South Africa, southernmost country in Africa, a land of diversity and division in its geography, people, and political history. Physically, tall mountain ranges separate fertile coastal plains from high interior plateaus. The grassland and desert of the plateaus hide pockets of amazing mineral wealth, particularly in gold and diamonds.

Black Africans comprise more than three quarters of South Africa’s population, and whites, Coloureds (people of mixed race), and Asians (mainly Indians) make up the remainder. Among the black population there are numerous ethnic groups and 11 official languages. Until the 1990s, whites dominated the nonwhite majority population under the political system of racial segregation known as apartheid. Apartheid ended in the early 1990s, but South Africa is still recovering from the racial inequalities in political power, opportunity, and lifestyle. The end of apartheid led to a total reorganization of the government, which since 1994 has been a nonracial democracy based on majority rule.