South Africa's "First Contacts"

Most of South Africa's original contacts with other countries came through the slave trade at Cape Town.

Searching for a trade route along the Cape of Good Hope was an important venture for Europeans because trade was less and less beneficial when it took so long to receive the financial return. The first ship to sail around the Cape of Good Hope on their quest east to India and elsewhere sailed in 1487, captained by Bartholomew Diaz. [1] Ten years later Vasco da Gama made a second trip, journeying successfully to India and establishing this trade route.

Picture from: http://www.sahistory.org.za/historical-ships-and-shipwrecks-along-south-african-coast

This flow of ships around the coast occasionally brought visitors to various towns along the coast for supplies, but because the locals were not very welcoming of outsiders, traders generally avoided Africa if possible.

The first permanent trading settlement in South Africa was established by the Dutch. In 1642, the Dutch "built a fort and established a supply station under the command of Jan Van Riebeeck on a site that later became Cape Town."[1] This fort would serve as a stopping point to replenish and rest on the trade route for the Dutch. The dynamic of this small, isolated fort quickly changed when the leaders decided to "allow a group of servants who had worked out their contracts to settle close by as independent farmers and supply the post with their produce."[1] 

With the increased independence of these free servants came a great increase in size of the settlement. A settlement of this growing size was bound to encounter the locals, and that they did, with great intensity. They slaughtered many of the San people in revenge for small disputes.[1] Even more locals were killed by European and Asian disease introduced to the African natives. The most devastating of these diseases was undoubtedly smallpox. 

For the most part, there is very little Asian influence in South Africa. There has always been a limited migration rate between the two countries and until recently with political and financial market involvement, the two nations have had very little interaction. Aside from the occasional trader passing through and bringing disease, Asia has had limited influence in this region.



[1]"Arrival of Europeans in South Africa" http://www.footprinttravelguides.com/africa-middle-east/south-africa/history/arrival-of-europeans-in-south-africa/