Africans of European Descent
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| White Africans | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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5,116,400 - 7,360,400 (all countries below added up in highest and lowest figure*Figures do not include Europeans living in |
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| Languages | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| French, English, Afrikaans, Kabyle, Portuguese, German, and others |
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| Predominantly Christian; minorities practicing Judaism, Islam, or no religion | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Dutch, British, French, Portuguese, Germans, Jews, White Americans, White New Zealanders, White Latin Americans |
White Africans are largely descendants of Europeans who settled on the continent of Africa under colonial rule. (Known in Shona as the Mukiwa, in Nguni languages as abeLungu and Mzungu in Swahili) These individuals are mostly of Dutch, British, French, Portuguese, and to a lesser extent Italian, Greek, Belgian, Swiss, Spanish, and German ancestry. Prior to the decolonisation movements of the post-WWII era, White Africans numbered at least 10 million persons and were represented in every part of Africa, however many left during and after Black African independence movements. Nevertheless, White Africans remain as tenuous minorities in many majority Black states. The African country with the largest White African population is South Africa, at approximately 5.2 million. Although White Africans no longer rule various African nations, many have remained as permanent residents and may hold a substantial ownership of the economy and land in specific regions or countries. It should also be mentioned that various ethnic groups (mostly Arabs and Berbers) and Egyptians of North Africa could also be considered White Africans under some definitions.[3].
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[edit] Dutch people in Africa
Dutch settlement, under the Dutch East India Company, began in the Cape of Good Hope (present-day Cape Town) in southern Africa in 1652, making it the oldest European culture in Sub-Saharan Africa. By the late nineteenth century, the descendants of the Dutch (known as Afrikaners) had crossed the Limpopo river into Mashonaland, now part of Zimbabwe. In the early 1900s following the Anglo-Boer War, large numbers of Afrikaners travelled north to British East Africa and settled in what is now Kenya and Tanzania, as well as in Angola. Following the Mau Mau insurgency and general collapse of colonial authorities in the decades after the Second World War, Afrikaner colonies outside South Africa and Namibia diminished in size and the majority of settlers and their descendants returned to South Africa.
[edit] British people in Africa
- Further information: Anglo-African
Although there were small British settlements along the West African coast from the 1700s onwards, mostly devoted to the commerce of the slave trade, British settlement in Africa began in earnest only at the end of the eighteenth century, in the Cape of Good Hope. It gained momentum following British annexation of the Cape from the Dutch East India Company, and the subsequent encouragement of settlers in the Eastern Cape in an effort to consolidate the colony's eastern border.
In the late nineteenth century the discovery of gold and diamonds further encouraged colonisation of South Africa by the British. The search for gold drove expansion north into the Rhodesias (now Zimbabwe, Zambia and Malawi). Simultaneously, British settlers began expansion into the fertile uplands (often called the "White Highlands") of British East Africa (now Kenya and Tanzania). Most of these settlements were not planned by the British government with many colonial officials concluding they upset the balance of power in the region and left overall imperial interests vulnerable. Cecil Rhodes utilized his wealth and connections towards organizing this ad hoc movement and settlement into a grand imperial policy. This policy had as it's general aim the securing of a Cairo to Cape Town railway system, and settling the upper highlands of East Africa and the whole of Southern Africa south of the Zambezi with British colonies in a manner akin to that of North America and Australasia.
However, prioritization of British power around the globe in the years before the First World War, initially reduced the resources appropriated toward settlement. The First World War and subsequent Great Depression and the general decline of British and European birthrates further hobbled the expected settler numbers. Nonetheless, thousands of colonists arrived each year during the decades preceding WWII. Despite a general change in British policy against supporting the establishment of European settlements in Africa, and a slow abandonment in the overall British ruling and common classes for a separate and exclusivist European identity, large colonial appendages of European separatist supporters of the British Empire were well entrenched in South Africa, Rhodesia, and Kenya.
In keeping with the general trend toward non-European rule evident throughout most of the globe during the Cold War and the abandonment of colonial positions in the face of American and Soviet pressure, the vestigial remnants of Cecil Rhodes' vision was abruptly ended, leaving British settlers in an exposed, isolated and weak position. Black Nationalist guerrilla forces aided by Soviet expertise and weapons soon drove the colonists into a fortress mentality which led to the break-off of ties with perceived collaborationist governments in the United Kingdom and Commonwealth. The result was a series of conflicts which eventually led to a reduced presence of White Africans due to emigration and natural wastage. Many were murdered, tens of thousands driven off their lands and property, with many of those remaining being intimidated and threatened by the government and political and paramilitary organisations. In all, over 2,000,000 White Africans of mostly British descent were killed, pushed out, deported or went into exile from the original British colonies, reversing a process that took place hundreds of years previously. Nonetheless, in all of these areas, a number of well connected extremely wealthy settlers remained to live following independence and the introduction of black rule in the second half of the twentieth century.
Sizeable numbers of Anglo-Africans also live in Nigeria, Ghana, Namibia, Tanzania and Uganda.
[edit] French people in Africa
- See also Huguenots in South Africa, French rule in Algeria, Pieds noirs, Franco-Réunionnaise, and Franco-Mauritian
Large numbers of French people settled in French North Africa from the 1840s onwards. By the end of French rule in the early 1960's there were over one million French Algerians of European origin (known as pieds noirs, or "black feet") living in Algeria [1]. No other region of the French African colonial empire attracted similar settlement, although there is still a comparatively large European population living in the former West African colony of Senegal, which has largest French African population in sub-Saharan Africa. There is also an important white minority in Gabon, Côte d'Ivoire, and Togo.
In Réunion, a French island in the Indian Ocean, white islanders of French origin make up approximately one-quarter of the population.
A large number of French Huguenots settled in the Cape Colony, following their expulsion from France in the 17th century. However, the use of the French language was banned and the Huguenot settlers were entirely absorbed into Afrikaans culture. However, this early contact can be seen clearly in the names of historic towns, such as Franschhoek in the Western Cape (meaning "French Corner") and in the surnames of many Afrikaners, such as Theron, Du Plessis etc.
[edit] Portuguese people in Africa
- Further information: Portuguese Africans, Portuguese Angolans, Portuguese Mozambicans, and Portuguese-South Africans
The first Portuguese settlements in Africa were built in the 15th century. In the late 17th century much of Mozambique was divided into prazos, or agricultural estates, which were settled by Portuguese families. In Angola, namely in the areas of Luanda and Benguela there was significant Portuguese population. In the islands of Cape Verde and São Tomé and Príncipe, besides Portuguese settlers, most of the population was of mixed Portuguese and African origin.
In the early 20th century the Portuguese government encouraged European emigration to Angola and Mozambique, and by the 1960s, at the beginning of the Portuguese Colonial War, there were around 650,000 Portuguese settlers living in their overseas African provinces, and a substantial Portuguese population living in other African countries.
Most Portuguese settlers returned to Portugal (the retornados) as the country's African possessions gained independence in the mid 1970s, while others moved south to South Africa, which now has the largest Portuguese-African population.
[edit] Other White African Groups
Smaller White African groups also settled parts of Africa. These include Spanish in Equatorial Guinea, Western Sahara, Morocco, Ceuta, Melilla, and South Africa; Italians in Libya, Eritrea, eastern Somalia, and South Africa; Germans in Namibia and South Africa; and Belgians in Democratic Republic of Congo, and Lithuanians in South Africa; and Lebanese Maronite Christians in South Africa.
Armenians and Greeks once numbered thousands in Ethiopia and Sudan, before civil wars, revolutions and nationalization drove most of them out. They still have community centers and churches in these countries.
[edit] Current Populations (2005 est. From CIA)
White African Population by Country
- South Africa: 5,265,300 (as of July 2008)
- Namibia: 120,000
- Zambia: 120,000
- Angola: 120,000
- Mozambique: 50,000
- Zimbabwe: 46,743 (2002 census)
- Senegal: 50,000
- Botswana: 40,000
- Kenya: 30,000
- Equatorial Guinea: 25,000
- Côte D'Ivoire: 20,000
- Gabon: 20,000
- Tanzania: 10,000
- Other African nations: 30,000
Total: Approximately +6,000,000
The White African population of Zimbabwe was much higher in the 1960s and '70s (when the country was known as Rhodesia), when it was 270,000 at its highest. After the introduction of majority rule in 1980, and the as to be expected strains on a newly evolving economic system during the late 1990s that was brought on by expulsion of white farmers and the economic mismanagement by the Mugabe regime, many white people left the country.
By September 2007, it is thought that as few as 22,000 whites remain in Zimbabwe as the economic and political crisis deepens (the mass emigration is more to do with trends now than land seizures, as almost 4 million Zimbabwean blacks also live outside of the country). It is thought that if economic and political conditions better, some of the former white population will return.[citation needed]
[edit] Languages
White Africans generally speak European languages as their first languages (English, Portuguese, French, German, Spanish, Italian and Afrikaans, derived from Dutch); some also speak major native African languages.
[edit] Sports
White Africans in East and Southern Africa are largely of British descent hence the most popular sport with them is cricket. Rugby union and hockey are also popular with them. Today Cricket, Rugby and Hockey national sports teams of South Africa, Namibia, Zimbabwe, Angola, Botswana and other South African countries and till the 70's East African teams have been composed primarily of whites.
[edit] See also
[edit] References
- ^ White Batswana population.
- ^ White Zambian population.
- ^ Dumaurier, Notre place au soleil, La mémoire du peuple berbère, Firésias, 2001, ISBN 2908527812
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