Cape Coloureds in the context of "Coloured South African"

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⭐ Core Definition: Cape Coloureds

Cape Coloureds (Afrikaans: Kaapse Kleurlinge) are a South African group of Coloured people who are from the Cape region in South Africa which consists of the Western Cape, Northern Cape and the Eastern Cape. Their ancestry comes from the interracial mixing between the European, the indigenous Khoi and San, the Xhosa plus other Bantu people, indentured labourers imported from the British Raj, slaves imported from the Dutch East Indies, immigrants from the Levant or Yemen (or a combination of all). Eventually, all these ethnic and racial groups intermixed with each other, forming a group of mixed-race people that became known as the "Cape Coloureds".

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Cape Coloureds in the context of Afrikaners

Afrikaners (Afrikaans: [afriˈkɑːnərs]) are a Southern African ethnic group descended from predominantly Dutch settlers who first arrived at the Cape of Good Hope in 1652. Until 1994, they dominated South Africa's politics as well as the country's commercial and agricultural sector.

Afrikaans, a language which evolved from the Dutch dialect of South Holland, is the mother tongue of Afrikaners and most Cape Coloureds. According to the South African National Census of 2022, 10.6% of South Africans claimed to speak Afrikaans as a first language at home, making it the country's third-largest home language after Zulu and Xhosa.

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Cape Coloureds in the context of Coloureds

Coloureds (Afrikaans: Kleurlinge) are multiracial people in South Africa, Namibia and to a smaller extent Zimbabwe and Zambia. Their mixed heritage descends from the interracial mixing that occurred between Europeans, Africans and Asians. Interracial mixing in South Africa began in the 17th century in the Dutch Cape Colony where the Dutch men mixed with Khoekhoe women and female slaves from different parts of Africa and Asia, creating mixed-race children. Eventually, interracial mixing occurred throughout South Africa and the rest of Southern Africa with various other European nationals (such as the Portuguese, British, Germans, Irish, French etc.) who mixed with other African tribes leading to more mixed-race children, whose descendants would later be officially classified as 'Coloured' under the Population Registration Act, 1950 during Apartheid.

The majority of Coloureds are found in the Western Cape, but are prevalent throughout the country. According to the 2022 South African census, Coloureds represent 8.15% of people within South Africa, while they make up 42.1% of the population in the Western Cape and 41.6% in the Northern Cape, representing a plurality of the population in these two provinces of South Africa. In the Western Cape, a distinctive Cape Coloured and affiliated Cape Malay culture developed. Genetic studies suggest the group has the highest levels of mixed ancestry in the world.

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Cape Coloureds in the context of Basters

The Basters (also known as Baasters, Rehobothers, or Rehoboth Basters) are a Southern African ethnic group descended from Cape Coloureds and Nama of Khoisan origin. Since the second half of the 19th century, the Rehoboth Baster community has been concentrated in central Namibia, in and around the town of Rehoboth. Basters are closely related to Afrikaners, Cape Coloureds, and Griquas of South Africa and Namibia, with whom they share a largely Afrikaner-influenced culture and Afrikaans language. Other groups of similar mixed ethnic origin, living chiefly in the Northern Cape, also refer to themselves as Basters.

The name Baster is derived from "bastaard", the Dutch word for "bastard" or "mongrel". While some people consider this term demeaning, the Basters reappropriated it as an ethnonym, in spite of the negative connotation. Their 7th Kaptein is Jacky Britz, elected in 2021; he has no official status under the Namibian constitution. The Chief's Council of Rehoboth was replaced with a local town council under the new government.

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Cape Coloureds in the context of Coloured


Coloureds (Afrikaans: Kleurlinge) are multiracial people in South Africa, Namibia and to a smaller extent Zimbabwe and Zambia. Their ancestry descends from the interracial mixing that occurred between Europeans, Africans and Asians. Interracial mixing in South Africa began in the 17th century in the Dutch Cape Colony when the Dutch settlers mixed with Khoi Khoi women and female slaves from different parts of Africa and Asia, creating mixed-race children. Eventually, interracial mixing occurred throughout South Africa and the rest of Southern Africa with various other European nationals (such as the Portuguese, British, Germans, Irish, French etc.) who mixed with other African tribes leading to more mixed-race people whose descendants would later be officially classified as 'Coloured' under the Population Registration Act, 1950 during Apartheid.

The majority of Coloureds are found in the Western Cape, but are prevalent throughout the country. According to the 2022 South African census, Coloureds represent 8.15% of people within South Africa, while they make up 42.1% of the population in the Western Cape and 41.6% in the Northern Cape, representing a plurality of the population in these two provinces of South Africa. In the Western Cape, a distinctive Cape Coloured and affiliated Cape Malay culture developed. Genetic studies suggest the group has the highest levels of mixed ancestry in the world.

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