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The Republic of South Africa (also known by other official names) is a
country located at the southern tip of Africa. It borders the Atlantic and
Indian oceans and Namibia, Botswana, Zimbabwe, Mozambique, Swaziland, and
Lesotho, an independent enclave surrounded by South African territory. South
Africa is a member of the Commonwealth of Nations. The South African economy
is the largest in Africa and 24th largest in the world. Due to this it is
the most socially, economically and infrastructurally developed country on
the continent.
South Africa has experienced a different history from other nations in
Africa because of early immigration from Europe and the strategic importance
of the Cape Sea Route. European immigration began shortly after the Dutch
East India Company founded a station at what would become Cape Town, in
1652. The closure of the Suez Canal during the Six-Day War highlighted its
significance to East-West trade. The country's relatively developed
infrastructure made its mineral wealth available and important to Western
interests, particularly throughout the late nineteenth century and, with
international competition and rivalry, during the Cold War. South Africa is
ethnically diverse, with the largest Caucasian, Indian, and racially mixed
communities in Africa. Black South Africans, who speak nine officially
recognised languages, and many more dialects, account for nearly 80% of the
population.
Racial strife between the white minority and the black majority has played a
large part in South Africa's history and politics, culminating in apartheid,
which was instituted in 1948 by the National Party (although segregation
existed before that time). The laws that defined apartheid began to be
repealed or abolished by the National Party in 1990, after a long and
sometimes violent struggle, including economic sanctions from the
international community.
Several philosophies and ideologies have developed in South Africa,
including ubuntu (the belief in a universal bond of sharing that connects
all humanity) and Jan Smuts's holism.
Regular elections have been held for almost a century; but the majority of
South Africans were not enfranchised until 1994.
South Africa is often called the "Rainbow Nation", a term coined by
Archbishop Desmond Tutu and later adopted by then President Nelson Mandela.
Mandela used the term "Rainbow Nation" as a metaphor to describe the
country's newly developing multicultural diversity after segregationist
apartheid ideology. By 2007, the country had joined Belgium, the
Netherlands, Canada, and Spain in legalizing same-sex marriage.
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