Our Place Of Origin

We wrote this post in response to a letter, we have received from a very nice lady in Brazil, named Lucia. She loves our magazine and has been following our posts faithfully from over the great lake. Lucia says, she is Afro-American and has started recently the search for her African roots. She thinks, that her ancestors came from South Africa.

She asked: Where are the Amaxhosa from? What is their tradition? How is the township Mdantsane related to the rural areas in the Eastern Cape?

Well, this was not the first suggestion we have received to write about the history of the Eastern Cape. We are not historians or experts on South African history but we have received so many requests and suggestions to include topics like history, the Xhosa tradition, the Eastern Cape etc., that we do not want to ignore them.
However, it is a challenging task, because many others have written about the Transkei and the Eastern Cape before us and have delivered material of quality, but nevertheless have we decided to include the category "history" in our magazine.

What we attempt to do with the Mdantsane Way Magazine is to deliver deep and personal accounts of people's lives, that have a sense of time and space.

So with time we will extent the scope of what we write about.

Women and a child from the Fingo tribe by Alice Mertens

In Africa the "sense of belonging" to a family, a clan, an ethnic group or a certain tradition is still largely intact. In our experience this applies to the whole of the continent.
As an African you do not exist by yourself and you do not question, that you are part of a much larger entity. And as an African usually you are proud to belong to whatever it is (a clan, a family, a region), that you identify yourself with.

The collective consciousness is alive in Africa. Even if people deny the importance of heritage, sooner or later many are affected by the desire to know more about themselves.
This leads to the urge to find your roots and the quest to find your origin starts usually at this point. The search for the ones whose blood line you share and who have lived before you begins. It can become a long and time consuming passion, that leads to may question, that in some cases can not be answered easily.

Xhosa girls at a dance for the unmarried. The topless dress indicates single status by A. Mertens

These images are not only beautiful, but they are testimonials of history. They were taken by a photographer in the 1970's in the Transkei. Her name was Alice Mertens.

The Transkei has a great history. The total land area amounts to approximately 42.000 square kilometers and 450 km of coastline. The principal groups are the Xhosa, Tembu and Pondo. It is one of the most beautiful areas of South Africa and has an annual rainfall of more than 500 mm a year. It's agricultural potential is great.

Many people who live in Mdantsane have still family and their roots in the Transkei. During holidays they go and visit their family in the Transkei. The Transkei is "the real home' for many. 

Young Pondo man by A. Mertens

The Transkei was the first Homeland, that was established under the Apartheid regime and considered as a "Black Territory". 

On the other hand the township Mdantsane, created as a so called Bantu residential area, served as a labor pool for the industrial development sites in East London. People lived in the township and commuted to the city and the industrial development sites for work. In the evening they returned to the township because the pass laws did not allow them to be in the white living areas at night.

But during their holidays their returned to where their families lived - the Transkei.

When we started working on the book "The Mdantsane Way" we became more and more self critic. We began researching coffee table books, to learn and to get inspired by the work of others, who had done something like that before me. What we found was amazing. We did not limit our search to books, that are available in book stores at present, but we looked for out of print books as well. 

Our publisher, Chocolat, browsed through second hand shops, charity shops and flea markets constantly. Whenever she saw something that impressed her, she bought it, thereby growing the Mdantsane Way's archive of historical and old Africa images.

She was impressed over and over again. She bought amazing books with great photographic artistic artwork for twenty or thirty Rand.

The above pictures originate from such a book and we hope that you like them as much as we do.

Mdantsane Is A Lovely Place - Isn't It ?

Tembisa Dema

" Mdantsane is a lovely place - isn't it ? ", Tembisa Dema said to me.

Tembisa is a friend of my friend Pelisa and we met on Nelson Mandela Day.

Mdantsane Is A Lovely Place Isn't It?

Tembisa took me on a ride through the neighborhood in her car. I had not asked. She just offered and I was more than happy to go with her. Sometimes I speak to a person for three hours and fill a small note book with useful and interesting information. I can truly say that there has never been a conversation that has not been interesting and stimulating for me. But sometimes it is just a single sentence that makes my day.

Mdantsane is a lovely place isn't it ?

Yes it is !

Mdantsane can be called idyllic.

It has a warm and positive spirit.

There is a lot going on.

It's friendly.

We started writing this blog to introduce our book and to allow the people whom we have met and who have given us so much of their time to see their pictures and to read their stories. 

But we are also writing it for the ones who have never been here. And very often they are close and could in fact visit the township. 

I met a very nice lady a couple of weeks ago who has been living in East London for 30 years but has never been to Mdantsane. She said, she always wanted to visit Mdantsane and was curious but the reason she had not was that she was scared.  What she told me can be probably called collateral damage inflicted through the Apartheid regime. Not only was the politic of suppression successful for a long time but the system did also estrange people. Today there is a different spirit.

I can only say Mdantsane is a lovely place and there is no need to be scared. Just come closer.

The people are as lovely as the whole township.

It is green. House owners have started everywhere planting little gardens or growing their own vegetables.

People like to be outside and a lot of socializing happens on the streets directly in front of your door and not inside your house which I think is so nice. 

Tembisa lives in NU 2 and is the proud mother of a daughter who has just been admitted to Hudson High School a well reputed school in East London. She has been working many years in the sector of HIV/Aids prevention but since June she is looking for a new job. 

" It is extremely difficult to find work ", she says. A statement that few people would want to object today. But still her spirit is strong.