Bantu peoples of South Africa
South African Bantu-speaking peoples represent the majority ethno-racial group of South Africans. Occasionally grouped as Bantu, the term itself is derived from the English word "people", common to many of the Bantu languages. The Oxford Dictionary of South African English describes "Bantu", when used in a contemporary usage or racial context as "obsolescent and offensive", because of its strong association with the "white minority rule" with their Apartheid system. However, Bantu is used without pejorative connotations in other parts of Africa and is still used in South Africa as the group term for the language family.
African – ethnic or racial reference in South Africa is a synonym to Black South Africans. It is also used to refer to expatriate Black people from other African countries who are in South Africa.
South Africa's Bantu language speaking communities are roughly classified into four main groups: Nguni, Sotho–Tswana, Vhavenda and Shangana–Tsonga, with the Nguni and Basotho-Tswana being the largest groups, as follows:
Venda people's village of Mbilwe, Rondavels as its structures on a rising slope as photographed in 1923, a decade after the Natives Land Act, 1913[37]
![Venda people's village of Mbilwe, Rondavels as its structures on a rising slope as photographed in 1923, a decade after the Natives Land Act, 1913[37]](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/8/8c/The_Venda_people%27s_Mbilwe_village_on_a_rising_slope_as_photographed_in_1920s.png/126px-The_Venda_people%27s_Mbilwe_village_on_a_rising_slope_as_photographed_in_1920s.png)
A reconstruction in a heritage site of KwaZulu-Natal of the Zulu people's variation of a hut called iQhugwane, which dominated as an indigenous abode during Dingane kaSenzangakhona's reign.
Bahurutshe people's homestead of veranda Rondavels pre-1822 from the ancient city of Kaditshwene (c.1400s–c.1820s).
Early 19th century, South Africa. Bantu-speaking peoples of South Africa's variation of a hut, built on stilts, to protect themselves from lions and other predatory animals.
Modern usage of the Rondavel, residency near the coastline of Eastern Cape, South Africa.
Historically, communities lived in two different types of houses before this tradition was dominated by one, the Rondavel. The Nguni people usually used the beehive house, a circular structure made of long poles covered with grass. The huts of the Sotho–Tswana people, Venda people and Shangana–Tsonga people, used the cone and cylinder house type. A cylindrical wall is formed out of vertical posts, which is sealed with mud and cow dung. The roof built from poles tied-together, covered with grass. The floor of both types is compressed earth.[35]
The Rondavel itself developed from the general, grass domed African-style hut nearly 3 000 years ago, its first variety, the veranda Rondavel, emerged about 1 000 years ago in southern Africa. Colonial housing styles inspired the rectangular shaping of the Rondavel from the 1870s, this is regarded as the beginning of the Rondavel's westernization that sees this African indigenous invention even today being popularly known as the Rondavel, (a derivative of Afrikaans: Rondawel), instead of its indigenous name(s). Constraints caused by urbanisation produced a highveld type of style housing, shack-like, structures coalesced with corrugated metal sheeting (introduced during the British colonization), this marked a significant visible change in the southern African region, it attested to the contemporary pressures of South African Bantu-speaking peoples's realities, especially that of resources.[36]