| The Country |
— which means the area beyond the Kei River — is a region situated in the Eastern Cape of South Africa. It is also the name of an Apartheid-era Bantustan corresponding to this territory. The Transkei is bordered by the Umtamvuna River in the north and the Great Kei River in the south, while the Indian Ocean and the Drakensberg mountain range of the landlocked kingdom of Lesotho serve as the Transkei's eastern and western frontiers respectively. The main city is Mthatha, usually given as 'Umtata' on maps and in all English-language medium materials.
Geography and languageThe Transkei has many rivers flowing from the mountains to the oceans, so unlike much of South Africa, it is relatively unscathed by drought. The main language is Xhosa, which has distinctive click consonants derived from the Khoi-San languages. Many thousands of speakers in towns and villages to the north of the Transkei area (now Eastern Cape) speak Sotho as well as Xhosa. These areas include Matatiele, and nearly the entire Herschel area (east of Aliwal North). In addition, many thousands of northern Transkei-residents speak a small hybrid Nguni–Sotho language, called Phuthi. Phuthi speakers are found in and around Matatiele and Mt Fletcher. Most Phuthi speakers live in Lesotho, across the northern Transkei border. PeopleFor much of the 20th century, 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 under 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 democratic 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, as was the father of his second wife Winnie Madikizela, who was Agriculture Minister of Transkei. |
