South African Tribes and their History. Race and Ethnic Influences. cultural backgrounds and origins all coexist in South Africa. The bigger groups are Zulus (21 %), Xhosas (17 %) and the Sotho (15%). Next are smaller minorities, such as the Tswana, Venda, Ndebele, Swasi, Pedi and others. The province of Natal is home to about one million Indians, whose forefathers came to South Africa to work on the sugarcane plantations. And there are three million people of mixed race, the so-called "coloureds," mainly living in the Cape region. They are descendants of the first Dutch settlers and the native population of the Cape (Khoikhoi) or the Malays, who were taken to South Africa as slaves from East India in the 18th century.

The "coloureds" have a cultural heritage of their own. The portion of the relatively prosperous white part of the South African population amounts to 8 % (4 million) of the national population. Most of them derive from Dutch, German or French immigrants. They are called Afrikaners and speak Afrikaans, which is closely related to the Dutch language. The English speaking part of the white population is concentrated in the Western and Eastern Cape province and in Natal.