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Ciskei was a nominally independent state or Bantustan located in the southeast of South Africa. It covered an area of 7,700 square kilometres (3,000 sq mi), almost entirely surrounded by what was then the Cape Province, and possessed a small coastline along the shore of the Indian Ocean. 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 homelands, or “Bantustans,” for Xhosa-speaking people. In contrast to the Transkei, which was largely contiguous and deeply rural, and governed by hereditary chiefs, the area that became the Ciskei had been made up of a patchwork of “reserves,” interspersed with pockets of white-owned farms. In Ciskei, there were elected headmen and a relatively educated working-class populace, but there was a tendency of the region's black residents (who often worked in East London, Queenstown, and King William's Town) to oppose traditional methods of control. These differences have been posited as the reason for two separate homelands for the Xhosa people being developed, as well as the later nominal independence of Ciskei from South Africa. After its creation, large numbers of blacks were expelled from designated white areas in the Cape Province by the Apartheid government to Ciskei, in particular, “non-productive Bantus”—women with dependent children, the elderly, and the infirm. It was also treated as a reservoir of cheap black labour. The diaspora of the Ciskei Xhosa is due to the settler colonialism, and internal wars between the Xhosa. 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. The name Ciskei means “on this side of the Kei River,” and is in contrast to the nearby Bantustan of Transkei. [edit] Research Tips
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