Hi Virgil! I could be very wrong and misleading you, but I purchased a large number of these stamps a few years ago because they were inexpensive and attractive. I did some research at that time. They were "home states" established by South Africa. I recall that the one on the southern SE coast failed. The currency was the same as that used by South Africa. I purchased these from an SOR member in South Africa. He should be an excellent source of additional information.
SWA or South West Africa, now known as Namibia, was under South African administration until the early 1990s and used the South African Rand for currency.
Ciskei, Transkei, Venda, and Bophuthatswana were "Independent Homelands" or "Bantustans", carved out of South Africa in areas that the government considered traditional tribal land. In reality, much of the land assigned to Homelands was of poor quality and not well suited to agriculture.
The Homelands were an attempt by the South African Apartheid government to create a White majority in South Africa - Black South Africans were assigned citizenship of a Homeland based on their tribal heritage.
The Homelands were not recognised by governments outside of South Africa. Currency was the South African Rand, and Homeland stamps were not valid for use outside of South Africa.
Clive
Excellent info. Thanks, Virgil
I can only offer my highly uneducated perception or rather a guess.
I consider all mentioned states to be artificial states used to increase the volume of South African stamps and the revenue from stamp sales.
I imagine the stamps of those states are valid postage in South Africa just as the stamps of Christmas Island are used in Australia.
Transkey issued a few sets of artificial fishing flies I was interested in, although I highly doubt there are any fly fishermen in the state or any trout waters for that matter.
Yet, all those stamps have more appeal to me than the present day Stamerija stamps.
Bob, thank you for your paper. I understood now how these "entities" were created. I heard about the Apartheid but newer realized in detail how it worked and how it was implemented. Same policies were used in Russia (CCCP) when, under Stalin, many ethnic groups were moved, of course by force, from their ancestral land to different places.
Great paper. With your permission I am showing the link here:
https://www.sahistory.org.za/article/homelands
Maybe other people would be interested. Again, thank you, Virgil
Going through some stamps from the above "countries" or territories I see almost the same denominations during the same time interval. These territories were many years at war or disagreements. They were "independent" too. Questions:
1. What was the currency used in each country or territory?
2. Why the face values were so close between them?
3. Who assured postal services during their existence?
I found very limited information on Wikipedia.
Thanks.
re: Stamps of Ciskei, Transkei, Venda, SWA, Bophuthatswana and maybe more...
Hi Virgil! I could be very wrong and misleading you, but I purchased a large number of these stamps a few years ago because they were inexpensive and attractive. I did some research at that time. They were "home states" established by South Africa. I recall that the one on the southern SE coast failed. The currency was the same as that used by South Africa. I purchased these from an SOR member in South Africa. He should be an excellent source of additional information.
re: Stamps of Ciskei, Transkei, Venda, SWA, Bophuthatswana and maybe more...
SWA or South West Africa, now known as Namibia, was under South African administration until the early 1990s and used the South African Rand for currency.
Ciskei, Transkei, Venda, and Bophuthatswana were "Independent Homelands" or "Bantustans", carved out of South Africa in areas that the government considered traditional tribal land. In reality, much of the land assigned to Homelands was of poor quality and not well suited to agriculture.
The Homelands were an attempt by the South African Apartheid government to create a White majority in South Africa - Black South Africans were assigned citizenship of a Homeland based on their tribal heritage.
The Homelands were not recognised by governments outside of South Africa. Currency was the South African Rand, and Homeland stamps were not valid for use outside of South Africa.
Clive
re: Stamps of Ciskei, Transkei, Venda, SWA, Bophuthatswana and maybe more...
Excellent info. Thanks, Virgil
re: Stamps of Ciskei, Transkei, Venda, SWA, Bophuthatswana and maybe more...
I can only offer my highly uneducated perception or rather a guess.
I consider all mentioned states to be artificial states used to increase the volume of South African stamps and the revenue from stamp sales.
I imagine the stamps of those states are valid postage in South Africa just as the stamps of Christmas Island are used in Australia.
Transkey issued a few sets of artificial fishing flies I was interested in, although I highly doubt there are any fly fishermen in the state or any trout waters for that matter.
Yet, all those stamps have more appeal to me than the present day Stamerija stamps.
re: Stamps of Ciskei, Transkei, Venda, SWA, Bophuthatswana and maybe more...
Bob, thank you for your paper. I understood now how these "entities" were created. I heard about the Apartheid but newer realized in detail how it worked and how it was implemented. Same policies were used in Russia (CCCP) when, under Stalin, many ethnic groups were moved, of course by force, from their ancestral land to different places.
Great paper. With your permission I am showing the link here:
https://www.sahistory.org.za/article/homelands
Maybe other people would be interested. Again, thank you, Virgil