along with the British and created hundreds of new farms in the western portion of the country. The majority of both the Afrikaner and the British settlers in Kenya lived in Kenya's fertile Rift Valley. The 30,000 white Kenyans (almost exclusively of British ancestry. Some Afrikaners also remain, and some still own farmland around the Afrikaner-founded city of Eldoret
.
grew in Angola, and most of the Portuguese left the colony, most Afrikaners left, mostly to South Africa, neighboring Namibia, Portugal or Brazil.
, large numbers of Afrikaner
s traveled north to British East Africa and settled in what is now Kenya
and Tanzania
, as well as in Angola
. Following the Mau Mau insurgency and general collapse of colonial authorities in the decades after World War II, Afrikaner colonies outside South Africa, Namibia, and Rhodesia diminished in size and the majority of settlers and their descendants returned to South Africa.
Although there were small British settlements along the West Africa
n coast from the 18th century onwards, mostly devoted to the slave trade, British settlement in Africa began in earnest only at the end of the 18th century, in the Cape of Good Hope
. It gained momentum following British annexation of the Cape from the Dutch East India Company, and the subsequent encouragement of settlers
in the Eastern Cape
in an effort to consolidate the colony's eastern border.
In the late 19th century, the discovery of gold
and diamond
s further encouraged colonisation of South Africa by the British. The search for gold drove expansion north into the Rhodesia
s (now Zimbabwe, Zambia
, and Malawi
). Simultaneously, British settlers began expansion into the fertile uplands (often called the "White Highlands
") of British East Africa (now Kenya and Tanzania). Most of these settlements were not planned by the British government, with many colonial officials concluding they upset the balance of power in the region and left overall imperial interests vulnerable.
Cecil Rhodes utilized his wealth and connections towards organizing this ad hoc movement and settlement into a grand imperial policy. This policy had as its general aim the securing of a Cairo
to Cape Town railway system, and settling the upper highlands of East Africa
and the whole of Southern Africa
south of the Zambezi with British colonies in a manner akin to that of North America
and Australasia
.
However, prioritization of British power around the globe in the years before World War I, initially reduced the resources appropriated toward settlement. World War I and the Great Depression
and the general decline of British and European birthrates further hobbled the expected settler numbers. Nonetheless, thousands of colonists arrived each year during the decades preceding World War II, mostly in South Africa, where the birthrates of British Africans increased suddenly. Despite a general change in British policy against supporting the establishment of European settlements in Africa, and a slow abandonment in the overall British ruling and common classes for a separate and exclusivist European identity, large colonial appendages of European separatist supporters of the British Empire
were well entrenched in South Africa, Rhodesia, and Kenya.
In keeping with the general trend toward non-European rule evident throughout most of the globe during the Cold War
and the abandonment of colonial positions in the face of American and Soviet pressure, the vestigial remnants of Cecil Rhodes' vision was abruptly ended, leaving British settlers in an exposed, isolated, and weak position. Black Nationalist guerrilla forces aided by Soviet expertise and weapons soon drove the colonists into a fortress mentality which led to the break-off of ties with perceived collaborationist governments in the United Kingdom
and Commonwealth
.
The result was a series of conflicts which eventually led to a reduced presence of White Africans due to emigration
and natural death. Many were murdered, tens of thousands driven off their lands and property, with many of those remaining being intimidated and threatened by the government and political and paramilitary
organizations. However, what soon followed was a mass immigration to the safety and white rule of South Africa, which is the African country known to have the largest white population, currently with 1,755,100 British-South Africans. When apartheid first started most British-South Africans were mostly keen on keeping and even strengthening its ties with the United Kingdom. However, they were largely outnumbered by the Afrikaners, who preferred a republic, and in a referendum voted against being a British commonwealth realm.
Hundreds of thousands of British-South Africans left the nation to start new lives abroad, they settled United Kingdom, Australia
, New Zealand
, United States
, Canada
, Netherlands, and Ireland. In spite of the high emigration rates, a large number of white foreign immigrants from countries such as United Kingdom and Zimbabwe
have settled in the country. For example, by 2005, an estimated 212,000 British citizens were residing in South Africa. By 2011, this number may have grown to 500,000. Since 2003, the numbers of British immigrants coming to South Africa has risen by 50%. An estimated 20,000 British immigrants moved to South Africa in 2007. South Africa is ranked as the top destination of British retirees and pensioners in Africa.
There have also been a significant number of arrivals of white Zimbabweans
of British ancestry, fleeing their home country in light of the economic and political problems currently facing the country. As well as recent arrivals, a significant number of white British Zimbabwean settlers emigrated to South Africa after the independence of Zimbabwe in 1980. Currently, the greatest white English populations in South Africa are in the KwaZulu-Natal
province and in cities such as Johannesburg
and Cape Town
.
(Northern Rhodesia
before independence), making up roughly 2.3% of the 3 million inhabitants at the time. Zambia had a different situation compared to other African countries. It included segregation, similar to South Africa, Rhodesia
(Zimbabwe
) and South-West Africa (Namibia
); but as the Europeans constituted a smaller fraction of the population they did not dominate politics. There were a few cities in Northern Rhodesia that had British place names, but all except one (Livingstone
) were changed when the country became independent or soon after. These included:
A good example of segregation in Zambia before independence was in the city of Livingstone
, on the border with Zimbabwe. The town featured a white town, with black townships, which were also found in South Africa and Namibia. In Zambia however Livingstone was one of the few places in the country that used this system, and was close to the Rhodesian border. British colonists were reflected in town and city names. Livingstone (which is currently the only town left with a British name) was nearly changed to Maramba, but the decision was later dismissed.
When Zambia became independent in 1964, the majority of white settlers left for Rhodesia, just by crossing the border. An almost identical town of Victoria Falls
lies on the other side, and benefited from the white people's crafts and abilities. This enabled them to improve the situation on the white-controlled Rhodesian side, and therefore Livingstone soon became desolate and unused. However, since the economic problems in Zimbabwe since the start of the 21st century, the situation has very much turned around as the Zambian side has become more attractive to tourists and therefore Livingstone is once again improving (at the expense of Victoria Falls).
in 1965. Today, there are an estimated 30,000 whites in Kenya
. However, there has been an increasing number of British expatriates that, according to the BBC, number at about 32,000. Evolution
ary scientist Richard Dawkins
was born in Kenya.
dropped from a peak of around 296,000 in 1975 (when the country was known as Rhodesia
and Whites made up 5% of the population) to possibly 120,000 in 1999 and was estimated at no more than 50,000 in 2002, possibly much fewer.
, it is easier for the British settlers to live there. However, just like Angola, the British population in Mozambique is/was tiny compared to both their share of the nation's population and in comparison to the Portuguese.
, Namibia, Tanzania, Swaziland
(3% of the population), Nigeria
, and Botswana
.In addition, at least 10,000 white Ugandans
of British extract were living under the regime of Idi Amin
as recorded by TIME Magazine in 1972. Due to the subsequent deterioration of conditions under Amin (Including the constant threat of forced expulsion), most of the local Anglo-African population emigrated to the United Kingdom and South Africa.
overseas colonization, alongside the English
, Welsh
, and Irish
. Scotland supplied colonial troops, administrators
, governor
s, prospector
s, architect
s, and engineer
s to help construct the colonies all over the world.
From the 1870s Scottish churches began missionary
work in Nyasaland/Malawi, in the wake of their illustrious predecessor, David Livingstone
. Their pressure on the British Government resulted in Nyasaland being declared a British Protectorate. A small Scottish community was established here, and other Scots immigration occurred in Southern Rhodesia/Zimbabwe, Northern Rhodesia/Zambia, and South Africa. The table below represents how small their numbers were compared to other sections of Rhodesia.
The largest and commercial capital of the country, Blantyre
, is named after a town in Scotland
and birthplace of David Livingstone. It is a testament to the love the African people had and still have for Livingstone that this name has not been changed after independence, like so many others. The reason for the small number of Europeans was mainly the lack of mineral resources (North Rhodesia had copper
and South Rhodesia has gold
).
After Nyasaland became independent (and upon adopting a new name: Malawi), many Scots returned to Scotland or moved to South Africa or Zimbabwe
(Rhodesia at the time still). Despite this, Scots had an enormous South African community (compared to that of Nyasaland), however they fail to take credit because they were a small part of the white community in South Africa. Also, under the African sun, and in relatively small numbers, domestic differences tended to be overlooked and the resulting colonial culture was an inclusive British one.
To this day most Scots in Africa reside in South Africa and until the 21st century also in Zimbabwe (formerly Rhodesia). Most Scottish settlers from Rhodesia left for South Africa after Rhodesia's independence and after economic and political problems in 2001. Evidence of the continued Scottish influence is seen in the continuing traditions of Highland games
and pipe band
s, especially in Natal
. Ties between Scotland and Malawi remain strong to this day.
Large numbers of French people
settled in French North Africa from the 1840s onward. By the end of French rule in the early 1960s there were over one million European Algerians, mostly of French origin (known as pieds noirs, or "black feet") living in Algeria
, consisting about 16% of the population in 1962. There were 255,000 Europeans in Tunisia
in 1956. Morocco
was home to half a million Europeans.
No other region of the French African colonial empire attracted similar settlement, although there is still a comparatively large European population living in the former West Africa
n colony of Ivory Coast, which had the largest French population of France's former colonies of sub-Saharan Africa, numbering 60,000 in 1980, although its numbers are believed to have declined since then. There are also important white minorities in Gabon
, Senegal
, and Togo
.
French law made it easy for thousands of colons, ethnic or national French from former colonies of Africa
, India
, and Indochina
to live in mainland France. 1.6 million European colons migrated from Algeria
, Tunisia
, and Morocco
.
reside in Madagascar
.
An estimated 18,000 French citizens lived and worked in Madagascar
in the early 1990s. Currently, approximately 120,000 people, or 0.6% of the total population, are French. This community is descended from former French settlers who settled in Madagascar during the 19th Century.
A further 80,000 people are classified as Réunionese Creole, therefore bringing the total number of people with French ancestry to approximately 1%. The numbers make Madagascar the home of the largest ethnic French population in terms of absolute numbers in sub-Saharan Africa, other than the French département Réunion
.
, a French island in the Indian Ocean
, white islanders, mostly of ethnic French origin, are estimated to make up approx. 25% of the population.
s settled in the Cape Colony
, following their expulsion from France in the 17th century. However, the use of the French language
was discouraged and the Huguenot settlers were entirely absorbed into Afrikaans
culture. However, this early contact can be seen clearly in the names of historic towns, such as Courtrai and Franschhoek in the Western Cape
(meaning "French Corner") and in the surnames of many Afrikaners, such as Theron, Du Plessis, Joubert, Delagrange, etc. By far, the French South African community is the largest among all French African communities. There are often towns and suburbs in the Western Cape which carry some French names.
Franschhoek (meaning French Corner, or French hook in Dutch
) is a large town in the Western Cape
, so named for the French Huguenots, who traveled and settled there. There is a striking French influence in the town, which can be found firstly in street names which include La Rochelle
street, Bordeaux
street, Huguenot street, Roux Malherbe street, and Cabriere street.
Nearby farms, hamlets, and villages often hold French names such as La Roux; a township north of Franschhoek, Chamonix Estate, and so forth. Many Huguenot-dedictated buildings have been erected in Franschhoek, the major one being the Huguenot Monument
. The town is famed for being one of the only sites in the whole nation to bear some evidence of Huguenot culture, as Huguenots generally converted to an Afrikaner-based culture.
settlements in Africa
were built in the 15th century. The descendants of the soldiers who accompanied Christopher da Gama expedition to support the Ethiopia
n throne in the sixteenth century continued to exert a significant influence in that country's history over the next two centuries; for example, the Empress Mentewab
was extremely proud of her Portuguese ancestry. In the late 17th century, much of Portuguese Mozambique
was divided into prazos, or agricultural estates, which were settled by Portuguese families. In Portuguese Angola, namely in the areas of Luanda
and Benguela
, there was a significant Portuguese population
. In the islands of Cape Verde
and São Tomé and Príncipe
, besides Portuguese settlers, most of the population was of mixed Portuguese and African origin. The descendants of the Portuguese settlers who were born and "raised" locally since Portuguese colonial time were called crioulos.
In the early 20th century, the Portuguese government encouraged white migration to the Portuguese territories of Angola
and Mozambique, and by the 1960s, at the beginning of the Portuguese Colonial War
, there were around 650,000 Portuguese settlers living in their overseas African provinces, and a substantial Portuguese population living in other African countries. In 1974, there were up to 1,000,000 Portuguese settlers living in their overseas African provinces. In 1975, Angola
had a community of approximately 400,000 Portuguese, while Mozambique had approximately more than 350,000 settlers from Portugal.
Most Portuguese settlers returned to Portugal (the retornados) as the country's African possessions gained independence in the mid 1970s, while others moved south to South Africa, which now has the largest Portuguese-African population (who between 50-80% came from Madeira
), and to Brazil
. When Mozambican Civil War
(1977–1992) began suddenly, large numbers of both Portuguese-born settlers and Mozambican-born settlers of Portuguese blood went out again.
However, after the war in Mozambique, more Portuguese settlers returned and the newer ones settled Mozambique while White Brazilian
s, especially those of Portuguese descent, moved to Mozambique to work as aid workers and investors and have adopted Mozambique as their home. It is estimated the population of Portuguese people in Mozambique has increased to over 20,000 since the peace settlement of Mozambique in 1992. Notable demographics of Portuguese Mozambicans
could be found in cities like Maputo
, Beira
, and Nampula
with Maputo accumulating the highest percentage. In recent years, some Portuguese have migrated to Angola for economic reasons, mainly the country's recent economic boom
.
In 2008, Angola was the preferred destination for Portuguese migrants in Africa.
and Portugal itself, while the second was ethnic Portuguese fleeing from Angola and Mozambique after their respective independences. The reason behind the immigration of Madeirans to South Africa was both a political and economic one. After 1950, Hendrik Verwoerd (the "architect" of Apartheid) encouraged immigration from Protestant Anglo-Saxons to strengthen the white population. When this failed, he turned his attention to Southern Europeans, one of which were Madeirans, who were facing high unemployment rates. Many Madeirans and Portuguese who immigrated were at first isolated from the general white population due to their differences, such as being Catholic and the fact that few could speak English or Afrikaans. Eventually they ended up setting up businesses in Johannesburg or coastal fisheries, and soon intermarriage between whites began.
One known Portuguese South African creation was the restaurant chain Nando's
, created in 1987, which incorporated influences from former Portuguese colonists from Mozambique, many of whom had settled on the south-eastern side of Johannesburg, after Mozambique's independence in 1975. Currently there's a 300,000-strong Portuguese community in South Africa. The Portuguese South Africans are also different to other white South Africans in that they are mostly Catholic and football (soccer) is popular among them.
had some 150,000 Italians settled in the nation during World War II
, constituting about 18% of the total population. The Italians in Libya resided (and many still do) in most major cities like Tripoli
(37% of the city was Italian), Benghazi
(31%), and Hun (3%). Their numbers decreased after 1936. Most of Libya's Italians were expelled from the North African country in 1970, a year after Muammar Gaddafi
seized power (a "day of vengeance" on 7 October 1970), but a few hundred Italian settlers returned to Libya in the 2000s.
an nations that didn't encounter mass migration
to South Africa
, there was still many who ended up settling in South Africa. South African Italians made big headlines during World War II
, when Italians captured in Italian East Africa
needed to be sent to a safe stronghold to be kept as prisoners of war (POWs). South Africa was the perfect destination, and the first POWs arrived in Durban
, in 1941.
Despite being POWs, the Italians were treated well, with a good food diet
and friendly hospitality. These factors, along with the peaceful, cheap, and sunny landscape, made it very attractive for Italians to settle down, and therefore, the Italian South African community was born. Although over 100,000 Italian POW were sent to South Africa, only a handful decided to stay, and during their capture, they were given the free will to create Chapels, Churches, Dams, and many more structures. Most Italian influence and architecture can be seen in the Natal
and Transvaal
area. White South Africans of Italian descent number between 6,300 and 28,059.
The Italians had a significantly large, but very quickly diminished population in Africa. In 1926, there were 90,000 Italians in Tunisia, compared to 70,000 Frenchmen (unusual since Tunisia was a French Colony). Former Italian communities also once thrived in the Horn of Africa
, with about 50,000 Italian settlers living in Eritrea
in 1935, and 22,000 Italians
residing in Italian Somaliland
during the first half of 1940, 10,000 of whom were concentrated in the capital of Mogadishu
. The Italian Eritrean
population grew from 4,000 during World War I to nearly 100,000 at the beginning of World War II.
There was emigration to Ethiopia
as well. During the five-year occupation of Ethiopia, roughly 300,000 Italians were absorbed into East Africa (there were over 49,000 Italians living in Asmara
in 1939, and over 38,000 in Addis Ababa
). This led to half of Asmara's population and 10% of Eritrea's being Italian in 1939. Many Italian settlers immigrated out of Italian Somaliland during and after World War II
, and also during independence in 1960 and many more left when the Somali Civil War
broke out in 1991. The size of the Italian Egyptian
community had reached around 55,000 just before World War II, forming the second largest expatriate community in Egypt.
A few Italian settlers stayed in Portuguese African colonies as World War II
refugees when the Portuguese government tried to request Europeans of other nationalities to increase the very tiny Portuguese population and during the war, although that plan of the Portuguese government was unsuccessful. They were assimilated to the Portuguese population.
, who visited Egypt in the 5th century BCE, wrote that the Greeks were the first foreigners that ever lived in Egypt. Diodorus Siculus
attested that Rhodian
Actis
, one of the Heliadae
built the city of Heliopolis
before the cataclysm; likewise the Athenians built Sais
. While all Greek cities were destroyed during the cataclysm, the Egyptian cities including Heliopolis and Sais survived.
In modern times the official 1907 census showed 62,973 Greeks living in Egypt. The expulsion of 2.5 million Greeks from Turkey saw a large number of those Greeks
move to Egypt and by 1940 Greeks were numbered at around 500,000. Today the Greek community numbers officially about 3,000 people although the real number is much higher since many Greeks have changed their nationality to Egyptian. In Alexandria, apart from the patriarchate, there is a patriarchal theology school that opened recently after being closed 480 years. Saint Nicolas church and several other buildings in Alexandria have been recently renovated by the Greek Government
and the Alexander S. Onassis Foundation
.
During the last decade, there has been a new interest from the Egyptian government for a diplomatic rapprochement with Greece and this has positively affected the Greek diaspora. The diaspora has received official visits of many Greek politicians. Economic relationships have been blossoming between Greece and Egypt. Egypt has been recently the centre of major Greek investments in industries such as banking, tourism, paper, and oil. In 2009, a five years cooperation memorandum was signed among the NCSR Demokritos Institute in Agia Paraskevi
, Athens
and the University of Alexandreia, regarding Archeometry research and contextual sectors.
have had a presence in South Africa since the late 19th century. After the expulsion of the Greeks from Egypt as part of Nasser's nationalization policy the Greek population of South Africa dramatically increased to around 250,000. Today the number of Greeks
in South Africa is estimated between 60,000 - 120,000.
) and was the second largest white population after those of British origin. Today the Greek
community in Zimbabwe
comprises about 2,500 of Greek origin. Zimbabwe currently hosts eleven Greek Orthodox churches and fifteen Greek associations and humanitarian organizations.
The Greeks have a presence in a number of different African countries such as Cameroon (1,200 people), Zambia (800 people), Ethiopia (500 people), Uganda (450 people), Democratic Republic of Congo (300 people), Kenya (100 families), Nigeria (300 people), Tanzania (300 people), Gambia (300 people), Sudan (200 people), Botswana (200-300 people), Malawi (200 people), and Morocco (150 people).
Germany
was late to colonize Africa (or to have an empire) mainly due to Germany not being a single country until the late 19th century. However, many Germans settled in South West Africa
(modern day Namibia
) as well as South Africa
. Those Germans who migrated to South West Africa retained German culture
, religion
, and even language
, while those in South Africa often had to learn English or Afrikaans as a first language and adopt another culture.
Unlike other Europeans in Africa, when many African states gained independence
, the Germans (along with the English and Dutch/Afrikaners) stayed in Southern Africa
because they retained political dominance (now being a mandate
under South African control). The country was administered as a province of South Africa during the apartheid era (though South African rule was not widely recognized internationally.) German influence in Namibia is very strong and noticeable. Because Namibia hasn't changed any town names since independence, many of the largest cities in the country retain their German names. These include Lüderitz
, Grünau
, Maltahöhe
, Wasser, Schuckmannsburg
, and even the capital city
has a (slightly unused) German name (Windhuk
). In the southern Regions of Karas and especially Hardap
, the vast majority of town names are German, or a mixture of German, Afrikaans and English. In the Hardap region, some 80% of settlements have a name of German origin.
Namibia is also the only nation outside Europe to have a Lutheran majority. This is due to many German missionaries during the 19th century who converted the Ovambo and Damara people
to Christianity
. Until 1990 German was an official language of Namibia, and is now a recognized regional language
(the only one of its kind for the German language outside of Europe).
Today there are roughly 20,000-50,000 Germans in Namibia (32% of the white population, and 2% of the nation's population), and they greatly outnumber English and many Black ethnic groups. Their numbers are unsure because many Namibians of German ancestry don't speak German anymore, and sometimes would rather be classified as Afrikaans.
When Tanzania
, Rwanda
, and Burundi
was under German control it was named German East Africa
and received some migration from German communities, with over 3,579 Germans in German East Africa by 1914. In Dar Es Salaam
, the capital city, its German population grew to 1,050, 0.006% of the city's population and just under a third of the entire German East African population. However, these Germans were only ever here to try and implement German technology and science, and never to fully settle or Germanise the country.
However, much of the community has disappeared and there are practically no more Germans left in Tanzania. Their influence was once stronger though. The city of Tabora
was formerly named Weidmannsheil and Kasanga
was known as Bismarckburg. Mount Kilimanjaro
was known as Kilimandscharo, a German way of spelling it. Unlike other colonial powers in Africa, the Germans established an education system for the Africans, which after World War I was demolished. Some colonial
German style buildings still exist in some of Tanzania's largest cities and former German strongholds, but they are in bad condition and need extensive renovation.
Despite virtually all German names being reverted since World War I, some places still hold German names. These include the majority of Glaciers on Mount Kilimanjaro, such as Rebmann Glacier
and Furtwängler Glacier
. Current estimates for the German population in Tanzania, stand more than double than that under German colonial rule (estimates put the figure at 8,500).
Togoland
was a German colony from 1884 to 1914. In 1895 the capital, Lomé
, had a population of 31 (~1% of the city) Germans and 2,084 natives. By 1913 the native population had swelled to 7,042 persons and 194 Germans (2% of the city), including 33 women, while the entire colony had a German population of 316, including 61 women and 14 children. Their numbers were depleted after World War I
. The very little German architecture can be seen in the capital and from the Hinterlandbahn, a huge German railway which went deep into the thin country.
The colony’s infrastructure was developed to one of the highest levels in Africa. Colonial officials built roads and bridges to the interior mountain ranges and three rail lines from the capital Lomé. Virtually all German influence present, and almost all German colonial activity took place in Lomé, and only ever reached deep inland when the Hinterlandbahn would voyage in the jungle for resources. Estimates for the current German population are as high as 700.
was a German colony in present day Cameroon
between 1884 and 1916. During German control, few Germans migrated, but many trading post
s and infrastructure
was built to aid the growing German Empire
with goods, such as banana
s and important mineral
s. These trading posts were most abundant around the former capital city, and largest city in Cameroon: Douala
.
Douala itself was known as Kamerunstadt (German for 'Cameroon City') between 1884 and 1907. Most trading took place with Hamburg
and Bremen
, and was later made easier by the construction of an extensive postal
and telegraph system. Like all German colonies (except South West Africa), after World War I, most Germans left for Europe, America
, or South Africa.
refugees when the Portuguese government tried to request Europeans of other nationalities to increase the very tiny Portuguese population and during the war, although that plan of the Portuguese government was unsuccessful. They were assimilated to the Portuguese population. There is a recorded German population of Mozambique numbering 2,200.
have resided in many African countries (mostly former colonies), including Equatorial Guinea
, Western Sahara
, South Africa
, Morocco
, Ceuta
, and Melilla
. 94,000 Spaniards
chose to go to Algeria
in the last years of the 19th century; 250,000 Spaniards lived in Morocco
at the beginning of the 20th century. Most Spaniards left Morocco after its independence in 1956 and their numbers were reduced to 13,000.
An estimated 90,000 Spaniards live in Spain's North African enclaves Ceuta
and Melilla
. Western Sahara is home to 10 000 Spanish expatriates, all of them against the rule of Francisco Franco
. Most Spanish expatriates officially went away after negotiation with the Madrid Accords
.
The Spanish have resided in Equatorial Guinea
(when under Spanish rule known as Spanish Guinea
) for many years and first started as temporary plantation
owners originally from Valencia, before returning to Spain. Few Spaniards remained in Spanish Guinea permanently and left only after a few years. At independence in 1968 Spanish Guinea had one of the highest per capita incomes in Africa (332 USD). The Spanish also helped Equatorial Guinea achieve one of the continent's highest literacy rates and developed a good network of health care facilities.
Many left Spanish Guinea when the colony gained independence
in 1968, and current figures of the Spaniard population range from 5,000 (1% of the population) to 16,000 (roughly over 3%). After independence, many Spanish-named cities and places in Equatorial Guinea were changed
to more 'African
' names, the most obvious one being the capital city
, Malabo
(formerly Santa Isabel), and the island
it is located on, Bioko
(formerly Fernando Pó).
Despite a large loss of Spaniards during the brutal rule of Masie Nguema Biyogo, who wrecked the nation into debt and abolished education
, the number of Spaniards have somewhat increased after he was overthrown. They almost exclusively speak Spanish
as their first language; French
or Portuguese
, which are official languages, are often spoken as a second language, sometimes alongside the indigenous Bantu languages
. Their religion is 100% Catholic, and this can be reflected by the population, which also remains Catholic. Since the discovery of oil, and an economic 'boom', a large number of Europeans, not just Spaniards, have migrated here for business and in Malabo
, they are located in the western half of the city and in new housing estates.
is dubious, since it can refer to the Flemish
(Dutch-speaking), the Walloons
(French-speaking), or to a lesser extent, to German-speaking Belgians
.
gained independence from Belgium, the Force Publique
garrison near Léopoldville
mutinied against its white officers and attacked numerous European targets. This led to fear amongst the approximately 100,000 whites still resident in the Congo and mass exodus from the country. In 1965, there were 60,000 Belgians spread throughout the Congo.
, along with the Dutch, migrated to the Republic of South Africa for many years between the 17th century and the 20th century. Immigration to RSA has slowed down drastically, but the remnants of a huge Flemish population still exist in Southern Africa. Many Flemish colonials, including farmers and mineowners, moved to the Belgian Congo
to seek their fortunes during the colonial era, entrenching a system of racial segregation
not unlike those practiced in most other European-ruled African territories. The old segregated Belgian neighborhoods, in fact, are still visible in Kinshasa
, the Democratic Republic of Congo's capital city. Despite the mass emigration of white people to Belgium, the Netherlands, and South Africa during the Congo Crisis
, there are still a little under 50,000 Flemings estimated to be living in the Congo. It has also been observed that there were roughly 3,000 Flemish settlers in Rwanda
, although many were targeted for extermination as part of the Rwandan Genocide
. This seemed to be largely because Belgian administrators were often regarded by resentful Hutu
s as having offered better education and employment opportunities to Tutsi
tribesmen under colonial rule. Radio messages broadcast by Hutu extremists during the genocide advocated the killing of white Rwandans on basis of their Belgian ancestry, despite the fact that Belgium itself attempted to remain neutral during the conflict.
in Africa are one of the smallest immigrant communities, they are not unheard of. However it is almost certain that the vast majority of them live in Southern Africa (most likely South Africa
). One incident involving Norwegians in Africa was the Debora Expedition, where Norwegian families left Bergen
in 1879 to establish a Norwegian colony on an Indian Ocean atoll called Aldabra
(now located in the Seychelles
). However the mission was aborted and the families instead settled in Madagascar or Port Natal (modern day Durban
) in South Africa. They were the first Norwegians to settle in Port Natal.
A number of Norwegian settlers stayed in Portuguese African colonies when the Portuguese government tried to request Europeans of other nationalities to increase the very tiny Portuguese population, although that plan of the Portuguese government was unsuccessful. They were already acculturated
to the Portuguese population.
In 1948, approximately 600,000 Jews
lived in North Africa; today only around 6,000 Jews remain. There is a substantial, mostly Ashkenazic Jewish community in South Africa
. These Jews arrived mostly from Lithuania
prior to World War II
. Although the Jewish community peaked in the 1970s, about 80,000 remain in South Africa.
Armenians
once numbered thousands in Ethiopia and Sudan
, before civil wars, revolutions, and nationalization drove most of them out. They still have community centers and churches in these countries. Before 1952 there were around 75,000 Armenians in Egypt.
The inhabitants of the Canary Islands
hold a gene pool that is halfway between the Spaniards and the ancient native population, the Guanches
(a proto-berber population), although with a major Spanish contribution.
On Tristan da Cunha
, the population of 271 people shared just seven surnames: Glass, Green, Hagan, Lavarello (a typical Liguria
n surname), Repetto (another typical Ligurian surname), Rogers, and Swain.
There are an estimated 100,000 Europeans living in Tunisia
, most are French with some Italians. Morocco
has about 100,000 Europeans, most of them French.
The White African population of Zimbabwe
was much higher in the 1960s and 1970s (when the country was known as Rhodesia); the largest was 300,000. After the introduction of majority rule in 1980, and the downturn due to the mass murder and expulsion of white farmers and businessmen, along with the economic mismanagement by the Mugabe
regime in the late 1990s, many white people left the country.
By September 2007, it is thought that as few as 22,000 whites remain in Zimbabwe as the economic and political crisis deepens. It is thought that if economic and political conditions improve, some of the former white population will return.
The white African population in Mozambique was at its peak with about 370,000 Portuguese Mozambicans
residing in Mozambique during the 1970s but political crisis and violence drastically decreased its population in a matter of weeks. Most Portuguese Mozambicans were expelled or fled to Portugal or to neighboring South Africa and Zimbabwe with some also going to Brazil. However, there has been an increase in the white African population of Mozambique in the last 10 years due to the immense Brazilian presence and intercultural Lusophone presence in Mozambique.
as their first languages (Afrikaans
, English
, Portuguese
, French
, German
, Spanish
and Italian
).
. It is spoken by 60% of South Africa's, 60% of Namibia's, and about 5% of Zimbabwe's white populations. In South Africa they make up a major white speaking group in all provinces
except KwaZulu-Natal
, where Afrikaans speakers (of all races) make up 1.5% of the population. In Rhodesia (and later Zimbabwe), Afrikaans wasn't as spoken and therefore the country remained English dominated for its history. There were, however a few Afrikaans inhabitants, mostly from South Africa. Afrikaans was also very limited culturally to Rhodesia and so only a few Afrikaans place names existed, most notabley Enkeldoorn (renamed Chivhu
in 1982). Most Afrikaners in Zimbabwe have now immigrated to South Africa or First World
countries.
English is the second most spoken language among white Africans, spoken by 39% of South Africa's, 7% of Namibia's, and 90% of Zimbabwe's white population. In South Africa they remain the dominant white ethnic group in KwaZulu-Natal, while in Gauteng
and the Western Cape
they also contribute to a large percentage of the English-speaking population.
It is here that they challenge the Afrikaans in being the white dominant ethnic group. English is a second language of many non-British white Africans with higher education in predominantly non-English-speaking African nations. Outside of South Africa, Namibia, and Zimbabwe, British Africans make up a large minority in Zambia, Kenya, Botswana, and Swaziland, therefore increasing the presence of English in these countries.
German dialect in Namibia known as Namibian Black German
(or in German as Küchendeutsch or Kitchen German), and used to be spoken by black domestic servants to German colonists. However, the government has tried to lower the use of German and Afrikaans due to its colonial roots, and instead try and enforce English, the sole official language, and Bantu languages. There is also known to be a German dialect, spoken in the south-east of South Africa, known as Nataler German (German from Natal
).
Only a small white population in Libya, Tunisia, Ethiopia, Eritrea, and Somalia has the fluency of Italian, because it is no longer the official language there. Very few White Africans speak Bantu languages
(languages spoken by Black people) at home, but still a small percentage of white Africans speak Bantu languages as second languages.
Cricket
is a particularly popular sport with White Africans of British descent. Rugby
, in Southern Africa is particularly popular with people of Afrikaner
ethnicity.
Field hockey
is another popular sport amongst Whites.
Many Whites from Commonwealth countries in Africa are accomplished swimmers, including Kirsty Coventry
of Zimbabwe and Jason Dunford
of Kenya, as well as numerous South Africans.
Diaspora:
Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
an descent living in Africa
Africa
Africa is the world's second largest and second most populous continent, after Asia. At about 30.2 million km² including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of the Earth's total surface area and 20.4% of the total land area...
, who identify themselves as White
White people
White people is a term which usually refers to human beings characterized, at least in part, by the light pigmentation of their skin...
.
This definition excludes the predominantly White or Caucasian Berber and Arab populations of North Africa, many of whom also have actual European ancestry as a result of centuries of historical population movements across the Mediterranean. Being ethnically and culturally (North) Africans indigenous to (and majorities in) their respective countries, they do not share the characteristics of European settlement: a distinct alien non-african minority which established itself during the colonial period. Hence their exclusion from this article.
Africans of European descent are mostly of Dutch
Dutch people
The Dutch people are an ethnic group native to the Netherlands. They share a common culture and speak the Dutch language. Dutch people and their descendants are found in migrant communities worldwide, notably in Suriname, Chile, Brazil, Canada, Australia, South Africa, New Zealand, and the United...
, British
British people
The British are citizens of the United Kingdom, of the Isle of Man, any of the Channel Islands, or of any of the British overseas territories, and their descendants...
, French
French people
The French are a nation that share a common French culture and speak the French language as a mother tongue. Historically, the French population are descended from peoples of Celtic, Latin and Germanic origin, and are today a mixture of several ethnic groups...
, Portuguese
Portuguese people
The Portuguese are a nation and ethnic group native to the country of Portugal, in the west of the Iberian peninsula of south-west Europe. Their language is Portuguese, and Roman Catholicism is the predominant religion....
, German
Germans
The Germans are a Germanic ethnic group native to Central Europe. The English term Germans has referred to the German-speaking population of the Holy Roman Empire since the Late Middle Ages....
, Flemish, and to a lesser extent, Italian, Spanish
Spanish people
The Spanish are citizens of the Kingdom of Spain. Within Spain, there are also a number of vigorous nationalisms and regionalisms, reflecting the country's complex history....
, Austrian
Austrians
Austrians are a nation and ethnic group, consisting of the population of the Republic of Austria and its historical predecessor states who share a common Austrian culture and Austrian descent....
, Scandinavia
Scandinavia
Scandinavia is a cultural, historical and ethno-linguistic region in northern Europe that includes the three kingdoms of Denmark, Norway and Sweden, characterized by their common ethno-cultural heritage and language. Modern Norway and Sweden proper are situated on the Scandinavian Peninsula,...
n, Greek
Greeks
The Greeks, also known as the Hellenes , are a nation and ethnic group native to Greece, Cyprus and neighboring regions. They also form a significant diaspora, with Greek communities established around the world....
, Lithuanian, Belgian, Swiss, and Irish
Irish people
The Irish people are an ethnic group who originate in Ireland, an island in northwestern Europe. Ireland has been populated for around 9,000 years , with the Irish people's earliest ancestors recorded having legends of being descended from groups such as the Nemedians, Fomorians, Fir Bolg, Tuatha...
ancestry.
Prior to the post-World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
decolonization
Decolonization
Decolonization refers to the undoing of colonialism, the unequal relation of polities whereby one people or nation establishes and maintains dependent Territory over another...
era, Whites numbered up to 10 million persons and were represented in every part of Africa, especially South Africa
South Africa
The Republic of South Africa is a country in southern Africa. Located at the southern tip of Africa, it is divided into nine provinces, with of coastline on the Atlantic and Indian oceans...
(English and Boer
Boer
Boer is the Dutch and Afrikaans word for farmer, which came to denote the descendants of the Dutch-speaking settlers of the eastern Cape frontier in Southern Africa during the 18th century, as well as those who left the Cape Colony during the 19th century to settle in the Orange Free State,...
), Algeria
Algeria
Algeria , officially the People's Democratic Republic of Algeria , also formally referred to as the Democratic and Popular Republic of Algeria, is a country in the Maghreb region of Northwest Africa with Algiers as its capital.In terms of land area, it is the largest country in Africa and the Arab...
(French), Rhodesia
Rhodesia
Rhodesia , officially the Republic of Rhodesia from 1970, was an unrecognised state located in southern Africa that existed between 1965 and 1979 following its Unilateral Declaration of Independence from the United Kingdom on 11 November 1965...
(English and Boer
Boer
Boer is the Dutch and Afrikaans word for farmer, which came to denote the descendants of the Dutch-speaking settlers of the eastern Cape frontier in Southern Africa during the 18th century, as well as those who left the Cape Colony during the 19th century to settle in the Orange Free State,...
), Angola
Angola
Angola, officially the Republic of Angola , is a country in south-central Africa bordered by Namibia on the south, the Democratic Republic of the Congo on the north, and Zambia on the east; its west coast is on the Atlantic Ocean with Luanda as its capital city...
(Portuguese), and Mozambique
Mozambique
Mozambique, officially the Republic of Mozambique , is a country in southeastern Africa bordered by the Indian Ocean to the east, Tanzania to the north, Malawi and Zambia to the northwest, Zimbabwe to the west and Swaziland and South Africa to the southwest...
(Portuguese). However, many left during and after the independence of the colonies. Some, such as the Italians in Libya, were expelled by post-colonial governments. Nevertheless, White Africans remain a substantial minority in some African states, with white percentages sometimes reaching above 3% (such as in some Southern African countries).
The African country with the largest White African population (and arguably the highest percentage) is South Africa
South Africa
The Republic of South Africa is a country in southern Africa. Located at the southern tip of Africa, it is divided into nine provinces, with of coastline on the Atlantic and Indian oceans...
, at approximately 4.6 million (9.2% of the population). Although White Africans no longer have the exclusive rule of African nations, they often still hold a substantial ownership of the economy and land in specific regions or countries. At most about 0.65% of Africa's population, or 6.5 million out of 1 billion, is white of European descent.
South Africa
Dutch East India Company
The Dutch East India Company was a chartered company established in 1602, when the States-General of the Netherlands granted it a 21-year monopoly to carry out colonial activities in Asia...
, began in the Cape of Good Hope
Cape of Good Hope
The Cape of Good Hope is a rocky headland on the Atlantic coast of the Cape Peninsula, South Africa.There is a misconception that the Cape of Good Hope is the southern tip of Africa, because it was once believed to be the dividing point between the Atlantic and Indian Oceans. In fact, the...
(present-day Cape Town) in southern Africa in 1652, making it the oldest European-based culture in Sub-Saharan Africa. By the late nineteenth century, the descendants of the Dutch (known as Afrikaner
Afrikaner
Afrikaners are an ethnic group in Southern Africa descended from almost equal numbers of Dutch, French and German settlers whose native tongue is Afrikaans: a Germanic language which derives primarily from 17th century Dutch, and a variety of other languages.-Related ethno-linguistic groups:The...
s) had crossed the Limpopo
Limpopo
Limpopo is the northernmost province of South Africa. The capital is Polokwane, formerly named Pietersburg. The province was formed from the northern region of Transvaal Province in 1994, and initially named Northern Transvaal...
river into Mashonaland
Mashonaland
Mashonaland is a region in northern Zimbabwe. It is the home of the Shona people.Currently, Mashonaland is divided into three provinces, with a total population of about 3 million:* Mashonaland West* Mashonaland Central* Mashonaland East...
, now part of Zimbabwe
Zimbabwe
Zimbabwe is a landlocked country located in the southern part of the African continent, between the Zambezi and Limpopo rivers. It is bordered by South Africa to the south, Botswana to the southwest, Zambia and a tip of Namibia to the northwest and Mozambique to the east. Zimbabwe has three...
. Their numbers increased during Apartheid due to mass migration and an above replacement fertility rate, and soon numbered beyond 2 million. This made them the biggest ever white ethnic group on the African continent.
Distribution of White South Africans by province
AfrikanerAfrikaner
Afrikaners are an ethnic group in Southern Africa descended from almost equal numbers of Dutch, French and German settlers whose native tongue is Afrikaans: a Germanic language which derives primarily from 17th century Dutch, and a variety of other languages.-Related ethno-linguistic groups:The...
s are present in all parts of the nation, apart from the south-east, where they number very few. English speaking whites are generally concentrated in KwaZulu-Natal, Johannesburg and Cape Town. Other white groups (such as Portuguese and Germans) live mostly in Johannesburg or Cape Town. The greatest percentages and populations of White South Africans are in Gauteng
Gauteng
Gauteng is one of the nine provinces of South Africa. It was formed from part of the old Transvaal Province after South Africa's first all-race elections on 27 April 1994...
(which includes Johannesburg and Pretoria) and the Western Cape
Western Cape
The Western Cape is a province in the south west of South Africa. The capital is Cape Town. Prior to 1994, the region that now forms the Western Cape was part of the much larger Cape Province...
(which includes Cape Town). The province with the smallest percentage of Whites is Limpopo, with only 2.2%.
Namibia
Over many years, many BoerBoer
Boer is the Dutch and Afrikaans word for farmer, which came to denote the descendants of the Dutch-speaking settlers of the eastern Cape frontier in Southern Africa during the 18th century, as well as those who left the Cape Colony during the 19th century to settle in the Orange Free State,...
s feared for their safety as the British
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
approached closer to their lands to gain access to natural resources
Mining in South Africa
Mining in South Africa has been the main driving force behind the history and development of Africa's most advanced and richest economy. Large scale and profitable mining started with the discovery of a diamond on the banks of the Orange River in 1867 by Erasmus Jacobs and the subsequent...
. For this reason, many started to migrate further North, and with the British already controlling Rhodesia
Rhodesia
Rhodesia , officially the Republic of Rhodesia from 1970, was an unrecognised state located in southern Africa that existed between 1965 and 1979 following its Unilateral Declaration of Independence from the United Kingdom on 11 November 1965...
(modern day Zimbabwe
Zimbabwe
Zimbabwe is a landlocked country located in the southern part of the African continent, between the Zambezi and Limpopo rivers. It is bordered by South Africa to the south, Botswana to the southwest, Zambia and a tip of Namibia to the northwest and Mozambique to the east. Zimbabwe has three...
), their attention turned to Namibia
Namibia
Namibia, officially the Republic of Namibia , is a country in southern Africa whose western border is the Atlantic Ocean. It shares land borders with Angola and Zambia to the north, Botswana to the east and South Africa to the south and east. It gained independence from South Africa on 21 March...
, Botswana
Botswana
Botswana, officially the Republic of Botswana , is a landlocked country located in Southern Africa. The citizens are referred to as "Batswana" . Formerly the British protectorate of Bechuanaland, Botswana adopted its new name after becoming independent within the Commonwealth on 30 September 1966...
, and Angola
Angola
Angola, officially the Republic of Angola , is a country in south-central Africa bordered by Namibia on the south, the Democratic Republic of the Congo on the north, and Zambia on the east; its west coast is on the Atlantic Ocean with Luanda as its capital city...
. This journey, called the Dorsland Trek
Dorsland Trek
Dorsland Trek is the collective name of a series of northwards explorations undertaken by South African settlers in the second half of the 19th century in search of political independence...
, went all the way through Botswana and into south-west Angola, which was under Portuguese control at the time. Additionally, during the pre-World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
era, Namibia was a German territory, leading to significant German immigration to present day Namibia.
During the apartheid era, many other Afrikaners moved into the country because of the vast space and untapped resources. Current estimates for the Afrikaner population in Namibia vary from 80,000 to 150,000. Currently over 50% of the agricultural land is held by white Namibians (the majority thought to be Afrikaners).
Rhodesia/Zimbabwe
Afrikaners currently make up 5% of Zimbabwe's white population, however this figure was thought to be much higher before 1980. Over 1/3 of Zimbabwe's white population left between 1980 and 1984, with half of them emigrating to South Africa. Almost all Afrikaners who have fled Zimbabwe have emigrated to South Africa, and one of the few Afrikaner strongholds left in Zimbabwe is the central town of ChivhuChivhu
Chivhu is a small town in Zimbabwe, with an estimated population of 10,000 in 2007. It is located south of Harare on the main road south to Masvingo and South Africa.-History:...
(known as Enkeldoorn before 1982). The village was the first white settlement in Rhodesia, and was at one point predominantly white. Persistant persecution of whites in Zimbabwe by Mugabe and party supporters has led to emigration and population decline.
Kenya
During both Boer wars, Afrikaners traveled deep into Africa, to modern-day KenyaKenya
Kenya , officially known as the Republic of Kenya, is a country in East Africa that lies on the equator, with the Indian Ocean to its south-east...
, where they settled along with the British and created hundreds of new farms in the western portion of the country. The majority of both the Afrikaner and the British settlers in Kenya lived in Kenya's fertile Rift Valley. The 30,000 white Kenyans (almost exclusively of British ancestry. Some Afrikaners also remain, and some still own farmland around the Afrikaner-founded city of Eldoret
Eldoret
Eldoret is a town in western Kenya and the administrative centre of Uasin Gishu District of Rift Valley Province. Lying south of the Cherangani Hills, the local elevation varies from about 2100 metres above sea level at the airport to more than 2700 metres in nearby areas...
.
Angola
There are reported to be 2,700 Afrikaners in Angola, most probably desendents of early migrants who arrived via Namibia. When Black nationalismBlack nationalism
Black nationalism advocates a racial definition of indigenous national identity, as opposed to multiculturalism. There are different indigenous nationalist philosophies but the principles of all African nationalist ideologies are unity, and self-determination or independence from European society...
grew in Angola, and most of the Portuguese left the colony, most Afrikaners left, mostly to South Africa, neighboring Namibia, Portugal or Brazil.
Elsewhere
In the early 20th century, following the Anglo-Boer WarSecond Boer War
The Second Boer War was fought from 11 October 1899 until 31 May 1902 between the British Empire and the Afrikaans-speaking Dutch settlers of two independent Boer republics, the South African Republic and the Orange Free State...
, large numbers of Afrikaner
Afrikaner
Afrikaners are an ethnic group in Southern Africa descended from almost equal numbers of Dutch, French and German settlers whose native tongue is Afrikaans: a Germanic language which derives primarily from 17th century Dutch, and a variety of other languages.-Related ethno-linguistic groups:The...
s traveled north to British East Africa and settled in what is now Kenya
Kenya
Kenya , officially known as the Republic of Kenya, is a country in East Africa that lies on the equator, with the Indian Ocean to its south-east...
and Tanzania
Tanzania
The United Republic of Tanzania is a country in East Africa bordered by Kenya and Uganda to the north, Rwanda, Burundi, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo to the west, and Zambia, Malawi, and Mozambique to the south. The country's eastern borders lie on the Indian Ocean.Tanzania is a state...
, as well as in Angola
Angola
Angola, officially the Republic of Angola , is a country in south-central Africa bordered by Namibia on the south, the Democratic Republic of the Congo on the north, and Zambia on the east; its west coast is on the Atlantic Ocean with Luanda as its capital city...
. Following the Mau Mau insurgency and general collapse of colonial authorities in the decades after World War II, Afrikaner colonies outside South Africa, Namibia, and Rhodesia diminished in size and the majority of settlers and their descendants returned to South Africa.
South Africa and the Cape Colony
West Africa
West Africa or Western Africa is the westernmost region of the African continent. Geopolitically, the UN definition of Western Africa includes the following 16 countries and an area of approximately 5 million square km:-Flags of West Africa:...
n coast from the 18th century onwards, mostly devoted to the slave trade, British settlement in Africa began in earnest only at the end of the 18th century, in the Cape of Good Hope
Cape of Good Hope
The Cape of Good Hope is a rocky headland on the Atlantic coast of the Cape Peninsula, South Africa.There is a misconception that the Cape of Good Hope is the southern tip of Africa, because it was once believed to be the dividing point between the Atlantic and Indian Oceans. In fact, the...
. It gained momentum following British annexation of the Cape from the Dutch East India Company, and the subsequent encouragement of settlers
1820 Settlers
The 1820 Settlers were several groups or parties of white British colonists settled by the British government and the Cape authorities in the South African Eastern Cape in 1820....
in the Eastern Cape
Eastern Cape
The Eastern Cape is a province of South Africa. Its capital is Bhisho, but its two largest cities are Port Elizabeth and East London. It was formed in 1994 out of the "independent" Xhosa homelands of Transkei and Ciskei, together with the eastern portion of the Cape Province...
in an effort to consolidate the colony's eastern border.
In the late 19th century, the discovery of gold
Gold
Gold is a chemical element with the symbol Au and an atomic number of 79. Gold is a dense, soft, shiny, malleable and ductile metal. Pure gold has a bright yellow color and luster traditionally considered attractive, which it maintains without oxidizing in air or water. Chemically, gold is a...
and diamond
Diamond
In mineralogy, diamond is an allotrope of carbon, where the carbon atoms are arranged in a variation of the face-centered cubic crystal structure called a diamond lattice. Diamond is less stable than graphite, but the conversion rate from diamond to graphite is negligible at ambient conditions...
s further encouraged colonisation of South Africa by the British. The search for gold drove expansion north into the Rhodesia
Rhodesia
Rhodesia , officially the Republic of Rhodesia from 1970, was an unrecognised state located in southern Africa that existed between 1965 and 1979 following its Unilateral Declaration of Independence from the United Kingdom on 11 November 1965...
s (now Zimbabwe, Zambia
Zambia
Zambia , officially the Republic of Zambia, is a landlocked country in Southern Africa. The neighbouring countries are the Democratic Republic of the Congo to the north, Tanzania to the north-east, Malawi to the east, Mozambique, Zimbabwe, Botswana and Namibia to the south, and Angola to the west....
, and Malawi
Malawi
The Republic of Malawi is a landlocked country in southeast Africa that was formerly known as Nyasaland. It is bordered by Zambia to the northwest, Tanzania to the northeast, and Mozambique on the east, south and west. The country is separated from Tanzania and Mozambique by Lake Malawi. Its size...
). Simultaneously, British settlers began expansion into the fertile uplands (often called the "White Highlands
White Highlands
The term White Highlands describes an area in the central uplands of Kenya, so-called because, during the period of British Colonialism, white immigrants settled there in considerable numbers. The main motivation was to take advantage of the good soils and growing conditions, as well as the cool...
") of British East Africa (now Kenya and Tanzania). Most of these settlements were not planned by the British government, with many colonial officials concluding they upset the balance of power in the region and left overall imperial interests vulnerable.
Cecil Rhodes utilized his wealth and connections towards organizing this ad hoc movement and settlement into a grand imperial policy. This policy had as its general aim the securing of a Cairo
Cairo
Cairo , is the capital of Egypt and the largest city in the Arab world and Africa, and the 16th largest metropolitan area in the world. Nicknamed "The City of a Thousand Minarets" for its preponderance of Islamic architecture, Cairo has long been a centre of the region's political and cultural life...
to Cape Town railway system, and settling the upper highlands of East Africa
East Africa
East Africa or Eastern Africa is the easterly region of the African continent, variably defined by geography or geopolitics. In the UN scheme of geographic regions, 19 territories constitute Eastern Africa:...
and the whole of Southern Africa
Southern Africa
Southern Africa is the southernmost region of the African continent, variably defined by geography or geopolitics. Within the region are numerous territories, including the Republic of South Africa ; nowadays, the simpler term South Africa is generally reserved for the country in English.-UN...
south of the Zambezi with British colonies in a manner akin to that of North America
North America
North America is a continent wholly within the Northern Hemisphere and almost wholly within the Western Hemisphere. It is also considered a northern subcontinent of the Americas...
and Australasia
Australasia
Australasia is a region of Oceania comprising Australia, New Zealand, the island of New Guinea, and neighbouring islands in the Pacific Ocean. The term was coined by Charles de Brosses in Histoire des navigations aux terres australes...
.
However, prioritization of British power around the globe in the years before World War I, initially reduced the resources appropriated toward settlement. World War I and the Great Depression
Great Depression
The Great Depression was a severe worldwide economic depression in the decade preceding World War II. The timing of the Great Depression varied across nations, but in most countries it started in about 1929 and lasted until the late 1930s or early 1940s...
and the general decline of British and European birthrates further hobbled the expected settler numbers. Nonetheless, thousands of colonists arrived each year during the decades preceding World War II, mostly in South Africa, where the birthrates of British Africans increased suddenly. Despite a general change in British policy against supporting the establishment of European settlements in Africa, and a slow abandonment in the overall British ruling and common classes for a separate and exclusivist European identity, large colonial appendages of European separatist supporters of the British Empire
British Empire
The British Empire comprised the dominions, colonies, protectorates, mandates and other territories ruled or administered by the United Kingdom. It originated with the overseas colonies and trading posts established by England in the late 16th and early 17th centuries. At its height, it was the...
were well entrenched in South Africa, Rhodesia, and Kenya.
In keeping with the general trend toward non-European rule evident throughout most of the globe during the Cold War
Cold War
The Cold War was the continuing state from roughly 1946 to 1991 of political conflict, military tension, proxy wars, and economic competition between the Communist World—primarily the Soviet Union and its satellite states and allies—and the powers of the Western world, primarily the United States...
and the abandonment of colonial positions in the face of American and Soviet pressure, the vestigial remnants of Cecil Rhodes' vision was abruptly ended, leaving British settlers in an exposed, isolated, and weak position. Black Nationalist guerrilla forces aided by Soviet expertise and weapons soon drove the colonists into a fortress mentality which led to the break-off of ties with perceived collaborationist governments in the United Kingdom
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
and Commonwealth
Commonwealth of Nations
The Commonwealth of Nations, normally referred to as the Commonwealth and formerly known as the British Commonwealth, is an intergovernmental organisation of fifty-four independent member states...
.
The result was a series of conflicts which eventually led to a reduced presence of White Africans due to emigration
Emigration
Emigration is the act of leaving one's country or region to settle in another. It is the same as immigration but from the perspective of the country of origin. Human movement before the establishment of political boundaries or within one state is termed migration. There are many reasons why people...
and natural death. Many were murdered, tens of thousands driven off their lands and property, with many of those remaining being intimidated and threatened by the government and political and paramilitary
Paramilitary
A paramilitary is a force whose function and organization are similar to those of a professional military, but which is not considered part of a state's formal armed forces....
organizations. However, what soon followed was a mass immigration to the safety and white rule of South Africa, which is the African country known to have the largest white population, currently with 1,755,100 British-South Africans. When apartheid first started most British-South Africans were mostly keen on keeping and even strengthening its ties with the United Kingdom. However, they were largely outnumbered by the Afrikaners, who preferred a republic, and in a referendum voted against being a British commonwealth realm.
Since 1994
Hundreds of thousands of British-South Africans left the nation to start new lives abroad, they settled United Kingdom, Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
, New Zealand
New Zealand
New Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses and numerous smaller islands. The country is situated some east of Australia across the Tasman Sea, and roughly south of the Pacific island nations of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga...
, United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
, Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
, Netherlands, and Ireland. In spite of the high emigration rates, a large number of white foreign immigrants from countries such as United Kingdom and Zimbabwe
Zimbabwe
Zimbabwe is a landlocked country located in the southern part of the African continent, between the Zambezi and Limpopo rivers. It is bordered by South Africa to the south, Botswana to the southwest, Zambia and a tip of Namibia to the northwest and Mozambique to the east. Zimbabwe has three...
have settled in the country. For example, by 2005, an estimated 212,000 British citizens were residing in South Africa. By 2011, this number may have grown to 500,000. Since 2003, the numbers of British immigrants coming to South Africa has risen by 50%. An estimated 20,000 British immigrants moved to South Africa in 2007. South Africa is ranked as the top destination of British retirees and pensioners in Africa.
There have also been a significant number of arrivals of white Zimbabweans
Whites in Zimbabwe
White Zimbabweans are people from the southern African country Zimbabwe who identify themselves as white...
of British ancestry, fleeing their home country in light of the economic and political problems currently facing the country. As well as recent arrivals, a significant number of white British Zimbabwean settlers emigrated to South Africa after the independence of Zimbabwe in 1980. Currently, the greatest white English populations in South Africa are in the KwaZulu-Natal
KwaZulu-Natal
KwaZulu-Natal is a province of South Africa. Prior to 1994, the territory now known as KwaZulu-Natal was made up of the province of Natal and the homeland of KwaZulu....
province and in cities such as Johannesburg
Johannesburg
Johannesburg also known as Jozi, Jo'burg or Egoli, is the largest city in South Africa, by population. Johannesburg is the provincial capital of Gauteng, the wealthiest province in South Africa, having the largest economy of any metropolitan region in Sub-Saharan Africa...
and Cape Town
Cape Town
Cape Town is the second-most populous city in South Africa, and the provincial capital and primate city of the Western Cape. As the seat of the National Parliament, it is also the legislative capital of the country. It forms part of the City of Cape Town metropolitan municipality...
.
Zambia/Northern Rhodesia
At the brink of the country's independence in 1964, there were roughly 70,000 Europeans (mostly British) in ZambiaZambia
Zambia , officially the Republic of Zambia, is a landlocked country in Southern Africa. The neighbouring countries are the Democratic Republic of the Congo to the north, Tanzania to the north-east, Malawi to the east, Mozambique, Zimbabwe, Botswana and Namibia to the south, and Angola to the west....
(Northern Rhodesia
Northern Rhodesia
Northern Rhodesia was a territory in south central Africa, formed in 1911. It became independent in 1964 as Zambia.It was initially administered under charter by the British South Africa Company and formed by it in 1911 by amalgamating North-Western Rhodesia and North-Eastern Rhodesia...
before independence), making up roughly 2.3% of the 3 million inhabitants at the time. Zambia had a different situation compared to other African countries. It included segregation, similar to South Africa, Rhodesia
Rhodesia
Rhodesia , officially the Republic of Rhodesia from 1970, was an unrecognised state located in southern Africa that existed between 1965 and 1979 following its Unilateral Declaration of Independence from the United Kingdom on 11 November 1965...
(Zimbabwe
Zimbabwe
Zimbabwe is a landlocked country located in the southern part of the African continent, between the Zambezi and Limpopo rivers. It is bordered by South Africa to the south, Botswana to the southwest, Zambia and a tip of Namibia to the northwest and Mozambique to the east. Zimbabwe has three...
) and South-West Africa (Namibia
Namibia
Namibia, officially the Republic of Namibia , is a country in southern Africa whose western border is the Atlantic Ocean. It shares land borders with Angola and Zambia to the north, Botswana to the east and South Africa to the south and east. It gained independence from South Africa on 21 March...
); but as the Europeans constituted a smaller fraction of the population they did not dominate politics. There were a few cities in Northern Rhodesia that had British place names, but all except one (Livingstone
Livingstone, Zambia
Livingstone or Maramba is a historic colonial city and present capital of the Southern Province of Zambia, a tourism centre for the Victoria Falls lying north of the Zambezi River, and a border town with road and rail connections to Zimbabwe on the other side of the Falls...
) were changed when the country became independent or soon after. These included:
- Abercorn → Mbala (1964)
- Bancroft → ChililabombweChililabombweChililabombwe is a city located in Zambia's Copperbelt Province. The name means 'place of the croaking frog'.The main economic activity is the mining of copper....
- Broken Hill → KabweKabweKabwe is the capital of the Zambian Central Province with a population estimated at 210,000. Formerly named Broken Hill, it was founded when the Broken Hill lead and zinc deposits were discovered in 1902. Kabwe also has a claim to being the birthplace of Zambian politics...
(1966) - Feira → Luangwa (1964)
- Fort Jameson → ChipataChipataChipata, population 98,416, is the capital of the Eastern Province of Zambia. The two languages spoken are Nyanja and English, though you might find some Indian languages, as there is a large number of Zambian Indians located in the town...
- Fort Rosebery → MansaMansaMansa is a Mandinka word meaning "king of kings". It is particularly associated with the Keita Dynasty of the Mali Empire, which dominated West Africa from the thirteenth to the fifthteenth century...
Livingstone
A good example of segregation in Zambia before independence was in the city of Livingstone
Livingstone, Zambia
Livingstone or Maramba is a historic colonial city and present capital of the Southern Province of Zambia, a tourism centre for the Victoria Falls lying north of the Zambezi River, and a border town with road and rail connections to Zimbabwe on the other side of the Falls...
, on the border with Zimbabwe. The town featured a white town, with black townships, which were also found in South Africa and Namibia. In Zambia however Livingstone was one of the few places in the country that used this system, and was close to the Rhodesian border. British colonists were reflected in town and city names. Livingstone (which is currently the only town left with a British name) was nearly changed to Maramba, but the decision was later dismissed.
When Zambia became independent in 1964, the majority of white settlers left for Rhodesia, just by crossing the border. An almost identical town of Victoria Falls
Victoria Falls
The Victoria Falls or Mosi-oa-Tunya is a waterfall located in southern Africa on the Zambezi River between the countries of Zambia and Zimbabwe.-Introduction:...
lies on the other side, and benefited from the white people's crafts and abilities. This enabled them to improve the situation on the white-controlled Rhodesian side, and therefore Livingstone soon became desolate and unused. However, since the economic problems in Zimbabwe since the start of the 21st century, the situation has very much turned around as the Zambian side has become more attractive to tourists and therefore Livingstone is once again improving (at the expense of Victoria Falls).
Kenya
There were 60,000 white settlers living in KenyaKenya
Kenya , officially known as the Republic of Kenya, is a country in East Africa that lies on the equator, with the Indian Ocean to its south-east...
in 1965. Today, there are an estimated 30,000 whites in Kenya
Whites in Kenya
There is a minor but relatively prominent group of white people in Kenya, mainly descendants of British settlers from the colonial era.-History:...
. However, there has been an increasing number of British expatriates that, according to the BBC, number at about 32,000. Evolution
Evolution
Evolution is any change across successive generations in the heritable characteristics of biological populations. Evolutionary processes give rise to diversity at every level of biological organisation, including species, individual organisms and molecules such as DNA and proteins.Life on Earth...
ary scientist Richard Dawkins
Richard Dawkins
Clinton Richard Dawkins, FRS, FRSL , known as Richard Dawkins, is a British ethologist, evolutionary biologist and author...
was born in Kenya.
Zimbabwe/Rhodesia
The white population in ZimbabweZimbabwe
Zimbabwe is a landlocked country located in the southern part of the African continent, between the Zambezi and Limpopo rivers. It is bordered by South Africa to the south, Botswana to the southwest, Zambia and a tip of Namibia to the northwest and Mozambique to the east. Zimbabwe has three...
dropped from a peak of around 296,000 in 1975 (when the country was known as Rhodesia
Rhodesia
Rhodesia , officially the Republic of Rhodesia from 1970, was an unrecognised state located in southern Africa that existed between 1965 and 1979 following its Unilateral Declaration of Independence from the United Kingdom on 11 November 1965...
and Whites made up 5% of the population) to possibly 120,000 in 1999 and was estimated at no more than 50,000 in 2002, possibly much fewer.
Angola
The British population of Angola is estimated at around 700. When Angola won independence from Portugal in 1975, most British people in Angola resettled in the United Kingdom, South Africa, Namibia, Zimbabwe, Portugal or Brazil. Meanwhile, most from Mozambique left for either Zimbabwe, South Africa or the UK. It should, however, be noted that even before 1975, the number of British people in Angola and Mozambique was small, especially compared to the inhabiting Portuguese population.Mozambique
In Mozambique, the British population numbers 1,500. When Mozambique gained independence from Portugal in 1975, most British people left for either Rhodesia or South Africa, while others resettled in Portugal and Brazil. Because Mozambique is a member of the Commonwealth of NationsCommonwealth of Nations
The Commonwealth of Nations, normally referred to as the Commonwealth and formerly known as the British Commonwealth, is an intergovernmental organisation of fifty-four independent member states...
, it is easier for the British settlers to live there. However, just like Angola, the British population in Mozambique is/was tiny compared to both their share of the nation's population and in comparison to the Portuguese.
Elsewhere
Sizable numbers of Anglo-African people are also nationals of GhanaGhana
Ghana , officially the Republic of Ghana, is a country located in West Africa. It is bordered by Côte d'Ivoire to the west, Burkina Faso to the north, Togo to the east, and the Gulf of Guinea to the south...
, Namibia, Tanzania, Swaziland
Swaziland
Swaziland, officially the Kingdom of Swaziland , and sometimes called Ngwane or Swatini, is a landlocked country in Southern Africa, bordered to the north, south and west by South Africa, and to the east by Mozambique...
(3% of the population), Nigeria
Nigeria
Nigeria , officially the Federal Republic of Nigeria, is a federal constitutional republic comprising 36 states and its Federal Capital Territory, Abuja. The country is located in West Africa and shares land borders with the Republic of Benin in the west, Chad and Cameroon in the east, and Niger in...
, and Botswana
Botswana
Botswana, officially the Republic of Botswana , is a landlocked country located in Southern Africa. The citizens are referred to as "Batswana" . Formerly the British protectorate of Bechuanaland, Botswana adopted its new name after becoming independent within the Commonwealth on 30 September 1966...
.In addition, at least 10,000 white Ugandans
Uganda
Uganda , officially the Republic of Uganda, is a landlocked country in East Africa. Uganda is also known as the "Pearl of Africa". It is bordered on the east by Kenya, on the north by South Sudan, on the west by the Democratic Republic of the Congo, on the southwest by Rwanda, and on the south by...
of British extract were living under the regime of Idi Amin
Idi Amin
Idi Amin Dada was a military leader and President of Uganda from 1971 to 1979. Amin joined the British colonial regiment, the King's African Rifles in 1946. Eventually he held the rank of Major General in the post-colonial Ugandan Army and became its Commander before seizing power in the military...
as recorded by TIME Magazine in 1972. Due to the subsequent deterioration of conditions under Amin (Including the constant threat of forced expulsion), most of the local Anglo-African population emigrated to the United Kingdom and South Africa.
Nyasaland (Malawi)
The Scots played an enormous part in BritishUnited Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
overseas colonization, alongside the English
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
, Welsh
Wales
Wales is a country that is part of the United Kingdom and the island of Great Britain, bordered by England to its east and the Atlantic Ocean and Irish Sea to its west. It has a population of three million, and a total area of 20,779 km²...
, and Irish
Ireland
Ireland is an island to the northwest of continental Europe. It is the third-largest island in Europe and the twentieth-largest island on Earth...
. Scotland supplied colonial troops, administrators
Administrator of the Government
An Administrator in the constitutional practice of some countries in the Commonwealth is a person who fulfils a role similar to that of a Governor or a Governor-General...
, governor
Governor
A governor is a governing official, usually the executive of a non-sovereign level of government, ranking under the head of state...
s, prospector
Prospecting
Prospecting is the physical search for minerals, fossils, precious metals or mineral specimens, and is also known as fossicking.Prospecting is a small-scale form of mineral exploration which is an organised, large scale effort undertaken by mineral resource companies to find commercially viable ore...
s, architect
Architect
An architect is a person trained in the planning, design and oversight of the construction of buildings. To practice architecture means to offer or render services in connection with the design and construction of a building, or group of buildings and the space within the site surrounding the...
s, and engineer
Engineer
An engineer is a professional practitioner of engineering, concerned with applying scientific knowledge, mathematics and ingenuity to develop solutions for technical problems. Engineers design materials, structures, machines and systems while considering the limitations imposed by practicality,...
s to help construct the colonies all over the world.
From the 1870s Scottish churches began missionary
Missionary
A missionary is a member of a religious group sent into an area to do evangelism or ministries of service, such as education, literacy, social justice, health care and economic development. The word "mission" originates from 1598 when the Jesuits sent members abroad, derived from the Latin...
work in Nyasaland/Malawi, in the wake of their illustrious predecessor, David Livingstone
David Livingstone
David Livingstone was a Scottish Congregationalist pioneer medical missionary with the London Missionary Society and an explorer in Africa. His meeting with H. M. Stanley gave rise to the popular quotation, "Dr...
. Their pressure on the British Government resulted in Nyasaland being declared a British Protectorate. A small Scottish community was established here, and other Scots immigration occurred in Southern Rhodesia/Zimbabwe, Northern Rhodesia/Zambia, and South Africa. The table below represents how small their numbers were compared to other sections of Rhodesia.
| Year | | Southern Rhodesia | | Northern Rhodesia | | Nyasaland | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| White | Black | White | Black | White | Black | |
| 1927 | 38,200 | 922,000 | 4,000 | 1,000,000 | 1,700 | 1,350,000 |
| 1946 | 80,500 | 1,600,000 | 21,919 | 1,634,980 | 2,300 | 2,340,000 |
The largest and commercial capital of the country, Blantyre
Blantyre, Malawi
Blantyre or Mandala is Malawi's centre of finance and commerce, the largest city with an estimated 732,518 inhabitants . It is sometimes referred to as the commercial capital of Malawi as opposed to the political capital, Lilongwe...
, is named after a town in Scotland
Scotland
Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...
and birthplace of David Livingstone. It is a testament to the love the African people had and still have for Livingstone that this name has not been changed after independence, like so many others. The reason for the small number of Europeans was mainly the lack of mineral resources (North Rhodesia had copper
Copper
Copper is a chemical element with the symbol Cu and atomic number 29. It is a ductile metal with very high thermal and electrical conductivity. Pure copper is soft and malleable; an exposed surface has a reddish-orange tarnish...
and South Rhodesia has gold
Gold
Gold is a chemical element with the symbol Au and an atomic number of 79. Gold is a dense, soft, shiny, malleable and ductile metal. Pure gold has a bright yellow color and luster traditionally considered attractive, which it maintains without oxidizing in air or water. Chemically, gold is a...
).
After Nyasaland became independent (and upon adopting a new name: Malawi), many Scots returned to Scotland or moved to South Africa or Zimbabwe
Zimbabwe
Zimbabwe is a landlocked country located in the southern part of the African continent, between the Zambezi and Limpopo rivers. It is bordered by South Africa to the south, Botswana to the southwest, Zambia and a tip of Namibia to the northwest and Mozambique to the east. Zimbabwe has three...
(Rhodesia at the time still). Despite this, Scots had an enormous South African community (compared to that of Nyasaland), however they fail to take credit because they were a small part of the white community in South Africa. Also, under the African sun, and in relatively small numbers, domestic differences tended to be overlooked and the resulting colonial culture was an inclusive British one.
To this day most Scots in Africa reside in South Africa and until the 21st century also in Zimbabwe (formerly Rhodesia). Most Scottish settlers from Rhodesia left for South Africa after Rhodesia's independence and after economic and political problems in 2001. Evidence of the continued Scottish influence is seen in the continuing traditions of Highland games
Highland games
Highland games are events held throughout the &Highland games are events held throughout the &Highland games are events held throughout the &(-è_çà in Scotland and other countries as a way of celebrating Scottish and Celtic culture and heritage, especially that of the Scottish Highlands. Certain...
and pipe band
Pipe band
A pipe band is a musical ensemble consisting of pipers and drummers. The term used by military pipe bands, pipes and drums, is also common....
s, especially in Natal
Natal Province
Natal, meaning "Christmas" in Portuguese, was a province of South Africa from 1910 until 1994. Its capital was Pietermaritzburg. The Natal Province included the bantustan of KwaZulu...
. Ties between Scotland and Malawi remain strong to this day.
French in Africa
French people
The French are a nation that share a common French culture and speak the French language as a mother tongue. Historically, the French population are descended from peoples of Celtic, Latin and Germanic origin, and are today a mixture of several ethnic groups...
settled in French North Africa from the 1840s onward. By the end of French rule in the early 1960s there were over one million European Algerians, mostly of French origin (known as pieds noirs, or "black feet") living in Algeria
Algeria
Algeria , officially the People's Democratic Republic of Algeria , also formally referred to as the Democratic and Popular Republic of Algeria, is a country in the Maghreb region of Northwest Africa with Algiers as its capital.In terms of land area, it is the largest country in Africa and the Arab...
, consisting about 16% of the population in 1962. There were 255,000 Europeans in Tunisia
Tunisia
Tunisia , officially the Tunisian RepublicThe long name of Tunisia in other languages used in the country is: , is the northernmost country in Africa. It is a Maghreb country and is bordered by Algeria to the west, Libya to the southeast, and the Mediterranean Sea to the north and east. Its area...
in 1956. Morocco
Morocco
Morocco , officially the Kingdom of Morocco , is a country located in North Africa. It has a population of more than 32 million and an area of 710,850 km², and also primarily administers the disputed region of the Western Sahara...
was home to half a million Europeans.
No other region of the French African colonial empire attracted similar settlement, although there is still a comparatively large European population living in the former West Africa
West Africa
West Africa or Western Africa is the westernmost region of the African continent. Geopolitically, the UN definition of Western Africa includes the following 16 countries and an area of approximately 5 million square km:-Flags of West Africa:...
n colony of Ivory Coast, which had the largest French population of France's former colonies of sub-Saharan Africa, numbering 60,000 in 1980, although its numbers are believed to have declined since then. There are also important white minorities in Gabon
Gabon
Gabon , officially the Gabonese Republic is a state in west central Africa sharing borders with Equatorial Guinea to the northwest, Cameroon to the north, and with the Republic of the Congo curving around the east and south. The Gulf of Guinea, an arm of the Atlantic Ocean is to the west...
, Senegal
Senegal
Senegal , officially the Republic of Senegal , is a country in western Africa. It owes its name to the Sénégal River that borders it to the east and north...
, and Togo
Togo
Togo, officially the Togolese Republic , is a country in West Africa bordered by Ghana to the west, Benin to the east and Burkina Faso to the north. It extends south to the Gulf of Guinea, on which the capital Lomé is located. Togo covers an area of approximately with a population of approximately...
.
French law made it easy for thousands of colons, ethnic or national French from former colonies of Africa
Africa
Africa is the world's second largest and second most populous continent, after Asia. At about 30.2 million km² including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of the Earth's total surface area and 20.4% of the total land area...
, India
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
, and Indochina
Indochina
The Indochinese peninsula, is a region in Southeast Asia. It lies roughly southwest of China, and east of India. The name has its origins in the French, Indochine, as a combination of the names of "China" and "India", and was adopted when French colonizers in Vietnam began expanding their territory...
to live in mainland France. 1.6 million European colons migrated from Algeria
Algeria
Algeria , officially the People's Democratic Republic of Algeria , also formally referred to as the Democratic and Popular Republic of Algeria, is a country in the Maghreb region of Northwest Africa with Algiers as its capital.In terms of land area, it is the largest country in Africa and the Arab...
, Tunisia
Tunisia
Tunisia , officially the Tunisian RepublicThe long name of Tunisia in other languages used in the country is: , is the northernmost country in Africa. It is a Maghreb country and is bordered by Algeria to the west, Libya to the southeast, and the Mediterranean Sea to the north and east. Its area...
, and Morocco
Morocco
Morocco , officially the Kingdom of Morocco , is a country located in North Africa. It has a population of more than 32 million and an area of 710,850 km², and also primarily administers the disputed region of the Western Sahara...
.
Madagascar
A sizeable number of French peopleFrench people
The French are a nation that share a common French culture and speak the French language as a mother tongue. Historically, the French population are descended from peoples of Celtic, Latin and Germanic origin, and are today a mixture of several ethnic groups...
reside in Madagascar
Madagascar
The Republic of Madagascar is an island country located in the Indian Ocean off the southeastern coast of Africa...
.
An estimated 18,000 French citizens lived and worked in Madagascar
Madagascar
The Republic of Madagascar is an island country located in the Indian Ocean off the southeastern coast of Africa...
in the early 1990s. Currently, approximately 120,000 people, or 0.6% of the total population, are French. This community is descended from former French settlers who settled in Madagascar during the 19th Century.
A further 80,000 people are classified as Réunionese Creole, therefore bringing the total number of people with French ancestry to approximately 1%. The numbers make Madagascar the home of the largest ethnic French population in terms of absolute numbers in sub-Saharan Africa, other than the French département Réunion
Réunion
Réunion is a French island with a population of about 800,000 located in the Indian Ocean, east of Madagascar, about south west of Mauritius, the nearest island.Administratively, Réunion is one of the overseas departments of France...
.
Réunion
In RéunionRéunion
Réunion is a French island with a population of about 800,000 located in the Indian Ocean, east of Madagascar, about south west of Mauritius, the nearest island.Administratively, Réunion is one of the overseas departments of France...
, a French island in the Indian Ocean
Indian Ocean
The Indian Ocean is the third largest of the world's oceanic divisions, covering approximately 20% of the water on the Earth's surface. It is bounded on the north by the Indian Subcontinent and Arabian Peninsula ; on the west by eastern Africa; on the east by Indochina, the Sunda Islands, and...
, white islanders, mostly of ethnic French origin, are estimated to make up approx. 25% of the population.
Huguenots (French South Africans)
A large number of French HuguenotHuguenot
The Huguenots were members of the Protestant Reformed Church of France during the 16th and 17th centuries. Since the 17th century, people who formerly would have been called Huguenots have instead simply been called French Protestants, a title suggested by their German co-religionists, the...
s settled in the Cape Colony
Cape Colony
The Cape Colony, part of modern South Africa, was established by the Dutch East India Company in 1652, with the founding of Cape Town. It was subsequently occupied by the British in 1795 when the Netherlands were occupied by revolutionary France, so that the French revolutionaries could not take...
, following their expulsion from France in the 17th century. However, the use of the French language
French language
French is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts...
was discouraged and the Huguenot settlers were entirely absorbed into Afrikaans
Afrikaans
Afrikaans is a West Germanic language, spoken natively in South Africa and Namibia. It is a daughter language of Dutch, originating in its 17th century dialects, collectively referred to as Cape Dutch .Afrikaans is a daughter language of Dutch; see , , , , , .Afrikaans was historically called Cape...
culture. However, this early contact can be seen clearly in the names of historic towns, such as Courtrai and Franschhoek in the Western Cape
Western Cape
The Western Cape is a province in the south west of South Africa. The capital is Cape Town. Prior to 1994, the region that now forms the Western Cape was part of the much larger Cape Province...
(meaning "French Corner") and in the surnames of many Afrikaners, such as Theron, Du Plessis, Joubert, Delagrange, etc. By far, the French South African community is the largest among all French African communities. There are often towns and suburbs in the Western Cape which carry some French names.
Franschhoek
Dutch language
Dutch is a West Germanic language and the native language of the majority of the population of the Netherlands, Belgium, and Suriname, the three member states of the Dutch Language Union. Most speakers live in the European Union, where it is a first language for about 23 million and a second...
) is a large town in the Western Cape
Western Cape
The Western Cape is a province in the south west of South Africa. The capital is Cape Town. Prior to 1994, the region that now forms the Western Cape was part of the much larger Cape Province...
, so named for the French Huguenots, who traveled and settled there. There is a striking French influence in the town, which can be found firstly in street names which include La Rochelle
La Rochelle
La Rochelle is a city in western France and a seaport on the Bay of Biscay, a part of the Atlantic Ocean. It is the capital of the Charente-Maritime department.The city is connected to the Île de Ré by a bridge completed on 19 May 1988...
street, Bordeaux
Bordeaux
Bordeaux is a port city on the Garonne River in the Gironde department in southwestern France.The Bordeaux-Arcachon-Libourne metropolitan area, has a population of 1,010,000 and constitutes the sixth-largest urban area in France. It is the capital of the Aquitaine region, as well as the prefecture...
street, Huguenot street, Roux Malherbe street, and Cabriere street.
Nearby farms, hamlets, and villages often hold French names such as La Roux; a township north of Franschhoek, Chamonix Estate, and so forth. Many Huguenot-dedictated buildings have been erected in Franschhoek, the major one being the Huguenot Monument
Huguenot Monument
The Huguenot Monument in Franschhoek, South Africa, is dedicated to the cultural influences that Huguenots have brought to the Cape Colony after their immigration during the 17th and 18th centuries....
. The town is famed for being one of the only sites in the whole nation to bear some evidence of Huguenot culture, as Huguenots generally converted to an Afrikaner-based culture.
Portuguese in Africa
The first PortuguesePortugal
Portugal , officially the Portuguese Republic is a country situated in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula. Portugal is the westernmost country of Europe, and is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the West and South and by Spain to the North and East. The Atlantic archipelagos of the...
settlements in Africa
Portuguese Empire
The Portuguese Empire , also known as the Portuguese Overseas Empire or the Portuguese Colonial Empire , was the first global empire in history...
were built in the 15th century. The descendants of the soldiers who accompanied Christopher da Gama expedition to support the Ethiopia
Ethiopia
Ethiopia , officially known as the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, is a country located in the Horn of Africa. It is the second-most populous nation in Africa, with over 82 million inhabitants, and the tenth-largest by area, occupying 1,100,000 km2...
n throne in the sixteenth century continued to exert a significant influence in that country's history over the next two centuries; for example, the Empress Mentewab
Mentewab
Mentewab , was Empress of Ethiopia, consort of Emperor Bakaffa, mother of Iyasu II and grandmother of Iyoas I. She was also known officially by her baptismal name of Welete Giyorgis...
was extremely proud of her Portuguese ancestry. In the late 17th century, much of Portuguese Mozambique
Portuguese East Africa
Mozambique or Portuguese East Africa was the common name by which the Portuguese Empire's territorial expansion in East Africa was known across different periods of time...
was divided into prazos, or agricultural estates, which were settled by Portuguese families. In Portuguese Angola, namely in the areas of Luanda
Luanda
Luanda, formerly named São Paulo da Assunção de Loanda, is the capital and largest city of Angola. Located on Angola's coast with the Atlantic Ocean, Luanda is both Angola's chief seaport and its administrative center. It has a population of at least 5 million...
and Benguela
Benguela
Benguela is a city in western Angola, south of Luanda, and capital of Benguela Province. It lies on a bay of the same name, in 12° 33’ S., 13° 25’ E...
, there was a significant Portuguese population
Portuguese people
The Portuguese are a nation and ethnic group native to the country of Portugal, in the west of the Iberian peninsula of south-west Europe. Their language is Portuguese, and Roman Catholicism is the predominant religion....
. In the islands of Cape Verde
Cape Verde
The Republic of Cape Verde is an island country, spanning an archipelago of 10 islands located in the central Atlantic Ocean, 570 kilometres off the coast of Western Africa...
and São Tomé and Príncipe
São Tomé and Príncipe
São Tomé and Príncipe, officially the Democratic Republic of São Tomé and Príncipe, is a Portuguese-speaking island nation in the Gulf of Guinea, off the western equatorial coast of Central Africa. It consists of two islands: São Tomé and Príncipe, located about apart and about , respectively, off...
, besides Portuguese settlers, most of the population was of mixed Portuguese and African origin. The descendants of the Portuguese settlers who were born and "raised" locally since Portuguese colonial time were called crioulos.
In the early 20th century, the Portuguese government encouraged white migration to the Portuguese territories of Angola
Angola (Portugal)
Angola is the common name by which the Portuguese colony in southwestern Africa was known across different periods of time...
and Mozambique, and by the 1960s, at the beginning of the Portuguese Colonial War
Portuguese Colonial War
The Portuguese Colonial War , also known in Portugal as the Overseas War or in the former colonies as the War of liberation , was fought between Portugal's military and the emerging nationalist movements in Portugal's African colonies between 1961 and 1974, when the Portuguese regime was...
, there were around 650,000 Portuguese settlers living in their overseas African provinces, and a substantial Portuguese population living in other African countries. In 1974, there were up to 1,000,000 Portuguese settlers living in their overseas African provinces. In 1975, Angola
Angola
Angola, officially the Republic of Angola , is a country in south-central Africa bordered by Namibia on the south, the Democratic Republic of the Congo on the north, and Zambia on the east; its west coast is on the Atlantic Ocean with Luanda as its capital city...
had a community of approximately 400,000 Portuguese, while Mozambique had approximately more than 350,000 settlers from Portugal.
Most Portuguese settlers returned to Portugal (the retornados) as the country's African possessions gained independence in the mid 1970s, while others moved south to South Africa, which now has the largest Portuguese-African population (who between 50-80% came from Madeira
Madeira
Madeira is a Portuguese archipelago that lies between and , just under 400 km north of Tenerife, Canary Islands, in the north Atlantic Ocean and an outermost region of the European Union...
), and to Brazil
Brazil
Brazil , officially the Federative Republic of Brazil , is the largest country in South America. It is the world's fifth largest country, both by geographical area and by population with over 192 million people...
. When Mozambican Civil War
Mozambican Civil War
The Mozambican Civil War began in 1977, two years after the end of the war of independence. The ruling party, Front for Liberation of Mozambique , was violently opposed from 1977 by the Rhodesian- and South African-funded Mozambique Resistance Movement...
(1977–1992) began suddenly, large numbers of both Portuguese-born settlers and Mozambican-born settlers of Portuguese blood went out again.
However, after the war in Mozambique, more Portuguese settlers returned and the newer ones settled Mozambique while White Brazilian
White Brazilian
White Brazilians make up 48.4% of Brazil's population, or around 92 million people, according to the IBGE's 2008 PNAD . Whites are present in the entire territory of Brazil, although the main concentrations are found in the South and Southeastern parts of the country...
s, especially those of Portuguese descent, moved to Mozambique to work as aid workers and investors and have adopted Mozambique as their home. It is estimated the population of Portuguese people in Mozambique has increased to over 20,000 since the peace settlement of Mozambique in 1992. Notable demographics of Portuguese Mozambicans
Portuguese Mozambicans
Portuguese Mozambicans are Mozambican-born descendants of Portuguese settlers.-History:Portuguese explorers turned to present-day Mozambique and two other PALOP nations to bring black slaves to Portugal before bringing them to work for their plantations in their Latin American province, the...
could be found in cities like Maputo
Maputo
Maputo, also known as Lourenço Marques, is the capital and largest city of Mozambique. It is known as the City of Acacias in reference to acacia trees commonly found along its avenues and the Pearl of the Indian Ocean. It was famous for the inscription "This is Portugal" on the walkway of its...
, Beira
Beira, Mozambique
Beira is the second largest city in Mozambique. It lies in the central region of the country in Sofala Province, where the Pungue River meets the Indian Ocean. Beira had a population of 412,588 in 1997, which grew to an estimated 546,000 in 2006...
, and Nampula
Nampula
Nampula is the capital city of Nampula Province in Mozambique.It has a population of 471,717 making it the third largest city in Mozambique after Maputo and Beira. It is home to the Mozambique National Ethnographic Museum, several markets, cathedrals and mosques.It is also the center of business...
with Maputo accumulating the highest percentage. In recent years, some Portuguese have migrated to Angola for economic reasons, mainly the country's recent economic boom
Economy of Angola
The Economy of Angola is one of the fastest-growing economies in the world, with the Economist asserting that for 2001 to 2010, Angolas' Annual average GDP growth was 11.1 percent. It is still recovering from the Angolan Civil War that plagued Angola from independence in 1975 until 2002...
.
In 2008, Angola was the preferred destination for Portuguese migrants in Africa.
Portuguese South Africans
South Africa largely featured two Portuguese waves of immigration, one was a constant but small flow of Portuguese from MadeiraMadeira
Madeira is a Portuguese archipelago that lies between and , just under 400 km north of Tenerife, Canary Islands, in the north Atlantic Ocean and an outermost region of the European Union...
and Portugal itself, while the second was ethnic Portuguese fleeing from Angola and Mozambique after their respective independences. The reason behind the immigration of Madeirans to South Africa was both a political and economic one. After 1950, Hendrik Verwoerd (the "architect" of Apartheid) encouraged immigration from Protestant Anglo-Saxons to strengthen the white population. When this failed, he turned his attention to Southern Europeans, one of which were Madeirans, who were facing high unemployment rates. Many Madeirans and Portuguese who immigrated were at first isolated from the general white population due to their differences, such as being Catholic and the fact that few could speak English or Afrikaans. Eventually they ended up setting up businesses in Johannesburg or coastal fisheries, and soon intermarriage between whites began.
One known Portuguese South African creation was the restaurant chain Nando's
Nando's
Nando's is a casual dining restaurant group originating from South Africa with a Portuguese/Mozambican theme. Founded in 1987, Nando's operates in thirty countries on five continents....
, created in 1987, which incorporated influences from former Portuguese colonists from Mozambique, many of whom had settled on the south-eastern side of Johannesburg, after Mozambique's independence in 1975. Currently there's a 300,000-strong Portuguese community in South Africa. The Portuguese South Africans are also different to other white South Africans in that they are mostly Catholic and football (soccer) is popular among them.
Libya
LibyaLibya
Libya is an African country in the Maghreb region of North Africa bordered by the Mediterranean Sea to the north, Egypt to the east, Sudan to the southeast, Chad and Niger to the south, and Algeria and Tunisia to the west....
had some 150,000 Italians settled in the nation during World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
, constituting about 18% of the total population. The Italians in Libya resided (and many still do) in most major cities like Tripoli
Tripoli
Tripoli is the capital and largest city in Libya. It is also known as Western Tripoli , to distinguish it from Tripoli, Lebanon. It is affectionately called The Mermaid of the Mediterranean , describing its turquoise waters and its whitewashed buildings. Tripoli is a Greek name that means "Three...
(37% of the city was Italian), Benghazi
Benghazi
Benghazi is the second largest city in Libya, the main city of the Cyrenaica region , and the former provisional capital of the National Transitional Council. The wider metropolitan area is also a district of Libya...
(31%), and Hun (3%). Their numbers decreased after 1936. Most of Libya's Italians were expelled from the North African country in 1970, a year after Muammar Gaddafi
Muammar Gaddafi
Muammar Muhammad Abu Minyar Gaddafi or "September 1942" 20 October 2011), commonly known as Muammar Gaddafi or Colonel Gaddafi, was the official ruler of the Libyan Arab Republic from 1969 to 1977 and then the "Brother Leader" of the Libyan Arab Jamahiriya from 1977 to 2011.He seized power in a...
seized power (a "day of vengeance" on 7 October 1970), but a few hundred Italian settlers returned to Libya in the 2000s.
| Year | Italians | Percentage | Total Libya | Source for data on population |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1936 | 112,600 | 13.26% | 848,600 | Enciclopedia Geografica Mondiale K-Z, De Agostini, 1996 |
| 1939 | 108,419 | 12.37% | 876,563 | Guida Breve d'Italia Vol.III, C.T.I., 1939 (Censimento Ufficiale) |
| 1962 | 35,000 | 2.1% | 1,681,739 | Enciclopedia Motta, Vol.VIII, Motta Editore, 1969 |
| 1982 | 1,500 | 0.05% | 2,856,000 | Atlante Geografico Universale, Fabbri Editori, 1988 |
| 2004 | 22,530 | 0.4% | 5,631,585 | L'Aménagement Linguistique dans le Monde |
South African Italians
Although Italians were one of the few EuropeEurope
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
an nations that didn't encounter mass migration
Human migration
Human migration is physical movement by humans from one area to another, sometimes over long distances or in large groups. Historically this movement was nomadic, often causing significant conflict with the indigenous population and their displacement or cultural assimilation. Only a few nomadic...
to South Africa
South Africa
The Republic of South Africa is a country in southern Africa. Located at the southern tip of Africa, it is divided into nine provinces, with of coastline on the Atlantic and Indian oceans...
, there was still many who ended up settling in South Africa. South African Italians made big headlines during World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
, when Italians captured in Italian East Africa
Italian East Africa
Italian East Africa was an Italian colonial administrative subdivision established in 1936, resulting from the merger of the Ethiopian Empire with the old colonies of Italian Somaliland and Italian Eritrea. In August 1940, British Somaliland was conquered and annexed to Italian East Africa...
needed to be sent to a safe stronghold to be kept as prisoners of war (POWs). South Africa was the perfect destination, and the first POWs arrived in Durban
Durban
Durban is the largest city in the South African province of KwaZulu-Natal and the third largest city in South Africa. It forms part of the eThekwini metropolitan municipality. Durban is famous for being the busiest port in South Africa. It is also seen as one of the major centres of tourism...
, in 1941.
Despite being POWs, the Italians were treated well, with a good food diet
Diet (nutrition)
In nutrition, diet is the sum of food consumed by a person or other organism. Dietary habits are the habitual decisions an individual or culture makes when choosing what foods to eat. With the word diet, it is often implied the use of specific intake of nutrition for health or weight-management...
and friendly hospitality. These factors, along with the peaceful, cheap, and sunny landscape, made it very attractive for Italians to settle down, and therefore, the Italian South African community was born. Although over 100,000 Italian POW were sent to South Africa, only a handful decided to stay, and during their capture, they were given the free will to create Chapels, Churches, Dams, and many more structures. Most Italian influence and architecture can be seen in the Natal
Natal Province
Natal, meaning "Christmas" in Portuguese, was a province of South Africa from 1910 until 1994. Its capital was Pietermaritzburg. The Natal Province included the bantustan of KwaZulu...
and Transvaal
Transvaal Province
Transvaal Province was a province of the Union of South Africa from 1910 to 1961, and of its successor, the Republic of South Africa, from 1961 until the end of apartheid in 1994 when a new constitution subdivided it.-History:...
area. White South Africans of Italian descent number between 6,300 and 28,059.
Other
- See also: Italian EritreansItalian EritreansItalian Eritreans are Eritrean-born descendants of Italian settlers as well as Italian long-term residents in Eritrea.-History:...
, Italians of EthiopiaItalians of EthiopiaItalians of Ethiopia are the colonists from Italy who moved to colonize Ethiopia in the 20th century, and their descendants.-History:The 1880s were marked by the Scramble for Africa in Ethiopia and Eastern Africa, when the Italians began to vie with the British and French for influence in the area...
, Italian SomaliansItalian SomaliansItalian Somalis or Italo Somalis are Somali descendants from Italian colonists, as well as Italian long-term residents in Somalia.- History :...
, Italian Egyptians, Italian Tunisians
Horn of Africa
The Horn of Africa is a peninsula in East Africa that juts hundreds of kilometers into the Arabian Sea and lies along the southern side of the Gulf of Aden. It is the easternmost projection of the African continent...
, with about 50,000 Italian settlers living in Eritrea
Eritrea
Eritrea , officially the State of Eritrea, is a country in the Horn of Africa. Eritrea derives it's name from the Greek word Erethria, meaning 'red land'. The capital is Asmara. It is bordered by Sudan in the west, Ethiopia in the south, and Djibouti in the southeast...
in 1935, and 22,000 Italians
Italian Somalians
Italian Somalis or Italo Somalis are Somali descendants from Italian colonists, as well as Italian long-term residents in Somalia.- History :...
residing in Italian Somaliland
Italian Somaliland
Italian Somaliland , also known as Italian Somalia, was a colony of the Kingdom of Italy from the 1880s until 1936 in the region of modern-day Somalia. Ruled in the 19th century by the Somali Sultanate of Hobyo and the Majeerteen Sultanate, the territory was later acquired by Italy through various...
during the first half of 1940, 10,000 of whom were concentrated in the capital of Mogadishu
Mogadishu
Mogadishu , popularly known as Xamar, is the largest city in Somalia and the nation's capital. Located in the coastal Benadir region on the Indian Ocean, the city has served as an important port for centuries....
. The Italian Eritrean
Italian Eritreans
Italian Eritreans are Eritrean-born descendants of Italian settlers as well as Italian long-term residents in Eritrea.-History:...
population grew from 4,000 during World War I to nearly 100,000 at the beginning of World War II.
There was emigration to Ethiopia
Ethiopia
Ethiopia , officially known as the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, is a country located in the Horn of Africa. It is the second-most populous nation in Africa, with over 82 million inhabitants, and the tenth-largest by area, occupying 1,100,000 km2...
as well. During the five-year occupation of Ethiopia, roughly 300,000 Italians were absorbed into East Africa (there were over 49,000 Italians living in Asmara
Asmara
Asmara is the capital city and largest settlement in Eritrea, home to a population of around 579,000 people...
in 1939, and over 38,000 in Addis Ababa
Addis Ababa
Addis Ababa is the capital city of Ethiopia...
). This led to half of Asmara's population and 10% of Eritrea's being Italian in 1939. Many Italian settlers immigrated out of Italian Somaliland during and after World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
, and also during independence in 1960 and many more left when the Somali Civil War
Somali Civil War
The Somali Civil War is an ongoing civil war taking place in Somalia. The conflict, which began in 1991, has caused destabilisation throughout the country, with the current phase of the conflict seeing the Somali government losing substantial control of the state to rebel forces...
broke out in 1991. The size of the Italian Egyptian
Italian Egyptian
Italians in Egypt, also referred to as Italian Egyptians, are a community with a history that goes back to Roman times.-History:The last Queen of ancient Egypt married the Roman Mark Antony bringing her country as "dowry", and since then Egypt was part of the Roman Empire for seven centuries...
community had reached around 55,000 just before World War II, forming the second largest expatriate community in Egypt.
A few Italian settlers stayed in Portuguese African colonies as World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
refugees when the Portuguese government tried to request Europeans of other nationalities to increase the very tiny Portuguese population and during the war, although that plan of the Portuguese government was unsuccessful. They were assimilated to the Portuguese population.
Egypt
Greeks have been living in Egypt since and even before Alexander the Great conquered Egypt at an early stage of his great journey of conquests. HerodotusHerodotus
Herodotus was an ancient Greek historian who was born in Halicarnassus, Caria and lived in the 5th century BC . He has been called the "Father of History", and was the first historian known to collect his materials systematically, test their accuracy to a certain extent and arrange them in a...
, who visited Egypt in the 5th century BCE, wrote that the Greeks were the first foreigners that ever lived in Egypt. Diodorus Siculus
Diodorus Siculus
Diodorus Siculus was a Greek historian who flourished between 60 and 30 BC. According to Diodorus' own work, he was born at Agyrium in Sicily . With one exception, antiquity affords no further information about Diodorus' life and doings beyond what is to be found in his own work, Bibliotheca...
attested that Rhodian
Rhodes
Rhodes is an island in Greece, located in the eastern Aegean Sea. It is the largest of the Dodecanese islands in terms of both land area and population, with a population of 117,007, and also the island group's historical capital. Administratively the island forms a separate municipality within...
Actis
Actis
In Greek mythology, Actis was one of the Heliadae, a son of Rhodos and Helios. Actis, along with his brothers, Triopas, Macar and Candalus, were jealous of a fifth brother, Tenages's, skill at science. They killed him and Actis escaped to Egypt. According to Diodorus Siculus, Actis built the city...
, one of the Heliadae
Heliadae
In Greek mythology, the Heliadae were the seven sons of Helios and Rhode, brothers to Electryone. They were Ochimus, Cercaphus, Macareus or Macar, Actis, Tenages, Triopas, and Candalus...
built the city of Heliopolis
Heliopolis (ancient)
Heliopolis was one of the oldest cities of ancient Egypt, the capital of the 13th Lower Egyptian nome that was located five miles east of the Nile to the north of the apex of the Nile Delta...
before the cataclysm; likewise the Athenians built Sais
SAIS
SAIS can refer to:* Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies, part of The Johns Hopkins University.* Sharjah American International School* Southern Association of Independent Schools...
. While all Greek cities were destroyed during the cataclysm, the Egyptian cities including Heliopolis and Sais survived.
In modern times the official 1907 census showed 62,973 Greeks living in Egypt. The expulsion of 2.5 million Greeks from Turkey saw a large number of those Greeks
Greeks
The Greeks, also known as the Hellenes , are a nation and ethnic group native to Greece, Cyprus and neighboring regions. They also form a significant diaspora, with Greek communities established around the world....
move to Egypt and by 1940 Greeks were numbered at around 500,000. Today the Greek community numbers officially about 3,000 people although the real number is much higher since many Greeks have changed their nationality to Egyptian. In Alexandria, apart from the patriarchate, there is a patriarchal theology school that opened recently after being closed 480 years. Saint Nicolas church and several other buildings in Alexandria have been recently renovated by the Greek Government
Politics of Greece
The Politics of Greece takes place in a large parliamentary representative democratic republic, whereby the Prime Minister of Greece is the head of government, and of a multi-party system. Legislative power is vested in both the government and the Hellenic Parliament...
and the Alexander S. Onassis Foundation
Alexander S. Onassis Foundation
Wishing to honor the memory of his son Alexander, who died in 1973, in an airplane crash at the age of 25, Aristotle Onassis directed in his will that half of his estate should be transferred upon his own death to a foundation to be established in Alexander’s name...
.
During the last decade, there has been a new interest from the Egyptian government for a diplomatic rapprochement with Greece and this has positively affected the Greek diaspora. The diaspora has received official visits of many Greek politicians. Economic relationships have been blossoming between Greece and Egypt. Egypt has been recently the centre of major Greek investments in industries such as banking, tourism, paper, and oil. In 2009, a five years cooperation memorandum was signed among the NCSR Demokritos Institute in Agia Paraskevi
Agia Paraskevi
Agia Paraskevi , is a suburb of Athens, Greece, in the northeast of Athens, about nine kilometers away from the city centre. It is linked to Athens by Mesogeion Avenue, a major road in the greater Athens area. It is a municipality within Attica region....
, Athens
Athens
Athens , is the capital and largest city of Greece. Athens dominates the Attica region and is one of the world's oldest cities, as its recorded history spans around 3,400 years. Classical Athens was a powerful city-state...
and the University of Alexandreia, regarding Archeometry research and contextual sectors.
South Africa
The GreeksGreeks
The Greeks, also known as the Hellenes , are a nation and ethnic group native to Greece, Cyprus and neighboring regions. They also form a significant diaspora, with Greek communities established around the world....
have had a presence in South Africa since the late 19th century. After the expulsion of the Greeks from Egypt as part of Nasser's nationalization policy the Greek population of South Africa dramatically increased to around 250,000. Today the number of Greeks
Greeks
The Greeks, also known as the Hellenes , are a nation and ethnic group native to Greece, Cyprus and neighboring regions. They also form a significant diaspora, with Greek communities established around the world....
in South Africa is estimated between 60,000 - 120,000.
Zimbabwe
The Greek community in Zimbabwe numbered between 13,000 and 15,000 people in 1972 (when the country was called RhodesiaRhodesia
Rhodesia , officially the Republic of Rhodesia from 1970, was an unrecognised state located in southern Africa that existed between 1965 and 1979 following its Unilateral Declaration of Independence from the United Kingdom on 11 November 1965...
) and was the second largest white population after those of British origin. Today the Greek
Greeks
The Greeks, also known as the Hellenes , are a nation and ethnic group native to Greece, Cyprus and neighboring regions. They also form a significant diaspora, with Greek communities established around the world....
community in Zimbabwe
Zimbabwe
Zimbabwe is a landlocked country located in the southern part of the African continent, between the Zambezi and Limpopo rivers. It is bordered by South Africa to the south, Botswana to the southwest, Zambia and a tip of Namibia to the northwest and Mozambique to the east. Zimbabwe has three...
comprises about 2,500 of Greek origin. Zimbabwe currently hosts eleven Greek Orthodox churches and fifteen Greek associations and humanitarian organizations.
Other
- See also: Greeks in EthiopiaGreeks in EthiopiaThe Greek community in Ethiopia today numbers about 500 persons and can be traced back to the 18th century. It is mainly located in the capital, Addis Ababa, and the city of Dire Dawa.-History:The name Ethiopia itself is Greek and means "of burned face"...
, Greeks in ZambiaGreeks in ZambiaThe Greek community of Zambia comprises about 800 people today, roughly half of whom hail from Cyprus. Most are concentrated in the capital Lusaka, while there are smaller enclaves in Luansia and Kitue.-Migration history:...
, Greeks in the Democratic Republic of the CongoGreeks in the Democratic Republic of the CongoThe first Greek communities in the Democratic Republic of the Congo were established prior to the colonization of the country by Belgium. The Greek presence in the Congos reached a peak in the 1950s when many Greeks fled Egypt as their properties were seized by the nationalist government there...
The Greeks have a presence in a number of different African countries such as Cameroon (1,200 people), Zambia (800 people), Ethiopia (500 people), Uganda (450 people), Democratic Republic of Congo (300 people), Kenya (100 families), Nigeria (300 people), Tanzania (300 people), Gambia (300 people), Sudan (200 people), Botswana (200-300 people), Malawi (200 people), and Morocco (150 people).
Namibia
Germans
The Germans are a Germanic ethnic group native to Central Europe. The English term Germans has referred to the German-speaking population of the Holy Roman Empire since the Late Middle Ages....
was late to colonize Africa (or to have an empire) mainly due to Germany not being a single country until the late 19th century. However, many Germans settled in South West Africa
South West Africa
South-West Africa was the name that was used for the modern day Republic of Namibia during the earlier eras when the territory was controlled by the German Empire and later by South Africa....
(modern day Namibia
Namibia
Namibia, officially the Republic of Namibia , is a country in southern Africa whose western border is the Atlantic Ocean. It shares land borders with Angola and Zambia to the north, Botswana to the east and South Africa to the south and east. It gained independence from South Africa on 21 March...
) as well as South Africa
South Africa
The Republic of South Africa is a country in southern Africa. Located at the southern tip of Africa, it is divided into nine provinces, with of coastline on the Atlantic and Indian oceans...
. Those Germans who migrated to South West Africa retained German culture
Culture of Germany
German culture began long before the rise of Germany as a nation-state and spanned the entire German-speaking world. From its roots, culture in Germany has been shaped by major intellectual and popular currents in Europe, both religious and secular...
, religion
Religion in Germany
Christianity is the largest religion in Germany with 54,765,265 adherents as of the end of 2006, down to 51.5 million adherents as of 2008. The second largest religion is Islam with 3.3 million adherents followed by Buddhism and Judaism...
, and even language
German language
German is a West Germanic language, related to and classified alongside English and Dutch. With an estimated 90 – 98 million native speakers, German is one of the world's major languages and is the most widely-spoken first language in the European Union....
, while those in South Africa often had to learn English or Afrikaans as a first language and adopt another culture.
Unlike other Europeans in Africa, when many African states gained independence
Independence
Independence is a condition of a nation, country, or state in which its residents and population, or some portion thereof, exercise self-government, and usually sovereignty, over its territory....
, the Germans (along with the English and Dutch/Afrikaners) stayed in Southern Africa
Southern Africa
Southern Africa is the southernmost region of the African continent, variably defined by geography or geopolitics. Within the region are numerous territories, including the Republic of South Africa ; nowadays, the simpler term South Africa is generally reserved for the country in English.-UN...
because they retained political dominance (now being a mandate
League of Nations mandate
A League of Nations mandate was a legal status for certain territories transferred from the control of one country to another following World War I, or the legal instruments that contained the internationally agreed-upon terms for administering the territory on behalf of the League...
under South African control). The country was administered as a province of South Africa during the apartheid era (though South African rule was not widely recognized internationally.) German influence in Namibia is very strong and noticeable. Because Namibia hasn't changed any town names since independence, many of the largest cities in the country retain their German names. These include Lüderitz
Lüderitz
Lüderitz is a harbour town in south-west Namibia, lying on one of the least hospitable coasts in Africa. It is a port developed around Robert Harbour and Shark Island.- Overview :...
, Grünau
Grünau, Namibia
Grünau is a settlement in southern Namibia, west of Karasburg in the Karas region. It is linked to the South African border posts near Noordoewer via the B1 and Nakop via the B3. Grünau belongs to the Karasburg electoral constituency.-References:...
, Maltahöhe
Maltahöhe
Maltahöhe is a village in Namibia, about 110 km west of Mariental in the Hardap Region.The settlement has about 2,400 inhabitants. Maltahöhe got its name from the German Hauptmann Henning von Burgsdorf who supervised a police station of the German colonial administration there in 1895. He...
, Wasser, Schuckmannsburg
Schuckmannsburg
Schuckmannsburg is an African village in the Caprivi Strip in northeastern Namibia with a population of about 800. It belongs to the Kabbe electoral constituency of the Caprivi Region...
, and even the capital city
Capital City
Capital City was a television show produced by Euston Films which focused on the lives of investment bankers in London living and working on the corporate trading floor for the fictional international bank Shane-Longman....
has a (slightly unused) German name (Windhuk
Windhoek
Windhoek is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Namibia. It is located in central Namibia in the Khomas Highland plateau area, at around above sea level. The 2001 census determined Windhoek's population was 233,529...
). In the southern Regions of Karas and especially Hardap
Hardap Region
Hardap is one of the thirteen regions of Namibia. It is home to the Hardap Dam.Hardap stretches the entire width of Namibia, from the Atlantic Ocean in the west to Namibia's eastern national border. In the northeast, it borders the Kgalagadi District of Botswana, and in the southeast, it borders...
, the vast majority of town names are German, or a mixture of German, Afrikaans and English. In the Hardap region, some 80% of settlements have a name of German origin.
Namibia is also the only nation outside Europe to have a Lutheran majority. This is due to many German missionaries during the 19th century who converted the Ovambo and Damara people
Damara people
The Damara are an ethnic group who make up 8.5% of Namibia's population...
to Christianity
Christianity
Christianity is a monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus as presented in canonical gospels and other New Testament writings...
. Until 1990 German was an official language of Namibia, and is now a recognized regional language
Regional language
A regional language is a language spoken in an area of a nation state, whether it be a small area, a federal state or province, or some wider area....
(the only one of its kind for the German language outside of Europe).
Today there are roughly 20,000-50,000 Germans in Namibia (32% of the white population, and 2% of the nation's population), and they greatly outnumber English and many Black ethnic groups. Their numbers are unsure because many Namibians of German ancestry don't speak German anymore, and sometimes would rather be classified as Afrikaans.
Tanzania
Tanzania
The United Republic of Tanzania is a country in East Africa bordered by Kenya and Uganda to the north, Rwanda, Burundi, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo to the west, and Zambia, Malawi, and Mozambique to the south. The country's eastern borders lie on the Indian Ocean.Tanzania is a state...
, Rwanda
Rwanda
Rwanda or , officially the Republic of Rwanda , is a country in central and eastern Africa with a population of approximately 11.4 million . Rwanda is located a few degrees south of the Equator, and is bordered by Uganda, Tanzania, Burundi and the Democratic Republic of the Congo...
, and Burundi
Burundi
Burundi , officially the Republic of Burundi , is a landlocked country in the Great Lakes region of Eastern Africa bordered by Rwanda to the north, Tanzania to the east and south, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo to the west. Its capital is Bujumbura...
was under German control it was named German East Africa
German East Africa
German East Africa was a German colony in East Africa, which included what are now :Burundi, :Rwanda and Tanganyika . Its area was , nearly three times the size of Germany today....
and received some migration from German communities, with over 3,579 Germans in German East Africa by 1914. In Dar Es Salaam
Dar es Salaam
Dar es Salaam , formerly Mzizima, is the largest city in Tanzania. It is also the country's richest city and a regionally important economic centre. Dar es Salaam is actually an administrative province within Tanzania, and consists of three local government areas or administrative districts: ...
, the capital city, its German population grew to 1,050, 0.006% of the city's population and just under a third of the entire German East African population. However, these Germans were only ever here to try and implement German technology and science, and never to fully settle or Germanise the country.
However, much of the community has disappeared and there are practically no more Germans left in Tanzania. Their influence was once stronger though. The city of Tabora
Tabora
Tabora is the capital city of Tanzania's Tabora Region with a population of 127,880 . Tabora region is one of the largest geographical regions of Tanzania.- History :...
was formerly named Weidmannsheil and Kasanga
Kasanga
Kasanga is a town in southwestern Tanzania. It is located at around , on the shore of Lake Tanganyika, 810 m above sea level.-History:...
was known as Bismarckburg. Mount Kilimanjaro
Mount Kilimanjaro
Kilimanjaro, with its three volcanic cones, Kibo, Mawenzi, and Shira, is a dormant volcano in Kilimanjaro National Park, Tanzania and the highest mountain in Africa at above sea level .-Geology:...
was known as Kilimandscharo, a German way of spelling it. Unlike other colonial powers in Africa, the Germans established an education system for the Africans, which after World War I was demolished. Some colonial
German colonial empire
The German colonial empire was an overseas domain formed in the late 19th century as part of the German Empire. Short-lived colonial efforts by individual German states had occurred in preceding centuries, but Imperial Germany's colonial efforts began in 1884...
German style buildings still exist in some of Tanzania's largest cities and former German strongholds, but they are in bad condition and need extensive renovation.
Despite virtually all German names being reverted since World War I, some places still hold German names. These include the majority of Glaciers on Mount Kilimanjaro, such as Rebmann Glacier
Rebmann Glacier
The Rebmann Glacier is located near the summit of Mount Kilimanjaro in Tanzania and is a small remnant of an enormous icecap which once crowned the summit of Mount Kilimanjaro. This icecap has retreated significantly over the past century and between 1912 and the 2000, 82 percent of the glacial...
and Furtwängler Glacier
Furtwängler Glacier
The Furtwängler Glacier is located near the summit of Mount Kilimanjaro in Tanzania. Furtwängler Glacier is a small remnant of an enormous icecap which once crowned the summit of Mount Kilimanjaro. This icecap has retreated significantly over the past century; between 1912 and 2000, 82 percent of...
. Current estimates for the German population in Tanzania, stand more than double than that under German colonial rule (estimates put the figure at 8,500).
Togo
Togoland
Togoland was a German protectorate in West Africa from 1884 to 1914, encompassing what is now the nation of Togo and most of what is now the Volta Region of Ghana. The colony was established during the period generally known as the "Scramble for Africa"...
was a German colony from 1884 to 1914. In 1895 the capital, Lomé
Lomé
Lomé, with an estimated population of 737,751, is the capital and largest city of Togo. Located on the Gulf of Guinea, Lomé is the country's administrative and industrial center and its chief port. The city exports coffee, cocoa, copra, and palm kernels...
, had a population of 31 (~1% of the city) Germans and 2,084 natives. By 1913 the native population had swelled to 7,042 persons and 194 Germans (2% of the city), including 33 women, while the entire colony had a German population of 316, including 61 women and 14 children. Their numbers were depleted after World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
. The very little German architecture can be seen in the capital and from the Hinterlandbahn, a huge German railway which went deep into the thin country.
The colony’s infrastructure was developed to one of the highest levels in Africa. Colonial officials built roads and bridges to the interior mountain ranges and three rail lines from the capital Lomé. Virtually all German influence present, and almost all German colonial activity took place in Lomé, and only ever reached deep inland when the Hinterlandbahn would voyage in the jungle for resources. Estimates for the current German population are as high as 700.
Cameroon
KamerunKamerun
German Cameroon was a West African colony of the German Empire from 1884 to 1916 in the region of today's Republic of Cameroon.-History:-1800s:...
was a German colony in present day Cameroon
Cameroon
Cameroon, officially the Republic of Cameroon , is a country in west Central Africa. It is bordered by Nigeria to the west; Chad to the northeast; the Central African Republic to the east; and Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, and the Republic of the Congo to the south. Cameroon's coastline lies on the...
between 1884 and 1916. During German control, few Germans migrated, but many trading post
Trading post
A trading post was a place or establishment in historic Northern America where the trading of goods took place. The preferred travel route to a trading post or between trading posts, was known as a trade route....
s and infrastructure
Infrastructure
Infrastructure is basic physical and organizational structures needed for the operation of a society or enterprise, or the services and facilities necessary for an economy to function...
was built to aid the growing German Empire
German Empire
The German Empire refers to Germany during the "Second Reich" period from the unification of Germany and proclamation of Wilhelm I as German Emperor on 18 January 1871, to 1918, when it became a federal republic after defeat in World War I and the abdication of the Emperor, Wilhelm II.The German...
with goods, such as banana
Banana
Banana is the common name for herbaceous plants of the genus Musa and for the fruit they produce. Bananas come in a variety of sizes and colors when ripe, including yellow, purple, and red....
s and important mineral
Mineral
A mineral is a naturally occurring solid chemical substance formed through biogeochemical processes, having characteristic chemical composition, highly ordered atomic structure, and specific physical properties. By comparison, a rock is an aggregate of minerals and/or mineraloids and does not...
s. These trading posts were most abundant around the former capital city, and largest city in Cameroon: Douala
Douala
Douala is the largest city in Cameroon and the capital of Cameroon's Littoral Province. Home to Cameroon's largest port and its major international airport, Douala International Airport, it is the commercial capital of the country...
.
Douala itself was known as Kamerunstadt (German for 'Cameroon City') between 1884 and 1907. Most trading took place with Hamburg
Hamburg
-History:The first historic name for the city was, according to Claudius Ptolemy's reports, Treva.But the city takes its modern name, Hamburg, from the first permanent building on the site, a castle whose construction was ordered by the Emperor Charlemagne in AD 808...
and Bremen
Bremen
The City Municipality of Bremen is a Hanseatic city in northwestern Germany. A commercial and industrial city with a major port on the river Weser, Bremen is part of the Bremen-Oldenburg metropolitan area . Bremen is the second most populous city in North Germany and tenth in Germany.Bremen is...
, and was later made easier by the construction of an extensive postal
Mail
Mail, or post, is a system for transporting letters and other tangible objects: written documents, typically enclosed in envelopes, and also small packages are delivered to destinations around the world. Anything sent through the postal system is called mail or post.In principle, a postal service...
and telegraph system. Like all German colonies (except South West Africa), after World War I, most Germans left for Europe, America
Americas
The Americas, or America , are lands in the Western hemisphere, also known as the New World. In English, the plural form the Americas is often used to refer to the landmasses of North America and South America with their associated islands and regions, while the singular form America is primarily...
, or South Africa.
Former Portuguese colonies
A number of German settlers stayed in Portuguese African colonies as World War IIWorld War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
refugees when the Portuguese government tried to request Europeans of other nationalities to increase the very tiny Portuguese population and during the war, although that plan of the Portuguese government was unsuccessful. They were assimilated to the Portuguese population. There is a recorded German population of Mozambique numbering 2,200.
Spanish in Africa
The SpanishSpain
Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...
have resided in many African countries (mostly former colonies), including Equatorial Guinea
Equatorial Guinea
Equatorial Guinea, officially the Republic of Equatorial Guinea where the capital Malabo is situated.Annobón is the southernmost island of Equatorial Guinea and is situated just south of the equator. Bioko island is the northernmost point of Equatorial Guinea. Between the two islands and to the...
, Western Sahara
Western Sahara
Western Sahara is a disputed territory in North Africa, bordered by Morocco to the north, Algeria to the northeast, Mauritania to the east and south, and the Atlantic Ocean to the west. Its surface area amounts to . It is one of the most sparsely populated territories in the world, mainly...
, South Africa
South Africa
The Republic of South Africa is a country in southern Africa. Located at the southern tip of Africa, it is divided into nine provinces, with of coastline on the Atlantic and Indian oceans...
, Morocco
Morocco
Morocco , officially the Kingdom of Morocco , is a country located in North Africa. It has a population of more than 32 million and an area of 710,850 km², and also primarily administers the disputed region of the Western Sahara...
, Ceuta
Ceuta
Ceuta is an autonomous city of Spain and an exclave located on the north coast of North Africa surrounded by Morocco. Separated from the Iberian peninsula by the Strait of Gibraltar, Ceuta lies on the border of the Mediterranean Sea and the Atlantic Ocean. Ceuta along with the other Spanish...
, and Melilla
Melilla
Melilla is a autonomous city of Spain and an exclave on the north coast of Morocco. Melilla, along with the Spanish exclave Ceuta, is one of the two Spanish territories located in mainland Africa...
. 94,000 Spaniards
Spanish people
The Spanish are citizens of the Kingdom of Spain. Within Spain, there are also a number of vigorous nationalisms and regionalisms, reflecting the country's complex history....
chose to go to Algeria
Algeria
Algeria , officially the People's Democratic Republic of Algeria , also formally referred to as the Democratic and Popular Republic of Algeria, is a country in the Maghreb region of Northwest Africa with Algiers as its capital.In terms of land area, it is the largest country in Africa and the Arab...
in the last years of the 19th century; 250,000 Spaniards lived in Morocco
Morocco
Morocco , officially the Kingdom of Morocco , is a country located in North Africa. It has a population of more than 32 million and an area of 710,850 km², and also primarily administers the disputed region of the Western Sahara...
at the beginning of the 20th century. Most Spaniards left Morocco after its independence in 1956 and their numbers were reduced to 13,000.
An estimated 90,000 Spaniards live in Spain's North African enclaves Ceuta
Ceuta
Ceuta is an autonomous city of Spain and an exclave located on the north coast of North Africa surrounded by Morocco. Separated from the Iberian peninsula by the Strait of Gibraltar, Ceuta lies on the border of the Mediterranean Sea and the Atlantic Ocean. Ceuta along with the other Spanish...
and Melilla
Melilla
Melilla is a autonomous city of Spain and an exclave on the north coast of Morocco. Melilla, along with the Spanish exclave Ceuta, is one of the two Spanish territories located in mainland Africa...
. Western Sahara is home to 10 000 Spanish expatriates, all of them against the rule of Francisco Franco
Francisco Franco
Francisco Franco y Bahamonde was a Spanish general, dictator and head of state of Spain from October 1936 , and de facto regent of the nominally restored Kingdom of Spain from 1947 until his death in November, 1975...
. Most Spanish expatriates officially went away after negotiation with the Madrid Accords
Madrid Accords
The Madrid Accords, also called Madrid Agreement or Madrid Pact, was a treaty between Spain, Morocco, and Mauritania to end the Spanish presence in the territory of Spanish Sahara, which was until the Madrid Accords' inception a Spanish province and former colony. It was signed in Madrid on...
.
Equatorial Guinea
Equatorial Guinea
Equatorial Guinea, officially the Republic of Equatorial Guinea where the capital Malabo is situated.Annobón is the southernmost island of Equatorial Guinea and is situated just south of the equator. Bioko island is the northernmost point of Equatorial Guinea. Between the two islands and to the...
(when under Spanish rule known as Spanish Guinea
Spanish Guinea
Spanish Guinea was an African colony of Spain that became the independent nation of Equatorial Guinea.-History:The Portuguese explorer, Fernão do Pó, seeking a route to India, is credited with having discovered the island of Bioko in 1472. He called it Formosa , but it quickly took on the name of...
) for many years and first started as temporary plantation
Plantation
A plantation is a long artificially established forest, farm or estate, where crops are grown for sale, often in distant markets rather than for local on-site consumption...
owners originally from Valencia, before returning to Spain. Few Spaniards remained in Spanish Guinea permanently and left only after a few years. At independence in 1968 Spanish Guinea had one of the highest per capita incomes in Africa (332 USD). The Spanish also helped Equatorial Guinea achieve one of the continent's highest literacy rates and developed a good network of health care facilities.
Many left Spanish Guinea when the colony gained independence
African independence movements
The African Independence Movements took place in the 20th century, when a wave of struggles for independence in European-ruled African territories were witnessed....
in 1968, and current figures of the Spaniard population range from 5,000 (1% of the population) to 16,000 (roughly over 3%). After independence, many Spanish-named cities and places in Equatorial Guinea were changed
Geographical renaming
Geographical renaming is the changing of the name of a geographical feature or area. This can range from the uncontroversial change of a street name to a highly disputed change to the name of a country. Some names are changed locally but the new names are not recognised by other countries,...
to more 'African
African nationalism
African nationalism is the nationalist political movement for one unified Africa, or the less significant objective of the acknowledgment of African tribes by instituting their own states, as well as the safeguarding of their indigenous customs...
' names, the most obvious one being the capital city
Capital City
Capital City was a television show produced by Euston Films which focused on the lives of investment bankers in London living and working on the corporate trading floor for the fictional international bank Shane-Longman....
, Malabo
Malabo
Malabo is the capital of Equatorial Guinea, located on the northern coast of Bioko Island on the rim of a sunken volcano....
(formerly Santa Isabel), and the island
Island
An island or isle is any piece of sub-continental land that is surrounded by water. Very small islands such as emergent land features on atolls can be called islets, cays or keys. An island in a river or lake may be called an eyot , or holm...
it is located on, Bioko
Bioko
Bioko is an island 32 km off the west coast of Africa, specifically Cameroon, in the Gulf of Guinea. It is the northernmost part of Equatorial Guinea with a population of 124,000 and an area of . It is volcanic with its highest peak the Pico Basile at .-Geography:Bioko has a total area of...
(formerly Fernando Pó).
Despite a large loss of Spaniards during the brutal rule of Masie Nguema Biyogo, who wrecked the nation into debt and abolished education
Education
Education in its broadest, general sense is the means through which the aims and habits of a group of people lives on from one generation to the next. Generally, it occurs through any experience that has a formative effect on the way one thinks, feels, or acts...
, the number of Spaniards have somewhat increased after he was overthrown. They almost exclusively speak Spanish
Spanish language
Spanish , also known as Castilian , is a Romance language in the Ibero-Romance group that evolved from several languages and dialects in central-northern Iberia around the 9th century and gradually spread with the expansion of the Kingdom of Castile into central and southern Iberia during the...
as their first language; French
French language
French is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts...
or Portuguese
Portuguese language
Portuguese is a Romance language that arose in the medieval Kingdom of Galicia, nowadays Galicia and Northern Portugal. The southern part of the Kingdom of Galicia became independent as the County of Portugal in 1095...
, which are official languages, are often spoken as a second language, sometimes alongside the indigenous Bantu languages
Bantu languages
The Bantu languages constitute a traditional sub-branch of the Niger–Congo languages. There are about 250 Bantu languages by the criterion of mutual intelligibility, though the distinction between language and dialect is often unclear, and Ethnologue counts 535 languages...
. Their religion is 100% Catholic, and this can be reflected by the population, which also remains Catholic. Since the discovery of oil, and an economic 'boom', a large number of Europeans, not just Spaniards, have migrated here for business and in Malabo
Malabo
Malabo is the capital of Equatorial Guinea, located on the northern coast of Bioko Island on the rim of a sunken volcano....
, they are located in the western half of the city and in new housing estates.
Belgians in Africa
Ethnically speaking, the term BelgianBelgium
Belgium , officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a federal state in Western Europe. It is a founding member of the European Union and hosts the EU's headquarters, and those of several other major international organisations such as NATO.Belgium is also a member of, or affiliated to, many...
is dubious, since it can refer to the Flemish
Flemish people
The Flemings or Flemish are the Dutch-speaking inhabitants of Belgium, where they are mostly found in the northern region of Flanders. They are one of two principal cultural-linguistic groups in Belgium, the other being the French-speaking Walloons...
(Dutch-speaking), the Walloons
Walloons
Walloons are a French-speaking people who live in Belgium, principally in Wallonia. Walloons are a distinctive community within Belgium, important historical and anthropological criteria bind Walloons to the French people. More generally, the term also refers to the inhabitants of the Walloon...
(French-speaking), or to a lesser extent, to German-speaking Belgians
German-speaking Community of Belgium
The German-speaking Community of Belgium is one of the three federal communities of Belgium. Covering an area of 854 km² within the province of Liège in Wallonia, it includes nine of the eleven municipalities of the so-called East Cantons...
.
Belgian Congo
On 5 July 1960, five days after the CongoDemocratic Republic of the Congo
The Democratic Republic of the Congo is a state located in Central Africa. It is the second largest country in Africa by area and the eleventh largest in the world...
gained independence from Belgium, the Force Publique
Force Publique
The Force Publique , French for "Public Force", was both a gendarmerie and a military force in what is now the Democratic Republic of the Congo from 1885, , through the period of direct Belgian colonial rule...
garrison near Léopoldville
Leopoldville
Leopoldville may refer to:* The capital of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, today known as Kinshasa* SS Leopoldville, a troopship sunk in 1944...
mutinied against its white officers and attacked numerous European targets. This led to fear amongst the approximately 100,000 whites still resident in the Congo and mass exodus from the country. In 1965, there were 60,000 Belgians spread throughout the Congo.
Flemish in Africa
Thousands of FlemingsFlemish people
The Flemings or Flemish are the Dutch-speaking inhabitants of Belgium, where they are mostly found in the northern region of Flanders. They are one of two principal cultural-linguistic groups in Belgium, the other being the French-speaking Walloons...
, along with the Dutch, migrated to the Republic of South Africa for many years between the 17th century and the 20th century. Immigration to RSA has slowed down drastically, but the remnants of a huge Flemish population still exist in Southern Africa. Many Flemish colonials, including farmers and mineowners, moved to the Belgian Congo
Belgian Congo
The Belgian Congo was the formal title of present-day Democratic Republic of the Congo between King Leopold II's formal relinquishment of his personal control over the state to Belgium on 15 November 1908, and Congolese independence on 30 June 1960.-Congo Free State, 1884–1908:Until the latter...
to seek their fortunes during the colonial era, entrenching a system of racial segregation
Racial segregation
Racial segregation is the separation of humans into racial groups in daily life. It may apply to activities such as eating in a restaurant, drinking from a water fountain, using a public toilet, attending school, going to the movies, or in the rental or purchase of a home...
not unlike those practiced in most other European-ruled African territories. The old segregated Belgian neighborhoods, in fact, are still visible in Kinshasa
Kinshasa
Kinshasa is the capital and largest city of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The city is located on the Congo River....
, the Democratic Republic of Congo's capital city. Despite the mass emigration of white people to Belgium, the Netherlands, and South Africa during the Congo Crisis
Congo Crisis
The Congo Crisis was a period of turmoil in the First Republic of the Congo that began with national independence from Belgium and ended with the seizing of power by Joseph Mobutu...
, there are still a little under 50,000 Flemings estimated to be living in the Congo. It has also been observed that there were roughly 3,000 Flemish settlers in Rwanda
Rwanda
Rwanda or , officially the Republic of Rwanda , is a country in central and eastern Africa with a population of approximately 11.4 million . Rwanda is located a few degrees south of the Equator, and is bordered by Uganda, Tanzania, Burundi and the Democratic Republic of the Congo...
, although many were targeted for extermination as part of the Rwandan Genocide
Rwandan Genocide
The Rwandan Genocide was the 1994 mass murder of an estimated 800,000 people in the small East African nation of Rwanda. Over the course of approximately 100 days through mid-July, over 500,000 people were killed, according to a Human Rights Watch estimate...
. This seemed to be largely because Belgian administrators were often regarded by resentful Hutu
Hutu
The Hutu , or Abahutu, are a Central African people, living mainly in Rwanda, Burundi, and eastern DR Congo.-Population statistics:The Hutu are the largest of the three peoples in Burundi and Rwanda; according to the United States Central Intelligence Agency, 84% of Rwandans and 85% of Burundians...
s as having offered better education and employment opportunities to Tutsi
Tutsi
The Tutsi , or Abatutsi, are an ethnic group in Central Africa. Historically they were often referred to as the Watussi or Watusi. They are the second largest caste in Rwanda and Burundi, the other two being the Hutu and the Twa ....
tribesmen under colonial rule. Radio messages broadcast by Hutu extremists during the genocide advocated the killing of white Rwandans on basis of their Belgian ancestry, despite the fact that Belgium itself attempted to remain neutral during the conflict.
Southern Africa
Although NorwegiansNorwegians
Norwegians constitute both a nation and an ethnic group native to Norway. They share a common culture and speak the Norwegian language. Norwegian people and their descendants are found in migrant communities worldwide, notably in United States, Canada and Brazil.-History:Towards the end of the 3rd...
in Africa are one of the smallest immigrant communities, they are not unheard of. However it is almost certain that the vast majority of them live in Southern Africa (most likely South Africa
South Africa
The Republic of South Africa is a country in southern Africa. Located at the southern tip of Africa, it is divided into nine provinces, with of coastline on the Atlantic and Indian oceans...
). One incident involving Norwegians in Africa was the Debora Expedition, where Norwegian families left Bergen
Bergen
Bergen is the second largest city in Norway with a population of as of , . Bergen is the administrative centre of Hordaland county. Greater Bergen or Bergen Metropolitan Area as defined by Statistics Norway, has a population of as of , ....
in 1879 to establish a Norwegian colony on an Indian Ocean atoll called Aldabra
Aldabra
Aldabra, the world's second largest coral atoll, is in the Aldabra Group of islands in the Indian Ocean that form part of the Seychelles. Uninhabited and extremely isolated, Aldabra is virtually untouched by humans, has distinctive island fauna including the Aldabra Giant Tortoise, and is...
(now located in the Seychelles
Seychelles
Seychelles , officially the Republic of Seychelles , is an island country spanning an archipelago of 115 islands in the Indian Ocean, some east of mainland Africa, northeast of the island of Madagascar....
). However the mission was aborted and the families instead settled in Madagascar or Port Natal (modern day Durban
Durban
Durban is the largest city in the South African province of KwaZulu-Natal and the third largest city in South Africa. It forms part of the eThekwini metropolitan municipality. Durban is famous for being the busiest port in South Africa. It is also seen as one of the major centres of tourism...
) in South Africa. They were the first Norwegians to settle in Port Natal.
A number of Norwegian settlers stayed in Portuguese African colonies when the Portuguese government tried to request Europeans of other nationalities to increase the very tiny Portuguese population, although that plan of the Portuguese government was unsuccessful. They were already acculturated
Acculturation
Acculturation explains the process of cultural and psychological change that results following meeting between cultures. The effects of acculturation can be seen at multiple levels in both interacting cultures. At the group level, acculturation often results in changes to culture, customs, and...
to the Portuguese population.
Other European African groups
The huge vast diversity of European ethnic groups in Africa were once more scattered, however currently every European ethnic group is greatest in South Africa. Virtually all European ethnic groups can be found in South Africa.In 1948, approximately 600,000 Jews
Jewish exodus from Arab lands
The Jewish exodus from Arab and Muslim countries was a mass departure, flight and expulsion of Jews, primarily of Sephardi and Mizrahi background, from Arab and Muslim countries, from 1948 until the early 1970s...
lived in North Africa; today only around 6,000 Jews remain. There is a substantial, mostly Ashkenazic Jewish community in South Africa
South Africa
The Republic of South Africa is a country in southern Africa. Located at the southern tip of Africa, it is divided into nine provinces, with of coastline on the Atlantic and Indian oceans...
. These Jews arrived mostly from Lithuania
Lithuania
Lithuania , officially the Republic of Lithuania is a country in Northern Europe, the biggest of the three Baltic states. It is situated along the southeastern shore of the Baltic Sea, whereby to the west lie Sweden and Denmark...
prior to World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
. Although the Jewish community peaked in the 1970s, about 80,000 remain in South Africa.
Armenians
Armenians
Armenian people or Armenians are a nation and ethnic group native to the Armenian Highland.The largest concentration is in Armenia having a nearly-homogeneous population with 97.9% or 3,145,354 being ethnic Armenian....
once numbered thousands in Ethiopia and Sudan
Sudan
Sudan , officially the Republic of the Sudan , is a country in North Africa, sometimes considered part of the Middle East politically. It is bordered by Egypt to the north, the Red Sea to the northeast, Eritrea and Ethiopia to the east, South Sudan to the south, the Central African Republic to the...
, before civil wars, revolutions, and nationalization drove most of them out. They still have community centers and churches in these countries. Before 1952 there were around 75,000 Armenians in Egypt.
The inhabitants of the Canary Islands
Canary Islands
The Canary Islands , also known as the Canaries , is a Spanish archipelago located just off the northwest coast of mainland Africa, 100 km west of the border between Morocco and the Western Sahara. The Canaries are a Spanish autonomous community and an outermost region of the European Union...
hold a gene pool that is halfway between the Spaniards and the ancient native population, the Guanches
Guanches
Guanches is the name given to the aboriginal Berber inhabitants of the Canary Islands. It is believed that they migrated to the archipelago sometime between 1000 BCE and 100 BCE or perhaps earlier...
(a proto-berber population), although with a major Spanish contribution.
On Tristan da Cunha
Tristan da Cunha
Tristan da Cunha is a remote volcanic group of islands in the south Atlantic Ocean and the main island of that group. It is the most remote inhabited archipelago in the world, lying from the nearest land, South Africa, and from South America...
, the population of 271 people shared just seven surnames: Glass, Green, Hagan, Lavarello (a typical Liguria
Liguria
Liguria is a coastal region of north-western Italy, the third smallest of the Italian regions. Its capital is Genoa. It is a popular region with tourists for its beautiful beaches, picturesque little towns, and good food.-Geography:...
n surname), Repetto (another typical Ligurian surname), Rogers, and Swain.
There are an estimated 100,000 Europeans living in Tunisia
Tunisia
Tunisia , officially the Tunisian RepublicThe long name of Tunisia in other languages used in the country is: , is the northernmost country in Africa. It is a Maghreb country and is bordered by Algeria to the west, Libya to the southeast, and the Mediterranean Sea to the north and east. Its area...
, most are French with some Italians. Morocco
Morocco
Morocco , officially the Kingdom of Morocco , is a country located in North Africa. It has a population of more than 32 million and an area of 710,850 km², and also primarily administers the disputed region of the Western Sahara...
has about 100,000 Europeans, most of them French.
Current populations
White African population by country (2005 est. From CIA)- South Africa: 5,265,300 (as of July 2008)
- Angola: 140,000 (as of September 2011)
- Namibia: 124,000 ~ 160,000
- Mozambique: 50,000 (as of July 2010)
- Zimbabwe: 20,000
- Kenya: 62,000
- Zambia: 8,000
- Botswana: 10,000
- Senegal: 5,000
- Other African nations: 10,000~15,000
The White African population of Zimbabwe
Zimbabwe
Zimbabwe is a landlocked country located in the southern part of the African continent, between the Zambezi and Limpopo rivers. It is bordered by South Africa to the south, Botswana to the southwest, Zambia and a tip of Namibia to the northwest and Mozambique to the east. Zimbabwe has three...
was much higher in the 1960s and 1970s (when the country was known as Rhodesia); the largest was 300,000. After the introduction of majority rule in 1980, and the downturn due to the mass murder and expulsion of white farmers and businessmen, along with the economic mismanagement by the Mugabe
Mugabe
Mugabe can refer to:*Robert Mugabe, President of Zimbabwe.*Sally Mugabe, first wife of Robert Mugabe.*Grace Mugabe, second wife of Robert Mugabe.*Omugabe , a title given to kings of Ankole of Uganda.*Mugabe Were, a Kenyan politician....
regime in the late 1990s, many white people left the country.
By September 2007, it is thought that as few as 22,000 whites remain in Zimbabwe as the economic and political crisis deepens. It is thought that if economic and political conditions improve, some of the former white population will return.
The white African population in Mozambique was at its peak with about 370,000 Portuguese Mozambicans
Portuguese Mozambicans
Portuguese Mozambicans are Mozambican-born descendants of Portuguese settlers.-History:Portuguese explorers turned to present-day Mozambique and two other PALOP nations to bring black slaves to Portugal before bringing them to work for their plantations in their Latin American province, the...
residing in Mozambique during the 1970s but political crisis and violence drastically decreased its population in a matter of weeks. Most Portuguese Mozambicans were expelled or fled to Portugal or to neighboring South Africa and Zimbabwe with some also going to Brazil. However, there has been an increase in the white African population of Mozambique in the last 10 years due to the immense Brazilian presence and intercultural Lusophone presence in Mozambique.
Languages
White Africans speak Indo-European languagesIndo-European languages
The Indo-European languages are a family of several hundred related languages and dialects, including most major current languages of Europe, the Iranian plateau, and South Asia and also historically predominant in Anatolia...
as their first languages (Afrikaans
Afrikaans
Afrikaans is a West Germanic language, spoken natively in South Africa and Namibia. It is a daughter language of Dutch, originating in its 17th century dialects, collectively referred to as Cape Dutch .Afrikaans is a daughter language of Dutch; see , , , , , .Afrikaans was historically called Cape...
, English
English language
English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...
, Portuguese
Portuguese language
Portuguese is a Romance language that arose in the medieval Kingdom of Galicia, nowadays Galicia and Northern Portugal. The southern part of the Kingdom of Galicia became independent as the County of Portugal in 1095...
, French
French language
French is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts...
, German
German language
German is a West Germanic language, related to and classified alongside English and Dutch. With an estimated 90 – 98 million native speakers, German is one of the world's major languages and is the most widely-spoken first language in the European Union....
, Spanish
Spanish language
Spanish , also known as Castilian , is a Romance language in the Ibero-Romance group that evolved from several languages and dialects in central-northern Iberia around the 9th century and gradually spread with the expansion of the Kingdom of Castile into central and southern Iberia during the...
and Italian
Italian language
Italian is a Romance language spoken mainly in Europe: Italy, Switzerland, San Marino, Vatican City, by minorities in Malta, Monaco, Croatia, Slovenia, France, Libya, Eritrea, and Somalia, and by immigrant communities in the Americas and Australia...
).
Afrikaans
The most spoken language at home by white Africans is AfrikaansAfrikaans
Afrikaans is a West Germanic language, spoken natively in South Africa and Namibia. It is a daughter language of Dutch, originating in its 17th century dialects, collectively referred to as Cape Dutch .Afrikaans is a daughter language of Dutch; see , , , , , .Afrikaans was historically called Cape...
. It is spoken by 60% of South Africa's, 60% of Namibia's, and about 5% of Zimbabwe's white populations. In South Africa they make up a major white speaking group in all provinces
Provinces of South Africa
South Africa is currently divided into nine provinces. On the eve of the 1994 general election, South Africa's former homelands, also known as Bantustans, were reintegrated and the four existing provinces were divided into nine. The twelfth, thirteenth and sixteenth amendments to the constitution...
except KwaZulu-Natal
KwaZulu-Natal
KwaZulu-Natal is a province of South Africa. Prior to 1994, the territory now known as KwaZulu-Natal was made up of the province of Natal and the homeland of KwaZulu....
, where Afrikaans speakers (of all races) make up 1.5% of the population. In Rhodesia (and later Zimbabwe), Afrikaans wasn't as spoken and therefore the country remained English dominated for its history. There were, however a few Afrikaans inhabitants, mostly from South Africa. Afrikaans was also very limited culturally to Rhodesia and so only a few Afrikaans place names existed, most notabley Enkeldoorn (renamed Chivhu
Chivhu
Chivhu is a small town in Zimbabwe, with an estimated population of 10,000 in 2007. It is located south of Harare on the main road south to Masvingo and South Africa.-History:...
in 1982). Most Afrikaners in Zimbabwe have now immigrated to South Africa or First World
First World
The concept of the First World first originated during the Cold War, where it was used to describe countries that were aligned with the United States. These countries were democratic and capitalistic. After the fall of the Soviet Union and the end of the Cold War, the term "First World" took on a...
countries.
English
- See also: English languageEnglish languageEnglish is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...
, South African EnglishSouth African EnglishThe term South African English is applied to the first-language dialects of English spoken by South Africans, with the L1 English variety spoken by Zimbabweans, Zambians and Namibians, being recognised as offshoots.There is some social and regional variation within South African English...
English is the second most spoken language among white Africans, spoken by 39% of South Africa's, 7% of Namibia's, and 90% of Zimbabwe's white population. In South Africa they remain the dominant white ethnic group in KwaZulu-Natal, while in Gauteng
Gauteng
Gauteng is one of the nine provinces of South Africa. It was formed from part of the old Transvaal Province after South Africa's first all-race elections on 27 April 1994...
and the Western Cape
Western Cape
The Western Cape is a province in the south west of South Africa. The capital is Cape Town. Prior to 1994, the region that now forms the Western Cape was part of the much larger Cape Province...
they also contribute to a large percentage of the English-speaking population.
It is here that they challenge the Afrikaans in being the white dominant ethnic group. English is a second language of many non-British white Africans with higher education in predominantly non-English-speaking African nations. Outside of South Africa, Namibia, and Zimbabwe, British Africans make up a large minority in Zambia, Kenya, Botswana, and Swaziland, therefore increasing the presence of English in these countries.
German
German is spoken by 32% of Namibia's white population (making up 2% of the Namibian population). There is also a now nearly extinctExtinct language
An extinct language is a language that no longer has any speakers., or that is no longer in current use. Extinct languages are sometimes contrasted with dead languages, which are still known and used in special contexts in written form, but not as ordinary spoken languages for everyday communication...
German dialect in Namibia known as Namibian Black German
Namibian Black German
Namibian Black German is a pidgin language spoken in various parts of Namibia. It is a non-standardized variety. Namibian Black German is based on standard German....
(or in German as Küchendeutsch or Kitchen German), and used to be spoken by black domestic servants to German colonists. However, the government has tried to lower the use of German and Afrikaans due to its colonial roots, and instead try and enforce English, the sole official language, and Bantu languages. There is also known to be a German dialect, spoken in the south-east of South Africa, known as Nataler German (German from Natal
Natal Province
Natal, meaning "Christmas" in Portuguese, was a province of South Africa from 1910 until 1994. Its capital was Pietermaritzburg. The Natal Province included the bantustan of KwaZulu...
).
Other languages
Most of all whites in Angola and Mozambique use Portuguese as their first language. The other 1% of whites in South Africa (who don't speak Afrikaans or English) mostly speak Portuguese (from immigrant communities who come from Angola and Mozambique), or German and Dutch (from European immigration). Equally, in Namibia, the remaining 1% of the white population speaks mostly Portuguese because of the immigration from Angola following independence of all Portuguese colonies in 1975.Only a small white population in Libya, Tunisia, Ethiopia, Eritrea, and Somalia has the fluency of Italian, because it is no longer the official language there. Very few White Africans speak Bantu languages
Bantu languages
The Bantu languages constitute a traditional sub-branch of the Niger–Congo languages. There are about 250 Bantu languages by the criterion of mutual intelligibility, though the distinction between language and dialect is often unclear, and Ethnologue counts 535 languages...
(languages spoken by Black people) at home, but still a small percentage of white Africans speak Bantu languages as second languages.
Sports
Cricket
Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of 11 players on an oval-shaped field, at the centre of which is a rectangular 22-yard long pitch. One team bats, trying to score as many runs as possible while the other team bowls and fields, trying to dismiss the batsmen and thus limit the...
is a particularly popular sport with White Africans of British descent. Rugby
Rugby union
Rugby union, often simply referred to as rugby, is a full contact team sport which originated in England in the early 19th century. One of the two codes of rugby football, it is based on running with the ball in hand...
, in Southern Africa is particularly popular with people of Afrikaner
Afrikaner
Afrikaners are an ethnic group in Southern Africa descended from almost equal numbers of Dutch, French and German settlers whose native tongue is Afrikaans: a Germanic language which derives primarily from 17th century Dutch, and a variety of other languages.-Related ethno-linguistic groups:The...
ethnicity.
Field hockey
Field hockey
Field Hockey, or Hockey, is a team sport in which a team of players attempts to score goals by hitting, pushing or flicking a ball into an opposing team's goal using sticks...
is another popular sport amongst Whites.
Many Whites from Commonwealth countries in Africa are accomplished swimmers, including Kirsty Coventry
Kirsty Coventry
Kirsty Leigh Coventry is a Zimbabwean swimmer and world record holder. She attended and swam competitively for Auburn University in Alabama, in the United States...
of Zimbabwe and Jason Dunford
Jason Dunford
Jason Edward Dunford is a swimmer from Kenya. He is predominantly a butterfly and freestyle sprinter. He has won gold medals at the Commonwealth Games, Universiade, All-Africa Games and African Championships, and reached finals at Olympics, World Championships and Short Course World Championships....
of Kenya, as well as numerous South Africans.
See also
- List of White Africans
- MuzunguMuzunguMzungu is the southern, central and eastern African term for a person of foreign descent. Literally translated it means "someone who roams around aimlessly" or "aimless wanderer". The term was first used by Africans to describe early European explorers...
Diaspora:
- Anglo-AfricanAnglo-AfricanAnglo-Africans are primarily White African people of largely British descent who live or come from Sub-Saharan Africa and are Anglophone. A large majority live in South Africa...
- AfrikanerAfrikanerAfrikaners are an ethnic group in Southern Africa descended from almost equal numbers of Dutch, French and German settlers whose native tongue is Afrikaans: a Germanic language which derives primarily from 17th century Dutch, and a variety of other languages.-Related ethno-linguistic groups:The...
- White South African
- Whites in NamibiaWhites in NamibiaWhite Namibians are people of European or Southern African birth or descent living in Namibia. Most white Namibians are Afrikaners, while some are descended from German, Portuguese, or English immigrants.- Distribution :...
- Whites in ZimbabweWhites in ZimbabweWhite Zimbabweans are people from the southern African country Zimbabwe who identify themselves as white...
- Whites in KenyaWhites in KenyaThere is a minor but relatively prominent group of white people in Kenya, mainly descendants of British settlers from the colonial era.-History:...
- French people in MadagascarFrench people in MadagascarThere is a small but recognizable community of French people in Madagascar, of whom the vast majority are born in Madagascar and are descended from former French settlers and colonists who settled in Madagascar during the 19th and 20th centuries brought by Francois Delouche...
- Portuguese AngolansPortuguese AngolansPortuguese Angolan is a person of Portuguese descent born or permanently living in Angola.-History:The first Portuguese settlements in Angola were established in the 16th century. Some Portuguese settlers married native Africans resulting in a mixed-race population...
- Portuguese MozambicansPortuguese MozambicansPortuguese Mozambicans are Mozambican-born descendants of Portuguese settlers.-History:Portuguese explorers turned to present-day Mozambique and two other PALOP nations to bring black slaves to Portugal before bringing them to work for their plantations in their Latin American province, the...