The dramatic and mostly undeveloped coastline of an area previously known as the Transkei, is called the Wild Coast. There are a number of small resorts along the coastline with beautiful stretches of beach, a large variety of birds and excellent fishing. There are some very interesting hiking and trail routes in the area, including the "Otter Trail". The Transkei is home to the Xhosa people.

Views from the area around Port St. Johns, where the Umzimvubu river flows into the Indian Ocean.

Two views south of Port St. Johns on one of the hikes. Third picture is of Umngazi river mouth.

Views from the "Hole-in-the-Wall" south of Port St. Johns. The third picture is another view of Umngazi river mouth. The last picture is of a vervet monkey.

Additional pictures of the coastline, and one inland on the way to the Magwa Falls.

Xhosa
The Xhosa people live mostly in the Ciskei and Transkei areas of the Eastern Cape. They were part of the southward migration of the Nguni people, and by 1600 were settled in this area. The indigenous people they encountered on their migration and settlement were the Bushmen and Hottentot. These people known as the Khoisan, had some influence on their language and culture, in particular the "clicking" sound made famous in "The Click Song" by Miriam Makeba. The Xhosa language is very close to that of the Zulu, who were also part of the Nguni migration. The Xhosa people are divided into Pondo, Tembu and Xhosa kingdoms.

Excerpted from the book "Frontiers" by Noel Mostert, Alfred A. Knopf, 1992
"What is interesting about the Chalumna river site, as the South African archaelogist Tim Maggs has pointed out, is that it corresponds to the limits of summer rainfall adequate to grow the tropical cereals, sorghum in particular that accompanied the later Bantu movement from the Cameroons all the way down Africa. This was the line beyond which the traditional crops of the early Bantu speakers could not successfully be grown."

The Chalumna river is about 40 miles from the Great Fish River, near the modern port of East London, and at the approximate convergence of the summer and winter rainfall areas of the Cape.

"Xhosa society was closely knit, bound by intense ties of loyalty within the family, and the chiefdom and the nation as a whole................These attitudes began with the family and extended upwards and outwards. ...............'Children treat their parents with respect, and accept their advice, even when they have reached maturity and are masters of their own households', Alberti wrote."

" `But the intensity of affection and benevolence within the family and clan was extended', as Alberti observed, `to a general love of one's fellow men'...............The impoverished were never denied assistance. It was a duty to share food with others, whatever the circumstances...............One of the conspicuous examples of Xhosa hospitality was the consistently kind reception they gave the survivors of shipwreck. Only after the first war between white colonists and Xhosa was there a change of attitude and even then, as William Hubberly found, there were people who were willing to assist him."

"These hospitable responses of the Xhosa were strongly affected by the emphasis they placed upon a value common to the Bantu speakers and called ubuntu, humaneness. Its instinct was the preservation and stability of the whole, and the Xhosa appear to have evolved an especially acute perception of it. Its working within their codes was notable even in war, when woman and children were never killed."

"Ubuntu underlined the entire basis of their intricate code of social laws. `The primary objective of Xhosa law... is to preserve tribal equilibrium. The law therefore guides towards keeping the tribe from disintegration', John Henderson Saga wrote: `Any punishment administered for disturbing the balance of tribal life is of a constructive or corrective character; to restore what has been lost in stability by the action of any individual or individuals............... this idea is ingrained in the fibre of the people.' The ethical question scarcely counts, restoration is the principal thing.'"

"The chiefs, especially those of royal lineage, are invested with much authority, but it is an authority founded on habitual reverence for high rank, rather than on the coercion of arbitrary power. They live amongst the people as friends and fellow-labourers and have never adopted that haughty exclusion and parade with which the noble caste is invested in other countries...............The main safeguard against the abuse of power by the chief was through his group of councilors, known as the amapakati, `the middle ones', who were his Parliament and Supreme Court. He ruled on their advice, and was not expected to go against it...............A chief who constantly sought to put himself above the traditional laws and custom was abandoned by the people, who then allied themselves with another chief."

Xhosa Beehive Huts
Excerpted from the book "Frontiers" by Noel Mostert, Alfred A. Knopf, 1992

"The southern African hut is one of the world's most distinctive habitations. As a practical adaptation to environment and lifestyle it is unsurpassed in its simplicity, in its use of available materials, in its convenience and in its visual cheerfulness, which also makes it readily adapted by the whites, who in later times would call their evolved mode a `rondavel', which is the familiar accommodation these days in game parks as well as many holiday resorts through Africa south of the Sahara. Apart from being the most functional of all, it is probably the most classless habitation on earth. Through millennia it has readily functioned as required, whether for royal purpose or peasant's."

The base structure of the Xhosa beehive huts was made by bending thin pliant poles, that were stuck into the ground sixteen inches apart, to form a round structure. This was then covered with a mixture of clay and cattle dung, both inside and out. The entrance was doorless. The interior was simply furnished with a fireplace and rush mats for sleeping.