Republic of Ciskei iRiphabliki yeCiskei | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1961/1972–1994 | |||||||||
 Coat of arms | |||||||||
| Motto: "Siyakunqandwa Ziinkwenkwezi" (Xhosa) "We Shall be Stopped by the Stars" or "The Sky is the Limit" | |||||||||
| Anthem: Nkosi Sikelel' iAfrika[1] Xhosa:God Bless Africa | |||||||||
 Location of Ciskei (red) within South Africa (yellow) | |||||||||
| Status | Bantustan (de facto; independence not internationally recognised) | ||||||||
| Capital | Bisho 32°51′S27°26′E / 32.85°S 27.44°E /-32.85; 27.44 | ||||||||
| Official languages | Xhosa[2] English[2] | ||||||||
| Leader | |||||||||
• 1972–1973 | ChiefJ. T. Mabandla | ||||||||
• 1973–1978a | Lennox Leslie Wongamu Sebe | ||||||||
• 1978–1990b | Lennox Leslie Wongamu Sebe | ||||||||
• 1990–1994 | Brigadier GeneralOupa Gqozo | ||||||||
• 1994 | Pieter van Rensburg Goosen andBongani Blessing Finca (asTEC Administrators) | ||||||||
| History | |||||||||
• Self-government | 1 August 1972 | ||||||||
• Nominal independence | 4 December 1961/1972 | ||||||||
| 4 March 1990 | |||||||||
• Failed coup d'état | 10 February 1991 | ||||||||
• Re-integrated into South Africa | 27 April 1994 | ||||||||
| Area | |||||||||
| 1980[3] | 9,000 km2 (3,500 sq mi) | ||||||||
| Population | |||||||||
• 1980[3] | 677,920 | ||||||||
| Currency | South African rand | ||||||||
| |||||||||
| Today part of | South Africa | ||||||||
Ciskei (/səsˈkaɪ,sɪs-,-ˈkeɪ/səss-KY, siss-, -KAY, meaningon this side of[the river] Kei), officially theRepublic of Ciskei (Xhosa:iRiphabliki yeCiskei), was aBantustan for theXhosa people, located in the southeast ofSouth Africa. It covered an area of 7,700 square kilometres (3,000 sq mi), almost entirely surrounded by what was then theCape Province, and possessed a small coastline along the shore of theIndian Ocean.
Under South Africa's policy ofapartheid, land was set aside for black peoples inself-governing territories. Ciskei was designated as one of two homelands, or "Bantustans", forXhosa-speaking people.
Xhosa people were forcibly resettled in the Ciskei andTranskei, the other Xhosa homeland.[4][5]
In contrast to the Transkei, which was largely contiguous and deeply rural, and governed by hereditary chiefs, the area that became the Ciskei had initially been made up of a patchwork of "reserves",[6] interspersed with pockets of white-owned farms. In Ciskei, there were elected headmen and a relatively educated working-class populace,[6] but there was a tendency of the region's black residents—who often worked inEast London,Queenstown, andKing Williams Town—to oppose traditional methods of control.[7][8] These differences have been posited as the reason for two separate homelands for the Xhosa people being developed, as well as the later nominal independence of Ciskei from South Africa, than Transkei.[7]
After its creation, large numbers of blacks, in particular, "non-productive Bantus"—women with dependent children, the elderly, and the infirm—were expelled by the apartheid government from designated white areas in theCape Province to Ciskei, and it was also treated as a reservoir of cheap black labour.[8][9] The diaspora of the Ciskei Xhosa was due to the settler colonialism and internal wars between the Xhosa.[10]
Ciskei had a succession of capitals during its existence. Originally,Zwelitsha served as the capital, with the view thatAlice would become the long-term national capital. However, it wasBisho (now spelledBhisho) that became the capital until Ciskei's reintegration into South Africa.
By the timeSir John Cradock was appointed governor of theCape Colony in 1811, the Zuurveld region had lapsed into disorder, and many white farmers had begun abandoning their farms.[11] Early during 1812, on the instructions of the governor,Lieutenant-Colonel John Graham forced 20,000Xhosa to cross theFish River.[11] Subsequently, 27 military posts were erected across this border, which resulted in the establishment of the garrison towns ofGrahamstown andCradock.[11]
At the end of the 19th century, the area known asBritish Kaffraria between the Fish and Kei rivers had been set aside for the "Bantu", and was known as the Ciskei from then on.[12] Europeans gave the nameCiskei to the area to distinguish it from theTranskei, the area north of the Kei.[13]
After theUnion of South Africa formed in 1910, the "Bantu" rights of occupation remained unclear, and differed from colony to colony within South Africa. The Native Lands Act of 1913 demarcated the reserves in the Union, and made it illegal to sell or lease these lands to Europeans (except in the Cape Colony).[12]General Hertzog pursued his segregation policy, and subsequently passed theNative Trust and Land Act in 1936.[14] This act effectively abolished the right of the Cape "Bantu" to buy land outside of the existing reserves.[14]
The boundaries of the Ciskei region changed as land was added and excised. A notable excision was the removal of the Glen Grey and Herschel Districts, and their allocation to the newly independent Transkei,[9] with the populations of the districts moving into the rest of Ciskei to retain their South African citizenship (which was subsequently lost when Ciskei became independent).[9]
By the 1970s, the South African government decided on the final boundaries of Ciskei, as a consolidated area, through the amalgamation of existing reserves allocated to Ciskei, and the purchase of intervening white-owned land.[9] This amalgamation reduced the total length of Ciskei's borders, making them easier for the South African government to police, as well being an attempt to create a more viable area for the homeland.[9]
In 1961, Ciskei became a separate administrative region, and in 1972, was declared self-governing under the rule ofChief Justice Mabandla, who was then followed byLennox Sebe. Mabandla was aFengu, a group that had allied itself with the British in thefrontier wars, and were better educated as a result of historically embracing colonial education. Further embittered by the policies of "retribalisation" by the apartheid authorities, theRharhabe became resentful, and asserted their position, which culminated in the election of Sebe[15]—although Sebe later abandoned his anti-Fengu rhetoric.[16]
In 1978, it became a single-party state under the rule of Sebe. In 1981, following anindependence referendum in 1980, it became the fourth homeland to be declared independent by the South African government, and its residents lost their South African citizenship. However, there were noborder controls between South Africa and Ciskei.[citation needed]
Black people who were found to be living without permits in white areas or farms in South Africa, often for generations, were forcibly relocated to Ciskei by apartheid authorities, generally from "black spots" in the neighbouring "white corridor",[17] and moved into squalid resettlement camps.[18] A 1983 study byRhodes University found that 40% of the children in one camp suffered fromwasting caused bymalnutrition, and 10% suffered fromkwashiorkor.[17] In another camp atThornhill, 50% of the children died before the age of 5.[17]Typhoid epidemics also broke out in the resettlement camps, which were often isolated, located far from urban areas, and lacked health facilities, sanitation, and schools.[8] The forced relocations of blacks to the Ciskei resulted in high population densities in the homeland, a situation that persists to the present day.[9]
On several occasions, the Ciskei government imposedcollective punishment on communities that opposed its rule, and people fled the Bantustan back into South Africa proper, because of the harassment and denial of government services to dissenters.[19]
In common with other Bantustans, itsindependence was not recognised by theinternational community. Sebe once claimed that theState of Israel had granted official recognition to Ciskei, but theIsraeli Foreign Ministry denied this.[20]
| Ciskei–Transkei conflict | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| |||||||
| Belligerents | |||||||
 Ciskei |  Transkei Ciskei dissidents | ||||||
| Commanders and leaders | |||||||
| Lennox Sebe | |||||||
In 1986 and 1987,[21] Transkei, a larger, wealthier, and more populous entity, undertook a series of military raids[22] on Ciskei,[7][23][24] and attempted to seize control of Ciskei. One of these raids was an attack on leader Lennox Sebe's compound, with the apparent goal of taking him hostage, in order to force a merger of the two Bantustans.[25] Transkei had previously granted sanctuary to Lennox Sebe's estranged brother,Charles, the former head of Ciskei's security forces, who had been imprisoned in Ciskei on charges of sedition,[17][26] in addition to previously kidnapping Lennox Sebe's son.[27] The South African government ostensibly intervened to warn the Transkei government off.[7] However, during a later meeting of theTruth and Reconciliation Commission, it was revealed that the plan to amalgamate the Transkei and Ciskei into a proposedXhosaland, as well as the freeing of Charles Sebe from prison, had been carried out by South African security forces linked to theCivil Cooperation Bureau, in order to consolidate an anti-ANC front in the Eastern Cape region, as part of the abortiveOperation Katzen.[28][29][30][31]
In 1990, BrigadierOupa Gqozo deposed Sebe and ruled as adictator—despite an initial promise of a swift return to civilian rule. During 1991 and 1992, many of the legal foundations of apartheid in South Africa were removed, undermining the rationale for the homelands' continued existence. TheAfrican National Congress pressed strongly for them to be reincorporated into South Africa. This was opposed by Gqozo and the other homeland leaders.
On 7 September 1992, theCiskei Defence Force fired into a crowd of ANC members (led byRonnie Kasrils,Cyril Ramaphosa, andChris Hani) who demanded the reincorporation of Ciskei into South Africa.[32][33] 28 people were killed, and hundreds injured in the massacre outside the sports stadium in Bisho, the small capital of Ciskei.[32][33]
Gqozo refused to participate in thenegotiations to agree to apost-apartheid constitution for South Africa, and initially threatened to boycott the first non-racial elections. This became unsustainable, and in March 1994, Ciskei government workers went on strike for fear of losing their job security and pensions in the post-apartheid era. The police then mutinied, prompting Gqozo to resign on 22 March. TheTransitional Executive Council (TEC) appointed two administrators, who took control of the homeland to ensure security until the elections could be held the following month. The TEC also blocked the South African government from deploying the paramilitary Internal Stability Unit (ISU) of the South African Police force, as the unit was suspected of fomenting violence in other parts of the country after the Ciskei military had threatened to open fire on the ISU if it entered the territory.[citation needed]
On 27 April 1994, Ciskei and all of the other homelands were reincorporated into South Africa, after the first post-apartheid elections. Along with Transkei, Ciskei became part of the newEastern Cape Province, with its capital becoming the capital of the new province, and the former territory of the Ciskei forming parts of theBuffalo City Metropolitan Municipality, theChris Hani District Municipality, and theAmathole District Municipality—as of 2016.[9]
According to historianQuinn Slobodian, Ciskei, on the suggestion of a group of economists led by South AfricanLeon Louw—called the "supply siders of Ciskei" by theFinancial Times --, was operated as ade factoexport processing zone of South Africa. Its economy was centered around the textile industry, with a majority female workforce, and was reliant on Taiwanese and Hong Kong investors, generous investor incentives by the South African government (including paying the wages of their employees, subsidizing 80% of their factories' rents, and not charging corporate tax), and repression of the labour movement.[34]
Districts of the province, and their populations at the 1991 census.[35]
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