White Africans of European ancestry

White Africans

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Total population
5,116,400 - 7,360,400 (all countries below added up in highest and lowest figure*Figures do not include Europeans living in European provinces or dependencies (Canary Islands, Ceuta, Melilla, Madeira, Réunion, Saint Helena)
Regions with significant populations
South Africa	4,360,000 - 5,687,000
Zambia	126,000
Namibia	124,000
Angola	123,000
Libya	100,000 - 150,000
Morocco	100,000
Tunisia	100,000
Algeria	50,000 - 337,000
Kenya	30,000
Mozambique	30,000
Mauritius	23,000
Zimbabwe	20,000
Senegal	8,000
Botswana	7,000
Equatorial Guinea	5,000
All other areas	25,000 - 50,000
Languages
English, Afrikaans, Portuguese, Kabyle, French, German, and others
Religion
Predominantly Christian; minorities practicing Judaism, Islam, or no religion
Related ethnic groups
Dutch, British, French, Portuguese, Germans, Jews, White Americans, New Zealand Europeans, White Latin Americans

White Africans are largely descendants of Europeans who settled on the continent of Africa under colonial rule. These individuals are mostly of Dutch, British, French, Portuguese, and to a lesser extent, Greek, Belgian, Swiss, Spanish, and German ancestry. Prior to the decolonisation movements of the post-World War II era, Whites numbered at least 10 million persons and were represented in every part of Africa. However, many left during and after the indigenous independence movements. Nevertheless, White Africans remain an important minority in many African states, for example, 6% of the population in Namibia. The African country with the largest White African population is South Africa, at approximately 5.2 million (9.6% of the population). Although Whites no longer rule various African nations, many have remained as permanent residents and often hold a substantial ownership of the economy and land in specific regions or countries. Many North African ethnic groups, such as Arabs and Berbers, can be or are also considered Whites under some definitions.

The Dutch in Africa

Further information: Afrikaner and Boer

Romanticised painting of an account of the arrival of Jan van Riebeeck, founder of Cape Town.

Dutch settlement, under the Dutch East India Company, began in the Cape of Good Hope (present-day Cape Town) in southern Africa in 1652, making it the oldest European culture in Sub-Saharan Africa. By the late nineteenth century, the descendants of the Dutch (known as Afrikaners) had crossed the Limpopo river into Mashonaland, now part of Zimbabwe. In the early 20th century, following the Anglo-Boer War, large numbers of Afrikaners travelled north to British East Africa and settled in what is now Kenya and Tanzania, as well as in Angola. Following the Mau Mau insurgency and general collapse of colonial authorities in the decades after the World War II, Afrikaner colonies outside South Africa and Namibia diminished in size and the majority of settlers and their descendants returned to South Africa.

The British in Africa

Further information: Anglo-African

Although there were small British settlements along the West African coast from the 18th century onwards, mostly devoted to the commerce of the slave trade, British settlement in Africa began in earnest only at the end of the 18th century, in the Cape of Good Hope. It gained momentum following British annexation of the Cape from the Dutch East India Company, and the subsequent encouragement of settlers in the Eastern Cape in an effort to consolidate the colony's eastern border.

In the late 19th century, the discovery of gold and diamonds further encouraged colonisation of South Africa by the British. The search for gold drove expansion north into the Rhodesias (now Zimbabwe, Zambia and Malawi). Simultaneously, British settlers began expansion into the fertile uplands (often called the "White Highlands") of British East Africa (now Kenya and Tanzania). Most of these settlements were not planned by the British government, with many colonial officials concluding they upset the balance of power in the region and left overall imperial interests vulnerable. Cecil Rhodes utilized his wealth and connections towards organizing this ad hoc movement and settlement into a grand imperial policy. This policy had as its general aim the securing of a Cairo to Cape Town railway system, and settling the upper highlands of East Africa and the whole of Southern Africa south of the Zambezi with British colonies in a manner akin to that of North America and Australasia.

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Ian Smith defies the international community, 1975 (photo by W Higham)

However, prioritization of British power around the globe in the years before World War I, initially reduced the resources appropriated toward settlement. World War I and the Great Depression and the general decline of British and European birthrates further hobbled the expected settler numbers. Nonetheless, thousands of colonists arrived each year during the decades preceding World War II. Despite a general change in British policy against supporting the establishment of European settlements in Africa, and a slow abandonment in the overall British ruling and common classes for a separate and exclusivist European identity, large colonial appendages of European separatist supporters of the British Empire were well entrenched in South Africa, Rhodesia, and Kenya.

In keeping with the general trend toward non-European rule evident throughout most of the globe during the Cold War and the abandonment of colonial positions in the face of American and Soviet pressure, the vestigial remnants of Cecil Rhodes' vision was abruptly ended, leaving British settlers in an exposed, isolated and weak position. Black Nationalist guerrilla forces aided by Soviet expertise and weapons soon drove the colonists into a fortress mentality which led to the break-off of ties with perceived collaborationist governments in the United Kingdom and Commonwealth. The result was a series of conflicts which eventually led to a reduced presence of White Africans due to emigration and natural death. Many were murdered, tens of thousands driven off their lands and property, with many of those remaining being intimidated and threatened by the government and political and paramilitary organisations. In all, over 2,000,000 White Africans of mostly British descent were killed, pushed out, deported or went into exile from the original British colonies, reversing a process that took place hundreds of years previously. Nonetheless, in all of these areas, a number of well-connected, extremely wealthy settlers remained to live following independence and the introduction of black rule in the second half of the twentieth century.

There were 60,000 white settlers living in Kenya in 1965. Today, there are an estimated 30,000 whites in Kenya. However, there has been an increasing number of British expatriates that, according to the BBC, number at about 32,000.

Sizeable numbers of Anglo-Africans also live in Ghana, Namibia, Tanzania, Uganda, Swaziland (3% of the population), Nigeria and Botswana.

The French in Africa

See also Huguenots in South Africa, French rule in Algeria, Pieds noirs, Franco-Réunionnaise, Franco-Mauritian, and Franco-Seychellois

Large numbers of French people settled in French North Africa from the 1840s onwards. By the end of French rule in the early 1960s there were over one million French Algerians of European origin (known as pieds noirs, or "black feet") living in Algeria [3]. No other region of the French African colonial empire attracted similar settlement, although there is still a comparatively large European population living in the former West African colony of Senegal, which has largest French African population in sub-Saharan Africa. There is also an important white minority in Gabon, Côte d'Ivoire, and Togo. The total French population in Côte d'Ivoire was 60,000 in 1980. An estimated 18,000 French citizens lived and worked in Madagascar in the early 1990s (by independence, the Madagascar’s colons accounted for 70,000 people).

French law made it easy for thousands of colons, ethnic or national French from former colonies of Africa, India and Indochina to live in mainland France. 1.6 million European colons migrated from Algeria, Tunisia and Morocco.

In Réunion, a French island in the Indian Ocean, white islanders of French origin make up approx. 25% of the population.

A large number of French Huguenots settled in the Cape Colony, following their expulsion from France in the 17th century. However, the use of the French language was banned and the Huguenot settlers were entirely absorbed into Afrikaans culture. However, this early contact can be seen clearly in the names of historic towns, such as Franschhoek in the Western Cape (meaning "French Corner") and in the surnames of many Afrikaners, such as Theron, Du Plessis etc.

The Portuguese in Africa

Further information: Portuguese Africans, Portuguese Angolans, Portuguese Mozambicans, and Portuguese-South Africans

The first Portuguese settlements in Africa were built in the 15th century. In the late 17th century, much of Mozambique was divided into prazos, or agricultural estates, which were settled by Portuguese families. In Angola, namely in the areas of Luanda and Benguela there was significant Portuguese population. In the islands of Cape Verde and São Tomé and Príncipe, besides Portuguese settlers, most of the population was of mixed Portuguese and African origin.

In the early 20th century, the Portuguese government encouraged white emigration to Angola and Mozambique, and by the 1960s, at the beginning of the Portuguese Colonial War, there were around 650,000 Portuguese settlers living in their overseas African provinces, and a substantial Portuguese population living in other African countries. In 1974, there were up to 1,000,000 Portuguese settlers living in their overseas African provinces.

Most Portuguese settlers returned to Portugal (the retornados) as the country's African possessions gained independence in the mid 1970s, while others moved south to South Africa, which now has the largest Portuguese-African population.There has been an increase in white Mozambicans due to the increase of Brazilian migration to Mozambique making Mozambique the largest Brazilian-African population in Africa

Other White African Groups

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Zimbabwean women, 1982

Smaller White African groups also settled parts of Africa. These include Spanish in Equatorial Guinea, Western Sahara, Morocco, Ceuta, Melilla (94,000 Spaniards chose to go to the Algeria in the last years of the 19th century, 250,000 Spaniards lived in Morocco at the beginning of the 20th century), and South Africa; Libya, Eritrea, eastern Somalia, and South Africa; Germans in Namibia and South Africa; and Belgians in Democratic Republic of Congo and Souh Africa, and Lithuanians in South Africa; and Lebanese in South Africa, Senegal, Liberia, Nigeria, Congo, and Côte d'Ivoire.

In 1910, there were 105,000 Tunisians in Tunisia, compared to 35,000 Frenchmen. Former Italian communities once thrived in Eritrea (1935), Somalia and Libya. All of Libya's Europeans were expelled from the North African country in 1970, a year after Muammar al-Gaddafi seized power (a "day of vengeance" on 7 October 1970). There was emigration to Ethiopia as well. In Ethiopia, roughly 300,000 Italians were absorbed into East Africa.

There is a substantial, mostly Ashkenazic Jewish community in South Africa. These Jews arrived mostly from Lithuania prior to World War II. Although the Jewish community peaked in the 1970s, about 80,000 remain in South Africa.

Armenians and Greeks once numbered thousands in Ethiopia and Sudan, before civil wars, revolutions and nationalization drove most of them out. They still have community centers and churches in these countries.

The Greek community in South Africa numbers around 60,000 people. The Greeks had a thriving presence in Egypt from the ancient times up to today. In about 1940, Greeks were numbered at about 250,000. The exodus of Greeks from Egypt started during and after the revolution of 1952. It is estimated that between 1957 - 1962 almost 70% of the Egyptian Greeks left the country. Today, there is almost 3,000 Greeks left in Egypt, however it's likely to be higher because many Greeks have changed their Nationality to Egyptian. Before 1952 there were around 75,000 Armenians in Egypt.

On 5 July 1960, five days after the Congo gained independence from Belgium, the Force Publique garrison near Léopoldville mutinied against its white officers and attacked numerous European targets. This caused the fear amongst the approximately 100,000 whites still resident in the Congo and mass exodus from the country. In 1965, there were 60,000 Belgians spread throughout the Congo.

The inhabitants of the Canary Islands hold a gene pool that is halfway between the Spaniards and the ancient native population, the Guanches (a proto-berber population), although with a major Spanish contribution.

On Tristan da Cunha, the population of 271 people shared just seven surnames: Glass, Green, Hagan, Lavarello (a typical Ligurian surname), Repetto (another typical Ligurian surname), Rogers and Swain.

There are an estimated 100,000 Europeans living in Tunisia. About 50,000 Europeans (mostly French) and Lebanese reside in Senegal, mainly in the cities.

Practicly every european ethinic group has a large proportion of their populations in Africa in South Africa. This is mainly because of at the end of colonialism in Africa, many white people were left powerless and often persecuted, so many moved to Southern African Countries (mostly South Africa and Rhodesia) to escape their minority powerless positions, whereas in South Africa the apartheid regime protected them. South Africa currently houses the largest Dutch, English, French, 2nd most German, Spanish, Greek, Lithuanian, Jewish, Portugese (Disputed), Slovenian, Serbian, Russian, Macedonian, Albanian, Croatian, Thai, Swiss, Austrian, Slovakian, Czech, Romanian, Bulgarian, Swedish, Belgian, Norwegian, Danish, Icelandic, Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Brazilian, Indian, Pakistani, Sri Lankan, Bangladeshi and American populations in Africa.

Current Populations (2005 est. From CIA)

The Namibia rugby team is largely white

White African Population by Country

• South Africa: 5,265,300 (as of July 2008)
• Zambia: 126,000
• Namibia: 124,000
• Angola: 123,000
• Mozambique: 30,000
• Zimbabwe: 20,000
• Senegal: 8,000
• Botswana: 7,000
• Kenya: 30,000
• Other African nations: 30,000

Total: Approximately +6,000,000

The White African population of Zimbabwe was much higher in the 1960s and 1970s (when the country was known as Rhodesia), when it was 270,000 at its highest. After the introduction of majority rule in 1980, and the downturn due to a new economic system during the late 1990s that was brought on by expulsion of white farmers and the economic mismanagement by the Mugabe regime, many white people left the country.

By September 2007, it is thought that as few as 22,000 whites remain in Zimbabwe as the economic and political crisis deepens. It is thought that if economic and political conditions better, some of the former white population will return.

The white African population in Mozambique was at its peak with about 370,000 Portuguese-Mozambicans residing in Mozambique during the 1970's but political crisis and violence drastically decreased its population in a matter of weeks. Most Portuguese-Mozambicans expelled to Portugal and to neighboring South Africa and Zimbabwe. However, there has been an increase in the white African population of Mozambique in the last 5 years due to the immense Brazilian presence in Mozambique.

Languages

White Africans generally speak European languages as their first languages (English, Portuguese, French, German, Spanish, and Afrikaans, derived from Dutch); some also speak major native African languages.

Sports

White Africans in East and Southern Africa are largely of British descent hence the most popular sport with them is cricket. Rugby and hockey are also popular with them. Today, Cricket, rugby and hockey national sports teams of South Africa, Namibia, Zimbabwe, and Kenya and until the 1970s, East African teams have been composed primarily of whites.

Many Whites from Commonwealth countries in Africa are accomplished swimmers, including Kirsty Coventry of Zimbabwe and Jason Dunford of Kenya, as well as numerous South Africans.

See also

• List of White Africans
• Anglo-African
• Afrikaner
• Asians in Africa
• Whites in South Africa
• Whites in Zimbabwe
• Whites in Kenya
• Whites in Mozambique