How many white South Africans are of German and English descent?

Question

I've read that most white South Africans have Dutch ancestry but i just want to know roughly how many are of German and English descent?

Answer 1

Hi Chris.
Sorry I dont have exact figures on this one, but I can tell you that most Afrikaans speaking South Africans are of Dutch descent.(approx 80%), with some being of German and French descent (some of the Huguenots surnames like Le Roux and Labuschagne still exist)
There are about 2million "English South Africans" or non Afrikaner whites in the country, and about 3/4 off them trace their roots to England, Scotland and Ireland.
As for Germans, many Jewish Germans fled to SA, before WW2 and more non-Jewish Germans (and Austrians) came to SA after the war, because it offered more opportunities, but it is hard to find exact figures.
My father is Afrikaans (our surname is French) and my mother was amongst those German speakers who came after the war.
There are also many people who descent from other European countries eg Portugal and Greece.
Hope this helps.

Answer 2

It is difficult to say how many South Africans come from each individual european country. But most comer from Holland, England, France, Germany and even countries like poland and russia. When you visit france and go to the Arc the Triomph, and look up napoleons generals surnames you will see that many of those surnames are common south african surnames. My family tree is all german with both my grandfathers being from german descendants. After my one grandfather died my grandmother(also german heritage) married to a scottish/south african. So you can say south african white blood lines stretch all over britain and europe. Afrikaans is a mixture of mostly Dutch, with german and english flavoured words as well.

Answer 3

I am, although German-speaking Namibian instead of German-speaking South African. I would imagine there are quite a few out there. KwaZulu-Natal - area around Vryheid - has a large number of German-speaking people with German schools etc. In Pretoria there is a German old-age home. Whether German-speakers would necessarily have produced offspring with English-speakers is a hard debate, especially because the "white" population in SA are pretty mixed in their heritage. And as Porgie points out, there is a little bit of mixture in all of us...

It would most probably be impossible to tell how many there are with this combination descent as it is not a category under the census. But we are out there....but I prefer to just call myself an African first and South African second.

cf

Answer 4

a lot... I personally know a lot of white english speaking south africans who are of english, scottish and irish descent. Also there are those of german descent, the german community in SA is very strong.

Answer 5

That is a really hard question to answer. I know from my recent visit that many of the towns and places and even streets have Afrikaans names and spellings. Most of the restaurants that we went to had many Afrikaans meals on the menu's. I believe it is a mixture of Dutch and German Settlers. Africa is a very diverse place, however the black south Africans total almost 80 per cent of the population, according to Wikipedia.

Answer 6

I'm a South African, but I was considered a non-white in the Apartheid-era. Now I'm just a South African. But a recent study by my uncle showed that I am from German descent. My mother's maiden name was Mettler. When my uncle looked up our family tree he ended up at some white South African's home. Can you imagine? My father's family tree is more detailed and leads to India. Which means I'm a true bast*rd!

Answer 7

Me I am of English and German descent, and a little bit of Yugoslavian descent too I think.

Answer 8

theres some scottish somewhere down the line in this family! but with a surname of hildagarde it sounds dutch or german~ im gonna go and check it out

Answer 9

South African Of Dutch Descent

Answer 10

Im from German and Frence descended my language is also very close to dutch.