South African Culture in New York City is mostly in art, dance, fashion, film, food, literature, music, and theatre. 🇿🇦
New York City Wine and Food Festival (NYCWFF) Fundraises for God’s Love We Deliver Out of Brooklyn This Year, Oy Vey
BROOKLYN
North 🇺🇸 🇨🇷 🇬🇹 🇭🇳 🇲🇽 🇵🇦
Caribe 🇨🇺 🇩🇴 🇯🇲 🇵🇷 🇹🇹
South 🇦🇷 🇨🇴 🇪🇨 🇵🇪 🇻🇪
Africa 🇬🇭 🇪🇹 🇲🇦 🇿🇦
Asia 🇨🇳 🇮🇳 🇱🇧 🇯🇵 🇵🇭
Global Citizen Festival Features ALOK, Doja Cat, Rauw Alejandro, Raye and More
GREAT LAWN, Central Park 🇧🇷 🇬🇭 🇵🇷 🇿🇦 🇰🇷
Armory Show Celebrates 30 Years of International Contemporary Art Fairs in New York City
JAVITS CENTER, Hudson Yards, Manhattan 🇺🇸 🇦🇷 🇧🇸 🇧🇷 🇨🇳 🇨🇴 🇨🇺 🇫🇷 🇨🇦 🇮🇳 🇮🇹 🇲🇽 🇳🇬 🇵🇪 🇵🇷 🇸🇬 🇿🇦 🇪🇸
World Orchestra Week is a Festival of International Youth Orchestras from Afghanistan, Africa, America, China, Europe, and Venezuela at Carnegie Hall
CARNEGIE HALL, Midtown, Manhattan 🇦🇫 🇺🇸 🇬🇧 🇨🇳 🇨🇩 🇭🇺 🇰🇪 🇲🇿 🇳🇬 🇿🇦 🇺🇦 🇻🇪
Africa United Youth Orchestra Makes its Carnegie Hall Debut with South African Composers and Sopranos, plus Dvořák’s Symphony No. 9, “From the New World”
CARNEGIE HALL, Midtown, Manhattan 🇺🇸 🇨🇩 🇰🇪 🇲🇿 🇳🇬 🇿🇦
Westminster Dog Show 2024 Has Latin Breeds Competing for Best in Show
BILLIE JEAN KING NATIONAL TENNIS CENTER, Flushing Meadows Corona Park, Queens 🇨🇩 🇨🇬 🇨🇺 🇫🇷 🇮🇹 🇲🇽 🇵🇹 🇿🇦 🇪🇸 🇿🇼
New York African Film Festival 2024 Sees the Convergence of Time
FILM AT LINCOLN CENTER, Upper West Side, Manhattan
MAYSLES DOCUMENTARY CENTER, Harlem, Manhattan
BROOKLYN ACADEMY OF MUSIC (BAM), Fort Greene, Brooklyn
🇧🇷 🇨🇬 🇨🇩 🇪🇬 🇫🇷 🇬🇭 🇮🇳 🇰🇪 🇳🇦 🇳🇬 🇷🇼 🇸🇳 🇸🇱 🇿🇦 🇹🇿 🇺🇸 🇿🇼
1-54 Contemporary African Art Fair Shows African and African Diaspora Art
STARRETT-LEGHIGH BUILDING, Chelsea, Manhattan 🇺🇸 🇫🇷 🇲🇦 🇳🇬 🇿🇦 🇪🇸 🇺🇬
Frieze New York 2024 is NYC’s Big Spring Contemporary Art Fair
THE SHED, Hudson Yards, Manhattan 🇧🇷 🇨🇴 🇮🇹 🇮🇹 🇲🇽 🇵🇭 🇵🇹 🇿🇦
Summer for the City Brings the World to Lincoln Center with Free or Pay-What-You-Wish Concerts
LINCOLN CENTER, Upper West Side, Manhattan 🇺🇸 🇦🇷 🇦🇺 🇧🇷 🇰🇾 🇨🇱 🇨🇴 🇩🇴 🇪🇨 🇫🇷 🇭🇹 🇮🇶 🇮🇹 🇨🇮 🇯🇲 🇯🇴 🇲🇱 🇲🇽 🇳🇬 🇵🇸 🇵🇪 🇵🇭 🇵🇷 🇿🇦 🇸🇩 🇹🇹 🇻🇪 🇿🇼
Ensemble Modern Plays International New Chamber Music Curated by Tania León at Carnegie Hall
CARNEGIE HALL, Midtown, Manhattan 🇩🇪 ~ 🇨🇺 🇮🇹 🇲🇽 🇿🇦
globalFEST is a World Music Showcase at David Geffen Hall in Lincoln Center
DAVID GEFFEN HALL, Lincoln Center, Manhattan ~ alternative, bomba, folk, R&B, rock, world music. 🇺🇸 🇧🇷 🇩🇴 🇫🇷 🇮🇳 🇲🇽 🇲🇦 🇵🇷 🇿🇦 🇪🇸 🇺🇦
South African Culture Sponsors
Thank you for sponsoring South African culture in New York City.
New York South African News
South African New York City
We are not aware of any South African communities in New York although there must be some among New York City’s African Diasporic communities.
South Africans in NYC is an Instagram group. @saffasinnyc
South African Food in NYC
- Kaia Wine Bar in Manhattan’s Upper East Side focuses on South African wines. kaiawinebar.com
South African Government in NYC
- The South African Consulate is in Midtown East, Manhattan. southafrica-usa.net
South African Culture
South Africa has been called “The Rainbow Nation” because it is so diverse.
South African Art
Some of the world’s oldest known art from around 75,000 years ago was discovered in a South African cave.
South African Film
“The Gods Must Be Crazy” is a 1980 comedy about a Coca-Cola bottle thrown from an airplane into the bush. A Bushman sees it fall and thinks it is a gift from God. The shiny new object causes disruption in the community, so the Bushman decides to walk to the end of the world and throw the bottle away. It leads to many adventures.
South African Government
Former freedom fighter and President Nelson Mandela (1918-2013), remains a global human rights icon. nelsonmandela.org
South African Music
Ladysmith Black Mambazo is a world-famous South African choir. These multiple Grammy winners and really inspiring. @theladysmithblackmambazo
Amapiano is South African house music from the townships. It’s mostly sung in Zulu or Xhosa with the occasional English word. Opening and closing one leg from the hip is a signature movement. Dancers keep the upper and lower bodies moving all the time with small movements that play with various pendulum motions. It’s fun to dance and fun to watch the dancers. Tik Tok and YouTube are full of amapiano dancers. Amapiano’s log drum sound is already showing up in popular music around the world.
Tyla’s “Water” (2024) took amapiano global. She sings it in English. Her dance with its grinding moves took over Tik Tok for a while. Tyla is 100% South African, but she has an Indian heritage. It’s another proof point that we are all mixed.
South Africa
South Africa is in a strategic location at the southern tip of Africa, between the Atlantic and Indian Oceans.
The Origin of Us
Along with Southeast Africa, South Africa has long been considered part of the region where humans come from.
Recent scholarship suggests that we don’t come from one group in one place, but rather from many groups in Mother Africa who were separated at times and mixed together at times. We, Homo Sapiens, are the product of that mix. It’s an interesting proof that diversity is a sign of a healthy ecosystem.
The early people of South Africa are the Khoisan (or San) people who include Khoekhoe nomadic farmers and San hunter-gatherers.
The San remain, but were largely displaced by the Bantu expansion out of Central Africa. The Xhosa are among the southernmost Bantu peoples.
Colonial Era
Being colonized is an apocalyptic horror. Portuguese explorer Bartolomeu Dias led the first European expedition to land in South Africa in 1487. His story “Os Lusíadas” by Luís de Camões (1572) is the foundation of Portuguese literature and identity.
The Dutch East India Company set up a trading post in 1652.
Modern Era
Though it has become an icon for African self-rule, modern South Africa is still partly defined by the Apartheid Era’s (1948-1994) separation of society into White, Black, Indian, and Coloured groups.
Freedom is just one generation new. It takes multiple generations to recover from major social shocks, so the story of Modern South Africa is not yet fully written.