Pre-European population of South Africa

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Certain apologists for white [[Colonialism|colonialism]] in the area claim that the '''pre-European population of South Africa''' was very small or non-existent (the {{wpl|Terra nullius|''terra nullius''}} legal concept). Supporters of this claim believe that the black population of South Africa are, in fact, descended from Bantu peoples who entered the area after European settlement made the land inhabitable, or that the Bantu people colonized South Africa concurrently with colonialists. This claim is sometimes made by [[Afrikaner]] [[nationalist]]s or [[white nationalist]]s.

==Khoisan people==
Khoisan tribes lived in South Africa before European settlement. They were non-agrarian and without metal tools, with most being hunter-gatherers, although some, including those in the Cape, were herders.<ref>[https://www.npr.org/sections/goatsandsoda/2014/12/22/371672272/the-khoisan-once-were-kings-of-the-planet-what-happened NPR article]</ref><ref>[https://www.jstor.org/stable/180967?seq=5#metadata_info_tab_contents Shula Marks, "Khoisan Resistance to the Dutch in the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries"].</ref> While the Bantu expanded southward across the African continent, the Khoisan population persisted in areas too arid for Bantu crops to be cultivated. Conveniently for later [[European]] colonists, they lacked writing.<ref>[https://blog.nationalgeographic.org/2016/11/07/the-lost-history-of-south-africa/ NatGeo]</ref> [[Epidemic]]s of Afro-Eurasian [[disease]]s such as [[smallpox]] caused significant devastation of Khoisan populations near the Cape and helped facilitate their defeat and [[Slavery|enslavement]] by whites, and in several cases caused them to lose their cattle, forcing them to become hunter-gathers and thus further reducing their population densities.<ref>[https://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/africa/features/storyofafrica/12chapter2.shtml The Story of Africa, Chapter 12.]</ref><ref>[https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/17532523.2013.857103 Steve Phatlane, "Plague, Pox and Pandemics: A Jacana Pocket History of Epidemics in South Africa"].</ref>

==Bantu people==
[[File:Nongqawuse and Nonkosi.jpg|165px|thumb|left|Nongkawuse, at right, with one of her fellow [[cult]]ists.]]
According to mainstream white historians of the colonial era, the Bantu arrived in South Africa relatively late, at about a few centuries before the [[Dutch]] (whose first settlement started in 1652<ref>{{wpa|Dutch Cape Colony}}</ref>).<ref>[https://www.jstor.org/stable/pdf/3788752.pdf Clifton C. Crais, "The Vacant Land: The Mythology of British Expansion in the Eastern Cape, South Africa"]</ref> However, archeological evidence suggests otherwise, with artifacts made of iron (Bantu-speaking groups were likely the first South Africans to work iron) such as those associated with the {{wpl|Lydenburg heads|}} having been dated to as early as 500 BCE (a time difference of about two millenia).<ref>[https://www.jstor.org/stable/pdf/3335725.pdf Tim Maggs, Patricia Davidson, "The Lydenburg Heads"].</ref> Their experience with agriculture allowed them to attain high population densities, high enough to cause severe conflict as a result of overpopulation. Indeed, it was this conflict, not some sort of "barbarism", that depressed black population densities and helped hasten European expansion in the interior.<ref>[https://www.britannica.com/event/Mfecane Britannica overview of the Mfecane]</ref> In areas not subject to the ''Mfecane'', such as the areas inhabited by the Xhosa ([[Nelson Mandela]]'s people) on the coast east of the {{wpl|Great Fish River||,}} native population densities were enough to significantly blunt white advances, and it eventually took an epidemic of respiratory disease among their livestock and the subsequent [[Millennialism|millenarian]] [[Woo|woo]] of the "prophetess" Nongkawuse and the famine she inflicted in an attempt to drive out the whites (caused by the willful destruction of crops and livestock) to bring these areas permanently under white control. Before that, the Xhosa had been able to resist for well over a century.<ref>Diamond, Jared ''Guns, Germs, and Steel'' Page 381.</ref><ref>[https://freshwriting.nd.edu/volumes/2017/essays/examining-the-unseen-reasons-behind-the-xhosa-cattle-killing#:~:text=The%20mass%20cattle%20killing%20happened,drive%20out%20the%20European%20settlers. Phelan, Sean, "Examining the Unseen Reasons Behind the Xhosa Cattle Killing".]</ref>

The Zulus living further east were even more powerful and numerous. An 1838 battle at the Ncome (Blood River) in which over 3,000 Zulus were killed failed to destroy or even permanently damage their military power.<ref>[https://www.britannica.com/event/Battle-of-Blood-River Britannica account of the battle]</ref> In a later conflict, the Zulu War of 1879, they were able to significantly inconvenience the [[British]], and completely destroyed their armies in several battles, most famously at Isandlwana.<ref>[https://www.britannica.com/event/Battles-of-Isandlwana-and-Rorkes-Drift Battles of Isandlwana and Rorke's Drift]</ref>

==Reasons for creating the false narrative of the empty South Africa==
As with the genocides of [[American Indian genocides|Native Americans]] and Aboriginal Australians, the motive on the part of colonialist/imperialist historians is simple: namely, to legitimize their claim on the land and to dismiss charges of [[genocide]] against them. The [[evidence]] for it is similarly weak.<ref>[https://www.sahistory.org.za/article/empty-land-myth The Empty Land Myth]</ref> Due to this, these [[Pseudohistory|pseudohistorians]] have taken to giving false dates for populations movements, among other dishonesty. [[Radiometric dating]] has helped to refute their arguments.<ref>[https://www.pambazuka.org/land-environment/%E2%80%98empty-land%E2%80%99-south-africa-desperate-colonial-madness Motsoko Pheko, "‘Empty land’ in South Africa is desperate colonial madness"].</ref>

==References==
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[[Category:Nationalism]]
[[Category:South Africa]]

Categories: Nationalism, South Africa