Who are we?

FIFTEEN officials died counting South Africans in the census taken in October 2001, at least four of them from gunshot wounds. Many also had to face the dogs and electric fences of white residents unwilling to answer questions. The violence and the fear help explain the census results, published this week. These suggest that the white population is shrinking fast as a share of the total: from 10.9% in 1996 to 9.6% two years ago. The numbers speaking Afrikaans or English as a first language are also sharply down. English is now only the fifth most popular language.