Secrecy and violence in rural Tsolo

Paper presented at the Wits History Workshop: Forging the links between historical research and the policy process, 18-19 September 1999. Also presented to the South African Historical Association. University of the Western Cape, 14th July 1999.This paper gives the history violence in the Tsolo District of the Eastern Cape. Emphasis is on that which occurred between 1993 and 1999. Starting as an Anti-stocktheft movement, Mafelandawonye, the violence degenerated into action for revenge, opportunistic killings of "inconvenient" people and the victimization of people through guilt by association. A culture of silence, secrecy and fear made resolving the situation difficult

A history of the Xhosa, c1700-1835

The boundaries of the territory occupied by the Xhosa fluctuated considerably, but in the period 1700-1835 they did not often extend west of the Sundays River, or east of the Mbashe River, along the coastal strip which separates the escarpment of South Africa's inland plateau from the Indian Ocean. It is an area of temperate grassland, permitting the cultivation of cereals and light crops, such as maize, millet, tobacco and pumpkins but better suited to stock-farming than intensive agriculture

Liberation Heritage Route: icon site guide

Calata Route: Inxuba Yethemba Local Municipality : Calata House -- Cradock Four Grave -- Flame of Hope and Liberation -- Olive Schreiner House -- Skweyiya Church -- Middleburg Three. Inkwanca Local Municipality : Heroes Park -- Nomonge Graves -- Ethiopian Church -- Old Apostolic Church -- Esigingqini -- Higher Mission School -- Stone of Remembrance. Tsolwana Local Municipality : Home Isolation Circle and Old Zola Clinic -- Assassination of Headman Thembilizwe Dywasha -- Majola Mlungwana House -- Godfrey Ngqendesha House; Ndondo Route: Emalahleni Local Municipality : Graves of Qonda Hoho and Luvuyo Lerumo -- Maqhashu Village -- Queen Nonesi -- Wycliffe Tsotsi Law Offices. Sakhisizwe Local Municipality : The Elliot Five -- Batandwa Ndondo Assassination site -- Mnxe Location -- Phumezo Nxiweni -- Traditional Leaders, Stokwe Ndlela and Gecelo. Ngcobo Local Municipality: Ngcobo Traditional Leaders -- Walter Sisulu Birthplace -- ANC Veterans -- Dr A B Xuma Birthplace -- Clarkebury Institution; Sisulu Route: Lukhanji Local Municipality : Ilinge Resettlement -- Sada Resettlement -- Mongezi Feza -- Unathi Mkefa -- Queenstown Station Shootings, 1962 -- Zibeleni Resettlement -- Queenstown Massacre -- James Cooke, Peter Botha & Ashley Wyngaard -- Bulhoek Massacre, 1921.The struggle for liberation in South Africa goes back a number of centuries from the earliest contact between black and white; and the centuries of struggle mainly against land dispossession. The struggle moved from armed resistance to the use of non-violent means. In the early 1960s, because of white herrenvolkist intransigence, the struggle reverted to armed resistance. The struggle was largely against racism and colonialism - and can therefore be regarded as a struggle for human rights. The icons of the struggle, that is, those individuals and physical and spiritual beacons which marked the route to freedom, identified by the people themselves, compose the Chris Hani District Municipality Liberation Heritage Route (LHR). The identification process involved community participation through the organisation of meetings, under the leadership of Local Municipality Steering Committees and Community Facilitators appointed by the LM specifically to facilitate the LHR project. It was important that each Steering Committee should be chaired by the Mayor. Meetings were representative of all stakeholders, and there was provision for the co-opting of people with special skills. The whole process was informed by the democratic culture of inclusiveness so that no person or organisation could feel left out. Facilitators were guided by political and community endorsement of the Liberation Heritage Icons.Digitised by Rhodes University Library on behalf of the Institute of Social and Economic Research (ISER