Ciskei was a Bantustan in the south east of South Africa. It consisted of two separate blocks of land covering 2,970 square miles (7,700 km³), almost entirely surrounded by what was then the Cape Province and possessing a small coastline along the shore of the Indian Ocean. Ciskei had a succession of capitals during its existence. Originally, Zwelitsha served as the capital with the view that Alice would become the long term national capital. However, it was Bisho (now spelled Bhisho) that became the capital until Ciskei's reintegration into South Africa. Under South Africa's policy of apartheid, land was set aside for black peoples in self-governing territories. Ciskei was designated as one of two homeland or "Bantustan" for Xhosa-speaking people. Xhosa speakers were resettled there and to Transkei, the other Xhosa homeland. The name Ciskei means "on this side of the Kei River", and is in contrast to the neighboring Bantustan of Transkei. In 1961 it became a separate administrative region and in 1972 was declared self-governing under the rule of Lennox Sebe. In 1981 it became the fourth homeland to be declared independent by the South African government and its residents lost their South African citizenship. In common with other Bantustans its independence was not recognised by the international community. Sebe was deposed in 1990 by Brigadier Oupa Gqozo, who ruled as a dictator despite an initial promise of a swift return to civilian rule. During 1991-92, many of the legal foundations of apartheid in South Africa were removed, undermining the rationale for the homelands' continued existence. The African 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 the Ciskei Defence Force fired into a crowd of ANC members demanding the removal of Gqozo. 28 people were killed and hundreds injured in the Bisho massacre outside the Ciskei capital, Bisho. Gqozo refused to participate in the multiracial negotiations to agree a post-apartheid constitution for South Africa and initially threatened to boycott the first multiracial 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. South African government took control of the homeland to ensure security until the elections could be held the following month. Ciskei and all of the other homelands were reincorporated into South Africa on 27 April 1994, after the first post-apartheid elections. Along with Transkei, it became part of the new Eastern Cape Province. Its capital became the capital of the Eastern Cape Province http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ciskei

The second worst massacre in the history of the S.African liberation struggle took place in 1992, just 2 years before the ANC came to power. In 1992, 60,000 members of the ANC were led into a direct confrontation with 500 black troops of a black South African homeland - Ciskei. The Ciskei Govt had warned them not to cross the border. But Ronnie Kasrils, a senior member of the S.African Communist Party (now the Minister of Intelligence of S.Africa), played a key role in leading this sea of people straight into a confrontation with the Ciskeian army. 2 1/2 minutes of automatic gunfire by the black soldiers left 28 dead and hundreds injured. The modus operandi was the same as at Sharpeville, and as always, the whites were blamed for the massacre. But in the film footage you will see that the Ciskeian army was merely defending their position and they were not the ones attacking. This is an example of how communists and revolutionaries DELIBERATELY led people to their deaths for the sake of publicity and for fighting their war in the Western media where they would then make exaggerated claims and then take the incident out of context. This is how terrorists and communists use civilians, their deaths and suffering for propaganda purposes. At the end of this you will see a slightly smiling Ronnie Kasrils, who was the mastermind behind this slaughter. They milked it for every ounce of political gain on the world political arena. The crackling sound at 00:15 seconds is the first volley of gunfire & again at 00:24. A grenade launcher was also used.

My life growing up in South Africa. These pictures will bring back memories to ex-Cape Townians. These pictures were taken before November 1989. I left in Nov 1989. Pictures are from Cape Town, Wetton, Tokai, Muizenberg, Kruger National Park, possibly Transkei, Ciskei, and old postcards of Cape Town. We travelled everywhere but unfortunately didn't take too many pictures at the time.

Myths and half-truths. COSATU leader: "better off under Apartheid" copy & paste entire link: http://www.news24.com/News24/ South_Africa/Politics/0,,2-7-12_2210487,00.html PRIMARASHNI GOWER DESCRIBES HER EXPERIENCE: http://www.mg.co.za/articlePage.aspx?articleid=321940&area=/insight/insight__national/ It is a half-truth to say that black South Africans were "shunted" into 13% of the country, while the whites retained 87%. The geography of SA is such that about 70% of that 87% consists of sparsely populated, arid semi-desert (the Karoo and Kalahari.) The so-called homelands that were provided for black South Africans, were in some of the most fertile regions of the country. Billions of the tax money contributed mainly by white South Africans, were pumped into these homelands, allowing their governments to spend it as they saw fit. A large proportion of black people were content to live in their homelands, because these were the historical heartlands of their nations. Two of the independent homelands, Ciskei and Boputatswana, resisted reintegration into SA, and the use of force was required to accomplish this. When figures are quoted to show that much more was spent on the education of white children compared with black children, people forget that the black governments of the homelands determined how much money was spent on education of their own people. I'm not trying to justify the many atrocities committed in the name of "Apartheid", nor am I attempting to propagate a return to forced racial segregation. I believe that no person should consider himself superior to others. Every human life is precious, and I'm opposed to those who have no respect for life. One-sided reporting has created a distorted picture. Providing facts about the Apartheid-era that have not been publicised as widely as the bad things associated with Apartheid, will hopefully provide a more balanced picture. Why is it that when the mighty British Empire provided geographical and social autonomy to the Sotho's in Lesotho, and the Swazi's in Swaziland, this was acceptable, but when the insignificant but tenacious little Boer nation hoped to secure their autonomy, and the long term survival of their children in Africa, by doing something similar, the idea is rejected by the world? Similarly, in Israel the creation of an independent and free Palestinian state is called "road map to peace" but in South Africa it is called "a crime against humanity"? Life under Apartheid was not only a time of peace, stability and abundance. There were also many dreadful acts of violence by both black and white. However, this was definitely not as widespread as in the post-Apartheid era.

South Africa's troubles are the result of government intervention on a scale previously known only in the Eastern Bloc and other avowedly socialist nations. This is especially ironic since the Afrikaners traditionally sought to escape big government, not to embrace it. Unfortunately, their obsession with race overpowered that inclination. In South Africa, whites refused to tolerate black success in the marketplace. They instead intensified legislative suppression. White farmers sought protection from black competition; the authorities responded in 1890 with an act limiting individual black land ownership to ten acres. The law destroyed any prospects for black agricultural success, even though it was justified in the name of bringing about equality among the native population. At the same time, hut and poll taxes were introduced or expanded to force blacks to take jobs working for whites in order to pay those taxes. More dramatically, the Native Lands Act of 1913 prohibited black ownership in all but 7 percent of South Africa's land mass. (These so-called "reserves," increased to 13 percent of the country in 1936, would later provide the basis for the present-day "homeland" system.) White farmers, meanwhile, obtained additional support in the form of massive subsidies for the production and marketing of their crops. This fear of agricultural competition was compounded by demands for cheap, unskilled black labor among both the white farmers and new white mining interests. Following violent protests by white mine workers during the early 1920s, blacks were barred from holding skilled positions in industry. This was achieved both through direct legislation (the various Apprenticeship Acts) and binding agreements between management and white unions (given legal effect through the Industrial Conciliation Act of 1924). Blacks were also precluded from entrepreneurial advancement. The law, first of all, erected formidable thresholds for legal residence in white South Africa, without which one would lack fundamental security of tenure. Secondly, the new Nationalist government prohibited non-white businesses within white urban areas. Finally, a maze of ostensibly non-racial health, registration, and safety regulations in practice precluded the formation of small-scale enterprises. It is not surprising, then, that average black per capita earnings as a proportion of white earnings actually fell between 1925 and 1960, from 24.6 percent to 21.2 percent; there were simply too many restrictions on blacks for them to progress economically. The Promotion of Bantu Self-Government Act of 1959 allowed for the creation of independent homelands, and for blacks with ethnic ties to them to cease being South Africans. Thus, when Transkei and Ciskei were granted "independence" respectively in 1976 and 1981 (which no country other than South Africa recognized), all blacks classified by the government as members of the Xhosa tribe were stripped of their South African nationality, no matter where they resided. The Black Labour Regulation of 1953 and the Industrial Conciliation Act of 1956 strengthened prohibitions against blacks organizing their own or racially mixed unions. The Native Laws Amendment Act of 1952, instituted comprehensive controls on the movement of black labor by channeling it through government-established homeland labor bureaus. The Native (Abolition of Passes and Coordination of Documents) Act of 1952 required that blacks carry a pass book (alternatively known as a reference book), indicating employment and residential histories, and allowed police officers to demand production of it at any time. These various interventions generated a bureaucracy frightening in its absolute size. More than 150,000 whites, almost all from an Afrikaner adult work force of under 800,000, worked directly for the central government (one-quarter of them in the direct enforcement of apartheid laws), while tens of thousands more worked for provincial and local authorities, parastatal corporations, and other quasi-government bodies. http://www.cato.org/pubs/pas/pa081.html