Sixth Grade
Worksheets
Reconciliation Day in South Africa
Daily theme
Reading Comprehension for December 16
Do you belong to any kind of group? It doesn't have to be an official group, like a sports or school club, just a close group of friends you like to hang out with. What makes it a group? Usually people like to be together because they have something in common, right? Are there groups of people you don't like? In many countries around the world, there are groups of people who don't get along. Many times, these disagreements turn into something awful like war or oppression.
One country that has had more than its fair share of conflict is South Africa. The conflict goes back many hundreds of years. In the 16th century, European explorers began arriving in South Africa. First among the differences were the way they looked - the Europeans were white, while the native South African tribes were black. Culturally, of course, they were also very different. The Europeans had very specific thoughts about life and religion that were very different from the natives' thoughts.
For the next few hundred years, these differences led to many problems in South Africa. The Europeans tried to control the natives and fought many battles with them. The native tribes, like the Zulu, fought back and did their best to expel the Europeans from their land. Finally, the conflicts bitterly split the country. For many years in the last half of the 20th century, South Africans lived under the racist policies of the government, called apartheid.
