South Africa

South Africa is located on the southern tip of Africa, with coastlines on both the Atlantic and Indian oceans. Africa’s third-largest economy behind Nigeria and Egypt, South Africa draws hundreds of thousands of visitors each year eager to see its impressive terrain, wildlife and cultural diversity.

Although South Africa has come a long way since the end of apartheid in 1994, it remains a country of vast inequality and high crime. While the country is dotted with world-class dining, trendy shops, sprawling vineyards and upscale safari lodges, townships lacking basic infrastructure are often only a short distance away.

About 80 percent of South Africa’s population is black African, whose ancestors predated the arrival of English and Dutch settlers in the 17th century. Throughout the 19th century, South African history was dominated by power struggles among the Dutch and British, the discovery of diamonds and gold and clashes caused by European expansion. 

Many Afrikaner nationalists, descendants of the Dutch, pushed for race-based segregation throughout the 20th century, their efforts eventually culminating in the introduction of apartheid in the late 1940s. The policy cemented white rule by creating a race-based caste system and limited freedoms for the country’s non-white citizens. 

[Explore the top universities in South Africa.]