The Intersectionality and Interconnectedness of Southern African Countries

This blog post will be split into two parts.

If you search up "Gini Coefficent Ranking" or "Most unequal countries on earth," a certain group of countries emerge: South Africa, Eswatini, Lesotho, Namibia, and Botswana. But these countries all have a common feature: they exist in the Southernmost tip of Africa. So what is it with this place that is so unequal? This stark disparity in wealth distribution is deeply rooted in the region's complex and tumultuous history.

The roots of inequality in Southern Africa stretch back to the colonial period, when European powers, particularly the British and the Dutch, established control over vast territories (by the way, this happened in the 19th century).

Colonizers prioritized resource extraction, exploiting the region's rich mineral wealth—gold, diamonds, and other valuable resources—while marginalizing the indigenous populations. This process involved the seizure of land and the establishment of a racial hierarchy that placed white settlers at the top and black Africans at the bottom. For those of you familiar with South African history, this was not Apartheid, but this system paved the path for a more formal system of oppression - known as Apartheid - to emerge.

Apartheid emerged in 1948, and it was an institutionalized system of racial segregation that denied black South Africans basic rights and economic opportunities. The government relocated the majority black South African population (around 70-80% of the population was black) to impoverished townships and homelands away from urban centers, known as the "Bantu Resettlement Act." While apartheid was unique to South Africa, similar dynamics of racial inequality played out in other countries. This is something that will be a common trend.

The end of the Apartheid Rule in 1994 did not immediately erase the deep-seated inequalities in these societies. In South Africa, the amount of education and economic privilege the blacks had against the whites was very marginal. Furthermore, upon gaining independence, countries like Botswana, Namibia, and Eswatini inherited economies that were highly skewed in favor of a small, often white, elite. The vast majority of the black population remained in poverty, with limited access to education, healthcare, and economic opportunities.

However, two main questions remain. First, why was this problem so prevalent in Southern Africa compared to other countries in Africa that had been under colonial rule? Second, why have these situations not improved, despite Apartheid ending 30 years ago? We will explore this in the next issue.