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South Africa
South Africa's earliest inhabitants were nomadic hunter-gatherers who settled here over 100,000 years ago, the ancestors of the Kan (or "Bushmen"). Among the innovations of these prehistoric people were the use of notched sticks as a means of counting and inventory-taking, a practice which may have found it's way north to the Nile valley and served as the precursor for both mathematics and writing. About two thousand years ago, the ancestors of the Khoikhoi, or "Hottentots," began to move into the area, displacing many of the earlier inhabitants. These new arrivals differed significantly from their predecessors in that they kept domestic livestock and practiced limited agriculture. Around the sixth century, Bantu-speaking peoples began to arrive in the southeast, introducing more advanced agricultural and metal-working methods. Many of these native peoples, including the Khoikhoi and the ancestors of the Zulu, are known to have had institutionalized homosexuality, including lesbianism, among their tribes. Phoenicians visited the coast while circumnavigating the African continent on a commissioned expedition for the Pharaoh Neco around 600 BCE, and the first European visitors were Portuguese explorers, whose initial encounters with the Khoikhoi were violent. The first permanent settlements were made in 1652 by the Dutch, who used the Cape as a stopping point for trade with India and the East Indies. In a parallel with the experiences of Native Americans, the Khoikhoi realized that the Dutch were not going away and were not above taking by force what they could not get through barter or treaty. Fighting the invaders, the Khoikhoi were eventually assimilated by the Dutch, who used them both as serfs to work the land and soldiers in their militia. Slaves were also imported from west Africa and also from Asia to work the land and as house servants. The domination of disparate non-white racial groups by a small but powerful European minority in South Africa had thus begun. After the Netherlands fell to Napoleon, the British seized the Cape Town settlement to prevent the French navy from using it as a base. This marked the beginning of British colonial rule in the region. Great Britain's plans to establish a more expanded and secure colony in South Africa seemed initially threatened by the ambitions of Shaka kaSenzangakhona, colloquially called "Shaka Zulu," who had unified the disparate Zulu clans into the most powerful kingdom existing on the African continent at that time. This threat was greatly diminished when Shaka was assassinated in 1828 by his half-brother and the Zulu empire began to break up into quarrelsome factions. British rule eventually initiated new policies which were certainly more liberal than those of the Dutch, which included increased freedom of the press, the establishment of representative government, a "charter of liberties" for the Khoikhoi, and a four-year phase out of slavery which was complete by 1838. This latter reform coincided with a migration by many Dutch settlers, fed up with what they considered the intrusive policies of a foreign government, into regions north and east of Cape Town. Known as the Great Trek, this migration led to the establishment of numerous republics, presided over by Dutch Boers and their Khoikhoi servants, which either assimilated or displaced Sans, Zulu, and other native inhabitants. Britain largely ignored these new countries until the late nineteenth century, when first gold and then diamonds were discovered in these areas. Conflicts between native African peoples, the Boers, and the British raged off and on through the region from the 1870s onwards, leading to the further disenfranchisement of African peoples and culminating at last in the Boer War in 1899. Although the British claimed victory in 1902, they made many concessions to the Boers to ensure the peace, with the former republics receiving increasing autonomy over the next decade. By 1910, the Union of South Africa was established, and the new nation was largely independent from the UK, though it remained a member of its Commonwealth. The constitution concentrated power in the hands of Afrikaner whites, which by the 1940s had been cemented by the enactment of the first apartheid laws. Although largely directed at native Africans, apartheid was also applied towards "coloureds," persons of Arabic, Indian, East Indian, Asian, and mixed heritage. Interracial marriages were outlawed, and nonwhites were prohibited from holding certain jobs. Pass books, a form of internal passport containing one's photo and fingerprints, were required of all black citizens. In the 1970s, "homelands" began to be established, with blacks being assigned citizenship to these homelands, depending on their tribe of origin, an act which essentially stripped them of any voting or other rights with regard to participation in the government of South Africa. Though officially recognized as independent states, the South African government frequently sent troops into these homelands to hunt for "subversives" and quash civil unrest, and even violated the borders of Lesotho, a sovereign country completely surrounded by the union, for this same purpose. Because of the segregationist intent of this policy, and the fact they were often governed by puppet presidents and chiefs, none of these homelands were recognized as legitimate countries by the UN or its members. Despite increasing protest from both within and without, the South African government continued to implement and maintain its apartheid programs, assisted by computer technology obtained from IBM and other companies, enormous wealth garnered from its gold and diamond exports, and the support of conservative politicians, including US Senator Jesse Helms. South Africa had also managed to build the most formidable military machine in southern Africa, to the point that a flash detected by satellites over the Cape in 1978 led to speculation that the country had developed nuclear capability. (Astronomers and military experts now agree that the flash was caused by a meteor bouncing off the atmosphere.) By the 1980s, protests and boycotts persuaded foreign companies to stop doing business with South Africa and South African based companies. Internal unrest had increased throughout the homelands, and anti-apartheid sentiments were also increasingly evident among the white population. By 1988, the South African government had been persuaded to begin talks with leaders of the African National Congress, which by 1990 led to the release of the group's leader, Nelson Mandela, after 27 years in prison. In 1991 negotiations began towards a new government, and the first democratic elections in which all persons regardless of race could participate were held in 1994, with Mandela elected president. In 1995 work began on a new constitution, and in 1996 the Republic of South Africa was established. In addition to race, nationality, religion, and gender, the new constitution included sexual orientation among those classes guaranteed equal rights and protection under the law, the first constitution to do so. This was in part an acknowledgment of the role many gays and lesbians of all ethnic backgrounds had played in bringing an end to apartheid. Prior to this, South Africa had implemented Dutch laws dating to the 17th century which made homosexual relations criminal acts, even though such acts had long since been decriminalized in the Netherlands. In the years since the constitution's ratification, the National Coalition for Gay and Lesbian Equality and its successor group, the Lesbian and Gay Equality Project, have successfully had many apartheid era public and private policies which criminalized homosexuality and discriminated against gays and lesbians overturned. Today, South Africa is by far the gay-friendliest nation on the African continent, with a vibrant and active GLBT community. Johannesburg, Cape Town, and Durban are the main centers for GLBT life, with bars, dance clubs, and theaters. Numerous GLBT political and social groups are active throughout the country. With the taboo against travel to South Africa having vanished along with apartheid, gays and lesbians from other countries are flocking in increasing numbers to enjoy the country's warm sunny climate and admire the awesome beauty of South Africa's landscape and wildlife, encouraged by a growing travel industry whose gay-owned and gay-friendly members are eagerly reaching out to GLBT tourists. As with other African nations, the prevalence of HIV and AIDS are relatively high, with over 10% of the country's population of forty million estimated to be infected. Most of these infections are among children and heterosexual adults, and tend to be concentrated in the poorer regions. Over a quarter million persons are estimated to have died from AIDS-related illnesses. Some economic problems, including a 30% unemployment rate, remain from the apartheid era, and crime is a problem in some areas, especially in the former homelands. Neo-Nazi and white supremacist groups have sprung up from the ashes of apartheid, but they are little more than a fringe movement, and violence against gays and non-whites appears to be quite rare. Despite these problems, South Africa should be considered a safe and welcoming place for GLBT travelers to visit, certainly more so than most other African countries at this writing. Q On-Line: The Gateway to Gay South Africa Galacttic: G&L Association of Cape Town Republic of South Africa Constitution CIA World Fact Book: South Africa Kwazulu - Zulu History and the Anglo-Zulu War
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