Generalizations about South Africa would be dangerous. In such a country, with eleven official languages, nine major Black African tribes, two major White tribes, and host of other peoples, as well a representation of all the world’s major religions, who would dare generalize? In such a country where there is major gender inequality, yet where the Deputy President and a third of the Cabinet are women where Communists sit in Parliament yet a free market economy rules, where there are very, very rich and very, very poor, of all races, who would dare generalize? In fact, forget just about everything you have ever heard about South Africa. There are a lot of surprises here.

“A world in One country” was a term coined by the South African tourism authorities some time ago, and it is remarkably apt. Geographically, South Africa occupies the southern tip of the continent of Africa. Its jagged northern border is shared by Namibia, Botswana, Zimbabwe, Swaziland, and Mozambique, and it completely surrounds Lesotho.
In terms of geographic diversity, however, it is indeed a World in One Country. There are great mountains, snow-covered in winter, vast plains of grassland, or scrub (the famous veld), with its roving wildlife, miles and miles of bush, and tracts of desert with red sand dunes. The fertile coastal plain ranges from some of the southernmost coral reefs on the world in a subtropical setting in the east, to stretches of indigenous forests in the south, the Mediterranean-like region and the wine lands in the southwest, and the arid but starkly beautiful West Coast. And there are beaches everywhere.

Climate
South Africa’s location in the Southern Hemisphere obviously makes its seasons the reverse of those in the Northern Hemisphere, so the height of the South Africa summer is December/January and midwinter is June/July. The climate is generally moderate. The country is geographically described as a semiarid zone with an average annual rainfall of less than 20 inches (around 500 mm) – the world average is about 33 inches (around 850mm). About two-thirds of the country have less than the average, but the extreme highs and lows range from as much as 79 inches (2,000 mm) to as little as 2 inches (50 mm). The central plateau has hot, wettish summers and cold, dry winters, while the coastal belt tends to be more temperate. The south western Cape has a decidedly Mediterranean climate with winter rainfall, allowing for grape, olive, and deciduous fruit industries (which is not to say that grapes are not grown elsewhere in South Africa). Snows falls on the high mountains in winter.

The Rainbow Nation
“The rainbow Nation” was a term first used by Nobel Peace Prize Winner Archbishop Desmond Tutu, around the time of the birth of the new South Africa, and therefore a new nation. The term is a celebration of the distinctive racial and cultural mix that is South Africa.
Under the old system South Africans were divided into four groups: Blacks, Whites, Coloreds, and Asians. Paradoxically, many official documents still have a box for “race”. Anyway, although they are today one nation, this is more or less way South Africans see themselves but we need to make a large number of sub pigeonholes.
Although there are around 46,9 million South African, it is safe to say that there is no such thing as a typical South African. There are, for example, eleven official languages, but many more are spoken, and there is a great diversity of racial types, tribes, cultures, religions, and ways of doing things. The status of the population is currently thus: Blacks, 37,2 million, or 79,4 percent; Whites 4,4 million, or 9,3 percent; Coloreds 4,1 million, or 8,8 percent; Asians 1,1 million, or 2,5 percent.

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The New South Africa
It was described as a “miracle”. South Africa, a country that the international community had almost willed to implode, had made the transition from Apartheid to democracy, not without loss of life and major stress, but it had made it nonetheless.
There are without doubt tensions in the new South African society, but the democracy holds and the country is stable. People get along remarkably well, far better than one could possibly have imagined before the transition although, of course, the transition is still very much in progress. Attitudes have doubtless changed. There are still diehard racists in every community, but their voices are muted and generally South Africans are learning to live together. There is a race card, which is hauled out when people feel “put upon”, a hint of “reverse Apartheid”, as it is known locally, but by and large the society is functioning as well as can be expected.
This is not happen by accident: a lot of effort was put in to make South Africa work, including some much-needed unifying symbols. So, Nelson Mandela, who was already on the stage, was joined by the flag and the national anthem.

Unifying Symbols
In a country of such diversity, unifying symbols are clearly of great importance. There was much uncertainty in many communities about the future of the country when in February 1990 President F.W. de Klerk announced the lifting of the ban on the ANC and the release of political prisoners, including the most famous of them all, Nelson Mandela. Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela, now affectionately known as Madiba by virtually all South Africans, had been convicted at the Rivonia Treason Trial that ended in 1964. However, instead of an embittered old man and politician bent on revenge, there emerged a man who was bent on reconciliation a man to whom all South Africans warmed almost immediately. Madiba become the Grand Old Man of African statesmanship, and is universally recognized as the father of the new South Africa.
The flag is another remarkably unifying symbol. It was born at a time when everyone feared the worst, just before the April 1994 elections. People were nervous, many stored emergency stocks of groceries, some hoarded drinking water or gasoline – these were often rather grimly described as “Mandela supplies”. The nation needed a lift. The flag’s birth was not an easy one; there was plenty of rejection too. Eventually it fell to the chief negotiators of the National Party government and the ANC and the State Herals to sort it out. They did so, and the new flag was proclaimed on April 20, seven days before the election. Flag makers had seven days to get South Africa’s new symbol up and flying, and they did it. There is apparently no serious symbolic meaning in the design or the colours, just a sense of convergence of many diverse elements working in unison. The flag is now almost universally popular, seen painted on mud huts in rural settings, on faces at sports gatherings, and on backpacks and suitcase in remote corners of the world.
The national anthem was another difficult birth, but what emerged was a clever compromise that was typical of many clever compromises that allowed the new nation to happen. The Old White anthem, Die Stem Suid-Afrika, “The call of South Africa”, was incorporated into an African hymn or song of praise, Nkosi Sikilel’ iAfrika, “God Bless Africa”, composed in 1897 by Enoch Sontonga, a South African Methodist schoolteacher. It has been accepted by virtually all South Africans, of all races, and is sung on all appropriate occasions.

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The above extract is kindly provided by Culture Smart! the essential guide to customs & culture. The 168-page guide retails at £6.95 + P&P and is available directly from Kuperard, the publishers of Culture Smart! guides.

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