Southern Africa is the southernmost region of the African continent, variably defined by geography or geopolitics, and including several countries. The term southern Africa or Southern Africa, generally includes Angola, Botswana, Eswatini(Swaziland), Lesotho, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa, Zambia, and Zimbabwe, though Angola may be included in Central Africa and Malawi, Mozambique, Zambia and Zimbabwe in East Africa. From a political perspective, the region is said to be unipolar with South Africa as a first regional power.
UN scheme of geographic regions and SACU
In the United Nations scheme of geographic regions, five states constitute Southern Africa:
Botswana
Eswatini (Swaziland)
Lesotho
Namibia
South Africa
The Southern African Customs Union (SACU), created in 1969, also comprises the five states in the UN subregion of Southern Africa.
SADC membership
The Southern African Development Community (SADC) was established in 1980 to facilitate co-operation in the region. It includes:
Angola- Botswana
Comoros
Democratic Republic of the Congo- Eswatini (Swaziland)
- Lesotho
Madagascar
Malawi
Mauritius
Mozambique- Namibia
Seychelles- South Africa
Tanzania
Zambia
Zimbabwe
Culture and people
Southern Africa is home to many cultures and people. It was initially populated by indigenous or native Africans San, Khoikhoi and Pygmies in widely dispersed concentrations. Due to the Bantu expansion which edged the previous native African peoples to the more remote areas of the region, the majority of African ethnic groups in this region, including the Xhosa, Zulu, Tsonga, Swazi, Northern Ndebele, Southern Ndebele, Tswana, Sotho, and Shona people, BaLunda, Mbundu, Ovimbundu, Chaga and Sukuma, speak Bantu languages. The process of colonization and settling resulted in a significant population of native European (Afrikaner, British, Portuguese Africans, etc.) and Asian descent (Cape Malays, Indian South Africans, etc.) in many southern African countries.
