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South Africa the southern most land of Africa it is not only Africa's most economically advanced nation,but it is filled with a rich culture, history,tradition and way of life. South Africa the land of beauty has produced some of the most influential and inspirational characters such as the late Nelson Mandela, Oliver Tambo, Brenda fassi, mi casa, Shabalala among other notable personalities. History South Africa has a long history that begins with the Bantu migration from Central Africa. Many tribes settled in South Africa such as the pastoral Khoekhoe (Khoi), the hunter-gatherer San, the Xhosa, and the Zulu nations.These were the people groups that the Portuguese found in 1488 when they arrived at the cape of good hope. permanent settlement of South Africa did occur until 1652 when the Dutch East India Company established a small station for provisions on the Cape.Eventually the Dutch that settled in South Africa came to be known as Boers and they began farming. In following years, French, Dutch and German settlers began to arrive in the region. The Boers were unkind to the native African South African's. By the late 1700's European settlements were spread throughout the Cape and by the end of the 18th century the British controlled the entire Cape of Good Hope region. In the early 1800s in an effort to escape British rule, many Boers migrated north and in 1852 and 1854, the Boers created the independent Republics of the Transvaal and Orange Free State. As gold and diamonds became discovered more and more Europeans moved into South Africa this eventually led to the Anglo -Boer war which the British won and as a result took over the independent republics. Being that slavery was outlawed in Britain the British who lived in South Africa spread the same ideals in South Africa at the beginning of their rule, but due to wanting to please the other Europeans they eventually gave in and so began the apartheid. To combat the injustice Nelson Mandela, Oliver Tambo and other anti apartheid African leaders formed the African National Congress (ANC) This wasn't the only party that was anti apartheid,but it was the most effective. Although the ANC memebers were deemed to be terrorist not only by South Africa,but also buy the U.S and the U.K they eventually won their cause on the 2nd of February 1990 when president F.W de Klerk unbanned the ANC and other organizations and began negotiating the end of the apartheid. Four years later on may 10th 1994 Nelson Mandela became president of South Africa, his main focus was reforming race relations and strengthening it's economy. Sources: ( The world fact book) (nations online)( South Africa.info)

Geography South Africa is divided into three geographic regions. The first is the African Plateau which is in the country's interior. It forms a portion of the Kalahari Basin and is semiarid and not very populated. It slopes gradually in the north and west but rises to 6,500 feet (2,000 m) in the east. The second region is the Great Escarpment its highest peaks are in the Drakensberg Mountains along the border with Lesotho. The third region are the narrow, fertile valleys along the coastal plains.

The climate of South Africa is mostly semiarid, but its eastern coast regions are subtropical with mainly sunny days and cool nights. South Africa's west coast is arid because the cold ocean current Benguela, removes moisture from the region which has formed the Namib Desert that extends into Namibia.

In addition to its varied topography South Africa is famous for its biodiversity. South Africa currently has eight wildlife reserves, the most famous of which is Kruger National Park along the border with Mozambique. This park is home to lions, leopards, giraffes, elephants and hippopotamus. sources: (About.com) (Lonely Planet) (The world fact book)

Politics South Africa is a republic with two legislative bodies. Its executive branch is its Chief of State and Head of Government- both of which are filled by the president who is elected for five year terms by the National Assembly. The legislative branch is a bicameral Parliament composed of the National Council of the Provinces and the National Assembly. South Africa's judicial branch is made up of its Constitutional Court, the Supreme Court of Appeals, High Courts and Magistrate Courts. Some topics that are political and making the headlines today include free contraceptives for teenagers so as to lower the teen pregnancy rates. Further more although south Africa offers the best government assistance to the old and needy in Africa there are a few problems with this because they are currently experiencing inflation. Sources: (South African human rights commission) (The world fact book) (South Africa.info) (Nations online)( Human Rights watch)(south Africa Government online) Demographics South Africa's population was 48,601,098 as of 2013, Age structure is as follows 0-14 years: 28.3% (male 6,909,066/female 6,866,163)15-24 years: 20.6% (male 5,041,412/female 4,960,190) 25-54 years: 38.1% (male 9,561,452/female 8,948,398) 55-64 years: 6.9% (male 1,450,420/female 1,916,960) 65 years and over: 6.1% (male 1,177,999/female 1,769,038) (2013 est.) Birth rate	19.14 births/1,000 population Death rate	17.36 deaths/1,000 population Life expectancy at birth total population: 49.48 years male: 50.43 years female: 48.51 years people living with HIV/AIDS 5.6 million Literacy male: 93.9% female: 92.2% Religions Protestant 36.6% (Zionist Christian 11.1%, Pentecostal/Charismatic 8.2%, Methodist 6.8%, Dutch Reformed 6.7%, Anglican 3.8%), Catholic 7.1%, Muslim 1.5%, other Christian 36%, other 2.3%, unspecified 1.4%, none 15.1% (2001 census) Languages IsiZulu (official) 23.82%, IsiXhosa (official) 17.64%, Afrikaans (official) 13.35%, Sepedi (offcial) 9.39%, English (official) 8.2%, Setswana (official) 8.2%, Sesotho (official) 7.93%, Xitsonga (official) 4.44%, siSwati (official) 2.66%, Tshivenda (official) 2.28%, isiNdebele (official) 1.59%, other 0.5% Source: (indexmundi.com)(South Africa government online)

Economics Johannesburg a city in South Africa is Africa's economic capital city and this is due to the fact that South Africa is blessed with natural resources such as gold, diamonds, other precious stones and metals, fisheries, fertile land etc .Since 1996, at the end of over twelve years of international sanctions, South Africa's Gross Domestic Product has since almost tripled to $400 billion, and foreign exchange reserves have increased from $3 billion to nearly $50 billion; creating a growing and sizable African middle class, within two decades of ending apartheid.As of 2012 its GDP per capita is 390.9 billion and has been experiencing a GDP growth of about 2.6%. As of 2013 South Africa's unemployment rate was 25% and public debt was at 43.3%. South Africa exports gold, diamonds, platinum, minerals, machinery and equipment to China, the  U.S, the UK, Japan, Germany and India.South Africa imports machinery and equipment, chemicals, petroleum products, scientific instruments, foodstuffs etc from all the above mentioned countries and Saudia Arabia. As of 2007 South Africa's Labour force by occupation was agriculture: 9%, industry: 26%, services: 65%.About 31% of South Africans live below the poverty line, but this number has been steadily decreasing. Sources:(World fact book)( world bank) Human rights issues As of now Some Human rights issues in South Africa include poverty, inhumane treatment of Lesbians, Gays, Bi-sexuals, and Transexuals,insecurity, segregation among other things. Although South Africa is the richest country in Africa most African South Africans live in slums  just like their counterparts in other more economically unstable African countries. The housing in these slums are shacks, sewage water flows freely, people who live in the slums are forced to survive on less than $20 a month.They live like this while their South African counterparts enjoy five star comfort in their homes and daily lives. There is no such thing as homosexuals rights in the whole of Africa this is the same case in South Africa. Recently there has been an increase of rape of lesbian women by South African men "in an effort to show them that they are women; because obviously they don't know that." Apart from this resurgence of rape causing insecurity South Africa has the most dangerous cities in Africa because somehow the different gangs have managed to acquire guns and can therefore  terrorize the community and each other.Further more two decades after the apartheid segregation is still going on a survey of racial and social attitudes, consistently finds a deeply divided nation. Less than 40 per cent of South Africans socialize with people of another race, while only 22 per cent of white South Africans and a fifth of black South Africans live in racially integrated neighborhoods. Just 11 per cent of white children go to integrated schools, and 15 per cent of black children. Even in integrated schools classes are segregated, not by race, but by language. The white students attend classes taught in Afrikaans, their mother tongue, while the black students, who speak a variety of different languages and dialects, are taught in English. Often different classes of the same grade don't have anything to do with each other except that they are on the same compound. Sources: (South Africa government online) (Human rights watch) (South African human rights commotion) (Huffing ton post)

Culture and Entertainment Despite all the challenges South Africans are very patriotic people. This is evident through the fact that they began the African Renaissance that is currently going on through the modernizing of African textiles and materials using clothes and jewelery. South Africa is also home to the Africa cup of nations and various other inter African nations events such as music concerts. South Africa is Africa's second mass producer of movies and T.V shows surpassed only by Nigeria. When it comes to sports South Africa is a world champion in Rugby, cricket and field hockey. Further more South Africa's house music is one of the most popular in the world. Sources:(South Africa.info) (kwintessential) All Sources 1.http://www.hrw.org/africa/south-africaps:// 2.www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/sf.html 3.http://www.southafrica.info/services/?gclid=CKaByPC7-bwCFekBwwodIb8A_w 4.http://geography.about.com/od/southafricamaps/a/southafrica.htm 5.http://www.southafrica.info/about/arts/a-z-culture.htm#.UxYU0eOSwUA 6.http://www.kwintessential.co.uk/resources/global-etiquette/south-africa-country-profile.html 7.http://www.lonelyplanet.com/south-africa 8. http://www.gov.za/ 9. http://www.nationsonline.org/oneworld/south_africa.htm 10.http://www.southafrica.info/business/economy/ 11.http://www.sahrc.org.za/home/ 12.http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/craig-and-marc-kielburger/post-apartheid-south-africa_b_4460819.html 13. http://www.doingbusiness.org/rankings retrieved on the 3/7/2014