Comparisons between America and South Africa essays

Comparisons between America and South Africa essays Although America might not like to admit it, there are definite parallels between their history prior to the civil war, and ours in South Africa. Almost certainly, for many years human beings have overlooked the major possibility of America being similar to Africa. Comparisons were ignored etc. But are these notions really as impossible as we were brought up to think? How could we possibly have had the same beginnings/history as one of the worlds superpowers? During this essay I am going to concentrate more on the development of the Americas as opposed to the development of South Africa as we have spent countless time and effort studying it in the previous years. Both were discovered by colonists trying to find a sea-route to India. The first known inhabitants of South Africa were the San and Khoikhoi hunters and gatherers who were followed southward by Bantu-speaking peoples between AD 1000 and 1500. The san, were hunter-gatherers, did not grow crops. They were migratory and moved in small groups. They were a very peaceful group of people. However, the medicine man, who was responsible for divination and curing the sick, played a pivotal role in these small communities. Diet consisted of variety of animals including shellfish and rhinos. They did not use metal; their weapons were made from wood, bones and stone. The women collected berries, leaves, bulbs and the roots of various plants. However, about 2000 years ago the discovery of livestock from the North and its impact on the hunter-gatherers lifestyle created friction between them and the pastoralists, mainly because the San saw the pastoralists as being invasive to their territory, and their animals as being invasive of their territorys natural resources . This was mainly because the idea of individualism was introduced; a contrast to the tradition of the San that all the resources of their territory- water, animals and plants- were the com...