Heritage Day: Coloured South Africans
South Africa celebrates National Heritage Day on 24 September 2015. We are a proud Rainbow Nation with 11 official languages across our beautiful country, and today we take a look at all our unique cultures that make us one of the most diverse countries in the world.
In Southern Africa, the term Coloureds is an ethnic label for people of mixed ethnic origin who possess ancestry from Europe, Asia, and various Khoisan and Bantu ethnic groups of southern Africa.
Not all Coloured people share the same ethnic background. As a result, Coloured people can possess a variety of different features.
Besides the extensive combining of these diverse heritages in the Western Cape — in which a distinctive Cape Coloured and affiliated Cape
Malay culture developed — in other parts of Southern Africa, their development has usually been the result of the meeting of two distinct groups. Genetic studies suggest the group has the highest levels of mixed ancestry in the world.
However, the maternal (female) contribution to the Coloured population, measured by mitochondrial DNA studies, was found to come mostly from the Khoisan population.
Population: 5 888 000 (2011 Census)
Regions where Coloured people live: More commonly in South Africa (Western Cape and Northern Cape), Namibia and Zimbabwe.
Languages spoken by Coloured people: Afrikaans and English
Famous Coloured people: Christo Davids, Zane Meas, Tammy-Anne Fortuin and Shaleen Surtie-Richards
Sources: Wikipedia, www.southafrica.net, www.bergfashionlibrary.com, www.southafrica.info, Statistics South Africa (Census report 2011)
Watch this video on South African Coloureds:
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