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Asian (South Africa)

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This article is about the term Asian as used in South Africa, for the group referred to as Indian/Asian or Asians, see Indian South Africans

In South Africa, Asian usually refers to people of South Asian origin, more commonly called Indians.[1][2] They are largely descended from people who migrated to South Africa in the late 19th and early 20th century from British ruled South Asia.

The "Indian"/"Asian" identity was codified by law under Apartheid as a race group.[3] This term excluded other peoples from Asia, including East Asians such as Chinese South Africans, who were either classified as Coloureds or Honorary whites,[2] West Asians (particularly the Lebanese and Syrians), who were originally classified as "Asian" until the early 1900s,[4] and later as white, or groups like the Cape Malays who have some degree of Southeast Asian ancestry, and were classified as a subgroup of Coloured.

Indians/Asians

Main article: Indian South Africans

There are more than 1 million Indians in South Africa, most of whom are descended from indentured labourers who were brought into the country by the British from India in the mid-19th century.[5] They were hired to work in sugar plantations or mines (especially coal) in the Colony of Natal (now KwaZulu-Natal).[6] Traders, known as Passenger Indians also subsequently immigrated. Since 1994 however, there has been a steady trickle of immigrants from the Indian subcontinent. Most Indian South Africans live in KwaZulu-Natal, particularly in the cities of Durban, Pietermaritzburg and their surrounding areas.

Other groups from Asia

Chinese

Main article: Chinese South Africans

The smaller Chinese community was initially descended from migrant workers who came to work in the gold mines around Johannesburg in the late nineteenth century.[7] Some of those workers were repatriated.[8] Estimates vary, but the Chinese population is reckoned to have increased from 10,000 in the early 1980s to more than 100,000 in the early 2000s.

Chinese immigration caused difficulties for the apartheid regime. Based on the earlier status of Chinese as indentured labourers, the government classified immigrants from Mainland China as "non-white", in particular as coloureds,[9] and therefore subject to numerous restrictions in residence, voting, education, work, free movement, etc. In 1984, South African Chinese, now increased to about 10,000, received some rights of given to the Japanese who had honorary white status in South African, that is, to be treated as whites in terms of the Group Areas Act only as they didn't acquire all of the official rights of Honorary White status and thus could not do things such as vote or be eligible for conscription.

In late 2006, the Chinese Association of South Africa filed suit to have Chinese South Africans recognised as having been disadvantaged under apartheid, to benefit from Black Economic Empowerment (BEE). Complicating this attempt was the presence of recent immigrant Chinese who had not been disadvantaged by apartheid. They greatly outnumber native Chinese South Africans. Because Chinese under apartheid had somewhat less rigid restrictions than indigenous blacks, some people argued against their receiving benefits. In addition, the status of Japanese and South Koreans as honorary whites under apartheid complicated the case. Nonetheless, in June 2008, Chinese South Africans were fully recognised as having been disadvantaged and entered the BEE ethnic groups if they arrived before 1994.[10][11]

Other East Asians

Further information: Honorary white

For separate political reasons, the government had classified Taiwanese, Japanese and South Koreans, as honorary white, and thus were granted the same privileges as whites.[12] There is a small community of Koreans in South Africa, numbering 3,480 people; it began to form mostly in the 1990s, and includes expatriates sent by South Korean companies, students of English, and individual entrepreneurs.[13][14]

Sri Lankans

During the Dutch Empire of the 17th and 18th centuries, many slaves were brought from the island of Sri Lanka (then Ceylon). In the early 18th century, half of the slaves of Cape came from the colonies of India and Ceylon.[15] The ethnicities that have roots from Ceylon are the Cape Malays and Cape Coloured.[citation needed] The total numbers of people with Sri Lankan descent is unknown.[citation needed]

Pakistanis

Further information: Pakistanis in South Africa

Descendants of people who migrated to South Africa in the 19th and early 20th centuries from the pre-partition regions that became Pakistan, are part of the South African Indian community. A number of people from Pakistan have also immigrated to South Africa following the end of apartheid. A substantial number of Pakistanis, most of them belonging to the Muhajir community of Karachi, moved to South Africa in the early 1990s. They largely reside in the bigger cities.

South East Asians

The Cape Malays are a Muslim group with some Indonesian ancestry that originated at the Cape during the period of Dutch colonisation. During the apartheid regime, they were both classified as part of the "Coloured" racial group and thus considered "non-white" and treated as such.[16][17]

South Africans of Filipino descent were classified as "black" due to historical outlook on Filipinos by White South Africans, and many of them lived in bantustans, which were areas set aside to be inhabited by Black South Africans.[17]

West Asians

Certain people from West Asia, particularly Lebanese and Syrians, were originally classified as "Asian" and therefore "non-white". In 1913, Moses Gadur sued the government after being denied the right to purchase land in Johannesburg on the basis of being considered non-white. Moses Gandur's lawyers successfully argued that Jewish immigrants, who were part of the same Semitic race, were not considered "Asian" the same way other people from the Levant were. Therefore, if they were subject to these laws, the Jews should also be affected. Ultimately, the agreement was that the laws only apply to colored people and yellow Asiatics, and not them.[4]

See also

References

  1. ^ "Statistical Release P0302: Mid-year population estimates, 2020" (PDF). Statistics South Africa. p. 3.
  2. ^ a b "Archived copy" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 16 July 2021. Retrieved 5 March 2021.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  3. ^ "Apartheid | South Africa, Definition, Facts, Beginning, & End | Britannica".
  4. ^ a b "The Struggle Of The Christian Lebanese For Land Ownership In South Africa". Maronite Institute. Archived from the original on 12 May 2015.
  5. ^ "A History of Indian Settlement in KwaZulu-Natal". Kzn.org.za. Archived from the original on 30 December 2011. Retrieved 6 November 2011.
  6. ^ Mukherji, Anahita (23 June 2011). "Durban largest 'Indian' city outside India". The Times of India. Archived from the original on 12 May 2013. Retrieved 30 November 2011.
  7. ^ Yap, Melanie; Leong Man, Dainne (1996). Colour, Confusion and Concessions: The History of the Chinese in South Africa. Hong Kong: Hong Kong University Press. p. 510. ISBN 962-209-423-6.
  8. ^ Park, Yoon Jung (2009). Recent Chinese Migrations to South Africa - New Intersections of Race, Class and Ethnicity (PDF). Interdisciplinary Perspectives. ISBN 978-1-904710-81-3. Archived from the original (PDF) on 28 December 2010. Retrieved 20 September 2010. {{cite book}}: |work= ignored (help)
  9. ^ "Chinese South Africans: Court ruling impacts on workplace skills plans". skillsportal.co.za. 19 June 2008. Archived from the original on 30 March 2014.
  10. ^ "Chinese are declared to be Black, so are Chinese are Fully Black?". BEEPartner South Africa Economy Watch. 30 June 2008. Archived from the original on 23 July 2008.
  11. ^ "S Africa Chinese 'become black'". BBC News. 18 June 2008. Retrieved 28 April 2010.
  12. ^ Terblanche, Barrie (8 December 2006). "Chinese fight to be black". Mail and Guardian. Archived from the original on 18 August 2007. Retrieved 14 May 2007.
  13. ^ "재외동포 다수거주 국가", 재외동포현황, Overseas Korean Foundation, 2007, archived from the original on 3 September 2007, retrieved 20 April 2009
  14. ^ Cha, Jun-yeong (7 August 2002), "아프리칸 드림, 그 애환의 현장을 가다<22>남아共(2)요하네스버그 한인사회/The true joys and sorrows of the African Dream, #22: South Africa #2—the Korean community in Johannesburg", Segye Ilbo, retrieved 20 April 2009
  15. ^ "The Early Cape Slave Trade | South African History Online".
  16. ^ Valentine, Sue. "An appalling "science"". heritage.thetimes.co.za. Archived from the original on 23 April 2012.
  17. ^ a b Mellet, Patric Tariq. "Intro". Cape Slavery Heritage. Retrieved 15 December 2012.[dead link]
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