General Information   History   Culture   Food   Driving   Money   Health & Safety   Weather   Telecomms   Public Holidays   Joburg Tourguide		General Information   Stadiums   Events Calendar	General Information   Advertise

About SA - Culture

Music

South African music tends to be divided along cultural lines. There are a number of local music types, for example, Kwaito (a kind of rap in an African language), and gospel music, particularly sung in an African language. More intellectual people tend to go for jazz (preferably local), and the upper classes occasionally indulge in the National Symphony Orchestra. There are some crossover bands which sing in English with an African sound, e.g., Johnny Clegg, but they're not that common. Most South African bands play either Jazz, Kwaito, Rock, Indie Rock, Grunge, or Heavy Metal. In fact the band Seether (formerly known as Saran Gas) did grunge so well that they met with greater success in the USA and moved there. The same applies to Dave Matthews, who also came from South Africa. The South African club scene is also split along music genres. There are dozens of radio stations, catering to every taste. You can just turn the dial and decide on what you like. Almost all stations play African music of various kinds, so you're most likely to hear that. Many stations also play pop music from the USA and UK.

South African English

South Africa is home to many different languages — there are eleven official languages — as well as a large number of unofficial ones. As a result, South Africans have many idiosyncrasies in their pronunciation and usage of English. English in South Africa has been most heavily influenced by Afrikaans — the language of the descendants of the Dutch Trekboers, who controlled the country from 1948-1994. So, for example, South Africans flatten their vowels and avoid diphthongs, e.g., "tin" is pronounced more like "tern." Similarly, the sound "I" is flattened to "ah," so the words "high," "ha" and "how" all sound very similar — "hah." There are many other examples, but you'll pick them up as you go. South African English speakers pride themselves as following British spelling and word usage, so, for example, we call fuel for cars "petrol," and we go to "petrol stations" or "garages," and we take a "lift" to get up to our "flat" (rather than taking an "elevator" to get to our "apartment"). This is probably because the British controlled South Africa until 1948. Indeed, until South Africa left the Commonwealth in 1961, we used the British Pound as our currency. And many South Africans go to the UK and do business there. The most prominent idiosyncrasy that you're likely to notice is that we call traffic lights "robots". If you see "robot" painted on the road, it means you're approaching a traffic signal.

If you want to learn more about South Africa's fascinating variety of languages, simply go into any branch of Exclusive Books, and look in the language section for a book on the language that you'd like to learn.

Religion

South Africa is quite a religious country, but there are constitutional checks in place which enforce tolerance, so although the country has a Christian majority, no-one may legally enforce any particular religion in schools, for example. Our Constitution has given us total division of Church and State. We do not have a national religion and we do not have religious ceremonies on State occasions such as the Inauguration of the President. Instead of a prayer or a Bible reading, the incoming president is hailed by a traditional praise-singer ("imbongi"). Stats SA reports that the metropolis, Johannesburg, is about 76% Christian. Islam is quite prominent in Johannesburg and Cape Town, and Hinduism is most common in Durban, on the east coast.

Sport

South Africans are very much an outdoors-oriented bunch. The majority are involved in, or interested in, some sort of outdoor sports. Richer people tend to favour golf, racing bicycles, gym, climbing. Afrikaners and English alike tend to devoutly follow two British sports: rugby and cricket. The rest of the country tends, in the vast majority, to follow mainly soccer (football). Basketball, American Football and baseball are not followed in SA. A great weekend, in the eyes of all South Africans, consists of turning on the TV to watch sport, while darting in and out of the house to check on the "braai" (barbeque, pronounced "bri" as in "bright"). Passages taken with permission from "An Insider's Guide to Johannesburg" by J. M. Ostrowick

Back