Coloureds

South Africa is known as a 'Rainbow nation' because of its diverse cultures, tribes, races, religions and nationalities.{{cite web | url=https://henristeenkamp.org/whats-in-a-name-the-story-behind-the-rainbow-nation/ | title=What's in a Name? The Story Behind the Rainbow Nation {{pipe}} Henri Steenkamp | date=26 January 2017 }} As a result of this diversity, Coloured people in South Africa have different ancestries as they come from different regions in the country that have different ethnic groups.{{cite journal |url=https://onomajournal.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/Onoma-55-1.12-Neethling-final-web-August.pdf |journal=Onoma |volume=55 |last=Neethling |first=Bertie |year=2020 |title=The so-called Coloured people of South Africa: Modern anthroponymic reconstruction? |pages=229–246 |doi=10.34158/ONOMA.55/2020/13}}

{{Main|Cape Coloured}}

The first and the largest phase of interracial marriages/Miscegenation in South Africa happened in the Dutch Cape Colony and the rest of the Cape Colony which began from the 17th century, shortly after the arrival of Dutch settlers, who were led by Jan van Riebeeck, through the Dutch East India Company (also known as the 'VOC').{{cite journal | url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/4390778 | jstor=4390778 | title=Miscegenation in South Africa | last1=Van Den Berghe | first1=Pierre L. | journal=Cahiers d'Études Africaines | date=1960 | volume=1 | issue=4 | pages=68–84 | doi=10.3406/cea.1960.3680 | url-access=subscription }} When the Dutch settled in the Cape in 1652, they met the Khoi Khoi who were the natives of the area.{{cite web | url=https://www.discovermagazine.com/mind/who-are-the-cape-coloureds-of-south-africa | title=Who are the Cape Coloureds of South Africa? }} After settling in the Cape, the Dutch established farms that required intensive labour, therefore, they enforced slavery in the Cape. Some of the Khoi Khoi became labourers for the Dutch farmers in the Cape. Despite this, there was resistance by the Khoi Khoi, which led to the Khoikhoi-Dutch Wars.{{cite web | url=https://www.africarebirth.com/how-indigenous-south-africans-resisted-the-first-european-intruders/ | title=How Indigenous South Africans Resisted the First European Intruders | date=24 October 2023 }}

As a result, the Dutch imported slaves from other parts of the world, especially the Malay people from present-day Indonesia and the Bantu people from various parts of Southern Africa.{{cite web | url=https://www.sahistory.org.za/article/early-cape-slave-trade | title=The Early Cape Slave Trade {{pipe}} South African History Online }} To a certain extent, slaves were also imported from Malaysia, Sri Lanka, India, Madagascar, Mauritius and elsewhere in Africa.{{cite web | url=https://www.sahistory.org.za/article/how-unique-was-slavery-cape | title=How Unique was Slavery at the Cape? {{pipe}} South African History Online }} The slaves were almost invariably given Christian names but their places of origin were indicated in the records of sales and other documents, so that it is possible to estimate the ratio of slaves from different regions.{{cite web | url=https://www.sahistory.org.za/article/first-slaves-cape | title=The First Slaves at the Cape {{pipe}} South African History Online }} Often, slaves were given their masters' surnames, surnames that were of biblical origin (e.g. Adams, Thomas, Jacobs, Matthews, Peters, Daniels) or surnames that reflected the month in which they arrived (e.g. September, March, October, April).{{cite web | url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7bPuGewLPUE | title=I'm Not Black, I'm Coloured - South Africa (2009) | website=YouTube | date=6 April 2024 }} These slaves were, however, dispersed and lost their cultural identity over the course of time.{{cite web | url=https://www.sahistory.org.za/article/history-slavery-and-early-colonisation-south-africa | title=History of slavery and early colonisation in South Africa {{pipe}} South African History Online }}

Because most of the Dutch settlers in the Cape were men, many of them married and fathered the first group of mixed-race children with Khoi Khoi women.{{cite web | url=https://yris.yira.org/winter-issue/lost-and-found-in-cape-town-the-linguistic-construction-of-coloured-identity/ | title=Lost and Found in Cape Town: The Linguistic Construction of Coloured Identity - the Yale Review of International Studies | date=25 January 2021 }} Soon after the arrival of slaves in the Cape, the Dutch men also married and fathered mixed race children with the Malay from Indonesia, the Southern African Bantu, Indians and other enslaved ethnic groups in the Cape.https://study.com/academy/lesson/cape-coloureds-origins-culture.html?msockid=31e14f9a4e30671f2e725b284f306666 To a certain extent, the slaves in the Cape also had interracial unions with each other and mixed-race children were also conceived from these unions as well because the slaves were of different races (African and Asian). Unlike the One-drop rule in the US, mixed-race children in the Cape were not viewed as "white enough to be white", "black enough to be black" nor "Asian enough to be Asian", therefore, mixed race children from all these interracial unions in the Cape grew up and married amongst themselves, forming their own community that would later be known as the "Cape Coloured".{{cite web | url=https://aaregistry.org/story/the-coloured-communities-of-southern-africa-a-story/ | title=The Coloured Communities of Southern Africa, a story }}

File:Krotoa.webp, a Khoi Khoi woman who was the first indigenous person in South Africa to have an official interracial marriage]]

The first interracial marriage in the Cape was between Krotoa (a Khoi Khoi woman who was a servant, a translator and a crucial negotiator between the Dutch and the Khoi Khoi. Her Dutch name was "Eva Van Meerhof") and Peter Havgard (a Danish surgeon whom the Dutch renamed as "Pieter Van Meerhof").{{cite web | url=https://www.sahistory.org.za/people/krotoa-eva | title=Krotoa (Eva) {{pipe}} South African History Online }} Having conceived 3 mixed-race children, Krotoa was known as the mother that gave birth to the Coloured community in South Africa.{{cite web | url=https://humanities.uct.ac.za/apc/love-time-imperialism-krotoa-eva-van-meerhof | title=Love in the time of imperialism: Krotoa 'Eva' van Meerhof {{pipe}} University of Cape Town }}

Eventually, more Dutch people settled in the Cape, amongst them were the Van Wijk family (whose descendants became 'Van Wyk') who arrived in the Cape in 1686 and the Erasmus family that arrived in 1689.{{cite web | url=https://sahistory.org.za/article/dutch-settlement | title=The Dutch Settlement {{pipe}} South African History Online }}https://www.candlewoodsvenue.co.za/images/CandlewoodsHistory.pdf{{cite web | url=https://familyvanwyk.blogspot.com/2007/04/history-of-van-wyk-family-name.html | title=Van Wyk Family: History of the van Wyk Family Name | date=24 April 2007 }}

The Huguenots (also known as 'French Huguenots') were French Protestants who escaped from the banishment and persecution of Protestants in France and many of them immigrated to the Dutch Cape Colony to seek refuge amongst the existing Dutch community during the late 1600s and early 1700s.{{cite web | url=https://huguenotsociety.org.za/history-of-the-huguenots/ | title=The Huguenot History }}https://huguenotsociety.org.za/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/HUGUENOT_SOCIETY-SA_History.pdf Despite being refugees, they played a huge role on the history of the current Afrikaans-speaking community, the Cape region as a whole and the rest of South Africa. Coming from a country that has a rich history of wine production, these French refugees pioneered the vineyards of the Cape Winelands, turning it into one of the biggest wine producers in the world.{{cite web | url=https://southafrica.co.za/french-huguenots.html | title=The French Huguenots - Franschhoek, South Africa }}{{cite web | url=https://www.visualcapitalist.com/cp/biggest-wine-producers-by-country/ | title=Ranked: World's Biggest Wine Producers by Country | date=18 August 2023 }} Although many Huguenots who arrived in the Cape were already married, their children and descendants were soon absorbed into the entire Cape society and after few generations, they spoke Dutch, not French.{{cite web | url=https://www.sahistory.org.za/dated-event/first-large-group-french-huguenots-arrive-cape | title=The first large group of French Huguenots arrive at the Cape {{pipe}} South African History Online }} Just like many White-Afrikaans speakers, many Coloured-Afrikaans speakers also have some ancestry from France due to the Huguenots who integrated with the Dutch and other ethnic groups in the Cape region.https://www.academia.edu/109760433/Encounter_at_the_Cape_French_Huguenots_the_Khoi_and_Other_People_of_Color Through the impact of the Huguenots in the Cape, French names and the French version of other names became very popular within the Afrikaans-speaking community (both White and Coloured) e.g. Jacques, Cheryl, Elaine, André, Michelle, Louis, Chantel/Chantelle, Leon, François, Jaden, Rozanne, Leroy, Monique, René, Lionel.https://listophile.com/names/nationality/french/ Due to integration with the Dutch and other ethnic groups in the Cape, there are many Afrikaans surnames of French origin e.g. Le Roux, De Villiers, Joubert, Marais, Du Plessis, Visagie, Pienaar, De Klerk(from 'Le Clerc'), Fourie, Theron, Cronje, Viljoen (from 'Villion'), Du Toit, Reyneke, Malan, Naude, Terblanche, De Lille, Fouche, Minnaar, Blignaut, Retief, Boshoff, Rossouw, Olivier and Cilliers.{{cite web | url=https://www.oocities.org/hugenoteblad/surname.htm?202523 | title=Huguenot surnames which exist in South Africa }}

During the 1600s and the 1700s, Germany was the Netherlands' biggest trading partner in Europe and due to their good relations, hundreds of thousands of Germans were recruited by the VOC making Germans the largest foreign Europeans in the Dutch empire.{{cite web | url=https://ghil.hypotheses.org/23 | doi=10.58079/p1pg | date=2020 | last1=Olga Witmer | title=Germans, the Dutch East India Company, and Early Colonial South Africa }} Throughout the Dutch rule, the VOC sent nearly 15 000 Germans to the Dutch Cape Colony to work as officials, sailors, administrators and soldiers. Just like the French Huguenots, the Germans in the Dutch Cape Colony were also assimilated into the existing Dutch community and they also learnt Dutch which replaced German.https://www.cdbooks-r-us.com/supportdocs/personaliapreface.pdf Eventually, Germans in the Cape became farmers, teachers, traders and ministers. Almost all Germans who settled in the Cape throughout the Dutch rule were men and therefore, almost all German men in the Cape married women outside their culture (especially African and Asian women).{{cite web | url=https://safrika.org/Personalia_en.html | title=German Immigrants to the Cape Colony under the Dutch 1652-1806 }} Due to integration with the Dutch and other ethnic groups in the Cape, there are many Afrikaans surnames of German origin e.g. Botha, Grobler, Hartzenberg, Pretorius, Booysen, Steenkamp, Kruger (from 'Krüger'), Louw, Venter, Cloete, Schoeman, Mulder, Kriel, Meyer, Breytenbach, Engelbrecht, Potgieter, Muller, Maritz, Liebenberg, Fleischman, Weimers, and Schuster.{{cite web | url=https://afrikanerway.wordpress.com/2013/11/17/german-influence-on-boer-afrikaner-people/#:~:text=Some%20of%20the%20most%20common%20Afrikaner%20surnames%20are,Muller%20%28M%C3%BCller%29%2C%20Meyer%2C%20Potgieter%2C%20Schoeman%20%28Schuman%29%20or%20Liebenberg | title=German influence on Boer-Afrikaner people | date=17 November 2013 }}{{cite web | url=https://venere.it/en/the-meaning-and-history-of-the-last-name-grobler | title=The meaning and history of the last name Grobler | date=31 July 2024 }} Some few Portuguese people also settled in the Cape and were integrated into the Cape society, which is how the Portuguese surname 'Ferreira' ended up being an Afrikaans surname as well.{{cite web | url=https://www.baviaans.net/articles/the_ferreira_family_in_sa | title=The Ferreira Family in SA }}

With the arrival of more Europeans (as mentioned above), more African and Asian slaves and the recruitment of more Khoi Khoi labourers in the Cape Colony, there were more interracial unions with more mixed-race children who were absorbed into the Cape Coloured community.{{cite web | url=https://www.discovermagazine.com/the-sciences/the-cape-coloureds-are-a-mix-of-everything | title=The Cape Coloureds are a mix of everything }}{{cite web | url=https://safrika.org/Personalia_en.html | title=German Immigrants to the Cape Colony under the Dutch 1652-1806 }}{{cite web | url=https://museeprotestant.org/en/notice/the-huguenots-in-south-africa/ | title=The Huguenots in South Africa }} The recruitment of Khoi Khoi labourers and the importation of African and Asian slaves continued until the Cape fell under British rule in the early 1800s and eventually, these slaves and labourers were absorbed into the Cape Coloured community.{{cite web | url=https://www.studocu.com/en-za/document/university-of-johannesburg/historical-studies-1b/khoikhoi-dutch-relations/62351724 | title=Khoikhoi -Dutch relations - Aboriginal Khoikhoi Servants and Their Masters in Colonial Swellendam, - Studocu }}

The predominant Asian slaves in the Cape were the Malays who came from Indonesia while some also came from Malaysia.{{cite web | url=https://henristeenkamp.org/south-africas-forgotten-minority-cape-malays/ | title=South Africa's Forgotten Minority: The Cape Malays - Henri Steenkamp | date=10 February 2017 }} Because Indonesia and Malaysia are both predominantly Muslim-states, the slaves who were taken from these 2 countries were the ones who introduced Islam in the Dutch Cape Colony, which became the 2nd largest religion amongst Cape Coloureds, after Christianity.{{cite web | url=https://www.sahistory.org.za/archive/history-muslims-south-africa-1700-1799-ebrahim-mahomed-mahida | title=History of Muslims in South Africa: 1700 - 1799 by Ebrahim Mahomed Mahida {{pipe}} South African History Online }} Many Malays were also sent to the Dutch Cape Colony as exiled prisoners who ended up as slaves as a punishment for rebelling against Dutch rule in Indonesia (which was then called the Dutch East Indies).{{cite web | url=https://www.sahistory.org.za/article/cape-malay | title=The Cape Malay {{pipe}} South African History Online }} Although most Malays in the Dutch Cape Colony were interracially absorbed into the Cape Coloured community, a small minority of them preserved their own community and culture, therefore, they became known as the 'Cape Malay'. Eventually, other Muslims(especially Indian slaves and merchants from the Middle East and North Africa) were absorbed into the Cape Malay community.https://www.sahistory.org.za/article/cape-malay However, during Apartheid, the Cape Malays were classified as a sub-group of 'Coloureds' due to similar ancestry with the Cape Coloureds and because South Africa's population was grouped into four races under the Population Registration Act, 1950: Black, White, Coloured and Indian.{{doi|10.10520/AJA10231757_695}} Therefore, many Cape Malays were forced to live in Coloured communities during Apartheid.

During the 17th century (in this case, from 1652 to 1700), the Dutch Cape Colony consisted only of present-day Cape Town with its surrounding areas (such as Paarl, Stellenbosch, Franschhoek etc.).{{cite journal | url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/23232400 | jstor=23232400 | title=The Making of Two Frontier Communities: Cape Colony in the Eighteenth Century | last1=Guelke | first1=Leonard | journal=Historical Reflections / Réflexions Historiques | date=1985 | volume=12 | issue=3 | pages=419–448 }} From the 18th century until the formation of the Union of South Africa in 1910, the territory of the Cape expanded gradually to the north and east.{{cite web | url=https://www.sahistory.org.za/article/cape-northern-frontier | title=The Cape Northern Frontier {{pipe}} South African History Online }} The expansion of the Dutch Cape Colony was mainly caused by the dry and infertile nature of its immediate interior, therefore farmers needed fertile land because farms could only be settled where there were springs to provide permanent water. However, the expansion was also influenced by emigration of the Trekboers, who left the Dutch Cape Colony and migrated into the Karoo during the 18th century and due to British rule during the 19th century.https://open.uct.ac.za/server/api/core/bitstreams/6237124e-c438-4a5f-9990-3c611efae274/content By the 1750s, the territory of the Dutch Cape Colony had reached present-day Swellendam and by the end of the Dutch rule (after British annexation in 1814), the territory of the Cape had already reached certain parts of present-day Eastern Cape and the Northern Cape, leading to the arrival of Afrikaners/Boers with their multiracial slaves in different parts of the Cape.{{cite web | url=https://www.sahistory.org.za/article/political-changes-1750-1820 | title=Political changes from 1750 to 1820 {{pipe}} South African History Online }} When the Cape fell under British rule during the 19th century, it continued to expand until it reached the border with other colonies and with the Boer republics. With the gradual expansion of the Cape, the migration of the trekboer, the migration of Afrikaners/Boers with their multiracial slaves and the additional arrival of various European nationalities (such as the British, Irish etc.), there were more interracial unions throughout the Cape: this time between the white and the Khoisans in present-day Northern Cape, and between the white and the Xhosa in present-day Eastern Cape, with more mixed race children being conceived, who also became part of the Cape Coloureds.{{cite web | url=https://www.britannica.com/place/Southern-Africa/European-and-African-interaction-in-the-19th-century | title=Southern Africa - European and African interaction in the 19th century {{pipe}} Britannica }}

Miscegenation in the eastern part of the Cape (which is now the 'Eastern Cape') dates to the late 1600s which began as a result of the shipwrecks.{{cite web | url=https://camissapeople.wordpress.com/7-steps-of-cape-identity/ | title=Cape Identity | date=19 May 2013 }} The Wild Coast Region of the Eastern Cape (which stretches from the provincial border with Natal to East London and Port Alfred) is named after its wilderness and the stormy seas that caused thousands of shipwrecks, especially during the 1700s.{{cite web | url=https://www.wildcoast.co.za/ships-wrecked | title=Ships wrecked {{pipe}} Wild Coast }} Survivors of the shipwrecks (most of whom were Europeans while some were Asians) settled on the Wild Coast. Having no means to return home, most survivors remained permanently in the Eastern Cape and mixed with the Xhosa.{{cite web | url=https://scrolla.africa/bessie-the-white-queen-of-the-mpondo-of-the-eastern-cape/ | title=Bessie, the white queen of the Mpondo of the Eastern Cape | date=18 August 2022 }}{{cite web | url=https://aiart.africa/index.php/component/content/article/abelungu-a-xhosa-clan-that-raised-a-shipwrecked-white-child-into-a-xhosa-leader?catid=9&Itemid=259 | title=Abelungu - A Xhosa clan that raised a shipwrecked white child into a Xhosa leader }} Within the same period, many escaped slaves from the Dutch Cape Colony found refuge amongst the Xhosa, then they were assimilated into Xhosa society, and then they were soon followed by the Trekboers who were on their way to the Karoo, while some of them settled in the Eastern Cape where they mixed with the Xhosa and the Khoi Khoi. The most notorious Trekboer to do so was Coenraad De Buys, who fathered many mixed race children with his many African wives (who were Khoi Khoi and Xhosa) and one of them was Chief Ngqika's mother, Yese, wife of Mlawu kaRarabe.{{cite web | url=https://debuys.blogspot.com/2011/02/who-was-coenraad-de-buys.html | title=De Buys Genealogy: Who was Coenraad de Buys? | date=3 February 2011 }} During the last years of Dutch rule, the territory of the Dutch Cape Colony had reached the Western portion of the Eastern Cape, especially in the Graaff-Reinet region which led to the arrival of Boers/Afrikaners with their multiracial slaves.{{cite web | url=https://www.sahistory.org.za/article/political-changes-1750-1820 | title=Political changes from 1750 to 1820 {{pipe}} South African History Online }}{{cite web | url=https://www.sahistory.org.za/place/graaff-reinet | title=Graaff-Reinet {{pipe}} South African History Online }} Miscegenation in the Eastern Cape continued during the 1800s until the early 1900s with the arrival of British, Irish and German settlers, many of whom mixed with the Xhosa and eventually multiracial people in the Eastern Cape also became part of the Cape Coloured.

In the Northern region of the Cape (which is now the 'Northern Cape'), miscegenation began in the 1700s, shortly after the arrival of the Trekboers that left the Dutch Cape Colony (fleeing from autocratic rule) and many settled in the Karoo while some settled in Namaqualand.{{cite web | url=https://southafrica.co.za/trekboers-richtersveld.html | title=Trekboers of the Richtersveld }} Some Trekboers even went as far as the Orange River and beyond to the Southern part of the Kalahari and in all these areas, they met the Khoisans(the San and the Khoi Khoi).{{cite web | url=https://www.weskusontheline.co.za/2024/10/04/the-forgotten-highway-ancestral-journeys/ | title=The Forgotten Highway – Ancestral Journeys – First with the News | date=4 October 2024 }} To survive in this hot and dry region, the Trekboers adopted the nomadic lifestyle of the Khoisans and some even mixed with the Khoisans.https://acearchive.org/trekboers During the last years of Dutch rule, the territory of the Dutch Cape Colony had reached the Southern portion of the Northern Cape, leading to the arrival of Boers/Afrikaners with their multiracial slaves. In the early 1800s, the Griqua people left the Dutch Cape Colony and half of them migrated to the North of the Karoo where they established a Griqua state called 'Griqualand West'.{{cite web | url=https://www.sahistory.org.za/place/griqualand-west | title=Griqualand West {{pipe}} South African History Online }} Then the Basters, Oorlams and some Cape Coloureds migrated to the North as well and some of them even went as far as present-day Namibia.{{cite web | url=https://camissamuseum.co.za/index.php/7-tributaries/5-maroons-orlam-drosters | title=5: Maroons, Orlam & Drosters - Camissa Museum }} In the latter half of the 1800s, large sums of diamond, Uranium, Copper and Iron ore were discovered in the Northern Cape which attracted many Europeans, many of whom mixed with the San, Khoi khoi, Tswana in the North-East and the Xhosa in the South-East and then multiracial people in the Northern Cape also became part of the Cape Coloured.{{cite web | url=https://www.sahistory.org.za/place/republic-griqualand-west-or-diggers-republic | title=Republic of Griqualand West or the Digger's Republic {{pipe}} South African History Online }}{{cite journal | url=https://pure.uj.ac.za/en/publications/history-of-the-okiep-copper-district-namaqualand-northern-cape-pr | title=History of the Okiep copper district, Namaqualand, Northern Cape Province, South Africa | journal=Mineralogical Record | date=July 2004 | volume=35 | issue=4 | pages=289–317 | last1=Cairncross | first1=Bruce }}

After British annexation in 1814, slavery was abolished in the Cape in 1834, which lead to the Great Trek when the Boers left the Cape as Voortrekkers and migrated into the interior of South Africa to form the Boer republics.{{cite web | url=https://www.sahistory.org.za/dated-event/slavery-abolished-cape#:~:text=On%201%20December%201834%2C%20slavery%20came%20to%20an,of%20Commons%20and%20by%20the%20House%20of%20Lords | title=Slavery is abolished at the Cape {{pipe}} South African History Online }} Most of the freed slaves (who became Cape Coloureds) remained behind. Many freed slaves moved to an area in Cape Town that became known as District Six. Throughout the 1800s (especially after the abolishment of slavery in 1834) and the early 1900s, the Cape received an influx of refugees, immigrants and indentured labourers from:

Britain, Ireland, Germany, Lithuania, St Helena, China, Indonesia, the Philippines, India, Middle East, West Africa, North Africa and East Africa(majority of all these groups were absorbed into the Cape Coloured community).{{cite web | url=https://www.academia.edu/38523613 | title=CAMISSA HERITAGE - Origin and History of South African Cape Coloured People | last1=Skies | first1=Infinite }}https://vilnews.com/2011-01-south-africahttps://www.researchgate.net/publication/357167610_History_of_the_German_Settlers_in_the_Eastern_Cape

File:Felix_Florez.jpg

In the 1800s, the Philippines, at the time a Spanish colony, experienced a harsh rebellion against Spanish colonial rule, so many Filipinos fled to different parts of the world. In the late 1830s, the first Filipinos to arrive in the Cape settled in Kalk Bay, Cape Town where they fished for a living and then Kalk Bay became their new home.{{cite web | url=https://www.theheritageportal.co.za/notice/history-filipino-community-recognized-kalk-bay | title=History of Filipino community recognized in Kalk Bay! {{pipe}} the Heritage Portal }} When word reached the Philippines, many more Filipinos flocked to Kalk Bay, and they were soon scattered throughout Cape Town and other parts of the region that is now the Western Cape, where most of them were eventually absorbed into the Cape Coloured community.https://www.kbha.co.za/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/Bulletin-Number-1.pdf As a result, many Cape Coloureds can trace some of their roots to the Philippines due to the Filipinos of Kalk Bay. Many Filipinos who settled in the Cape were also mixed with some Spanish ancestry as a result of the Spaniards who mixed with the indigenous people of the Philippines while some were simply Spanish Filipinos of Spanish descent, therefore, some Cape Coloureds can also trace some of their roots to Spain due to the Filipinos of Kalk Bay. Within the Cape Coloured community, surnames from the Filipinos of Kalk Bay (which are mostly Spanish surnames that the Filipinos got from the Spaniards) are Gomez, Pascal, Torrez, De La Cruz, Fernandez, Florez(also spelt as 'Floris'), Manuel, and Garcia.

In 1888, Oromo slave children from Ethiopia (who were headed for Arabia) were rescued and freed by British troops.{{cite web | url=https://theconversation.com/the-story-of-oromo-slaves-bound-for-arabia-who-were-brought-to-south-africa-116607 | title=The story of Oromo slaves bound for Arabia who were brought to South Africa | date=9 May 2019 }} In 1890, the British troops brought these freed Oromo slaves to Lovedale Mission in present-day Eastern Cape where many of them became part of the Cape Coloured. The late Dr Neville Alexander's grandmother, Bisho Jarsa, was a freed Oromo slave from Ethiopia.{{cite web | url=https://www.sahistory.org.za/people/dr-neville-edward-alexander | title=Dr. Neville Edward Alexander {{pipe}} South African History Online }}

By the turn of the 20th century, District six became more established and cosmopolitan. Although its population was predominantly Cape Coloured, District Six (just like many places in the Cape) was diverse with different ethnicities, races and nationalities living there (this includes Blacks, Whites, Jews, Cape Malays and Asian immigrants such as the Indians, Chinese, Japanese etc.){{cite web | url=https://martinplaut.com/2021/02/14/why-cape-towns-district-six-devastated-so-many-years-ago-is-still-vital/ | title=Why Cape Town's District Six – devastated so many years ago – is still vital | date=14 February 2021 }} Many of these groups were absorbed into the Cape coloured community.{{cite web | url=https://bokaap.org/district-six-exploring-the-rich-history-of-cape-towns-iconic-neighbourhood/ | title=District Six: Exploring the Rich History of Cape Town's Iconic Neighbourhood | date=12 April 2023 }} The whole Cape Colony (including the Eastern Cape and the Northern Cape) also attracted many European immigrants of various nationalities(including Scandinavians, Portuguese, Greeks, Italians etc.), many of whom married into the Cape Coloured community while some mixed with other ethnic groups, whose children got absorbed into the Cape Coloured community, further diversifying the ancestry of Cape Coloureds.{{cite web | url=https://www.geni.com/projects/South-African-Settlers-Nordic/9739 | title=South African Settlers - Nordic genealogy project }}{{cite web | url=https://italyincapetown.co.za/italians-in-south-africa-1800/ | title=Italians in South Africa 1800 - Italy in Cape Town | date=12 November 2022 }}https://greekreporter.com/2023/06/08/the-turbulent-story-of-greeks-in-south-africa/

During the 20th century (under British rule from 1910 to 1948 and Apartheid regime from 1948 to 1994), many Khoisans living in the Cape Province were assimilated into the Cape Coloured community, especially in the North of the Cape(now the 'Northern Cape').https://www.sahistory.org.za/article/khoisan-identity As a result, many Cape Coloureds, especially from the Northern Cape, share close ties with the San and the Khoi Khoi, especially those living in the Namaqualand region, around the Orange river and the Kalahari region.https://www.ncesc.com/geographic-faq/are-there-still-khoisan-people-in-south-africa/

As a result, the Cape Coloureds have the most diverse ancestry in the world with a blend of many different ancestries.{{cite journal |doi=10.1007/s00439-010-0836-1 |url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/44618878 |title=Genome-wide analysis of the structure of the South African Coloured Population in the Western Cape |date=2010 |last1=De Wit |first1=Erika |last2=Delport |first2=Wayne |last3=Rugamika |first3=Chimusa E. |last4=Meintjes |first4=Ayton |last5=Möller |first5=Marlo |last6=Van Helden |first6=Paul D. |last7=Seoighe |first7=Cathal |last8=Hoal |first8=Eileen G. |journal=Human Genetics |volume=128 |issue=2 |pages=145–153 |pmid=20490549 }} However, not every Cape Coloured has the same ancestry. At least one genetic study indicates that most Cape Coloureds have ancestries from the following ethnic groups:{{cite journal|title=Genome-wide analysis of the structure of the South African Coloured Population in the Western Cape|journal=Human Genetics|date=August 2010|pmid=20490549|doi=10.1007/s00439-010-0836-1|volume=128|issue=2|pages=145–53|last1 = de Wit|first1 = E|last2 = Delport|first2 = W|last3 = Rugamika|first3 = CE|last4 = Meintjes|first4 = A|last5 = Möller|first5 = M|last6 = van Helden|first6 = PD|last7 = Seoighe|first7 = C|last8 = Hoal|first8 = EG|s2cid=24696284|doi-access = free}}{{Cite journal |last1=Pfennig |first1=Aaron |last2=Petersen |first2=Lindsay N |last3=Kachambwa |first3=Paidamoyo |last4=Lachance |first4=Joseph |date=2023-04-06 |editor-last=Eyre-Walker |editor-first=Adam |title=Evolutionary Genetics and Admixture in African Populations |journal=Genome Biology and Evolution |language=en |volume=15 |issue=4 |doi=10.1093/gbe/evad054 |issn=1759-6653 |pmc=10118306 |pmid=36987563}}

• African (Khoisan): ~ 25,3%
• Europeans: 39,3%
• African (Bantu): ~ 15,5%
• Peoples from South and Southeast Asia: 19,9%Petersen DC, Libiger O, Tindall EA, Hardie RA, Hannick LI, Glashoff RH, Mukerji M; Indian Genome Variation Consortium; Fernandez P, Haacke W, Schork NJ, Hayes VM. Complex patterns of genomic admixture within southern Africa. PLoS Genet. 2013;9(3):e1003309. doi: 10.1371/journal.pgen.1003309. Epub 2013 Mar 14. PMID 23516368; PMCID: PMC3597481.{{cite journal |last1=Quintana-Murci |first1=L |last2=Harmant |first2=C |last3=H |first3=Quach |last4=Balanovsky |first4=O |last5=Zaporozhchenko |first5=V |last6=Bormans |first6=C |last7=van Helden |first7=PD |display-authors=etal |year=2010 |title=Strong maternal Khoisan contribution to the South African coloured population: a case of gender-biased admixture |url= |journal=The American Journal of Human Genetics |volume=86 |issue=4 |pages=611–620 |doi=10.1016/j.ajhg.2010.02.014 |pmc=2850426 |pmid=20346436}}{{cite journal |last1=Schlebusch |first1=CM |last2=Naidoo |first2=T |last3=Soodyall |first3=H |year=2009 |title=SNaPshot minisequencing to resolve mitochondrial macro-haplogroups found in Africa |journal=Electrophoresis |volume=30 |issue=21 |pages=3657–3664 |doi=10.1002/elps.200900197 |pmid=19810027 |s2cid=19515426}}{{Cite thesis|title=The "Coloured" Community of Durban: A Study of Changing Perceptions of Identity|last=Fynn|first= Lorraine Margaret|date=1991|publisher=University of Natal|location=Durban|url=https://researchspace.ukzn.ac.za/bitstream/handle/10413/6802/Fynn_Lorraine_Margaret_1991.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y|type=Master of Social Science}}{{Cite thesis|title=Through a Coloured Lens: Post-Apartheid Identity amongst Coloureds in KZN|last=Palmer|first= Fileve T.|date=2015|hdl=2022/19854|type=PhD|publisher=Indiana University|location=Bloomington, Ind}}

It is important to note here that genetic reference cluster term "Khoisan" itself refers to a colonially admixed population cluster, hence the concatenation, and is not a straightforward reference to ancient African pastoralist and hunter ancestry, which is often demarcated by the L0 haplogroup ancestry common in the general South African native population which is also integral part of other aboriginal genetic reference cluster terms like "South-East African Bantu".{{Cite journal |last1=Barbieri |first1=Chiara |last2=Vicente |first2=Mário |last3=Rocha |first3=Jorge |last4=Mpoloka |first4=Sununguko W. |last5=Stoneking |first5=Mark |last6=Pakendorf |first6=Brigitte |date=2013-02-07 |title=Ancient Substructure in Early mtDNA Lineages of Southern Africa |journal=American Journal of Human Genetics |volume=92 |issue=2 |pages=285–292 |doi=10.1016/j.ajhg.2012.12.010 |issn=0002-9297 |pmc=3567273 |pmid=23332919}}

In the 21st century, Coloured people constitute a plurality of the population in the provinces of Western Cape (48.8%), and a large minority in the Northern Cape (40.3%), both areas of centuries of mixing among the populations. In the Eastern Cape, they make up (8.3%) of the population.

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{{Main|Griqua people}}

Image:Adam_kok_III.jpg, leader of the Coloured Griqua People]]

During the 17th and 18th century in the Dutch Cape Colony, interracial unions that were primarily between the West European (especially the Dutch) and the Khoi Khoi created a group of mixed-race individuals that became known as the Griqua.{{Cite web |url=https://www.academia.edu/19907156 |title=The Making of Griqua, Inc.: Indigenous Struggles for Land and Autonomy in South Africa |website=academia.edu |date=2015 |access-date=2024-12-15}} The Griqua people could trace their forefathers to two clans, the Koks and Barendse, the first was made up mainly of Khoikhoi and the second of mixed European descent. Genetic studies made in the 21st century have revealed that the Griquas also have Xhosa, San, and Tswana ancestry.{{cite book | url=https://www.academia.edu/19907156 | title=The Making of Griqua, Inc.: Indigenous Struggles for Land and Autonomy in South Africa | date=January 2015 }} What separates the Griquas from the Cape Coloureds is that the Griquas do not have Asian ancestry within their bloodline and unlike the Cape Coloureds who adopted the Western and Asian lifestyle, the Griquas clung more to the African lifestyle, most particularly that of the Khoi Khoi.{{cite web | url=https://pletthistory.org/the-story-of-the-griqua-re-visited/ | title=The Story of the Griqua Re-visited {{pipe}} the van Plettenberg Historical Society }}

The actual name 'Griqua' was derived from the Chariaguriqua people whose princess became the wife of the first Griqua leader, Adam Kok.{{cite web | url=https://www.sahistory.org.za/article/griqua | title=Griqua {{pipe}} South African History Online }} As a result of discrimination and the smallpox disease that occurred in the Cape Colony, Adam Kok (a Griqua leader who was also a liberated slave) led the Griquas in migrating to other regions in South Africa and formed two Griqua states: Griqualand West and Griqualand East. Griqualand West was located in present-day Northern Cape while Griqualand East was located between present-day KwaZulu-Natal and the Eastern Cape. Unfortunately, with the expansion of the Cape Colony, which was under British rule this time, the two Griqua states ceased to exist and were annexed into the Cape colony.

During the Apartheid regime (1948-1994), Griquas were classified as Coloureds due to their mixed-race ancestry and they were forced to live in Coloured communities in South Africa under the Group Areas Act. Due to the racial policies and the racial hierarchy of South Africa's demographics during Apartheid, many Griquas accepted the classification of "Coloured" for fear that their Griqua roots might place them at a lower level than other groups. As a result, it is difficult to estimate and determine the actual size of the Griqua population, therefore, it remains unknown.

Although Griquas are scattered across the country (due to historic migrations), the majority of Coloureds that come from the Griekwastad area in the Northern Cape, the Kokstad area in KwaZulu-Natal and the Kranshoek area in the Western Cape are either directly Griqua or they are the descendants of Griquas.

File:Coloured-Community-of-Nongoma-KwaZulu-Natal-Christmas-Day-early-1900s.png

Another phase of interracial marriages/miscegenation in South Africa happened in the Colony of Natal (present-day KwaZulu-Natal) during the 19th century and early 20th century.{{cite journal | doi=10.1177/2158244016673873 | title=Racialism and Representation in the Rainbow Nation | date=2016 | last1=Palmer | first1=Fileve T. | journal=SAGE Open | volume=6 | issue=4 | doi-access=free }} This time, it was mainly between the British and the Zulu with an addition of British intermixing with Indians and the arrival of immigrants from St Helena, and Mauritius that married locally. To a certain extent, miscegenation in Natal also involved the Irish, German, Norwegian and the Xhosa.

Blood group phenotype and gene frequency studies showed that the Natal Coloured population contains a mixture of approximately 40% Black, 30% White and 30% Indian (Asian) genes.{{Cite journal |last1=Moores |first1=Phyllis |last2=Vaaja |first2=Ulla |last3=Smart |first3=Elizabeth |date=1991 |title=D__ andDc_ Gene Complexes in the Coloureds and Blacks of Natal and the Eastern Cape and Blood Group Phenotype and Gene Frequency Studies in the Natal Coloured Population |url=https://karger.com/HHE/article/doi/10.1159/000154016 |journal=Human Heredity |language=en |volume=41 |issue=5 |pages=295–304 |doi=10.1159/000154016 |pmid=1778605 |issn=1423-0062|url-access=subscription }}

After the Boer republic Natalia was annexed by the British rulers, it became the Natal in 1845. When the British started settling in Natal from the mid-19th century, they established sugarcane plantations especially in the coastal regions (Durban, Stanger etc.) and these plantations required intensive labour as well.{{cite web | url=https://www.sugarvillage.co.za/news/A-Brief-History-of-Durbans-Sugar-Cane | title=A Brief History of Durban's Sugar Cane }} Struggling to find labour from the local Zulu, the British decided to import thousands of labourers from India to work on the sugarcane plantations of Natal.{{cite web | url=https://www.sahistory.org.za/article/indian-indentured-labour-natal-1860-1911 | title=Indian Indentured Labour in Natal 1860-1911 {{pipe}} South African History Online }}

Just like the Dutch settlers in the Cape, most of the British settlers in Natal were men, therefore, many of them married Zulu women while some married Indian women and mixed-race children were also conceived and eventually, multiracial people in Natal became 'Natal Coloureds'.{{cite web | url=https://www.academia.edu/70281903 | title=Through a Coloured lens: Post-Apartheid identity formation amongst Coloureds in KZN | date=January 2015 | last1=Palmer | first1=Fileve | p=71 }} Sometimes the White administrators who had fathered children from Zulu women would put their mixed-race children in the care of Coloured families in the area. Other times it was the African woman that conceived a mixed-race child from 'Umlungu' (a white person) that initiated giving up the child. In this way, interracial unions and marriages became common and a separate community grew. The descendants of all these interracial unions remain in Nongoma, Eshowe, Mandeni, Mangete, Nqabeni, Umuziwabantu, and iziNqolwene.

File:John Dunn.webp

Some of the British men with interracial marriages in Natal practised polygamy, having multiple Zulu wives while others had multiple Zulu concubines. The perfect example of this is John Robert Dunn, a white trader with Scottish parents who became a Zulu chief with 48 Zulu wives and 118 mixed race children; and most of his mixed-race descendants (who became 'Coloureds' in Natal) still live in present-day KwaZulu-Natal.https://acearchive.org/john-robert-dunn Another British man who practised polygamy was Henry Fynn who had four Zulu wives and multiple mixed-race children.https://researchspace.ukzn.ac.za/server/api/core/bitstreams/5e1a0e77-5ac6-46d6-bc02-8b6c29c47f79/content Although Henry Ogle (a British trader from Yorkshire) married an English wife named Janie and had a son named Henry, he also fathered multiple mixed-race children with his Zulu concubines at his kraal near Umkomaas.{{cite web | url=https://www.1820settlers.com/genealogy/getperson.php?personID=I114401 | title=Henry Ogle, 1820 Settler b. 1800 Yorkshire, England d. 20 Feb 1860 Pietermaritzburg, KwaZulu Natal, South Africa: British 1820 Settlers to South Africa }}

During the apartheid era in South Africa of the second half of the 20th century, the government used the term "Coloured" to describe one of the four main racial groups it defined by law (the fourth was "Asian," later "Indian"). This was an effort to impose white supremacy and maintain racial divisions. Individuals were classified as White South Africans (formally classified as "European"), Black South Africans (formally classified as "Native", "Bantu" or simply "African" and constituting the majority of the population), Coloureds (mixed-race) and Indians (formally classified as "Asian"). The census in South Africa during 1911 played a significant role in defining racial identities in the country. One of the most noteworthy aspects of this census was the instructions given to enumerators on how to classify individuals into different racial categories. The category of "coloured persons" was used to refer to all people of mixed race, and this category included various ethnic groups such as Hottentots, Bushmen, Cape Malays, Griquas, Korannas, Creoles, Negroes, and Cape Coloureds.

Although the apartheid government recognised various coloured subgroups, including the Cape Malays and Cape Coloureds, the Coloured population, was for many purposes treated as a single group, despite their varying ancestries and cultures. Also during apartheid, many Griqua began to self-identify as Coloureds during the apartheid era, because of the benefits of such classification. For example, Coloureds did not have to carry a dompas (a pass, an identity document designed to limit the movements of the black population), while the Griqua, who were seen as an indigenous African group, though heavily mixed, did.

Zimbabwean Coloureds are descended from Shona or Ndebele, British and Afrikaner settlers, as well as Arab and Asian people.

Coloured people played an important role in the struggle against apartheid and its predecessor policies. The African Political Organisation, established in 1902, had an exclusively Coloured membership; its leader Abdullah Abdurahman rallied Coloured political efforts for many years.{{cite web|url=http://www.sahistory.org.za/pages/people/bios/abdurahman-a.htm|title=Dr Abdullah Abdurahman 1872 - 1940|publisher=South African History Online|access-date=2009-10-23|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071121035811/http://www.sahistory.org.za/pages/people/bios/abdurahman-a.htm|archive-date=2007-11-21|url-status=dead}} Many Coloured people later joined the African National Congress and the United Democratic Front. Whether in these organisations or others, many Coloured people were active in the fight against apartheid.

The political rights of Coloured people varied by location and over time. In the 19th century they theoretically had similar rights to Whites in the Cape Colony (though income and property qualifications affected them disproportionately). In the Transvaal Republic or the Orange Free State, they had few rights. Coloured members were elected to Cape Town's municipal authority (including, for many years, Abdurahman). The establishment of the Union of South Africa gave Coloured people the franchise, although by 1930 they were restricted to electing White representatives. They conducted frequent voting boycotts in protest. Such boycotts may have contributed to the victory of the National Party in 1948. It carried out an apartheid programme that stripped Coloured people of their remaining voting powers.

The term "kaffir" is a racial slur used to refer to Black African people in South Africa. While it is still used against black people, it is not as prevalent as it is against coloured people.Adhikari, Mohamed, editor. Burdened by Race: Coloured Identities in Southern Africa. UCT Press, 2013, pp. 69, 124, 203 {{ISBN|978-1-92051-660-4}} https://library.oapen.org/bitstream/id/c0a95c41-a983-49fc-ac1f-7720d607340d/628130.pdf.Mathabane, M. (1986). Kaffir Boy: The True Story of a Black Youth's Coming of Age in Apartheid South Africa. Simon & Schuster. (Chapter 2)

File:ApartheidPopulationGroups.jpg

Coloured people were subject to forced relocation. For instance, the government relocated Coloured from the urban Cape Town areas of District Six, which was later bulldozed. Other areas they were forced to leave included Constantia, Claremont, Simon's Town. Inhabitants were moved to racially designated sections of the metropolitan area on the Cape Flats. Additionally, under apartheid, Coloured people received education inferior to that of Whites. It was, however, better than that provided to Black South Africans.

J. G. Strijdom, known as "the Lion of the North", continued the impetus to restrict Coloured rights, in order to entrench the new-won National Party majority. Coloured participation on juries was removed in 1954, and efforts to abolish their participation on the common voters' roll in the Cape Province escalated drastically; it was accomplished in 1956 by a supermajority amendment to the 1951 Separate Representation of Voters Act, passed by Malan but held back by the judiciary as unconstitutional under the South Africa Act, the Union's effective constitution. In order to bypass this safeguard, enforced since 1909 to ensure Coloured political rights in the then-British Cape Colony, Strijdom's government passed legislation to expand the number of Senate seats from 48 to 89. All of the additional 41 members hailed from the National Party, increasing its representation in the Senate to 77 in total. The Appellate Division Quorum Bill increased the number of judges necessary for constitutional decisions in the Appeal Court from five to eleven. Strijdom, knowing that he had his two-thirds majority, held a joint sitting of parliament in May 1956. The entrenchment clause regarding the Coloured vote, known as the South Africa Act, were thus eliminated and the Separate Representation of Voters Act passed, now successfully.

Coloureds were placed on a separate voters' roll from the 1958 election to the House of Assembly and forward. They could elect four Whites to represent them in the House of Assembly. Two Whites would be elected to the Cape Provincial Council and the governor general could appoint one senator. Both blacks and Whites opposed this measure, particularly from the United Party and more liberal opposition. The Torch Commando was prominent, while the Black Sash (White women, uniformly dressed, standing on street corners with placards) also made themselves heard. In this way, the question of the Coloured vote became one of the first measures of the regime's unscrupulous nature and flagrant willingness to manipulate its inherited Westminster system. It would remain in power until 1994.

Many Coloureds refused to register for the new voters' roll and the number of Coloured voters dropped dramatically. In the next election, only 50.2% of them voted. They had no interest in voting for White representatives — an activity which many of them saw as pointless, and only persisted for ten years.

Under the Population Registration Act, as amended, Coloureds were formally classified into various subgroups, including Cape Coloureds, Cape Malays and "other coloured". A portion of the small Chinese South African community was also classified as a coloured subgroup.[https://web.archive.org/web/20120423220247/http://heritage.thetimes.co.za/memorials/wc/RaceClassificationBoard/article.aspx?id=591128 An appalling "science"]

Graham Leach, South Africa: no easy path to peace (1986), [https://archive.org/details/southafricanoeas0000leac/page/70 p. 70]: Population Registration Act, 1959 cape coloured

In 1958, the government established the Department of Coloured Affairs, followed in 1959 by the Union for Coloured Affairs. The latter had 27 members and served as an advisory link between the government and the Coloured people.

The 1964 Coloured Persons Representative Council turned out to be a constitutional hitch{{clarify|date=January 2012}} which never really proceeded. In 1969, the Coloureds elected forty onto the council to supplement the twenty nominated by the government, taking the total number to sixty.

Following the 1983 referendum, in which 66.3% of White voters supported the change, the Constitution was reformed to allow the Coloured and Indian minorities limited participation in separate and subordinate Houses in a tricameral Parliament. This was part of a change in which the Coloured minority was to be allowed limited rights and self-governance in "Coloured areas", but continuing the policy of denationalising the Black majority and making them involuntary citizens of independent homelands. The internal rationale was that South African whites, more numerous at the time than Coloureds and Indians combined, could bolster its popular support and divide the democratic opposition while maintaining a working majority. The effort largely failed, with the 1980s seeing increased disintegration of civil society and numerous states of emergency, with violence increasing from all racial groups. The separate arrangements were removed by the negotiations which took place from 1990 to hold the first universal election.

{{More citations needed|section|date=February 2021}}

During the 1994 all-race elections, Coloured people voted heavily for the white National Party, which in its first contest with a non-white majority won 20% of the vote and a majority in the new Western Cape province – much due to Cape Coloured support. The National Party recast itself as the New National Party after De Klerk's departure in 1996, partly to attract non-White voters, and grew closer to the ANC. This political alliance, often perplexing to outsiders, has sometimes been explained in terms of the culture and language shared by White and Coloured New National Party members, who both spoke Afrikaans. In addition, both groups opposed affirmative action programmes that might give preference to Black South Africans, and some Coloured people feared giving up older privileges, such as access to municipal jobs, if African National Congress gained leadership in the government. After the absorption of the NNP into the ANC in 2005, Coloured voters have generally drawn to the Democratic Alliance, with some opting for minor parties such as Vryheidsfront and Patricia de Lille's Independent Democrats, with lukewarm support for the ANC.

Since the late 20th century, Coloured identity politics have grown in influence. The Western Cape has been a site of the rise of opposition parties, such as the Democratic Alliance (DA). The Western Cape is considered as an area in which this party might gain ground against the dominant African National Congress. The Democratic Alliance drew in some former New National Party voters and won considerable Coloured support. The New National Party collapsed in the 2004 elections. Coloured support aided the Democratic Alliance's victory in the 2006 Cape Town municipal elections.

Patricia de Lille, who became the mayor of Cape Town in 2011 on the platform of the now-defunct Independent Democrats, does not use the label Coloured but many observers would consider her as Coloured by visible appearance. The Independent Democrats party sought the Coloured vote and gained significant ground in the municipal and local elections in 2006, particularly in districts in the Western Cape with high proportions of Coloured residents. The firebrand Peter Marais (formerly a provincial leader of the New National Party) has sought to portray his New Labour Party as the political voice for Coloured people.

Coloured people supported and were members of the African National Congress before, during and after the apartheid era: notable politicians include Ebrahim Rasool (previously Western Cape premier), Beatrice Marshoff, John Schuurman, Allan Hendrickse and Trevor Manuel, longtime Minister of Finance. The Democratic Alliance won control over the Western Cape during the 2009 National and Provincial Elections and subsequently brokered an alliance with the Independent Democrats.

The ANC has had some success in winning Coloured votes, particularly among labour-affiliated and middle-class Coloured voters. Some Coloureds express distrust of the ANC with the comment, saying that the Coloured were considered "not white enough under apartheid and not black enough under the ANC."{{cite web|url=http://www.hsf.org.za/resource-centre/focus/issues-31-40/issue-37-first-quarter-2005/a-hollowing-out-of-our-democracy|title=A hollowing-out of our democracy?|last=Welsh|first=David|publisher=Helen Suzman Foundation|year=2005|access-date=2009-10-23|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110725184207/http://www.hsf.org.za/resource-centre/focus/issues-31-40/issue-37-first-quarter-2005/a-hollowing-out-of-our-democracy|archive-date=2011-07-25|url-status=dead}}

In the 2004 election, voter apathy was high in historically Coloured areas.{{cite web|url=http://www.idasa.org.za/index.asp?page=output_details.asp%3FRID%3D60%26Pub%3DY%26OTID%3D5|title=Election Synopsis - How the West was Won (and Lost) - May 2004|first=Jonathan|last=Faull|publisher=Institute for Democracy in Africa|date=June 21, 2004|access-date=2009-10-23|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080618021945/http://www.idasa.org.za/index.asp?page=output_details.asp%3FRID%3D60&Pub=Y&OTID=5|archive-date=June 18, 2008}} The ANC faces the dilemma of having to balance the increasingly nationalistic economic aspirations of its core black African support base, with its ambition to regain control of the Western Cape, which would require support from Coloureds.

{{more citations needed|section|date=February 2021}}

Image:South Africa racial map, 1979.gif in 1979, with data from the 1970 South African census]]

The term Coloured is also used in Namibia, to describe persons of mixed race, specifically part Khoisan, and part European. The Basters of Namibia constitute a separate ethnic group that are sometimes considered a sub-group of the Coloured population of that country. Under South African rule, the policies and laws of apartheid were extended to what was then called South West Africa. In Namibia, Coloureds were treated by the government in a way comparable to that of South African Coloureds.

In Zimbabwe and to a lesser extent Zambia, the term Coloured or Goffal was used to refer to people of mixed race. Most are descended from mixed African and British, or African and Indian, progenitors. Some Coloured families descended from Cape Coloured migrants from South Africa who had children with local women. Under Rhodesia's predominantly white government, Coloureds had more privileges than black Africans, including full voting rights, but still faced social discrimination. The term Coloured is also used in Eswatini.

{{more citations needed|section|date=March 2023}}

As far as family life, housing, eating habits, clothing and so on are concerned, the Christian Coloureds generally maintain a Western lifestyle. Marriages are strictly monogamous, although extramarital and premarital sexual relationships can occur and are perceived differently from family to family. Among the working and agrarian classes, permanent relationships are often officially ratified only after a while if at all.

The average family size of six does not differ from those of other Western families and, as with the latter, is generally related to socio-economic status. Extended families are common. Coloured children are often expected to refer to any extended relatives as their "auntie" or "uncle" as a formality.

While many affluent families live in large, modern, and sometimes luxurious homes, many urban coloured people rely on state-owned economic and sub-economic housing.

There are many singing and choir associations as well as orchestras in the Coloured community. The Eoan Group Theatre Company performs opera and ballet in Cape Town. The Kaapse Klopse carnival, held annually on 2 January in Cape Town, and the Cape Malay choir and orchestral performances are an important part of the city's holiday season. Kaapse Klopse consists of several competing groups that have been singing and dancing through Cape Town's streets on New Year's Day earlier this year. Nowadays the drumlines in cheerful, brightly Coloured costumes perform in a stadium. Christmas festivities take place in a sacred atmosphere but are no less vivid, mainly including choirs and orchestras that sing and play Christmas songs in the streets. In the field of performing arts and literature, several Coloureds performed with the CAPAB (Cape Performing Arts Board) ballet and opera company, and the community yielded three major Afrikaans poets the well-known poets, Adam Small, S.V. Petersen, and P.J. Philander. In 1968, the Culture and Recreation Council was established to promote the cultural activities of the Coloured Community.

Until 1841 missionary societies provided all the school facilities for Coloured children.

All South African children are expected to attend school from the age of seven to sixteen years, at the minimum.

{{unreferenced section|date=March 2021}}

Initially, Coloureds were mainly semi-skilled and unskilled labourers who, as builders, masons, carpenters and painters, made an important contribution to the early construction industry in the Cape. Many were also fishermen and farm workers, and the latter had an important share in the development of the wine, fruit and grain farms in the Western Cape.

The Malays were, and still are, skilled furniture makers, dressmakers and coopers. In recent years, more and more Coloureds have been working in the manufacturing and construction industry. There are still many Coloured fishermen, and most Coloureds in the countryside are farm workers and even farmers. The largest percentage of economically active Coloureds is found in the manufacturing industry. About 35% of the economically active Coloured women are employed in clothing, textile, food and other factories.

Another important field of work is the service sector, while an ever-increasing number of Coloureds operate in administrative, clerical and sales positions. All the more professional and managerial posts are. In order to stimulate the economic development of Coloureds, the Coloured Development Corporation was established in 1962. The corporation provided capital to businessmen, offered training courses and undertook the establishment of shopping centres, factories and the like.

A majority of those who identify as Coloured live in the Western Cape, where they make up almost half of the province's population. In the 2022 South African census the distribution of the group per province was as follows:

The majority of Coloureds in South Africa speak Afrikaans as their home language, while a smaller minority of the Coloureds speak English as their home language.{{cite web | url=https://southafrica-info.com/infographics/languages-black-coloured-indian-white-south-africans-speak/ | title=What languages do black, coloured, Indian and white South Africans speak? | date=9 June 2019 }} Most English-speaking Coloureds live in KwaZulu-Natal (especially in its biggest city, Durban) mainly because of their partial British heritage that is mainly mixed with Zulu and because of the extreme anglicisation of Natal. English-speaking Coloureds are also found in a few other areas in South Africa. Almost all Coloureds from Zimbabwe, Zambia and Malawi speak English as their home language as well because their heritage and history is similar with the Coloureds of Natal as these countries were also British colonies.{{cite web | url=https://www.academia.edu/38654653 | title=Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland, 1953-1963 | last1=Chikumbu | first1=Anotida | last2=Zibani | first2=Romeo }}

While the history behind the English-speaking Coloureds is straightforward, the history behind the Afrikaans-speaking Coloureds is more complicated because Afrikaans has a more detailed, complex, and controversial history.{{cite web | url=https://www.academia.edu/40384124 | title=A Brief History of the Afrikaans Language | last1=Solloway | first1=Hannah S. }} During the 17th and 18th century in the Dutch Cape colony, Dutch was obviously the official language that had to be spoken by everyone living there.{{cite web | url=https://aswica.co.za/how-south-africa-s-official-language-changed-from/ | title=How South Africa's Official Language Changed from 1600 to 2009 - Explained! December 2024 - Aswica.Co.Za | date=29 August 2023 }} Despite discrimination and slavery, the population of the Cape was extremely diverse with so many different ethnic groups and nationalities that spoke their own languages such as the Dutch settlers, French Huguenots, Germans, Khoi Khoi, Bantu, and Indonesians.{{cite book | chapter-url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/abs/language-in-south-africa/afrikaans-considering-origins/D3738714720F48E55096C620FB870CF2 | doi=10.1017/CBO9780511486692.005 | chapter=Afrikaans: Considering origins | title=Language in South Africa | date=2002 | last1=Roberge | first1=Paul T. | pages=79–103 | isbn=978-0-521-79105-2 }}

With this diversity in the Cape, most people could not speak Dutch fluently, therefore, they spoke broken Dutch. Eventually, broken Dutch was blended with other languages (Malay, Portuguese, Khoekhoegowab etc.) and new dialects were formed.{{cite web | url=https://theculturetrip.com/africa/south-africa/articles/the-global-origins-of-afrikaans | title=The Global Origins of Afrikaans | date=27 March 2020 }} As a way to break the language barrier between the different groups of people living in the Cape, Creolised Dutch evolved through different dialects throughout many years until a new language was eventually born: Afrikaans.{{cite web | url=https://www.afrikaans.us/afrikaans/culture/oor-afrikaans/the-roots-of-afrikaans/ | title=Afrikaans.us: The Roots of Afrikaans }} It is because of this mixture that Afrikaans borrowed many words from different languages despite being the daughter language of Dutch.{{cite web | url=https://humanities.nwu.ac.za/languages/afrikaans-and-dutch | title=Afrikaans and Dutch {{pipe}} humanities.nwu.ac.za }} This is why Afrikaans is common in the Western region of South Africa and the reason why most Coloureds speak Afrikaans as their home language.https://census.statssa.gov.za/assets/documents/2022/P03014_Census_2022_Statistical_Release.pdf And it is why there are more Afrikaans-speaking Coloureds than the Afrikaans-speaking whites. This is also the reason why the type of Afrikaans that's spoken in Cape Town and the rest of the Western Cape by the Cape Coloureds, Cape Malays and Blacks is a bit different than the Afrikaans that is spoken by the Afrikaners in other parts of SA as it is spoken in a dialect called Kaaps with more influence from Malay, Portuguese, Khoekhoe and other languages.{{cite web | url=https://www.capetownmagazine.com/kaaps | title=What's the Deal with Kaaps? {{pipe}} Cape Dutch, Cape Coloured Afrikaans Languages }} Kaaps is viewed as the older dialect of Afrikaans because it was spoken by the slaves of the Cape from the 17th century.

File:Colin speaks Afrikaans.webm

However, not every Afrikaans-speaking coloured has a Dutch/Afrikaner ancestor within their bloodline, nor do they have ancestry from the slaves in the Cape Colony.{{cite journal | url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/211217 | jstor=211217 | title=The "Coloured" Community in the Union of South Africa | last1=Buchanan | first1=Keith | last2=Hurwitz | first2=N. | journal=Geographical Review | date=1950 | volume=40 | issue=3 | pages=397–414 | doi=10.2307/211217 | bibcode=1950GeoRv..40..397B | url-access=subscription }} Some Coloureds (especially those whose forefathers were interracially mixed during the late 19th century and 20th century) have totally different ancestries (other European nationalities mixed with other African tribes) but because they moved to predominantly Afrikaans-speaking communities or they were born and bred in predominantly Afrikaans-speaking communities, they ended up speaking Afrikaans as their home language as well.{{cite book | url=https://play.google.com/books/reader?id=mLzYEAAAQBAJ&pg=GBS.PT55.w.0.2.13_7&hl=en | isbn=978-1-77619-150-5 | title=Coloured: How Classification Became Culture | date=September 2023 | publisher=Jonathan Ball Publishers }}{{cite journal | url=https://www.persee.fr/doc/cea_0008-0055_1960_num_1_4_3680 | doi=10.3406/cea.1960.3680 | title=Miscegenation in South Africa | date=1960 | last1=Van Den Berghe | first1=Pierre L. | journal=Cahiers d'Études Africaines | volume=1 | issue=4 | pages=68–84 }}{{cite journal | url=https://www.academia.edu/124102299 | title= Miscegenation Madness| journal= Du Bois Review: Social Science Research on Race| date=January 2024 | last1=Jackson | first1=Sebastian | volume= 21| issue= 2| pages= 223–249|doi=10.1017/S1742058X24000080| doi-access=free}} Afrikaans-speaking coloureds are also found in Namibia, especially in the southern region of the country.

Although it is rare, there are also Coloureds who can speak South African Bantu languages, such as Zulu, and Xhosa and the Khoi Khoi and San languages of southern Africa, such as Khoekhoe and Khoemana. The Coloureds that can speak Khoisan languages mostly live in the Northern Cape.{{cite journal | url=https://www.academia.edu/119803964 | title=KhoeSan Identity and Language in South Africa: Articulations of Reclamation | journal= Critical Arts| date=11 July 2022 | last1=Barnabas | first1=Shanade | volume=33 | issue=4–5 | pages=89–103 |doi=10.1080/02560046.2019.1702071 }}

{{see also|South African cuisine}}

Numerous South African cuisines can be traced back to Coloured people. Bobotie, snoek-based dishes, koe'sisters, bredies, Malay roti and gatsbies are staple diets of Coloureds and other South Africans as well.{{cite book |last1=Lagardien |first1=Zainab |title=Traditional Cape Malay Cooking |date=2008 |publisher=Struik Publishers |isbn=978-1-77007-671-6 |language=en}}

• Midi Achmat, South African writer and LGBT rights activist
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• Ashley Kriel Anti-Apartheid activist
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{{Portal|South Africa

}}

{{colbegin}}

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{{colend}}

{{notelist}}

{{reflist}}

• Gekonsolideerde Algemene Bibliografie: Die Kleurlinge Van Suid-Afrika, South Africa Department of Coloured Affairs, Inligtingsafdeling, 1960, 79 p.
• Mohamed Adhikari, Not White Enough, Not Black Enough: Racial Identity in the South African Coloured Community, Ohio University Press, 2005, 252 p. {{ISBN|9780896802445}}
• Vernie A. February, Mind Your Colour: The "coloured" Stereotype in South African Literature, Routledge, 1981, 248 p. {{ISBN|9780710300027}}
• R. E. Van der Ross, 100 Questions about Coloured South Africans, 1993, 36 p. {{ISBN|9780620178044}}
• Philippe Gervais-Lambony, La nouvelle Afrique du Sud, problèmes politiques et sociaux, la Documentation française, 1998
• François-Xavier Fauvelle-Aymar, Histoire de l'Afrique du Sud, 2006, Seuil

• Pamela Jooste, Dance with a Poor Man's Daughter, Doubleday, 1998, {{ISBN|978-0-385-40911-7}}
• Zoë Wicomb, David's Story, New York, Feminist Press at the City University of New York, 2001
• Henry Martin Scholtz, A Place Called Vatmaar, 2000, {{ISBN|978-0795701047}}

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