Portuguese-South Africans
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Portuguese-South Africans (Portuguese: luso-sul-africanos) are South Africans of Portuguese ancestry.
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[edit] History
The Portuguese explorers passed through and landed Cape of Good Hope, which was a clue route to India. The first to land was Vasco da Gama. Some explorers settled the present-day South Africa permanently.[citation needed]. After the Dutch gained control of South Africa, they took Portuguese settlers[citation needed] (who once ruled now-called Malaysia and Indonesia) and Eurasians from Malaysia and Indonesia as slaves for the Dutch plantations after Dutch claimed the 2 territories from the Portuguese when the blacks refused Dutch’s offer to plant[citation needed]. After they planted, they remained there since they have nowhere to go. Portuguese and Eurasian slaves intermarried with blacks and Dutch settlers, resulting to Coloureds. The early 20th century witnessed a trickle of emigrants from Madeira whose numbers greatly increased in the decades following World War II. Madeiran immigrants, who are traditionally associated with horticulture and small commerce, form the largest group within South Africa's Portuguese community. But the largest Portuguese settlement happened when 2 of the former Portuguese provinces – Angola and neighboring Mozambique – won independence from Portugal in 1975. While most Portuguese settlers from the 2 PALOP countries went to Portugal, among them entered South Africa, as it is now the most progressive African nation and most of them grew up in African culture, accompanied by blacks and mulattoes who are loyal to Portuguese. South Africa again permitted Portuguese refugees from Mozambique after foreigners and people with foreign connections left because of Mozambican Civil War. More recent Portuguese settlers from Angola and Mozambique lived to make new fortunes in South Africa. Their entrance made South Africa the home of the largest Portuguese African population, numbering about 1 million.
[edit] Language
They natively speak Portuguese (their dialect is closer to Standard European than Brazilian dialects), while speaking official South African languages, like Zulu, Tswana, Xitsonga, Afrikaans, and most importantly, English, as it is an international language. The first and recent Portuguese from Angola and Mozambique also speak one of major Bantu languages as their additional languages, like Ndau, Makua, and Sena.
[edit] Religion
Most Portuguese, like other South Africans, are Christians, but for most of them, they are Roman Catholics. There are some Protestants among them. Some are Jews, whose ancestors escaped Inquisition.
[edit] See also
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