Colored People: Who were they?

Done by: Jeena Dansingani and Nicholas Mahfood.

Who are they?Colored people is defined as a person of mixed European (white) and African (black). Individuals assigned to this classification originated primarily from 18th to 19th century unions between men of higher and woman of lower social groups. Colored people are those persons who are referred to as Bruinmesnse, Kleurlinge or Bruin Afrikaners in Afrikaans. These persons have a heterogeneous ethnic group who had ancestry from Europe, Khoisan and Bantu tribes in South Africa, West Africa, Indonesia, Madagascar, Malaya, India, Mozambique, Mauritius, and Saint Helena.

Colored South Africans are a people of mixed lineage descended from slaves brought to the country from east and central Africa. The indigenous Khoisan who lived in the Cape at the time, indigenous Africans and Whites. Most of them spoke Afrikaans. Khoisan is a term used to describe two separate groups, physically similar in being light-skinned and small in stature. Khois, where called Hottentots by the Europeans.

People that were considered colored were usually preferred to call themselves “Khoisan” or “South African”.Other Ethnic groups are traditionally viewed as a separate group.

Statistics

Sources:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colouredhttp://www.southafrica.info/about/people/population.htm