Transkei

Categories: South African Bantustans | History of South Africa | Geography of South Africa

The poverty-stricken but beautiful Transkei — which roughly means the area beyond the Kei River — is situated in what is now part of the Eastern Cape Province of South Africa, bordered by the Umtavuma River in the north and the Great Kei River in the south, while the Indian Ocean and the Drakensberg Mountains of the landlocked kingdom of Lesotho served as Transkei's eastern and western frontiers rspectively. The main city is Umtata.

The Transkei has many rivers flowing from the mountains to the oceans, so unlike much of South Africa, it is relatively unscathed by drought. Xhosa, with its distinctive clicks derived from the Bushman or Khoi-San peoples, is the main language.

For much of the 1900s, many black male farmers in the Transkei were forced by punitive taxes levied only on Africans, known as poll taxes, to head north by train to work contracts underground in Johannesburg's gold mines. Some never returned, crushed in rockfalls in mines with very low standards of safety for their workers. Others returned with dreadful lung diseases from inhaling particles, or tuberculosis. Migrant labour has continued to shape the Transkei ever since.

Nelson Mandela, South Africa's first black president, was born in the Transkei in 1918, and still has a home in Qunu. His first two wives were also from what later became Transkei, also the father of his second wife Winnie Madikizela became the agriculture minister in the Transkei.

In 1959, the National Party government introduced legislation to create eight ethnically and linguistically divided homelands for black South Africans.

For much of its history, the Transkei homeland for Xhosa speakers was ruled by Chief Kaizer Daliwonga Matanzima, a nephew of Mandela's. In 1980, he deposed the king of the Thembu people, Sabata Dalindyebo. The Transkei homeland became an independent state in 1976 with its capital at Umtata, although it was only recognised by a few countries internationally. With the victory of the ANC in the 1994 elections it was reincorporated into South Africa, despite opposition from many of its citizens.

See Also: Presidents of Transkei, Heads of Government of Transkei

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