Word: transkei
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...stroke of midnight next Monday, a 101-gun salute will mark the independence of the Transkei, a Denmark-sized territory on the eastern coast of South Africa. There will be tribal dancing, fireworks, feasting and bonfires, as there were to mark the birth of more than 40 African nations that have become independent in the past two decades. The difference is that in the eyes of most of the world, the independence of the Transkei- the first of the nine black tribal homelands that South Africa intends to set up as separate states-is a device by which Pretoria hopes...
...normally sleepy town of Umtata (pop. 25,000), the cold and drizzle did not deter the frantic last-minute preparations for independence day. Giant yellow earthmovers groaned through the mud of the Transkei's capital, completing $12 million worth of new paved highways and carving out access roads to the newly completed $14 million airport and a $2.4 million Holiday Inn. The immediate purpose of all the construction is to prepare for distinguished visitors. The only head of state who has so far accepted an invitation to next week's ceremonies, however, is South Africa's President...
...Transkei (pronounced tran-sky), ancestral home of 3.3 million Xhosa tribesmen, will become the first of these homelands to be granted "full and free" independence. But South Africa will still control its security, its telecommunications and immigration. Forty-five percent of all Transkeians, and 80% of its adult males, will continue to work "abroad" in South Africa, which is just as well, because there are few jobs at home. After independence, the state's ruler, Paramount Chief Kaiser Matanzima, will ask South Africa to give the Transkei more land to ease overcrowding (together, the nine homelands have only...
...Transkei is lucky, in a way, because it is divided into only two parts. The homeland of Boputha Tswana consists of 19 scattered parcels of land, though these will eventually be consolidated into six pieces. The Zulu homeland of KwaZulu was originally in 188 parcels, is now in 29, and will ultimately be consolidated to ten. Scoffs Buthelezi, who is also the Chief Minister of KwaZulu: "A state in ten separate pieces? The very notion is nonsensical." Buthelezi has flatly refused independence for KwaZulu, explaining: "It is meaningless political freedom combined with effective economic slavery." Adds Hudson Ntsanwisi, Chief Minister...
Today the 5 million Zulus are still the largest tribe in South Africa. Half live and farm in the fertile hills and valleys of KwaZulu, the designated "homeland" that forms a patchwork quilt of territory from the Mozambique border in the north to southern Natal and the Transkei in the south. There they live much in the tribal style of old, in beehive-shaped mud and thatch huts, sharing the kraal with their cattle. The other half work in the "white man's" South Africa, living in bedroom ghettos like Soweto. They are frequently favored for positions of trust...