Culture and History in Southern Africa

The cultures of southern Africa are very complex and interesting. Before the major European countries came into Africa and took over chunks of land, Africa was a thriving nation. In 1400s a tribe called the Shona was at its peak. It was a leading tribe and had many achievements, such as Great Zimbabwe. The Great Zimbabwe was made in 1100s and was the capital of the Shonas nation. It was a great trading post and city. It eventually fell in power in the 1500s when gold was not traded as much as it used to be and that was its main export. By the end of that time the dutch and moved in and taken over. When the dutch came so did new ideas. Many dutch ideas where taken and combined with the african ways to creat a new people the the Afrikaners and the Boers. These two groups lived peacfully until the british came and started to take land for themselves. A nother tribe the Zulus rose in power in this time period but were also defeated by the British. Slavery was introduced and many peoples lives were thrown into poverty. In the early 1900s The South Africa's government became very racist. There were laws put up against peopel of different cultures and the people were split up into these four groups whites, blacks, Coloureds, and Asians. The system went like this blacks on the bottom the coloureds and asians a little above and the whites on top. This all changed in 1960 when many colonies of people tried to and succeded in gaining independence. One group of people fought the british for ten years and finally won independence this area is now know as Zimbabwe. Other countries followed and finally the nation of Africa was made.