South Africa

We have been working with South Africa for some weeks. Please tell me something about the country.

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South Africa is a country on the south tip of Africa. The population of South Africa is 44,2025 mio. The country is 1.219.912 km2. The capital is Pretoria, but the biggest city is Johannesburg with 10.000.000 people. In South Africa they are talking many different languages: english, afrikaans, ndebele, sesotho, lebowa, sesotho, swati, xitsonga, setswana, tshivenda, xhosa and zulu. The currency is rand. South Africa has many faces. Some people are white, some are coloured, but the most are black. Actually, there are living people from all over the world.


Johannesburg: Johannesburg, or J-burg as the south africans themselves call it, is the biggest city in South Africa and also the most dangerous. People is very violent and you have to keep you're things close to yourself, while going around, because a lot of people is stealling. When I was on vacation in South Africa I never went there, it's simply not safe.


Between 1948 and 1994 South Africa had apartheid. The black and the white people were separated and the black people were treated so awful. But one man, called Nelson Mandela, wanted to change his country and because of him the apartheid ended in 1994, when the nation chose him as president. The apartheid is an important part of the country´s history. Nelson Mandela is a real hero and the nation loves him.
Now South Africa is back on track. Trying to build a new South Africa, where everyone is accepted and welcome, where people can live together, not depending on their skin colour. But the country is still very separated. Most of the black people are living in townships and small villages and they are working as farmers, in the cleaning sector, as labourers, on the gas stations and other low paid jobs. Many black people are moving to Johannesburg and other big cities, to find jobs. A lot of them end up as poor as before. Most of the whites are living in estates or villages. They are working as buisness people, as usual.
But of course sometimes it's different.


Ceremony: When kids are getting teenagers, they are making a ceremony in the nature. To show that the kids are responsible enough to be adults and to take care of themselves and their coming family. The girls need to cook, to clean and other thing at home. And the boys need to make money.


In South Africa people love music. They are doing a lot of traditional dancing and singing. When I was in South Africa we went on a restaurant, and one of the other guests were having birthday. Then all the waiters lined up with drums, and then they song a traditional birthday-song for the lady.


The great nature: In South Africa they are having the most amazing nature and wild animal life. They have the Krüger National Park, which is the biggest national park in Africa. I've been there - what an experience! We saw elephants, rhinos, a lion, hippos, a leopard, zebras, crocodiles and many more animals.
They are also having a very rich bird-life. In South Africa they're having the 3th biggest canyon in the world.


South Arfica is a very european-a-like country. It's a highly developed country. I think that's because there are living people from all over the world in the country. For instance, you can get, things and food from all over the world, in the stores.


South Africa is a proud country. People are proud of being South Africaans and proud of their country. After Nelson Mandela changed the country, they have made a new national anthem. The anthem is showing that the people love their country and that in South Africa there's space for everyone, no matter were you come from. I think it's a very good way of making a national anthem, I mean, the danish national anthem just says "There is a nice country" and i'm thinking "so what?!". I like the South African the most - it's more going in details about why people love their country. It's says "United we shall stand, let us live and strive for freedom, in South Africa our land".

Nelson Mandela

Who is Nelson Mandela?

Nelson Mandela is a very, old man, who is living in South Africa.
Nelson Mandelas life started in a little village, in the country site of South Africa. Hes father was the chief of the little village. In the beginning Nelson was'nt named Nelson, but  Rolihlahla. But in hes school, the teachers were white an they could'nt pronounce  Rolihlahla, so the gave him the name, Nelson. Nelson were growing, an he started to see how awful the white people were treating the blacks. Apartheid, it was called - the whites were discriminating the blacks, the blacks were people, just like the whites, but because of the colour of there skin, they became different. Nelson were shocked. He wanted to change hes country. Nelson were going Johannesburg and contacted ANC - African National Congress. Soon the became the chef and he started to demonstrate. Nelson Mandela wanted a nonviolence struggle for freedom, but that was not easy, because the whites were using weapons to stop the demonstrations. Nelson went to prison. In hes entire life he has been in prison for 27 years. But it was worthwhile, when he were set free, the country changed. Now the blacks were alloud to vote, and they all voted for Nelson, so he became the first president of South Africa. Nelson Mandela gave hes whole life to the struggle against apartheid! What a man!

Explanations

Please give an explanation for following words:

- Apartheid: Apartheid is an dutch word which means "being taking apart". In South Africa they did, they took blacks and whites people apart. They were not alloud to sit on the same benches, to use the same toilets, to drive in the same busses, to stand in the same lines and the black were not even alloud to vote.

Segregation: Segregation means to seperat people, like they did in South Africa. For example, they made a line a cross the beach, and the black people had to be on one side and the white people on the other.

Discrimination: Discrimination means to treat people different then others, just because you don´t like them or because they are black or handicaped for example. Exactly what happened in South Africa, the whites were treating the blacks different, just because they were black!? I think discrimination is absolutly awful, so mean and really, really stupid to do!