Territorial Manipulation in Apartheid South Africa: Resettlement, Tribal Politics and the Making of the Northern Ciskei, 1975–1990

This article discusses the factors that influenced the process of Northern Ciskei’s consolidation during apartheid South Africa. The policy of homeland consolidation was an integral part of racial and territorial segregation, but its implementation was a complex exercise and its consequences were shaped by different forces, some beyond the control of the central state. Moreover, territorial consolidation went hand-in-hand with the extensive relocation of African people into delineated homeland boundaries. Even though apartheid legislators devised tight regulations to implement both land consolidation and the relocation of people to homelands, the facilitation of the outcome of these processes depended on the actions of multiple actors: from South African government ministers to homeland politicians to government planners, to local authorities, as well as the relocated people themselves. In its discussion of the making of the Northern Ciskei, this article explores the interplay of these various actors and, in particular, the interplay of local factors with official policy, unearthing different dimensions that influenced the manipulation of South Africa’s territory and the settlement of its people.