Information about cape town

LANGUAGE

South Africa has now got 11 official languages which can be heard dominating the streets and Cape Town and the rest of this spectacular country. In Cape Town, the most commonly used languages have been determined as English, Afrikaans and Xhosa. The rest of the languages include: Ndebele, Northern Sotho, Southern Sotho, Swati, Tsonga, Tswana, Venda, and Zulu.English is a widely spoken language in South Africa and therefore tourists should not fret about possible langauge boundaries because of the wide use of English in Cape Town and other areas of South Africa. Some tourists of Cape Town may have trouble understanding the South African accent as it is different to the rest of the world.

People

Cape Town is vibrant with many people out of a variety of races and cultures. The people in Cape Town are friendly and tourists will feel welcomed by the hospitality and warm smiles of this truely rainbow nation.The Dutch and other Europeans: The first European settlers arrived at the Cape in 1652 with the establishment of the refreshment station. The first French Huguenot refugees arrived at the Cape in 1688. The first British occupation occured in the Cape in 1795, after which a large settlement of immigrants from Britain in 1820 took place in the East Cape.The Black Africans: The origins of the Bantu speaking people of Cape Town can not be identified by historians of South Africa. However, it has been thought that origin occured in the Congo deltas and in the Niger. Establishment occured by 700AD in the Transkei by these Bantu people. As a result of government ruling, the black population of Cape Town remained low until the 1980s. The 1980s saw a migration from the rural areas. These rural areas could no longer be controlled by the white dominated South African government.The Cape 'Coloureds': The cape 'coloureds' are descendants of Europeans, Slaves, Khoisan, Free-blacks and Malays.The San: The San were hunter-gatherers named 'Bushmen' by the Dutch. The San have been discovered as being the first inhabitants of South Africa. The outer appearance of the San was different to anything a European was used to. They were short wiith high cheekbones and distinctive facial features which were flat. The San's skin was golden-brown. The rock art of the San hasa been dated as far back as 20 000 years ago.The Khoikhoi: The Khoikhoi have also been referred to as the 'Hottentots' and were pastoralists. They lived in the north of Botswana approxiately 2000 years ago and later migrated to Cape Town where they met the San. It is difficult to distinguish between these two groups as they look and act so alike, which is perhaps a reason for creation of the name Khoisan. Persecution of the Khoisan occured constantly by the Europeans. However, the Khoisan was killed off mostly by the spread of the Smallpox epidemics which occured in the years 1713, 1753 and 1767.Trying to estimate the population of Cape Town at present is a difficult task to perform. Cape Town is most probably made up of approximately 1 million 'white', 1.5 million 'coloured' and 2 million 'black' people.