The Ethnic Groups of South Africa and their effects on its society.

The first 200 words of this essay...

The Ethnic Groups of South Africa

Sirisha Nandini Jala

SOC 308

Jennifer Cramer

January 17th 2011

The ethnicities of South Africa

First, South Africa is a country with a very rich and vivid ethnic history because it boasts the Coloureds and Asians as two of the minorities. There are three types of Coloured people in South Africa: part White and part Black, part Black and part Asian, or part Asian and part White (Kizilos, 16). The members of the Coloured group are people who are born from interracial unions. The Coloured group did not have to carry passes unlike the Black South Africans had to during the Apartheid-era and had more political privileges then the Blacks did (Marger, 379). There are three different groups of Asians in South Africa. The three different Asian ethnicities are the Indians, Chinese, and Malays ( Kizilos, 16). The Malays are interesting because they are called Coloureds but also Asians. One notable Asian South African is the Community of Christ International Peace Award recipient Ela Gandhi, who happens to be the granddaughter of M.K.Gandhi (Walters, 2010).

Additionally, the Whites are the largest of the three