South Africa

Language and Religion Afrikaans and English are the official languages. Afrikaans, derived from Dutch, is the mother tongue of the Afrikaners and the principal language of the Coloreds. More Afrikaners are bilingual than English-speakers. Most urban blacks speak English and Afrikaans in addition to their native language. The Bantu languages are not mutually intelligible. Many blacks speak Fanakalo, a lingua franca that developed among black workers in the mines. The politically influential Dutch Reformed church, …

…South African War (1899-1902), Britain defeated the Afrikaners and established its dominance over South Africa. In Ethiopia, King Menelik II was able in 1896, at Adowa near the capital of much earlier Aksum, totally to oust a large army of invading Italians, as he had sufficient guns of European manufacture and a large, well-trained army. As a result Ethiopia remained undominated by outsiders until 1936, when the Italians avenged their previous defeat, then governed the empire until 1941.