British diaspora in Africa

The British diaspora in Africa is a population group broadly defined as English-speaking people of mainly (but not only) British descent who live in or were born in the African continent. The majority live in South Africa and other Southern African countries in which English is a primary language, including Zimbabwe, Namibia, Kenya, Botswana and Zambia. Their first language is usually English. The term 'British diaspora in Africa' is usually used to refer to White Africans of British ancestry - anglicised native Africans are not thought to be a part of the British diaspora.

History

Colonialism

Although there were earlier British settlements at ports along the West African coast to facilitate the British Atlantic slave trade, more permanent British settlement in Africa did not begin in earnest until the end of the eighteenth century, at the Cape of Good Hope in Southern Africa. British settlement in the Cape gained momentum following the second British occupation of the Dutch Cape Colony in 1806. The government encouraged British settlers in Albany ("Settler Country") in 1820 in order to consolidate the British Cape Colony's eastern frontier during the Cape Frontier Wars against the Xhosa. The Crown proclaimed Natal in southeastern Africa as a British colony in 1843. Following the defeat of the Boers in the Second Boer War in 1902, Britain annexed the Boer Republics of the Transvaal Republic and the Orange Free State.

Scottish medical missionary David Livingstone became known for his exploration of the African continent.