Homeland revisited?

Name changing is a waiste of money.have anyone ever wondered why name changing occures in big towns only .butterworth is still butterworth and non of all the street names in that town have been changed and it does not look like that is likely to happen….

It is clear it “maakie Sakkie” to a lot of people and is a problem to a lot more… Transkei’s bantustan “independence” is a negative, I have always called it Kei.

I don’t know why people are fussing about the name Transkei because amaXhosa call it Phesheya kweNciba which is a direct translation of the English name.

Rather tackle another topic people E.G “Why did Eugenie wear green underpants with holes in it?”

This topic will keep you going for decades.

Dear Vuli-X, I live in Port Alfred, it has had eight name changes in its history, it is now called Ndlambe. (seems which ever VIP visited here, got to leave behind their mark.)

If you look up the references as I did in the Cory library, Chief Ndlambe had a kraal on the boesmansriviermond, for a while, (whilst he was camping with his cattle) but his land was across the Great Fish River in Peddie.

Since this particular section of the Eastern Cape was actually the land of the Khoisan, they should have their names here. Does this happen? nope, they are a marginalized people with little show show for their twenty thousand years of occupation. Only one river in all this region.

If the name Transkei offends anyone, then change it by all means but as a marketing person, the costs of name changes and branding new names is prohibitive.

Knock, Knock!!, who is there?. What a great one Sangqu Andisiwe. Indeed maybe, let us just investigate the origins of the name “KEI” and the matter will be sorted when we change it.

View it from any angle for all I care, the name Transkei is deamining and Vuli-X can not be more right. Remember my first account on this topic in respect of being looked down upon when you are from the area by those who are not. You speak with someone in East London, for example, she asks you where you are from and you say Libode. She gets in immediately and says, Ooh!!, usuka e Transkei. You did not say Transkei, you said Libode for goodness sake!!.

I don’t understand why the name Transkei is stil being used, homelands is actually what existed during the apartheid. We are now living in the new South Africa with thirteen years of democracy which is identified by provinces not homelands. Changing the name is not throwing away the existing one, what has taken place will never be erased, it is actually indelible, moreover, changing the name is not running away from origin because history will always be there to pass the information through to the upcoming generation………
We are proud of who we are of course but when we have the power to dig out the apartheid with its roots we will use it. Its is time viewers to use our power, come on we have been sitting on a chair of patience more than 300 years. You need to ask your self about the origination of “KEI”.

Please explain what is demeaning about the word Transkei. As I asked before if we are going to change all these names, what about the name South Africa?

Dearest Bev
Me and you have something in common, we like reading.
I read that in 1875 Sir Harry Smith named a town Harrismith after himself.
I read that Smithfield was founded in 1848 and named after Sir Harry Smith.

I read that Ladysmith was named after Juana Maria de los Delores de Leon Smith also known as “Lady Smith”, the Spanish wife of Sir Harry Smith,

Oh I also read that Grahamstown was founded in 1812 as a military outpost by Lieutenant-Colonel John Graham as part of the effort to secure the eastern frontier of British influence in the then Cape Colony against the Xhosa.

You know what, some places are changing names, some are not. By the way, DF Malan Drive in JHB was changed to Beyers Naude drive, after a great Afrikaans man.

Point is, the word Transkei is demeaning, and that’s that.

In a book I read recently, The Sunburnt Queen, they refer to the annexation of Transkei to the Cape in 1875, appears to me that name has been around a long time ne?

eish……..

Ah Ok, my apologies Hypocrite. I think you are talking to the other Jan, not me. Online News Ed.

It was not a rhetorical question, let me explain it to you so you can understand (eish I thought you where an example of one of our best that we lost).
For someone who is so happy and content you sure are defending your views profusely, why?. Don’t you have anything better to do!
I’ve got to go and check if my house is still where I left it P.S that is sarcasm.

Hypocrite, I am not sure what you mean by that. Can you give us an opinion rather than a rhetorical question please.

Dearest Jan, you sure are defending your life and choices quite profusely, I wonder why?

I have a question: When the ‘TransKei’ gained independance, what was the country called? And who gave it its name? And why?

The name Transkei is confusing. For example,if you are in Durban and you are going to Mthatha,are you going to say; you are going to Transkei(across Kei)? Let us put it this way. There are two people from Durban who are going to Eastern Cape; Idutywa and Gqunube. Which one is going to cross the Kei?

Lfet us stop this confusion now.Iwould like to say something about Impuma Koloni, a loose Xhosa translation for Eastern Cape.I hate this translation .We are not a colony,people must wake up. Please this must stop.

Why have we knot change South Africa’s name jet. After all the bload shead and pain and suffering. I mean every time you hear a person say South Africa do you feal pain and umiliation? Will the name change take away that pain.

Geographical it certainly is.
Unfortunately, it has also long become synonymous to lawlessness, corruption and decaying infrastructure.
Traditional values have all but vanished from that region. Gone are the days where chiefs and headmen would rule with an iron fist and the “help” of a shambock. Neat villages and lovingly tendered food crops were a common sight, and the youth showed respect for their elders. Horses were a popular mode of transport, and copper telephone lines fed from manual exchanges ran along the country roads without being stolen. One felt safe, and confident to sleep with open windows – and doors.

It is so strange that people complain so much about the name TransKei , while very little is said about the name Kei . There is no Transkei without the name Kei . The fact that some beautiful names have been misused in the past should not make us throw the baby with the bath water . Let us start thinking logically .

I think if we continue with the Transkei name as we do, we are near sighted and forget that the past that brought the homelands is ugly and insults all progress in the integration of societies that were set apart. There is therefore nothing positive we can gain from continuing with a homeland name. It just proves how deeply rooted apartheid practises are in our reasoning.I am not proud of a name that deepened segregation and effected cheap and shallow allegiance.

How about you all GET A LIFE!!!. How about investing some of your time to voluntary work or something more constructive? That’s one downside about these blogs..they seem to bring them fkn psuedo analysts out of the woods! Eyish!!!!

It was referred as Transkei homeland and later became the Republic of Transkei.The name Transkei has nothing to do with politics and race but taken from the Great Kei river.We cannot plan a new name because people living in the area are proud of being in Transkei(the beautiful home of AmaXhosa).Bayayazi inzima abantu baseTranskei.Their struggle was inside not outside the country.Mind that readers!

Ahhh Come on guys!! Lets change the name!!!
Lets spend millions on Road signs, maps and notice boards, letter heads etc.

It is far more important to change the name than to feed the poor kids at House on the Rock for instance.

Please,changing names is top priority!!!!!!

Changing names will change the whole of the history of South Africa1!!!(it is still known as South Africa, is’nt it?)

Boy!!!!

Ok Jan, good point to end the matter. I was also not born yesterday and I know the difference between winning the battle and loosing the war. Maybe anything across a certain river must be referred to as such, as Steve puts it, he must refer to Johannesburg as trans – jukskei because he crosses that river when he goes there.

Chris, I don’t get it myself sometimes with the new names, my only point was, and still is, the selective reference to the former Transkei as opposed to any other places else of similar history. That matter though rests, as Jan and I agreed.

Sva, Mickey is not alone. If you thought so think again because I’m here. I rejoced when the decision was taken to stop calling places after people, so the reason to change Jan Smuts Airport to JHB International was and still is a rational one in this regard. Now, when one makes an about turn and do the same thing by naming the same place after someone else, then what?. Please, fellow South Africans, I have nothing against O.R. Tambo, the man and the name, It’s a matter of agreed to principle. Tha’s all.

*erk*

A typo snuck through “Anything East of EL is known as “PE jobs” – blah blah blah. ”

should’ve read WEST of EL.

Jan, as you know through my work I do quite a bit of traveling around the lovely EC.

We cover the entire province and to keep matters simple we group jobs according to areas – as you do.

Anything East of EL is known as “PE jobs” – from Graff Reinett to Storms river, it doesnt matter.

Everything north is an Aliwal job, whether it’s cradock or Lady Gray.

And of course anything East of EL is the Transkei, whether it’s butterworth or mt. Fletcher.

It’s just a name of an area. We don’t talk about the Ciskei, because it’s not a precise area for the younger crowd, but as the one reader said, as soon as you swing over the Kei river, you’re in the wild T’kei my friend. (If you don’t believe it, look at the driving habits).

In the very same way, everything north of the Vaal river is Transvaal to me. Whether it’s limpopo or Tswane. Similarly, anything in the Western Province is the “Cape”.

Sakkie, we may use the official names for places, but who are we fooling? Using official names serves just as much purpose as a person educated in languages trying to sound impressive by using complex synonyms but fails because the message is not carried across clearly to the man on the street. So who is the clever one? Someone using simple terms that everyone relates to and everyone understands the message, or someone trying to be king-of-town and only manages to impress himself?

Like the saying goes “Never use a big word when a diminutive synonym will suffice”

- Just my 3c worth (because petrol’s going up again and I need to save)

No one is going to know where they come from soon if you keep changing names around

Transkei is a geographic pointer and I use it all the time and that is where I was proudly born. Infact my hometown is Willowvale/ Gatyane , fondly known as ” Mlom ‘onyoko” . a wonderful name too meaning the mouth of a mother.

It’s just a geographical name, though, of course, East London-centric. I live in Tshwane — should I say Johannesburg is in the Trans-Jukskei?

And how about KwaZulu?

That was a “homeland” name too.

I don’t think there’s anything wrong with the name “Transkei” although I recognize it’s historical significance and Sakkie’s concerns about the negative connotations. The media may partly be to blame and Sakkie gives a good example of crimes being reported “in the Transkei” as opposed to (eg) Port St Johns, Eastern Cape. I think it’s a matter of how people view the Transkei – I for one view it as a reference to a geographical area that is beautiful and one of my favourite areas in SA.

Sakkie, I think we are going to have to agree to disgree on this one.
Like I have pointed out before and taking cognisance of the area’s history, “Transkei” refers to a single geographical entity which most of our readers can relate to.
Ciskei, Bop, KwaNdebele and all the other fake “states” under the oppressive homeland system were political entities.
Most of these were also broken up into little pieces where the Nats forcibly moved black people. So many of these “homelands” were scattered pieces of patchwork land where people lived in misery.
You could argue that the same could be said for the Transkei, but I have already explained that we see it a geographical and not a political reference.

Nosisi, i also hate the eMaXhoseni thing with passion. It sounds stupid for me.

I don’t mind it. I tell people I come from Transkei myself. My reference is to the geographical location not the “homeland”. My reasons are totally different from Mickey’s though who seem to be one of those who are anti-change. Mthatha has always been Mthatha in pronounciation it’s just that his people spelt it wrongly. As for Oliver Tambo International Airport and Gauteng. I honestly don’t know anybody who refer to them as JHB International and JHB respectively. People refer to JHB when they refer to JHB, and refer to Gauteng when they talk about the province. So… I’m rather confused by Mickey. Maybe Mickey and a few people around him use the names he mentioned.

To me Transkei is a congloremation of the land of KwaGcaleka, EmaMpondweni, KwaBhaca, EBathenjini, EmaMpondomiseni, KuMabomvana. When you use the word Transkei is like you are saying there is one culture or tradition across the Kei which is not the case. The only factor is singabantu

What’s in the name jan, so others ask. The point I was making and, unfortunately, still making is, why is the former Transkei alone still being refered to as such. What happened to Lebowakgomo,Ciskei, KaNgwane, etc. places we no longer hear about in reference to the same geographical area or marker, jan, as you so desperately try to justify. My original account of events have not been visited at all in the answer.Its easy, is it not, to simply refer to loose translation in reference to the river kei.
However, when one listens to the SABC news report about what happens in the “Transkei”, you could swear they are refering to a different province altogether, and not some place in the Eastern Cape. If something happened in Port st Johns, why not say Port st Johns, Eastern Cape. Why does one find reason to say Port st Johns in the Transkei. No wonder, at one stage, there were tensions between those who happen to be comming from the former Transkei and those who not, in our corridors of power in Bisho.

What’s in a name? We will always have Ciskei and Transkei.

The Transkei is a place where I was born and that was before the homeland days. We have always known the eara across the Kei River as the Transkei and I do not care what people want to call it, it will always be my beautiful Transkei. If we have to change the name of every place that something bad has happened then we will never be able to keep up with the new name of any place in South Africa.

It is certainly a geographical reference just as East Griqualand, Highveld. Leave it as it is.

It’s all in the mind Jan. It’s all in the mind…..

Transkei Rules….

To me the name Transkei simple means across the Kei river and defines exactly where Iam from and Iam proud to be from. Iam currently in the UK and feel happy when my fellow SA refer to me like that. The only time I feel a little bit I mean a little bit its when people say emaxhoseni like others are not

I think it’s a nice simple name and we all know it as the Transkei, so when I want to tell people that I’m going away for the weekend to the Transkei, they know exactly where I’m going geographically. I will never use any other name for it, just as I still use Umtata, and JHB and not Gauteng and JHB International Airport and not Oliver Tambo International. The goverment is just wasting money changing names of places (most of us cant even pronounce these new names let alone the poor tourists), instead of feeding and giving housing to the less priveleged people out there.