Global InformationWhite Africans of European ancestry information
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White Africans of European ancestry refers to citizens or residents in Africa who can trace full or partial ancestry to Europe. They are distinguished from indigenous North African people who are sometimes identified as white but not European.[1] In 1989, there were an estimated 4.6 million white people with European ancestry on the African continent.[2]
Most are of Dutch, Portuguese, British, German and French origin; to a lesser extent, there are also those who descended from Italians, Spaniards, Greeks, and Scandinavians. The majority once lived along the Mediterranean coast or in Southern Africa.[2]
The earliest permanent European communities in Africa during the Age of Discovery were formed at the Cape of Good Hope;[3] Luanda, in Angola; São Tomé Island; and Santiago, Cape Verde[4] through the introduction of Portuguese and Dutch traders or military personnel. Other groups of white settlers arrived in newly established French, German, Belgian, and British settlements in Africa over the course of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Before regional decolonisation, whites of European ancestry may have numbered up to 6 million persons at their peak[5] and were represented in every part of the continent.[6]
An exodus of colonists accompanied independence in most African nations.[7] Over half the Portuguese Mozambican population, which numbered about 200,000 in 1975,[8] departed en masse because of discriminatory economic policies directed against them.[9] In Zimbabwe, recent white exodus was spurred by an aggressive land reform programme introduced by late President Robert Mugabe in 2000 and the parallel collapse of that country's economy.[4] In Burundi, the local white population was blatantly expelled via a decree issued by the post-colonial government upon independence.[10]
The African country with the largest population of European descendants both numerically and proportionally is South Africa, where white South Africans number 4.3 million people (9% of the population).[11] The second-largest European population proportionally is in Namibia, at about 150,000 or 8%,[12][13] while the second-largest European population numerically is in Angola with about 200,000 people but only comprising 1% of the population.[14][15] Smaller European-descended populations exist in Madagascar, Morocco, Kenya, Senegal, Tunisia, Zambia, Zimbabwe and elsewhere. Although white minorities no longer hold exclusive political power, some continue to retain key positions in industry and commercial agriculture in a number of African states.[16]
- ^ Palmer, H. R. (1926). "The White Races of North Africa". Sudan Notes and Records. 9 (1): 69–74. ISSN 0375-2984.
- ^ a b "Africa". World Book Encyclopedia. Chicago: World Book, Inc. 1989. ISBN 0-7166-1289-5.
- ^ Roskin, Roskin. Countries and concepts: an introduction to comparative politics. pp. 343–373.
- ^ a b Cybriwsky, Roman Adrian. Capital Cities around the World: An Encyclopedia of Geography, History, and Culture. ABC-CLIO, LLC 2013. ISBN 978-1-61069-247-2 p 54-275.
- ^ Calculated by adding together white residents of every African territory at their peak.
- ^ Volume V: Africa, Australia, and Southern Islands. Lands and Peoples: The World in Color. The Grolier Society of Canada Ltd 1955. Library of Congress Catalog Card Number 54-11291. p 19-109.
- ^ Nakayama, Thomas & Halualani, Rona T (ch: Steyn, Melissa). The Handbook of Critical Intercultural Communication. Blackwell Publishing 2010. ISBN 1-85649-323-7. p 27.
- ^ Mozambique, the Troubled Transition: From Socialist Construction to Free Market Capitalism. Zed Books Ltd 1995. ISBN 1-85649-323-7. p 27.
- ^ "Observatório da Emigração". March 3, 2016. Archived from the original on 2016-03-03.
- ^ Sentman, Edgar Everette (editor). World Topics Yearbook 1963. Tangley Oaks Educational Center 1963. Library of Congress Catalog Card Number 56-31513. p 33.
- ^ South Africa: People: Ethnic Groups. World Factbook of CIA
- ^ "Namibia", The World Factbook, Central Intelligence Agency, 2023-12-06, retrieved 2023-12-15
- ^ "Top 20 African Countries with the Highest White Population". Insider Monkey. Retrieved 2024-03-06.
- ^ "Zambian vice-president: 'South Africans are backward' | Zambia | The Guardian". amp.theguardian.com. Retrieved 2023-12-15.
- ^ "Top 20 African Countries with the Highest White Population". Insider Monkey. Retrieved 2024-03-06.
- ^ Russell, Margo and Martin. Afrikaners of the Kalahari: White Minority in a Black State (Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1979). ISBN 0-521-21897-7 pp. 7–16.