south africa

Taking a departure from Americana, the rustic camp sometimes looks elsewhere to pull inspiration, since a camp can be many things to many people. South Africa is one such place. Located in the southern most portion of Africa and considered one of the wealthiest countries on the planet, South Africa was originally colonized by the Dutch to have a refreshment station built in 1652 by Jan van Riebeeck on behalf of the Dutch East India Company. The country started becoming a haven for weary merchants from the East India trade route. As the Dutch moved further into the land they encroached on the Xhosa and Zulu tribes land. This created turmoil and many wars erupted. Soon the Dutch were not able to stabilize the area, and the French moved in, causing further turmoil and war. The British eventually fought and took over the area and attempted to defeat the slave trade routes in 1807 and mildly stabilized the region. By the 1910 the country was unionized under segregation and maintained to be a country divided until 1990's. Post-aparteid South Africa was when creativity and design began to flourish.  The country began to see ideas of east meets west blend more smoothly and design began to blossom the ideas of english and african design. Modern artists tend to keep to minimalism with tastes of outdoorsy rustic due to the beauty of the countries physical landscape. Some designers, artists and organizations to follow are: John Kramer, Haldane Martin, and Ronel Jordaan.