Extended coloured family with roots in Cape Town, Kimberley and Pretoria.


Coloured
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This article is about the term for an ethnic group used in Southern Africa. For other uses, see Color (disambiguation).
For the North American term, see colored.
Coloureds
Extended coloured family with roots in Cape Town, Kimberley and Pretoria.
Total population
4. million10% of South Africa's population
Regions with significant populations
South Africa, Namibia, Zimbabwe
Languages
Afrikaans, English
Religion
Christian, Muslim
Related ethnic groups
Khoikhoi, Xhosa, Cape Coloureds, Cape Malay
In the South African, Namibian, Zambian, Botswana and Zimbabwean context, the term Coloured (also known as Bruinmense, Kleurlinge or Bruin Afrikaners in Afrikaans) refers or referred to an ethnic group of people who possess sub-Saharan African ancestry, but not enough to be considered Black under the law of South Africa. They are technically mixed race and often possess substantial ancestry from Europe, Indonesia, India, Madagascar, Malaya, Mozambique, Mauritius, St. Helena and Southern Africa. Besides the extensive combining of these diverse heritages in the Western Cape – in which a distinctive 'Cape Coloured' and affiliated Cape Malay culture developed – in other parts of southern Africa, their development has usually been the result of the meeting of two distinct groups. Thus, in KwaZulu-Natal, most coloureds come from British and Zulu heritage, while Zimbabwean coloureds come from Shona or Ndebele mixing with British and Afrikaner settlers. Griqua, on the other hand, are descendants of Khoisan and Afrikaner trekboers. Despite these major differences, the fact that they draw parentage from more than one 'naturalised' racial group means that they are 'coloured' in the southern African context. This is not to say that they necessarily identified themselves as such – with some preferring to call themselves 'black' or 'Khoisan' or just 'South African' – but the history of racial segregation and labelling has placed all such 'mixed race' people in a certain relationship together by virtue of the fact that the imperial and apartheid governments categorized them as Coloureds and because, for the most part, other groups continue to view them through such a lens.
During the apartheid era, in order to keep divisions and maintain a race-focused society, the term Coloured was used to describe one of the four main racial groups identified by law: Blacks, Whites, Coloureds and Indians. (All four terms were capitalised in apartheid era law.) Coloured people constitute a majority of the population in Western Cape and Northern Cape provinces. Most speak Afrikaans, while about ten percent of Coloureds speak English as their mother tongue, mostly in the Eastern Cape and Natal. However, virtually all Cape Town coloureds are bilingual, and some of them can comfortably codeswitch between 'Kaapse taal' (a creolized dialect of Afrikaans spoken mostly in the Cape Flats), 'suiwer Afrikaans' (formal Afrikaans, as taught at school), and English.

[edit] External links
Beyond Identity a blog about mixed race, multiracial people from South Africa
2001 Digital Census Atlas
KakDuidelik.co.za - Die ding ruk mal. A coloured community portal.
Bruin-ou.com - A lifestyle portal for Coloured people in South Africa
Bruin Development Forum
Another term for 'Coloured'... Trying to understand the complicated genetic history of the coloured community.
http://www.afrikaans.com/ - The Foundation for Empowerment through Afrikaans (SBA) is a progressive and dynamic nongovernmental organisation which focuses on the empowerment of destitute first and second Afrikaans speaking rural and urban people, with no or low levels of literacy, skills and knowledge.