An extended Coloured family with roots in Cape Town, Kimberley and Pretoria | |
Total population | |
---|---|
5,600,000~ in Southern Africa | |
Regions with significant populations | |
South Africa, Namibia, Botswana, Zimbabwe | |
South Africa | 5,052,349 (2022 census)[1] |
Namibia | 107,855 (2023 census)[2][a] |
Zimbabwe | 14,130 (2022 census)[3] |
Zambia | 3,000 (2012 census)[4] |
Languages | |
Afrikaans, English, IsiXhosa, Setswana[5] | |
Religion | |
Predominantly Christianity, minority Islam | |
Related ethnic groups | |
Africans, Mulatto, White South Africans, Afrikaners, Boers, Cape Dutch, Cape Coloureds, Cape Malays, Griquas, San people, Khoikhoi, Zulu, Xhosa, Tswana, Saint Helenians, Mauritians, Indians, Rehoboth Basters, Tswana |
Coloureds (Afrikaans: Kleurlinge) are multiracial people in South Africa, Namibia and to a less extent, Zimbabwe, Zambia and Malawi. Their ancestry descends from the interracial marriages/Interracial unions mainly between the European and the African: with a smaller addition of Asian in the mix.
Interracial unions in South Africa began from the 17th century in the Dutch Cape Colony where the Dutch married the Khoi Khoi, Bantu and Asians and mixed-race children were conceived. Eventually, interracial unions happened throughout South Africa and the rest of Southern Africa with various other European nationals that also contributed to the growing mixed-race people, who would later be officially classified as 'Coloured' by the apartheid government in the 1950s.[6][7]
Modern science regards race as a social construct, an identity which is assigned based on rules made by society. While partly based on physical similarities within groups, race does not have an inherent physical or biological meaning. The concept of race is foundational to racism, the belief that humans can be divided based on the superiority of one race over another.
Coloured was a legally defined racial classification during apartheid referring to anyone not white or of the black Bantu tribes, which effectively largely meant people of colour.[7][8]
The apartheid-era Population Registration Act, 1950 and subsequent amendments, codified the Coloured identity and defined its subgroups, including Cape Coloureds and Malays. Indian South Africans were initially classified under the act as a subgroup of Coloured.[9] As a consequence of Apartheid policies and despite the abolition of the Population Registration Act in 1991, Coloureds are regarded as one of four race groups in South Africa. These groups (blacks, whites, Coloureds and Indians) still tend to have strong racial identities and to classify themselves and others as members of these race groups.[8][7] The classification continues to persist in government policy, to an extent, as a result of attempts at redress such as Black Economic Empowerment and Employment Equity.[7][10][11]
In the Western Cape, a distinctive Cape Coloured and affiliated Cape Malay culture developed. Genetic studies suggest the group has the highest levels of mixed ancestry in the world.
The majority of Coloureds are found in the Western Cape but are prevalent throughout the country. In Cape Town, they form 43.2% of the total population, according to the South African National Census of 2011.[12]: 11, 57
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