ABSTRACT

The people who inhabit Shixini and adjoining areas are members of what was, historically, and technically still is, part of the Gcaleka chiefdom, the senior branch of the Xhosa proper. Like other Xhosa-speaking chiefdoms, the Gcaleka became subject to British colonial control when the Cape Colony annexed the area known as Gcaleka-land, the present districts of Gatyana and Centane, in 1885. Shixini is an area of approximately 50 square kilometres, some 14 kilometres long and between 2 and 6 kilometres wide. It is located in the rugged coastal part of the district, on what tourists know as the Wild Coast, and is climatically and ecologically typical of the Transkei and Eastern Cape's coastal belt. In the pre-colonial period, indigenous settlement in the Transkei was determined largely by the nature of the environment, which was characterised by 'small-scale repetitive configurations that contained a variety of natural resources'.