South Africa

South Africa stamps available online at Io Collezionista. South Africa is the southernmost nation of the African continent, and that has predictably shaped the country's modern name: the colloquial term Mzansi, which comes from the Bantu language Xhosa, likewise means south. The British colonial past, which in 1910 unified the territories of the various colonies to create the Union of South Africa, is plain to see in the stamps in this category, for instance those showing the sovereign George V, on the throne from 1910 to 1936. English is also one of the 11 languages officially recognised by the new constitution promulgated in 1994 by President Nelson Mandela, a central figure in the abolition of apartheid and the first Black man to hold that high office in the country's history.