Photos of Eastern Cape Province, heartland of the Xhosa, South Africa

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Eastern Cape Province, heartland of the Xhosa

The Eastern Cape Province was formed in 1994, merging the eastern portion of the large Cape Province with the defunct Xhosa “Homelands” or Bantustans of Ciskei and Transkei. The Xhosa Kingdom in the 19th century was one of the most powerful in Africa and fought the encroachment of Dutch “Trekboers” and later the British for a hundred years: the nine Xhosa Wars, 1779 to 1879.

Port Elizabeth (Gqeberha)
 
Grahamstown (Makhanda)
 
Location of Grahamstown
 
Xhosa boys, Makhanda
 
View to Zwelitsha
 
Xhosa woman, Komga
 
Xhosa women and girls
 
Xhosa houses
 
Xhosa houses
 
In Fingoland
 
Location, Butterworth (Gcuwa)
 
Xhosa farms
 
Xhosa rondavel
 
Two Gcaleka girls
 
Tembu woman, Cala
 
Two Tembu women
 
Tembu houses
 
In Thembuland
 
Between Idutywa and Umtata
 
Xhosa uMkwetha initiate
 
Xhosa farms
 
Bunga building, Umtata
 
York Road, Umtata
 
Xhosa houses near Umtata
 
Coffee Bay, beach
 
Herd boys
 
Causeway, Mtata river
 
Houses near Mlengana Pass
 
Mpondo farmers and cattle
 
Cattle pulling a sledge, Pondoland
 
Scenery, Pondoland
 
Herding cattle on the road
 
Mpondo homesteads
 
Mpondo woman and child
 
Two young Mpondo men
 
Mpondo women carrying hoes
 
Between Port St. Johns and Lusikisiki
 
Between Lusikisiki and Flagstaff
 
Portrait young Mpondo woman
 
Xesibe girl
 
Xesibe women
 
Scenery  near Mount Ayliff
 
Young Xesibe women
 
Along the road to Matatiele
 
Road to Lundin's Neck
 
Reading the bible
 
Baptism ceremony
 
Baptism ceremony
 

When the National Party, an Afrikaner nationalist party, came to power in South Africa in 1948, it strengthened racial segregation. It soon adopted a policy known by the Afrikaner (Dutch) term “Apartheid”. Presented as “Separate Development”, it envisaged all black African people to become “citizens” of separate tribal homelands that would be established with their own institutions, leading to independence. They would then cease to be South African citizens. The first of these homelands was Transkei, a reasonably large region between Lesotho and the Indian Ocean, with two small exclaves, Maluti and Umzimkulu.

Transkei received self-government in 1963 and nominal independence in 1976, with as leader Chief Kaiser Daliwonga Matanzima. The capital was Umtata (Mthatha) with its parliament building, the Bunga (now the Nelson Mandela Museum). No country, apart from South Africa, recognised the Transkei’s independence. The country’s economy remained tied to South Africa - local men worked in the Rand goldmines. Matanzima ruled as a dictator and, faced with evidence of corruption, had to step down as president.

Across the Kei River, separated from Transkei by white South African territory, was the much smaller Xhosa homeland of Ciskei. It had received self-government in 1972 and nominal independence in 1981. Its capital initially was Zwelitsha and later Bisho (Bhisho): presently the capital of Eastern Cape Province. In 1987 Transkei, much larger and wealthier, decided to push its claims on Ciskei and undertook military raids on the state, including an attack on the compound of its leader, Lennox Sebe, to force him to agree to the merger of the two Xhosa states. South African authorities intervened to stop this.

Both Transkei and Ciskei were reintegrated into South Africa on 27 April 1994. The map following shows the borders of Ciskei and Transkei as they were when the photos on this page were taken, with the boundaries of the different subgroups of Xhosa-speaking peoples.

CISKEI AND TRANSKEI BEFORE 1994
Map of Bantustans