The Background Of The Relationship Between Mdantsane And Duncan Village

Our magazine writes primarily about the township Mdantsane. 

We are not publishing breaking news, meaning that if a police car is set alight and burns out in Mdantsane, you will NOT find a story about this incident the next day in our magazine. 

It is possible that at a later stage we might write about it, but if we do, we will write about a person who was involved in the incident. We will write about the how and why and what impact did the incident have on the person's life.

We write about the people who live and have lived in the township. Dead or alive. We write about their incredible and sometimes so astonishing lives and homes. We are stories tellers of the old school, who concentrate on the now, by reaching back into the past, in an endeavour to understand the context of what we are seeing with our eyes and our hearts. 

We are trying to find the essence of the place, that you call Mdantsane. 

We belong may be to a dying breed, a species that has come close to extinction, because we love stories about the small things, like the soup that your mother always cooked for you and its recipe that you learned from her and that you have never shared with anyone.

In our continuous attempt to understand more about the background and the history of Mdantsane, we are looking today at the "old relationship between Mdantsane and Duncan Village".

 

Duncan Village, the "old and first location of East London" in the late 1940's - image Amathole Museum King Williams Town

Duncan Village was established in 1941 and was named after the then Governor of East London Patrick Duncan - image Amathole Museum King Williams Town

It is indeed a very old relationship if 75 years count for something. Duncan village is still today referred to as the "old location of East London" and it is the place from where the first residents were resettled forcefully to live in Mdantsane in NU 1.

Duncan Village was there before Mdantsane. 

Yeah, that is true. Duncan Village was established in 1941. And if this is so, you might ask why in gods name was the place called Duncan Village. Well, because the governors, politicians and statesmen of this turbulent time had a relatively good self confidence and loved to donate their name to the places they "created" under their rule and governance.

Overcrowding in Duncan Village  in the 1940's and a lack of the most basic facilities- image Amathole Museum King Williams Town

In 1941, the then acting Governor General Sir Patrick Duncan oversaw the opening of what was called a "leasehold tenure area" in the East Bank Location to which he gave his name. After a while, the whole East Bank Location became known as Duncan Village 

The streets of  Duncan Village in the late 1940's - image Amathole Museum King Williams Town

Hard to maintain reasonable standards of hygiene - image Amathole Museum King Williams Town

 

Only 16 years later, in 1957 the first preliminary plans for Mdantsane were made by the East London municipality. The reason for this was, that the old location of Duncan Village was becoming too crowded. The administration of East London had come under pressure and according to municipal records, they were looking for "a magnet to draw away blacks from East London not for work but for dwelling places" [municipal records, Gordon,1980:6]. 

The administration of East :London was looking for "a magnet" to draw people away from Duncan Village to combat overcrowding - image Amathole Museum King Williams Town

We explained in our article "Where does the name Mdantsane come from?" that the word Mdantsane was derived from Umdanzani. In 1958 land from the white farm called Umdanzani, located near the railway line, was released for the purpose of creating a "dormatory township". 

At the end of 1962 a request was made for the first 300 dwellings of Unit 1 to be built close to the site of a new textile factory.and by the end of 1963 the first residents moved in [Gordon, 1980:10].

The whole East Bank area became to be known as Duncan Village - image Amathole Museum King Williams Town

The first inhabitants of Mdantsane came from Duncan Village and were relocated to NU 1 were 300 houses had been built. Mdantsane was born.  Image Amathole Museum King Williams Town

There is a strong relationship between the two townships Mdantsane and Duncan Village today. There is a bond, and there is competition between them. There are family connections that have lived through the years and it is no wonder because Duncan Village is the seed from which Mdantsane was created from. 

You will often hear expressions like: ah my mother lives in Duncan Village, my grandparents are still there, I have a cousin in Duncan Village, I visit my aunt every Saturday in Duncan Village.

Growing up in Duncan Village - an unknown child - image Amathole Museum King Williams Town

Mdantsane came to house the labor needs of East London and its border industries. East London was one of the first to become a border industry area, based on the fact that it was situated in close proximity to both the Transkei and Ciskei.
The concept of a border industry came out of the report of the Tomlinson Commission in 1955 and such an industry was described as "one which is situated within a white area, but close to a homeland -preferably within walking or cycling distance" [Daniel & Waxmonsky, 1980:49]

The location Duncan Village, was called a squatter camp - image Amathole Museum King Williams Town

Today looking at both townships, Duncan Village is considered the poorer and more destitute one. Urban development and urban renewal programs have somehow overlooked the old location Duncan Village. But the strong ties between the two have been uncut.

All images have been sourced from the Amathole Museum in King Williams Town in the Eastern Cape, South Africa. We thank the Museum for allowing us to show these images here.

South African Soccer In 1970 In Soweto

Many people that we have met during the last two years since we created the Mdantsane Way and to whom we have spoken about our vision for the magazine, have shown us that they are hungry for context and want to understand context in the South African environment.

We publish in The Mdantsane Way Magazine a category called South Africa In Retrospective. Here we share not only Mdantsane related images and information but we include stories, images and moments of South Africa's history, that seem remarkable and important to us. The images of events that we publish were not necessarily great historical moments but they convey an important message to us today. 

As documentary photographers we have great respect for the work of photographers who have lived and worked before us because they contribute to the massive task to document our world and to allow mankind to remember the many stories of humanity. 

This is also the reason why we want to establish a digital archive consisting of historical images and documents for Mdantsane's past. Too much knowledge has already been lost.

The  image we want to show you today was captured on film by a photographer named G.Cubitt in 1970 during a soccer match in Soweto and was published in a book about South Africa in 1970, entitled also simply " South Africa. 1970 the Kaizer Chiefs played the Bantu Colliers in this match

It is an amazing image and if you take time to look at it for a couple of minutes and let your eyes glance over each and every face and the emotion it expresses, you can feel your way back to the 1970's when that game took place in Soweto. You can not understand what it meant to be "A Black" in the 1970's in South Africa but you can understand what it meant to watch this soccer match.

Originally entitled : Anxiety and delight mirrored in the expressions of a huge crowd as they watch Kaizer Chiefs and Bantu Colliers play soccer in Soweto

" Soccer is the most popular sport amongst Blacks, many of whom display great natural ability."  (quotation from the book South Africa, page 170)

Image COurtesy OF G.Cubitt

The Origin Of Mdantsane

The Establishment of Mdantsane As A Bantu Residential Area in 1962

MDANTSANE TODAY. The idea was born in 1962

We have done quite some research on the origin and establishment of Mdantsane. The History of Mdantsane is a topic that interests us a lot and we would like to enable our readers to take a look back into the past and understand the origin of Mdantsane as a residential area that has developed into the second biggest township in South Africa.

What we know is that Mdantsane was established in 1962 as a so called Bantu Residential Area. But fact is there is very little documentation about the development of this area in 1962 or earlier.

We have been searching for quite a while for old documents, photos, maps and other useful information but always with the same outcome. NADA! This was also a our reason for the establishment of this online magazine The Mdantsane Way.

We paid a visit to the East London Museum the other day and had planned to spent a whole day there searching their archives. What was handed over to us was one folder approximately 10 cm thick. Not much here either!

But our visit was not in vain. The folder contained three documents, consisting of notes from the proceedings of a meeting with the deputy-minister of Bantu Administration and Development regarding the proposed development of Mdantsane as a Bantu Residential area dating back to the 13th of March 1962.

In 1962 the idea of Mdantsane was born. The notes give us a very good idea of the complex and complicated discussion that had taken place at the time.    

Townships were established in strategic positions to bigger cities with the purpose in mind to serve as a labour pool for so called Industrial Development Sites. People were removed from other locations to live there and commute to the cities for work.

We are publishing here with the East London Museum's permission extracts of a meeting that took place 52 years ago and that determined the future of Mdantsane at the time. We think that you might find this as interesting and enlightening as we did. 

The participants in the meeting were as follows:

MDANTSANE DEVELOPED INTO SECOND BIGGEST TOWNSHIP IN SOUTH AFRICA, BORN IN 1962

Looking Back, The Transkei Elections 1963

It is estimated that more than 50 % of  the inhabitants of the Mdantsane township today are under the age of 18 years.

The images shown here were taken 48 years ago in 1963 during the Transkei elections. The Transkei was the first of the ' Bantustans States " set aside for Africans by the South African Apartheid Government. The Bantustan were supposedly self-governing but they were in reality controlled by Whites.

Waiting To Vote

Transkei women dressed in the traditional Xhosa costume are waiting outside a polling station during the Transkei Elections in 1963. More than two thirds of the Transkei electorate voted, despite Apartheid Government restrictions at the time on political rallies and meetings.  

Showing The Passbooks

African votes register for the Transkei elections in 1963.

(Pictures are from Time Life Library, South Africa, 1963)

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.

Paying Tribute To A Boxing Legend - Happy Boy Mgxaji

We have been promosing you since a while that we would start telling stories about Mdantsane's boxing history and the famous boxers the township has produced over decades. And Siyanda Nkoyeni has written the first story for us. Here it is.

It is a fact that Mdantsane is famous for boxing and has produced not only South African but many world champions as well, and thus has placed South Africa on the world map. There are many stories as to why boxing is popular in the Eastern Cape and mainly in Mdantsane, but there is one thing for sure that the sport is like a culture in the province. 

Over the years champions came and went, and many local boxing fans will agree that the name Nkosana "Happy Boy" Mgxaji, is so synonymous with boxing in Mdantsane that the history of the sport cannot be told without mentioning his name.

Happy Boy Mgxaji at his prime

 

The huge attendance by hundreds of boxing fans at his funeral, from all over South Africa on 13 February 2011 at Sisa Dukashe stadium, was a true testimony to this man's stature in the sporting frartenity. Mention must be made that it was only befitting for this Mdantsane hero to be buried in the same venue where he used to mesmirise his fans with this boxing skills.

Some are taking refuge under their umbrellas from the sun at the Grand Stand during Mgaxji's Funeral

 

Born in Tsolo location in 1949, a black township just outside East London, Mgxaji came from a poor family where his mother sold vegetables for a living. Like many township kids at the time, Mgxaji did not go far in school and dropped out in standard six. 

He grew up in the rough neighbourhood where he took up the sport of boxing so as to defend himself, and also later to earn a living to help his struggling mother, unbeknown to him that this was the beginning of his illustrous boxing career.  

Former boxers forming a guard of honor at Mgaxaji funeral

 

It was the 1963 amateur championships in Port Elizabeth, that Mgxaji's star started to shine, and where boxing officails took note of this wonder kid from Mdanstane. He became an amateur champion that same year and in 1968 turned professional, remaining unbeated untli 1971.

"Happy Boy", a name bestowed to him by his brother, Nzimande Douglas Mgxaji, was known to be a fitness fanatic and disciplinarian, a reason why he never had a trainer. He preferred to work out alone and only strategised when facing the opponents in the ring.  Mgxaji fought many memorable fights and had an incredible record of 101 professional fights, winnng 88, with 27 KO's, drew 4 and lost 9. 

Dignitairies and MEC's also attended the funeral

Those old enough will tell you that there was only one reason why large crowds of boxing fans would descend upon Sisa Dukashe stadium in the 1970's and 80's on Sartudays afternoons, only to watch Happy Boys' boxing craft in the ring. Sadly, like many local boxers, Happy Boy died a pauper due to an asthma attack at the age of 61. Driving down Qumza Highway, his house in NU 3 casts a monumental picture of this trailblazer's history.  

A Story  By Siyanda Nkonyeni