A Brief History of South Africa, with Dave Steward | Big Think 

One of the best summaries I have come across - brilliant!

"Until lions tell their tale, the story of the hunt will always glorify the hunter." Chinua Achebe

South African history is so intricate and complicating. I'm a 28 year old south african and i'm still trying to understand.

"Never put sociologists in charge of countries because they will do social engineering." Interesting 🤔

Fantastic to see and hear an expert just tell the whole story without a script or any silly animations (though I do like silly animations sometimes)!

Why not mention that the English lost the first Boer War? And that during the second they used scorched earth policies and interred 1000s of woman and children (both native and white) into concentration camps, in which thousands died from starvation and disease? This isn't just a white take on South African History, but an English take on South African history.

That was very informative, and yet I felt anxious through the whole thing, wondering what his biases were and if he was trying to sell me a filtered history/story.

Excellent, interesting video. History is an excellent tool for understanding where we are today and how things can change going forward.

This was very clear, nice and clean perspective of the past. Hope South Africans could listen to this.

He didn't mention the collapse of the USSR in 1990, which was pivotal to the decision by the NP to go ahead with the transformation. He also didn't mention the failure of CODESA1, which was in part due to the ANC's refusal to accept a federal government system, that would largely have prevented an unrealistic majority of a corrupt government .

Only just found this channel, so many things I wanna watch!! Love it all! And this clip is no exception! Firstly thanks to Big Think! I'm just starting an online TV channel and your passion and commitment to this channel is really inspirational and motivational!! Secondly thanks to Dave! As a 35 yr old South African living abroad, you have given me bits of condensed history I've been craving to know !

Wow. Great video. I never really went deep into the dynamics here but this gentleman really put the SA story to perspective.

I don't know all the facts but I really enjoyed listening to him. He really put a lot of things in perspective for me.

Great history lesson. Much more complex than most thought.

I saw a vast crowd, too great to count, from every nation and tribe and people and language, standing in front of the throne and before the Lamb… And they were shouting with a great roar, “Salvation comes from our God who sits on the throne and from the Lamb!”

Great summary of the history of SA! Watch it and learn something!

I very mutch like these kinds of talks that gives you a mutch broader understanding of social problems. A good thing about knowing your history.

More long videos like this, please.

Who's watched the film 'Zulu' that's about the British taking over South Africa it's amazing film.

Hendrik Verwoerd: oh we can have each group separated to created their own societies. We'll put the whites here, the zulus here, the xhosas here, and the Coloured here. This will work out perfectly Random aide: uhh sir, it looks like you gave the whites 89% of the land. Verwoerd: hmmm......... I don't see a problem here. Right, let's implement this plan. And thus apartheid was born. (at least that's what I got from what this guy was saying)

this video has opened up my eyes. Honestly, we may be in 2020 and the types of laws may not be enforced any more and no governments have these laws but the funny thing is this still happens every day just always in a different form.

Very interesting. The implications and overtones for other countries are important. I believe every American World History class should watch this video.

This is why I love Big Think. Its where people can look at the facts of things without any preconceived delusion and have an intellectual debate about it. He may not have covered the whole story but what he said is however true and cannot be denied no matter which side of the argument your on. Unfortunately it's a truth that is ignored by the ANC's government and it's supporters.

Great history lesson. Really enjoyed something that.. funnily enough.. isn't taught in British schools..

Anyone else impressed with his pronunciation of xhosa!?

This was fantastic

would've appreciated one that dated back pre-colonialism

South African history is thousands of years old. How Europeans can be so Idealistic thinking the begining of everything was starts with them is absolutely mind boggling. 🥴

South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by 2,798 kilometres (1,739 mi) of coastline of Southern Africa stretching along the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the north by the neighbouring countries of Namibia, Botswana, and Zimbabwe; and to the east and northeast by Mozambique and Swaziland (Eswatini); and it surrounds the kingdom of Lesotho. South Africa is the largest country in Southern Africa and the 25th-largest country in the world by land area and, with close to 56 million people, is the world's 24th-most populous nation. It is the southernmost country on the mainland of the Old World or the Eastern Hemisphere. About 80 percent of South Africans are of Sub-Saharan African ancestry, divided among a variety of ethnic groups speaking different African languages, nine of which have official status. The remaining population consists of Africa's largest communities of European (White), Asian (Indian), and multiracial (Coloured) ancestry. South Africa is a multi-ethnic society encompassing a wide variety of cultures, languages, and religions. Its pluralistic makeup is reflected in the constitution's recognition of 11 official languages, which is the fourth highest number in the world. Two of these languages are of European origin: Afrikaans developed from Dutch and serves as the first language of most coloured and white South Africans; English reflects the legacy of British colonialism, and is commonly used in public and commercial life, though it is fourth-ranked as a spoken first language. The country is one of the few in Africa never to have had a coup d'état, and regular elections have been held for almost a century. However, the vast majority of black South Africans were not enfranchised until 1994. During the 20th century, the black majority sought to recover its rights from the dominant white minority, with this struggle playing a large role in the country's recent history and politics. The National Party imposed apartheid in 1948, institutionalising previous racial segregation. After a long and sometimes violent struggle by the African National Congress and other anti-apartheid activists both inside and outside the country, the repeal of discriminatory laws began in 1990. Since 1994, all ethnic and linguistic groups have held political representation in the country's democracy, which comprises a parliamentary republic and nine provinces. South Africa is often referred to as the "rainbow nation" to describe the country's multicultural diversity, especially in the wake of apartheid. The World Bank classifies South Africa as an upper-middle-income economy, and a newly industrialised country. Its economy is the second-largest in Africa, and the 34th-largest in the world. In terms of purchasing power parity, South Africa has the seventh-highest per capita income in Africa. However, poverty and inequality remain widespread, with about a quarter of the population unemployed and living on less than US$1.25 a day. Nevertheless, South Africa has been identified as a middle power in international affairs, and maintains significant regional influence.

Do more history of countries. This is very interesting.

What an insightful 20 minutes, thank you.

I think this was a very good summery, thanks.

Characterising the cold war as russian proxy warfare without mention of the US doing the exact same thing, more often and with more success, puts the rest of this otherwise interesting video in a rather untrustworthy light.

Very illuminating. Thanks

actually a really good video (as a South African). And I've had way more boring lecturers, so it he didnt bother me at all! :)

So well spoken. A privilege and a pleasure to listen to such a well informed, intelligent, man.

A brief romanticized white history of South Africa

Never knew big think would have chosen my crazy beautiful country

Very good overview. At last a sober explanation from the side of the white minority. Apparently whites are split like two tribes, the Afrikaans who are former Dutch settlers and the other group who are former British colonisers. Wow... who knew!!

A very educational and interesting film . Very pleasant and informative presenter. Thanks for the uploaded video

My side-eye vision was on the whole time. Always a minefield. He really struggled to keep the whole apartheid thing above the fray, using clean words of constitutionalism and social engineering, whereas that ish was down and dirty. More than a hovering govt. policy, a lot of ordinary people in their heart-of-hearts believed in racial superiority. This is why apartheid was so intractible, and why so much tension remains in SA. I give it another 20yrs for things to normalize, and when it does, it'll be one of the best places on Earth to live and die in.

I enjoyed this account. It was sober. I would love to delve into more detail

This is an informative history of South Africa, although there's quite an emphasis here on the Apartheid period and the Cold War.

Blacks traditionally don't stay in townships, they stay in villages. In order to feed the South African European owned mines with black cheap labour, whites artificially create poverty in black communities and using legislation & govt policies, 3 things were done; 1. Poll tax, labour tax were introduced & must be paid in currency, to get this currency, you must work in mines. 2. Land act 1913; meaning every good productive land in SA must owned by whites, blacks stand back 3. Resettlement policy: means any black communities or persons still on good productive land be uprooted by force and taken to poverty as tenants in Umlazi, Soweto, Tembisa township to become cheap labourer for whites owned mines & factories.(Bloemfontein, sapphire town) This is a 100 years systematic creation of severe poverty in black south African communities Someone said Apartheid was all about white capital expansion, I understand now with a little addition expansion using African resources and hard labour. But you can expand without running someone else down Yes you can.

His wording is political and obviously very diplomatic. He is of course plastering over his parties atrocities and how seriously vile it was but maybe this is how he saw it ? It’s just one perception from one viewpoint but the history isn’t bad listen and he is skimming!. He is very very nice about it, like a talking to a GCSE student. Remember it’s not just white people who can and are racist and not just white people with power who rape and pillage....never forget that, hate breeds hate. The past can be indefensible but it’s a evolving learning game and evolutionary thinking is forever the future and always constructed by past. Love and understand. South African history is fascinating.

I LOVED THIS ,,

I need a brief history of South America. But this is also something I didn't know much about. Good video.

someday we will be able to hear similar analysis of the American empire's pretexts for its wars without people getting fired up and defensive about it. you know, once it's too late to do anything about it.

I wouldn’t frame Botha as such a benign reformist though. The dismantling of “petty” apartheid always seemed to be a largely cosmetic revision to appease the international community in opinion. However, I was born post-1994, so my sense of history is vastly different to Steward.

Saying that Apartheid is "straightforward racial domination" is utter, gross dishonesty. It had no racial quality to it whatsoever but rather was seeking to reestablish and affirm their own society, which they had built by their own hand, for they themselves, and not subject to racial and cultural conflict. They build the society, why should they not enjoy it? Apartheid had nothing whatsoever to do with the "separate but equal" in the south, and it is a false and dishonest equivalence. What we have later is the ANC wanting to "unscramble this omelette", to turn South Africa into a country and society controlled by blacks, when they had nothing whatsoever to do with its creation and rise. In fact the Omelette was (and is) being so forcibly "unscrambled" that it is creating social and economic collapse. The narrator, Dave Steward, rejects social engineering when done by others for stability, but then goes on to embrace social engineering when by others, to suit his views, even turning a blind eye to murder, rape, mayhem and starvation. You only have to look at the negative changes to South Africa since De Klerk's changes, As a result of the Marxist social engineering policies by the South African government circa 2008, forcing white farm owners to sell to the government which turned large white-run farms into many small black-run farms, and South Africa became a food-importer, rather than a exporter, despite its enormous agricultural potential.

really enjoyed this vid also loved the fact the comments are 50%hate and 50% and the one antisemitic commenter who has managed to turn this from a africa thing to a jewish thing

it looked like for a moment after he made the "breaking eggs" joke that he maybe expected an applause... lol

Very good video!!

Will Safrica become the next Zimbabwe?

The defeat of Cetshwayo involved Americans, Deutsches, British, Slaves, and locals such as Sothoes

He should have gone back to the 1600’s well before all the history which followed decades later. What he says is so, but the reasons it cam3 about are not adequately introduced. When the boers came into South Africa in the 1600’s Sa was an empty land never forget that

Love this. Wish more South-Africans do research on what the history was.

Fast forward to the present day and the ANC has further racially divided the country than the Afrikaner NP government ever did and has utterly destroyed the strongest economy on the African continent.

Fair.

Excellent video. Should probably be titled, "A Brief White History of South Africa," though. The lens could use a bit of disclosure.

Steward is right concerning the obvious fact that South Africa is an artificial entity as it was created by the British during the early 20th century after conquering numerous local groups and was done so for the main purpose of securing the gold and diamonds found mainly within the old Boer Republics that the British had conquered. But it is important to point out that the Boers are not Afrikaners - as the Afrikaners were a political regime that was composed mostly from the Cape Dutch population that the Boers had trekked away from during the 1700s - and that the driving force of the National Party was not the restoration of the Boers Republics as they were expressly OPPOSED to it as they wanted to turn all of South Africa into a nominal and false republic in order to prevent the Boers from reclaiming their old Boer Republics and thereby scuppering the British and Afrikaner control over the resource and mineral rich areas of the new macro State of South Africa. Prime Minister D F Malan ( a Cape Dutch of Huguenot origin ) did not even initially want to turn South Africa into a Republic and worked to destroy the Boer groups that were calling for the restoration of the Boer Republics. I am still astounded how too many people do not look at this situation closely enough to discover that the Boers were and are still often an impoverished and disenfranchised people who fell under the sway of the more affluent and politically connected Cape Dutch controlled Afrikaner political regime that rose to power over the artificial state of South Africa. When the impoverished Boers were chased off of their farms by the British during the aftermath of the second Anglo-Boer War: they began to migrate to the cities in big numbers in order to find employment. When they arrived at these cities they often encountered the Cape Dutch controlled Afrikaners ( who migrated to the large cities within the Boer Republics during the late 19th century during the gold rush ) who were in the process of establishing themselves and taking control of the major institutions. This led to the Afrikaner Colonization of the Boer Nation. As these Afrikaners would soon propagandize the Boers' children who were now enrolled in Afrikaner controlled schools to now see themselves as part of the Afrikaner political class despite the Boer segment remaining at the bottom never rising much higher than the working class. The Boers have had to struggle against Afrikaner domination and have been subjugated by the Afrikaners. The Boers were not even largely literate until the Cape Dutch controlled Afrikaners began to impose their Afrikaans onto the population. This led to further Afrikaner control over the Boers as newspapers and magazines were now in the standardized dialect of Afrikaans that the Afrikaners created and not in the dialect of the Boers. When you take away or replace a peoples' language or dialect you take away their ability to communicate authentically in their own voice. The language promoted reflected the views of the Cape Dutch controlled Afrikaners and not the conquered Boers who were not able to develop their dialect into a literary form as this process was scuppered or outmaneuvered by the Cape Dutch originators of the standardization process. The Boer's dialect of what is often referred to as Boeraans ( historically known as Boeretaal ) would have to be promoted more in order to get a clearer understanding of the actual Boer perspective on matters otherwise one is only getting the crafted view of the Afrikaner. The sad reality is that the Boers have been and often still are too impoverished too truly get their own dialect turned into a large scale literary from that can rival the ubiquitous Afrikaans that was promoted by the Afrikaner establishment and government.

This guy completely disregarded the imporatance of reform groups. If it was't for the ANC, Congress Alliance, SAIC, PAC, and the spear of the nation, South Africa might still very well be under apartheid.

How do you spell that?

Wow! Amazing account of South African history and its development until present day. Even as a South African I learned some new things here. If only this version of history could be taught in South Africa. It's clear that the "White government" eventually became the means to the end (Freedom for all South Africans) - an important ingredient, instead of only being the "bad guys" all the way. Unfortunately South African government today portrays all South African whites (even those who were born after 1991) as the bad guys...something that has to change if the country ever wishes to move forward. SO thankful for this channel for making this video. Thanks a lot.

Incorrect, NP did not come to power in 1948, they were in power by majority vote in 1933

Why is he choosing to ignore the damage done by the first dutch settlers in the country

Brief history of South Africa from the perspective of someone from the union of SA that should be the title. The concerns of apartheid sympathizers. Besides it being a political perspective, there is a bit of historical truth

Omg, the way he talks about the managing of difficult areas. And it also sounds like many of the wars were orchestrated by the British. I can go on, but I will end my comment with I like this effort.

I find it highly annoying that people are getting annoyed with another part of our countries story. There isnt just one side of the story.

Can somebody explain what he means by this?: "The ANC realized that there would not be a revolutionary outcome... and it's only when parties accept that there will not be an armed outcome that there can be genuine negotiations."

Q: Why did the white man go to the moon? A: He heard the Indians had some land there... (Native comedian who took the mike at a jam up in Whitehorse...)

Unsurprisingly a very well narrated whitewash of De Klerk's legacy. Only him comes out squicky clean.

11 seconds in 'Executive Director, FW de Klerk Foundation'. Yeah credible unbiased source. SMH

South Africa sits with too many monuments and too many small shops. South Africa have many shops that cost the public money, but it isn't making any money for the public in large scale. South Africa depends on the buildings they already have and they use the same methods over and over again and it is not working and they can't employ everyone. The only way for South Africa to get out of trouble is to build a hospital and a consulting buildings next to each other in open fields with 1000's of parking. This will ensure everyone have jobs. Health ,wealth happiness. No crime, no murder, better control, disease control better solutions etc. It is that EASY.

This is why S Africa should have been partitioned when the British left.... or at least when apartheid ended .....

Think British definitely had the upper hand before coming to Africa. But they wanted power. They could have instead help advance Africa and its people, share the land in exchange. All that war was really tragic on many native blacks. Currently in SA its a mess still. Independence has actually hurt SA more. The current government are looting and corrupted. Poverty is at an all time high.

What about about the Koisan, you fail to mention that they were attacked,raped and killed by both the Bantus and Whites almost completely wiping them out.

Well this is new.

is it Tskoza?

Early bird gets the worm but the 2nd mouse gets the cheese.

We all know this guy had an illegal copy of Rodriguez

1:14 scared the shit out of me

Anyone else wants an omelette right now?

There is some truths in what you are saying andsome very polished statements. You couldn't have gone for the decades fighting each other because of the sanctions imposed on apartheid. You made a big mistake by negotiating with one man. That wasn't fair to the country. Why did you go to Angola to fight.Lastly you buried your heads in the sand avoiding the land distribution and inequality.

They should have split South Africa into independent countries.

I love satafrika

Who is Dave steward

*Being a South African feeling offended but realizes he's pretty correct and drowns sorrows in Anime and coke*

Qhosa people.. :D

The Khois And Sans had some intriguing and interesting dealings

Everybody fighting about shit that already happened! This land belongs to us all, guess where you go when you die?

trying to unscramble those omelette metaphors

Did he just click correctly?

Rhodesia was better as the Dutch were not there

How does he make that sound every time he says xhosa?

False history, the British arrived with Xhosa, Francis Farewell, Xhosa was an interpretator

Who are the "coloureds" he's talking about as opposed to white south africans, black south africans, and asians? The Indians?

It’s fascinating how you can talk about the history of South Africa without actually saying much about the ACTUAL South African people,....the 80% population 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣

What of the forced migrations, concession companies and other factors that pushed for a federation? I wonder what Julian Cobbing and John Wright would say about this.

No mention of the Dutch??? Yes he said "Afrikaans" but most people unfamiliar with the region would assume an African tribe, not Europeans. The Dutch colonized South Africa in the 1600s and still have a large presence in their population.