South African History Online

Xenophobic violence against foreign nationals in South Africa has worsened. South Africa witnessed widespread xenophobic attacks since 1994 in provinces such as Gauteng, Western Cape, Free State, Limpopo and KwaZulu Natal.

The Bantustans or homelands, established by the Apartheid Government, were areas to which the majority of the Blacks population was moved to prevent them from living in the urban areas of South Africa.

Race and ethnicity have been and still is at the heart of South African history, politics, society and economy since the European colonisation. South Africa remains a complex mix of different races, cultural identities, languages and ethnic bonds.

Slavery was introduced to the Cape Colony by the VOC in its desire to boost the agriculture and food supply while retaining control in the new settlement.

The year 1658 marks the beginning of the slave trade at the Cape colony.  During the first four years of the Dutch East India Company (VOC) settlement at the Cape only a small number of personal slaves had reached the Cape, mostly by accompanying their owners from Batavia until they were sold at the Cape.

On March 28 1658 the Dutch merchant ship the anchored at Table Bay with 174 Angolan slaves in her hold.

The formation of the Union of South Africa in 1910 was a development that had vastly different consequences for the various groups in the four former colonies.