Indholdsfortegnelse for October 2023 i Faces People, Places, and World Culture for Kids and Children

Located at the southern tip of the African continent, South Africa is a country of natural beauty and rich resources. Here are five fascinating facts to get you started. 1 South Africa is a relatively new democracy. The country ended its policy of apartheid in 1990 and held its first free elections in 1994. Under apartheid, the white minority denied all other groups basic human rights including the right to vote, to work where they wanted, to receive an equal education, and often to live together as a family. 2 Have you ever seen a mountain with a tablecloth? Clouds frequently settle on the top of Table Mountain in Cape Town and spill down the sides, giving it what locals call a tablecloth. 3 Before being elected…

The nation of South Africa has made some remarkable progress in recent years. For most of the 20th century, South Africa was an international outcast, banned from events such as the Olympics because it refused to treat all its citizens—black, white, Asian, and multiracial—as equals. Instead, under a racist system called apartheid, the white minority denied all other groups many of the most basic human rights, including the right to vote, to work where they wanted, to receive equal education, and often to live together as a family. Apartheid ended in 1990 because thousands and thousands of South Africans bravely organized for freedom. Their efforts took determination—and many years of struggle. They were harassed and often jailed and sometimes tortured to break their spirits. Many, perhaps thousands, were killed. But…

Fireworks, backyard cookouts, and parades are a familiar sight in the United States when freedom is celebrated. But the United States, by far, isn’t the only country in the world with a holiday celebrating freedom. The people of South Africa fought long and hard for their freedom. For decades, the political policy of apartheid rendered many of the country’s citizens powerless. Apartheid was a policy of racial separation. Under apartheid, South Africans were classified as whites (people of European descent), coloreds (people of mixed race), Asians (including Indians and Pakistanis), and Bantu (black South Africans). Each race, by law, had to live in their own areas; be educated separately; use separate libraries and movie theaters; and obey laws forbidding them to intermarry. Blacks were at the bottom of this ranking,…

Gold: The Queen of Metals Gold is one of South Africa’s most important natural resources. Johannesburg became a mining boomtown and the country’s largest city after large deposits of gold were found there in the 1880s. On the periodic table of elements, gold s symbol is Au. Gold is soft, easy to work with, and doesn’t rust. All the gold ever mined would fill four large swimming pools. There are about 1,000 tons of gold dissolved in the world’s oceans. Since ancient times, people have used gold to fill, fix, and decorate their teeth. Gold is sturdy and won t react with food. As gold becomes harder to find, companies must go deeper into the Earth s surface to find it. South Africa is home to several of the world…

Making a sculpture of an animal requires careful observation. Collect some photos of elephants and notice the basic shapes of the body. Better yet, if you have the chance to go to a zoo and observe an elephant in real life, use a camera to take your own pictures, or make some sketches. There are some surprising features and different details depending on the type of elephant. Try making your own elephant sculpture. Materials: • Model Magic or another air-drying clay in gray and white. (Model Magic is easy air-drying clay that is sold at most arts and crafts stores, or you can use any air-drying clay.) • Toothpicks STEP 1: BASIC SHAPES To make an elephant out of modeling clay start with basic shapes: • a large oval for…

OFFICIAL NAME: Republic of South Africa LOCATION: Southernmost country in Africa AREA: 470,689 square miles (1,219,090 square kilometers), slightly smaller than the country of Ethiopia CAPITALS: Pretoria (executive); Bloemfontein (judicial); Cape Town (legislative) POPULATION: 58,048,332 (2023 estimate) LANGUAGES: official — isi ulu, isi hosa, Afrikaans, Sepedi, Setswana, English, Sesotho, itsonga, isiNdebele PEOPLE: Black African 80.9%, Colored 8.8%, White . , Indian Asian 2. 202 estimate Note colored is a term used in South Africa, including on the national census, for persons of mixed-race ancestry who developed a distinct cultural identity over several hundred years.) RELIGIONS: Christian 86%, traditional African religions 5.4%, Muslim 1.9%, other 1.5%, nothing in particular 5.2% (2015 estimate) TERRAIN: Vast interior plain surrounded by hills and narrow coast GOVERNMENT: Parliamentary republic NATURAL RESOURCES: Gold, diamonds, coal, iron…

Cape Town is one of the world’s most beautiful seaports, South Africa’s second largest city, and home to South Africa’s parliament. With its spectacular backdrop of Table Mountain, there is no other city like it. South Africa’s oldest and most important seaport, Cape Town is a key stopping point for ships rounding the Cape of Good Hope enroute to Europe from Asia. Gold, fruit, wine, skins, wool, and mohair are exported from its busy wharves. Because it lies along the sea route between Europe and Asia, the city reflects influences from Europe, Asia, and Africa in its food, architecture, and way of life. The city was settled in 1652 when the Dutch East India Company established a port there. When the British seized the Cape in 1806, many of the…

The world-renowned Kruger National Park, located in the upper northeast corner of South Africa near the Mozambique border, is one of the 10 largest wildlife parks in the world. It covers more than 10,000 square miles, most of which is savanna—flat, dry land with grasses and trees. The park was established in 1889 to protect the highly diverse South African lowveld, an area of open plains and indigenous forests. Sixteen of the planet’s climate zones are located within the park. Dry and wet seasons and a large drop in temperature between night and day allow thousands of species to find a niche in Kruger, making it one of the Earth’s highest areas of diversity. Kruger prides itself on its environmental protection policies and the impressive number of species that live…

The Republic of South Africa is a collage of cultures and languages. In 1994, the new government recognized 11 official languages spoken by more than 43 million people. Each language has something special to contribute to this emerging democracy. For thousands of years, South Africa’s many groups existed on the land without formal borders or barriers. A variety of languages evolved. Around 1820, the most powerful Zulu king, Shaka, built an empire based on conquest of other peoples. Many people migrated away from kwaZulu (place of the Zulu) during this war-filled time. People settled in new places and their languages evolved separately from Zulu (language of the Zulu people). Today, speakers of Ndebele (en-EDH-bel-eh), Xhosa (CHOD-say), and Swati usually understand Zulu. The word izolu (ee-ZOH-loh) means “yesterday” in all three…

What’s the first word in the dictionary and the last living species of its order of tube-teethed animals? If you said, “aardvark,” you should be writing science articles instead of reading them! The word aardvark comes from the Afrikaans language, meaning “Earth pig.” The aardvark has a rubbery snout like a pig, ears like a rabbit, the tongue of an anteater, and a naked tail like an opossum. Strangely, it is not related to any of these animals. The aardvark is the last living member of its order. In fact, it is a “living fossil” that is most closely related to the African elephant. The aardvark is specially equipped to thrive in its environment. It has a short neck and thick, almost hairless skin that protects it from the hot…

Very few great leaders have made as big an impact on a nation and the world as Nelson Mandela. His name belongs among those of such notables as Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther King Jr.—both patriots who fought for the human right to live without domination and who led revolutions in their nations. Who could tell that a revolutionary was inside a boy herding animals in the early 1900s countryside of South Africa? Mandela was groomed to be a village leader, but he was not born into a rural paradise. His country was in turmoil, filled with violence, racism, and the impoverishment of an entire people. The color of his skin made him a second-class citizen with very few rights or opportunities. Black children, if they went to school at…

Characters: • Narrator• Father• Older Sister• Mouse• Boy• Old Woman• Young Girl• Village Woman• Snake Chief• Mpunzanyana (M-poo-nzyah-nzyah-nyah) NARRATOR: Many years ago, a father searched far and wide for worthy husbands for his two daughters. FATHER: Daughters, I have finally found a chief from a village across the big river who needs a wife. OLDER SISTER: I will go to him at once. I am the oldest. FATHER: Wonderful. I’ll call my friends and drummers, so you can have a proper bridal procession. OLDER SISTER: I don’t have time for foolish customs. I’m leaving right away. NARRATOR: So, she set out alone. Along the way, she met a mouse and frog that offered to point her to the chief ’s village. OLDER SISTER: Leave me alone, you worthless creatures. I’ve…