7th Grade Notes

Cultures of Southern
and Central Africa
Chapter 13
Section 4
Diversity in Southern Africa
• Variety of ethnic groups and cultures
• Largest number of European descendants
• European Influence
– Portuguese arrival in the 1500’s
– Dutch and British in the 1600’s
• Slave trade
• Mining
• Farming
• European Ethnic Groups
– 3 main groups of Europeans
• British
• Speak English
• Dutch (Afrikaners)
• Speak Afrikaans (language related to the Dutch)
• Portuguese Speak Portuguese
• Urbanization
– Before Europeans Southern Africans lived in villages and small cities
– Now there are still the small cities and villages, but also very large cities like
• Cape Town
• Durban
• Johannesburg
• Industry for South Africa
– Richest country
– Most urban country
– Most industrialized country
• Mining is a large part of it’s economy
– Migrant Workers- workers who travel away from where they live to find work
– Compounds- fenced in groups of homes
• New Role for Women
– Migrant workers mostly men
– With men gone women now had to
• Take care of families
• Farm
• Herd
• Make community and household decision
• Had very little to no training
• Gained new rights, responsibilities, and skills
– women found their new roles very rewarding
Life in Central Africa
• Economics and Culture
– Coastal region
• have a lot of oil reserves
• Wealthy
• Exposed to wider range of cultures
– Interior regions
• Family farming
• Poorer
• Isolated and organized into kinships
• Diverse Ways of Life
– Culturally diverse (over 200 different ethnic groups)
– Catholic, Protestant, Muslim, and a blend of Christianity and African beliefs
– “Old, new and mixtures of the two live on in all regions of Africa”