Integrating Poor Populations in South African Cities - Agence ...

An Urban History of
South Africa: From 1652
to the Present
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South Africa’s urban history is particularly eventful, from the arrival of the first
inhabitants to Nelson Mandela’s rise to power, via the successive waves of European
colonists, territorial wars, the unification of the South African nation, the establishment
of the apartheid system, and finally the supremacy of the ANC.
1.1. Territorial Conquest: From Colonization to Apartheid
A brief review of South African urban history until apartheid is crucial to understanding
the role and impacts of public development policies since 1994.
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1.1.1. The First Human Settlements
Indigenous Populations and European Colonists
Before the first colonists arrived, South Africa was populated in the southwest by
a people of hunters and cattle farmers called the Khoisan (or Bushmen, or Hottentots),
and various black populations covered the majority of the South African territory,
notably the Xhosas in the south and the Zulus in the north.
In 1652, the first Dutch colonists arrived in Cape Town to set up a coastal supply
station for the Dutch East India Company. Large tracts of land were progressively
© AFD 2009 Integrating Poor Populations in South African Cities