Go with Henry: The South African outback: Bizana in Transkei

Saturday 20 February 2010

The South African outback: Bizana in Transkei

Tour of the Eastern Cape

Rural Education Development

Learnthings Africa

Rural South Africa

10-12 January 2010

Background

For nearly a month I traveled more than 7000 km through the Eastern Cape of South Africa (including the area previously known as the Transkei) to install Learnthings and Microsoft software content at poor rural schools on behalf of Learnthings Africa.

In this post, I cover Bizana in the Transkei, where I stayed for 3 days at Daphs B & B located at 49 Lewis Street, Bizana.

I was given the ‘Lion’ room. They have a beautiful garden filled with African craft and lights. I was served an excellent dinner which I was unable to finish since the plate was filled with Traditional African cooked food.

I had to take a cold shower though later on because they forget to switch on the geyser. There is however no air-con or fan and I was told to close all the windows for the mosquitoes, so it’s a bit hot in the room.

The Guesthouse staff was very friendly and helpful.

Bizana, Transkei

About Transkei

The Transkei (meaning the area beyond [the river] Kei), officially the Republic of Transkei, was a Bantustan—an area set aside for members of a specific ethnicity—and nominal parliamentary democracy in the south-eastern region of South Africa. Its capital was Umtata, which was renamed Mthatha in 2004.

Transkei represented a significant precedent and historic turning point in South Africa's policy of apartheid and "separate development"; it was the first of four territories to be declared independent of South Africa.

Throughout its existence, it remained an internationally unrecognized, diplomatically isolated, politically unstable de facto one-party state, which at one point broke relations with South Africa, the only country that acknowledged it as a legal entity.

In 1994, it was reintegrated into its larger neighbor and became part of the Eastern Cape Province.

Kids playing on the street near my Guesthouse - Bizana, Transkei

About the Eastern Cape

The Eastern Cape is a province of South Africa. Its capital is Bhisho, but its two largest cities are Port Elizabeth and East London. It was formed in 1994 out of the Xhosa homelands of Transkei and Ciskei, together with the eastern portion of the Cape Province.

Landing place and home of the 1820 settlers, the central and eastern part of the province is the traditional home of the Xhosa people.

This region is the birthplace of many prominent South African politicians, such as Nelson Mandela, Oliver Tambo, Walter Sisulu, Govan Mbeki, Raymond Mhlaba, Robert Mangaliso Sobukwe, Chris Hani, Thabo Mbeki, Steve Biko, Bantu Holomisa and Charles Coghlan (Wikipedia).

About Bizana

Bizana is a rural village in the Trans-Kei River region of Eastern Cape Province, and the birthplace of Oliver Tambo and Winnie Madikizela-Mandela (SA History online).