Race has always been a factor in South African life. During the apartheid ( state of being apart ) years, keeping the races separate was the aim of increasingly draconian laws. Mixed marriages were prohibited and interracial sex was made illegal. Each South African was required to carry an identity document with an associated race classification. This determined where the holder could live, travel, play, learn and work or even do toilet business.
I will mention race in future stories and use the common classifications that are acceptable to use today. Other very derogatory terms were used during the apartheid years but the terms white, black and coloured are in common use now and are acceptable. I thought I might describe these grouping as the term "coloured" can be confusing for those who have not been to South Africa. These are as I understand them and may not be as accurate as say coming from a local.
Coloureds are the majority race here in the Western Cape province of which Cape Town is the capital. Coloureds can be divided into 4 subgroups : mixed race , Indians, Malays and other Asians. Most in the Western Cape are mixed race and most have been "coloured" for many generations i.e. coloureds have married coloureds. Indeed if you ask many coloured people "what is your ethnic background?", the answer will usually be "coloured". They may have no idea when the actual mixing of races occurred and it may have been centuries ago when the first Dutch explorers and settlers arrived. Indians and Malays were imported into South Africa as reliable slaves/workers by early colonial governments. Indeed Gandhi spent time in Natal prior to becoming famous. Those of Indian descent are more common in Kwazulu-Natal province but there is a large number of descents of Malay workers in Cape Town and most of these are muslims.
Whites can be divided according to language, Afrikaans and English speakers, being in general descents of the very early Dutch ( Boer ) and later English settlers and administrators. They can in general terms be thought of as being on the right and left of the political spectrum respectively.
Blacks, by far the largest group within the country can be divided into many tribal groups. The largest are Xhosa ( the X is a click sound ) and Zulu. Both the first two presidents of the new South Africa, Nelson Mandela and Thabo Mbeki were Xhosa from the Eastern Cape province of which Port Elizabeth is the key city. The current president Jacob Zuma is a Zulu from what is now called Kwazulu-Natal province of which Durban is the capital on the Indian ocean coast. Some other tribes are Tswana, Ndebele, Swazi, Shangaan, Venda & Pedi.
There are also many "immigrants" in the country, both legal and illegal from other African countries as well as a large number of refugees.
Despite the end of apartheid with the first general election in 1994, most people still seem to marry within their own tribal/racial subgroups.
Today, you see many young people socialising within mixed racial groups but very rare to see older people doing the same.
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