So yes, I did not make a video last week. Frankly, school is getting harder, so I have to stay focused on that. But I hope you guys like what I have for you this week. As you could probably tell from the thumbnail, today's video is all about Botswana and it's two official languages, English and Setswana. That's just about it, so thank you guys for watching, please like, subscribe. No, no, no, wait, that's not right. I knew my video was going to be a bit longer than that. Ah yes, it's about South Africa and it's 11 official languages. Don't worry, Botswana will tie into this video though. Today I'll be focusing on what exactly these languages are, how exactly South Africa got into this mess of having 11 official languages, and what challenges the country faces as a result. To understand why South Africa is so many official languages for a country of only 60 million, I mean not a tiny population, but for 11 languages, sheesh. We must go back in time a little bit. South Africa has been continuously inhabited for over 100,000 years as a result of one of the first human migrations away from the Horn of Africa. The descendants of this migration are called the Koi San people, or sometimes Bushmen, called that after two major language families that these people speak. The Bantu from West Africa had migrations eastward that began around the second century BC, which eventually resulted in the peoples being spread across most of Central and Southern Africa, including Eastern South Africa. Most South Africans today, by the way, are descended from these Bantu migrants. One event in the late 1400s would change South Africa's history drastically, the Barchagi's arrival on the Cape of Good Hope. Their colony was called such since it gave them a gateway into the Indian Spice Trade. However, the Portuguese would eventually lose influence there, and a colony would be created by the Dutch there in 1652. In the early 1800s, the Dutch and British had control over the Cape at different times, but the control was eventually secured by the British, sparking the great trek of Dutch colonists into the continent away from British rule. The Dutch experienced attacks often from the Zulu under their leader Shaka, but ultimately the Dutch had the upper hand and created the Buer Republics. Eventually, and unfortunately for the Dutch, the Buer wars happened, and the British took those from the Dutch as well. South Africa became independent in 1910, technically, though it gained full sovereignty from the United Kingdom in 1931, and became a Republican in 1961. Through all this, the white minority had considerable control over the majority black population, and this was solidified when the National Party took control in 1948, and began apartheid. During this time in South African history, there were only two official languages, English and Afrikaans, the latter of which was originally spoken only by Dutch settlers, but today is used by the main language of the Cape colored people who descend from both Native Africans and white settlers. The suppression of the numerous Native languages, which I will name in a minute, was one of the defining policies of apartheid. The Native population suffered in many respects during this time, but the suppression of their languages was one of the most notable. Due to South Africa being further isolated from the rest of the world due to its policies, and the Native black population pushing for equal rights, guided by leaders like Nelson Mandela, apartheid officially ended in 1994. And Amidbia also became independent during the end of apartheid in 1990. Within the next 10 years, the ruling African National Congress would eventually pave the way for nine additional official Native languages to be added alongside English and Afrikaans to promote their usage among local populations with the total now being 11. So now we know why South Africa has 11 official languages, but now it's time to see what they are. First of all, we have the two aforementioned Indo-European languages, English and Afrikaans. Some who speak English as a first language comprise 9.6% of the population, and Afrikaans speakers make up around 13.5%. A slim majority of Native Afrikaans speakers are Cape colored, around 40% are white, and the other 10% are other races, mostly black. Additionally, the majority of whites and colors in South Africa speak Afrikaans. English is spoken as a first language roughly evenly amongst whites, South African Indians, blacks and colors, with whites being the small plurality of English speakers. Around 86% of Indo-South Africans call English their native tongue. These next 9 languages are all major native languages spoken mainly by the majority black South African population. They all belong to the greater Bantu language family, but they are smaller groups within it that can be found in South Africa. The Unguni language group includes Isit and Debele, Isizulu, Isit and Olsa and Siswati. Firstly, Isit and Debele is the smallest language that is official nationally, and is spoken natively by 2.1% of South Africans. Speakers of Indebele mainly live in the provinces of Mbumalanga and Kalten, constituting small minorities in both these provinces. Isit and Olsa is one of the most major languages of South Africa, with 16% of the population speaking natively. It is the majority language of the eastern Cape and a large minority language in the western Cape, while having smaller minorities elsewhere in the nation. While Isit and Olsa is the second most spoken language, Isizulu is the most predominant language in South Africa. 22% of the population speaks this language natively, most of them coming from the Quazulu Natal Province, where it is the majority. Zulu is also spoken in Mbumalanga by around 25% of the population. 2.5% of South Africa's population speaks the Siswati language, mainly spoken around the border with Iswatini, where a version of the language is also spoken. The province of Mbumalanga holds the majority of native Siswati speakers, who comprise around 27.7% of the province's population. The next group of languages are the Soutu Tsuana languages, which includes Sesu Tsu, Sesu Tsu Sanlaboa, and Setsuana. Sesu Tsu is spoken by around 7.6% of South Africa's population, mainly around the border with Lesu Tsu. The province where it is the majority is in the free state, where close to 2-3rds of the population speaks it. Sesu Tsu Tsu Sanlaboa, also called Sipedi, is the native tongue of around 9.1% of South Africa's population. They form a majority in the province of the Impopo and have a presence in linguistically and ethnically diverse koutain. Setsuana is a language spoken by around 8% of South Africans natively, and is also spoken in the neighboring Botswana, hence its name. Did not tell you I'd tie Botswana into this video? Anyway, who said that? Well, the languages spoken mainly in the northwest province where it is the majority, and also in the northern cape where it is the significant minority, as well as parts of koutain. These last two languages are both Bantu languages, but do not fit into the other sub-families listed. Jivenda is spoken by around 2.4% of the population natively, making it the second smallest official language in South Africa. The province of Impopo has most of the languages speakers, though they form a minority there. Finally, the Tsonga language is natively spoken by around 4.5% of South Africans, representing the Tsonga languages in South Africa. It is spoken mainly in Impopo, in Bumalanga, and koutain, and is a minority in all these provinces. Though the idea of having many official languages which are protected by the South African Constitution seems like a good idea, and in many ways it is, the fact that this can be a challenging proposition is undeniable. There are many factors that make having 11 official languages difficult, but one of the most important is which languages should take more precedence over the others. In South Africa, it is quite obvious that English is the language used in all parts of the country, and is usually seen as the language that gives many opportunities that South Africans need to succeed. Many South Africans, unfortunately, have trouble fluently speaking English, however, and much of this trouble originates in the school system there. But South African schools will normally teach their students in the native language until 4th grade, which then they are required to write all their assignments in English, despite instruction continuing in the local languages. This causes a situation where the students never fully learn English and also may lose touch with the local languages in writing, as they are not even allowed to write them in their own school assignments. South Africa is a truly interesting country with a lot of history, which is contributed to their multilingual background. With 11 official languages spoken across the country, most of their population has their native languages represented, though the sheer amount of languages inevitably has caused problems, and the English languages often used to fill the role of the lingua franca of the country. Still, the other languages are allowed to be spoken and are encouraged at the local level, especially. Thanks for watching! Be sure to subscribe, like, share, and do everything you can to help this channel grow. Once I get 1000 subscribers, I can make much better content and we'll only grow from there. To this video, you may want to look at other videos I've made, mainly concerning Europe and its geopolitics. I do hope to make more videos about Africa, though in the near future. I'll see you next time!