page_title: South Africa
section_title: Society and culture
hierarchical_section_title: South Africa / Society and culture
caption_attribution_description: English: South African cuisine, with meats of wildlife and traditional sauces in the jars in the front.
context_page_description: The Republic of South Africa is a country in the southern region of Africa. About fifty-seven million people live there. South Africa is next to Namibia, Botswana, Zimbabwe, Mozambique, Lesotho and Swaziland.
  The biggest city of South Africa is Johannesburg. The country has three capitals for different purposes. They are Cape Town, Pretoria, and Bloemfontein. This is because the government is based in Pretoria, the parliament is in Cape Town and the Supreme Court is in Bloemfontein.
  There are 11 national languages. They are Afrikaans, English, Ndebele, Xhosa, Zulu, Swati, Setswana, Sesotho, Sesotho sa Leboa, Venda and Tsonga. They are also known as National Lexicography Units. Because of all the languages, the country has an official name in each language.
  One of South Africa's most well known people is Nelson Mandela. He was its president from 1994 until 1999. He died in 2013 at the age of 95. The current president is Cyril Ramaphosa.
context_section_description: It may be suggested that there is no single South African culture because of its ethnic diversity. Today, the diversity in foods from many cultures is enjoyed by all and marketed to tourists who wish to taste South African food. Food is not the only thing, music and dance is there too.
  South African food is mostly meat-based and has spawned the South African social gathering known as a braai, or barbecue. South Africa has also developed into a big wine maker. It has some of the best vineyards lying in valleys around Stellenbosch, Franschoek, Paarl and Barrydale. 
  South Africa is the only Western country of Africa.
  Most South African blacks still have poor lives. It is among these people, however, that cultural traditions live most strongly. This is because blacks have become urbanised and Westernised, much parts of traditional culture have fallen. Urban blacks normally speak English or Afrikaans in addition to their native tongue. There are smaller but still important groups of speakers of Khoisan languages who are not in the eleven official languages, but are one of the eight other officially recognized languages.
  Members of middle class, who are mostly white but whose ranks are growing numbers of black, colored and Indian people, have lifestyles similar in many ways to that of people found in Western Europe, North America and Australasia. Members of the middle class often study and work from foreign countries for greater exposure to the markets of the world.
caption: Traditional South African cuisine
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