South+Africa

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Welkom to the Naturalistic Land of South Africa!! = = = = = Essential Understandings =

===Identify and compare the cultural characteristics of different regions and people (e.g., in terms of their use of environment and resources, technology, food, shelter, beliefs and schooling, etc.). ===

===Illustrate or retell the main ideas in folktales, legends, songs, myths and stories of heroism that describe the history and traditions of various cultures. ===

=There are many different cultural arts, wild life, nature and regions in South Africa.=

**Expository Writing on South Africa**
 There are many different cultural arts, wild life, nature and regions that make the South African Culture. There is a great variety of South African music. Many black musicians who sang in Afrikaans or English during apartheid have begun to sing in traditional African languages, and have developed a unique style called Kwaito. One exaple is Brenda Fassie, who launched to fame with her song "Weekend Special", which was sung in English. More famous traditional musicians include Ladysmith Black Mambazo, while the Soweto String Quartet performs classic music with an African flavour. White and Coloured South African singers are historically influenced by European musical styles. South Africa has produced world-famous jazz musicians, notably Hugh Masekela, Jonas Gwangwa, Abdullah Ibrahim, Miriam Makeba, Jonathan Butler, Chris McGregor, and Sathima Bea Benjamin. Afrikaans music covers multiple genres, such as Steve Hofmeyr and the punk rock band Fokofpolisiekar. Crossover artists such as Verity and Johnny Clegg and his bands Juluka and Savuka have enjoyed various success underground, publicly, and abroad.

The South African music scene includes Kwaito, a new music genre that had developed in the mid 80s and has since developed to become the most popular social economical form of representation among the populous. Though some may argue that the political consideration of Kwaito has since decreased after the Apartheid, and the relative interest in politics has become a minor aspect of daily life. Some argue that in a sense, Kwaito is in fact a political force that shows activism in its apolitical actions. Today, major corporations like Sony, BMG, and EMI have appeared on the South African scene to produce and distribute Kwaito music. Due to its overwhelming popularity, as well as the general influence of DJs, who are among the top 5 most influential types of people within the country, Kwaito has taken over radio, television, and magazines.

South Africa has eleven official languages: Afrikaans, English, Ndebele, Northern Sotho, Sotho, Swazi, Tswana, Tsonga, Venda, Xhosa and Zulu. In this regard it is third only to Bolivia and India in number. While all the languages are formally equal, some languages are spoken more than others. According to the 2001 National Census, the three most spoken first home languages are Zulu, Xhosa and Afrikaans. Despite the fact that English is mostly used as the language of commerce and science, it was spoken by only a few of South Africans at home in 2001, an even lower percentage than in 1996.

The country also uses eight unofficial languages: Fanagalo, Khoe, Lobedu, Nama, Northern Ndebele, Phuthi, San and South African Sign Language. These unofficial languages may be used in certain official uses in limited areas where it has been determined that these languages are prevalent.

Many of the "unofficial languages" of the San and Koi Koi people contain regional dialects stretching northwards into Namibia and Botswana, and elsewhere. These people, who are a physically distinct population from other Africans, have their own cultural identity based on their hunter-gatherer societies. They have been marginalised to a great extent, and many of their languages are in danger of becoming extinct.

Many white South Africans also speak other European languages, such as Portugese, German, and Greek, while some Asians and Indians in South Africa speak South Asian languages, such as Tamil, Hindi, Gujarati, Urdu and Telugu. French is still widely spoken by French South Africans especially in places like Franschhoek, where many South Africans are of French origin.

There is a variety of animals in South Africa’s outdoor Safari. I am going to present to you the “so called” **Big Five **. The **Big Five ** means the Large, Powerful, and Mighty.

 <- Lion Sleeping Lions, noble by birth and powerful by nature, lion cubs nevertheless have more to learn than most other predators: their prey is large and particularly agile when escaping their advances. For this reason, the adult lioness devotes much of her time to nurture her cubs and helping her cubs accurately bring down prey, fostering their independence in the process. A typical pride consists of a couple of territorial lions and many as 18 lionesses. They form a co-operative extended family where the responsibility for protecting cubs is a general adult concern. One adult lioness will babysit while the youngsters’ mothers hunt- a strict and fiercely defensive chaperone. Playful cuds build experience by playing at hunting their brothers or sisters. While adults are tolerant of cubs, there are limits. When one adult is simply pooped with their cubs or pride mates, the cubs go on to test the patience of the adult. Security lies in staying together at ALL TIMES. A lioness will grab he cub(s) in a thicket while she looks for prey to hunt. Mothers lead their cub(s) to the pride after 4-8 weeks where they are suckled and cared for communally. Elephants, nomads of the African landscape, elephant herds comprise a matriarch(Woman/Mom) and her calves, her daughters and their offspring(calf/calves). The matriarch determines all movement. Elephant females show great affection for their young. An adult female will often risk her own life when danger comes near her calf. Elephants also express grief for dead relatives through rituals which illustrate the extent of respect within a herd. Leopard bye day, a lethargic icon of South Africa’s **Big Five **; by night, a skilled and ruthless predator. Young leopard, born in small litters of 2 or 3, begin to learn hunting skills at the age of 4 months and become independent at the age of 14 months. However, they will stay close to their mother who often helps with handouts when cubs are struggling to master the art. A shy creature, the leopard is often spotted longingly draped in the crook of a tree. It is to this safe haven that leopard will drag a kill, using strength and stamina, in order to enjoy it uninterrupted by curious scavengers. Buffalo a non-territorial animal that can roam the savannah in large herds with an appointed “navigator” to lead the herd to good grazing. A single calf is born during the summer. While the newborn spends several hours summoning the strength to move with the herd, mother and calf are often left behind, and fall easy prey to predators. As few as 20% of young buffalo reach maturity. White Rhinoceros the wide, square lip identifies this breed as a family of grazers. Folds of weathered skin and a sharp set of horns at its snout render the rhinoceros a remnant of a pre-historic era: today however, while both black and white rhinoceros are still threatened to be extinct, numbers are increasing under carefully monitored captivity. VAN HUNKS & THE DEVIL Jan van Hunks, a Dutch pirate in the early 18th century, retired from his eventful life at sea to live on the slopes of Devil's Peak, Table Mountain. To escape from his wife's sharp tongue he often walked up the mountain where he settled down to smoke his pipe. One day a mysterious stranger approached him and asked the retired pirate to borrow some tobacco. After a bit of bragging, a smoking contest ensued, with the winner's prize a ship full of gold. After several days, Van Hunks finally defeated the stranger, who unfortunately turned out to be the devil. Suddenly, thunder rolled, the clouds closed in and Van Hunks disappeared, leaving behind only a scorched patch of ground. Legend has it that the cloud of tobacco smoke they left became the "table-cloth" - the famous white cloud that spills over Table Mountain when the south-easter blows in summer. When that happens, it is said that Van Hunks and the Devil are at it again. THE MILKY WAY A strong-willed girl became so angry when her mother would not give her any of a delicious roasted root that she grabbed the roasting roots from the fire and threw the roots and ashes into the sky, where the red and white roots now glow as red and white stars, and the ashes are the Milky Way. And there the road is to this day. Some people call it the Milky Way; some call it the Stars' Road, but no matter what you call it, it is the path made by a young girl many, many years ago, who threw the bright sparks of her fire high up into the sky to make a road in the darkness. THE SUN The Sun was once a man who made it day when he raised his arms, for a powerful light shone from his armpits. But as he grew old and slept too long, the people grew cold. Children crept up on him, and threw him into the sky, where he became round and has stayed warm and bright ever since. Some believed that after sunset the sun traveled back to the east over the top of the sky, and that the stars are small holes which let the light through. Others said that the sun is eaten each night by a crocodile, and that it emerges from the crocodile each morning. According to a Naron bushman, the Sun turned into a rhinoceros at sunset, which was killed and eaten by the people in the west. They then throw the shoulder blade towards the east, where it turns into an animal again and starts to rise. THE WHITE MAN AND SNAKE A white man, it is said, met Snake upon whom a large stone had fallen and covered her so that she could not rise. The White Man lifted the stone off Snake, but when he had done so, she wanted to bite him. The White Man said, " Stop! let us both go first to some wise people." They went to Hyena, and the White Man asked him, "Is it right that Snake should want to bite me, when I helped her as she lay under a stone and could not rise?" Hyena (who thought he would get his share of the White Man's body) said, "If you were bitten what would it matter?" Then Snake wanted to bite him, but the White Man said again, "Wait a little, and let us go to other wise people, that I may hear whether this is right." They went and met Jackal. The White Man said to Jackal, "Is it right for Snake to want to bite me, when I lifted up the stone which lay upon her?" Jackal replied, "I do not believe that Snake could be covered by a stone so she could not rise. Unless I saw it with my two eyes, I would not believe it. Therefore, come let us go and see the place where you say it happened whether it can be true." They went, and arrived at the place where it had happened. Jackal said, "Snake, lie down, and let thyself be covered." Snake did so, and the White Man covered her with the stone; but although she exerted herself very much, she could not rise. Then the White Man wanted again to release Snake, but Jackal interfered, and said, "Do not lift the stone. She wanted to bite you, therefore she may rise by herself." Then they both went away and left Snake under the stone.

In the precolonial period, indigenous cuisine was characterized by the use of a very wide range of foods including fruits, nuts, bulbs, leaves and other products gathered from wild plants and by the hunting of wild game. The domestication of cattle in the region about two thousand years ago by Khoisan groups enabled the use of milk products and the availability of fresh meat on demand. However, during the colonial period the seizure of communal land in South Africa restricted and discouraged traditional agriculture and wild harvesting, and reduced the extent of land available to black people. Men also kept sheep and goats, and communities often organized vast hunts for the abundant game; but beef was considered the absolutely most important and high status meat. The ribs of any cattle that was slaughtered in many communities were so prized that they were offered to the chief of the village.

In many ways, the daily food of Black South African families can be traced to the indigenous foods that their ancestors ate. A typical meal in a Black South African family household that is Bantu-speaking is a stiff, fluffy porridge of maize meal (called "pap," and very similar to American grits) with a flavorful stewed meat gravy. Traditional rural families (and many urban ones) often ferment their pap for a few days — especially if it is sorghum instead of maize — which gives it a tangy flavor. The Sotho-Tswana call this fermented pap, "ting."

For many Black South Africans, the center of any meal is the meat. The Khoisan ate roasted meat, and they also dried meat for later use. The influence of their diet is reflected in the universal (black and white) Southern African love of barbecue (generally called in South Africa by its Afrikaans name, a "braai") and biltong (dried preserved meat). As in the past, when men kept cattle as their prized possession in the rural areas, Black South Africans have a preference for beef. Today, Black South Africans enjoy not only beef, but mutton, goat, chicken and other meats as a centerpiece of a meal. On weekends, many Black South African families, like white South Africans, have a "braai," and the meal usually consists of "pap and vleis," which is maize porridge and grilled meat. Vegetarianism is generally met with puzzlement among Black South Africans, although most meals are served with vegetables such as pumpkin, beans and cabbage.

Urbanization from the nineteenth century onward, coupled with close control over agricultural production, led black South Africans to rely more and more on comparatively expensive, industrially-processed foodstuffs like wheat flour, white rice, mealie (maize) meal and sugar. Before the arrival of crops from the Americas, //pap // was mostly made from sorghum, but maize is much more prevalent today. Often these foods were imported or processed by white wholesalers, mills and factories. The consequence was to drastically restrict the range of ingredients and cooking styles used by indigenous cooks.

On the other hand, some imported food plants (maize, tomatoes) have expanded the dietary range of indigenous cooks. Of these maize is the most significant - it has been integrated to such an extent into the traditional diet that it is often assumed to be an indigenous plant.

Popular foods in modern South Africa are chicken, limes, garlic, ginger, chili, tomatoes, onions and many spices.

​Music Videos: Soweto String Quartet [] Miriam Makeba: []

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Combine the flour, baking soda, cream of tartar, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, ground cloves, brown sugar, and almonds in a large bowl. Add the butter and cut into the flour mixture. Add the beaten eggs and red wine and mix dough together vigorously until it can be formed into a ball.=====

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Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. On a lightly floured surface, roll the dough into a rough circle about 1/4" thick. With a cookie cutter, cut the dough into 2" rounds. Arrange the rounds about 1" apart on a buttered cookie sheet. Continue cutting cookies, then brush each gently with the egg white. Bake for 15 minutes - until golden brown. Remove to a rack to cool completely.=====

Bibliography/Resources Information on Music from Wikipedia: [] Information on Languages from Wikipedia: [] Information on Wild Life from Young Wild Life: Young Wild Life by: Unknown Published in: Durban, Johannesburg, Cape Town Information on Myths/Legends from Road Travel South Africa: [] Information on Cuisine from Wikipedia: []
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Essential Understandings: Geography **


 * 1) Explain how mountains form.
 * 2) Describe how features of Earth's surface have changed over millions of years. Know how features of the Earth’s surface are constantly changed by a combination of slow and rapid processes (e.g., weathering, erosion, and deposition of sediment caused by waves, wind, water, and ice, sudden changes in the landscape caused by landslides volcanic eruptions, and earthquakes).

Essential Questions: Geography
How do Mountains form? What are the features of earths surface that has changed over millions of years?

Recourses Wikipedia: []
 * PhotoStory on Mountains!! (Put your head phones on!!)**
 * media type="file" key="Mountains PhotoStory MJ.wmv" width="300" height="300"

KWL Chart of my South Africa Study **