The Earliest South Africans, British Colonialism, Black Resistance in the 1950s, Consolidating Apartheid, Divisions in the White Community. The oldest evidence in the world documenting the emergence of humankind has been found in South Africa; fossils of the earliest hominids (Australopithecus africanus ) date back at least 2.5 million years, and remains linked to modern Homo sapiens date back more than 50,000 years. Roughly 20,000 years ago, South Africa, still in the grip of the world's last Ice Age, was occupied by people now known as San. Remnants of San communities still survive today as so-called Bushmen (now considered a pejorative term) in the Kalahari Desert. South Africa History and Cultural Information and Travel Guide. Vacation package Book