Land reform and sustainable livelihoods in South Africa's Eastern Cape province

Abstract

The Eastern Cape is one of the nine provinces of South Africa, located in the south-east of the country along the Indian Ocean seaboard. The area was a site of prolonged struggle between native peoples, principally Xhosa-speakers, and European colonists throughout the eighteen and nineteenth centuries, which saw the defeat and subjugation of the African chieftaincies and the loss of the majority of territory to white settlers.