Overview

South Africa is a nation of 471,445 square miles (1,221,043 square kilometers), slightly smaller than the combined areas of Texas, New Mexico, and Arizona. As its name implies, it is located at the southern tip of Africa, with Namibia to the northwest; Botswana to the north; and Zimbabwe, Mozambique, and Swaziland to the northeast. The nation of Lesotho is entirely contained within South Africa, one of the few places on earth where such a phenomenon occurs. As for the western, southern, and eastern boundaries of South Africa, these are formed by oceans. The Atlantic lies to the west, and the Indian Ocean to the south and east. A line along the twentieth parallel east, near Cape Agulhas, forms the boundary between the two oceans.

The population of South Africa, almost 43 million people in 1998, is extremely diverse ethnically, and indeed ethnic divisions form a central theme...