The South African Cultural Mosaic

Color pictures and text depict 17 different groups of people who inhabit South Africa. They include: the San, the Isizulu, the Khoekhoen, the Sesotho sa Leboa speakers, the siSwati speakers, the Coloured, the Sesotho speakers, the isiXhosa speakers, the Karretjie, the Setswana speakers, the isiNdebele speakers, the Afrikaners, the Tshivenda speakers, the Xitstonga speakers, the English speakers, the Indians, and the Chinese/Taiwanese. For each group, a picture and text about their culture and history are included. On top center is an inset map of South Africa with black text on it and the South African flag on the bottom right. On the top, both to the right and left of title, is the South African flag.

View the mix of people and cultures that make up South Africa today, including a special section on tradtional beliefs and customs.

This book is an analysis of key factors that may be problematic as Southern Africa shifts to a new "democracy". Based on research conducted on black South Africans who have been studying overseas, the author examines intragroup differences that have been created and accentuated by forty years of apartheid rule in South Africa. Contents: Preface; Introduction; Post-Independence Conflict: Theoretical Perspectives; Current Conflict Dynamics in South Africa; Research Methodology; Data Presentation and Analysis: Part I; Data Presentation and Analysis: Part II; Summary and the Implications of the Findings; Appendix A: Cover Letter to Respondents; Questionnaire Reminder; Acronyms of Variables; List of Abbreviations; Questionnaire; Bibliography; Index.

The book revisits a study conducted in 1994 on subjects defined as historically disadvantaged by the apartheid regime. However, despite the ravages of that regime, these individuals had succeeded and gotten extraordinary opportunities to pursue higher education in colleges and universities in the U.S. In the study, the subjects discussed and shared their visions of South Africa as a new democracy while coming to terms with the impact of apartheid. A sample of the 1994 subjects are surveyed for this book. The author concludes that, in short, while South Africa has possibilities, several challenges remain, in particular economic challenges.

Everyday life in South Africa has been dominated by the politics of racial identities, while such identities form and re-form around a range of cultural activities and practices. This book traces the important dimensions of cultural activity in late twentieth-century South Africa, offering a multidisciplinary assessment between culture and politics. It also explores the ways in which the place of culture is being rethought since South Africa's transition to democracy.