Images of Transkei from the Piper Collection


A photographic collection by the late Dr Pauline Ingle based at All Saints Hospital near Engcobo, created over thirty years of great change in the heartland of the Xhosa-speaking people of Transkei.




Amampondo women carry large bundles of firewood home on their heads, not without risk. Once All Saints Hospital received a woman who had stumbled under her load and sustained a fractured neck and paralysis from the neck downwards. She was evacuated by air to the Conradie Hospital Spinal Unit in Cape Town. 1948.
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A group of amakwenkwe (teenage boys) with axes that have largely replaced the stick of traditional stick-play. They may be looking for a fight with another group. Severe head and body injuries may result, requiring major surgery. Ngqokotho. 1975.
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Older men at umtshilo - the dance of abakhwetha. Qutubeni. 1959.
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Bride and &quotbridesmaids", heavily veiled so that the bride is not identified by evil spirits and ill-wishers. Esidadeni, All Saints. c.1956.
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Portrait showing Tembu woman's headdress. 1964.
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Evening settles over the cooking fires. eLuhewini. 1976.
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Bayancokola. Ukuncokola: &quotto converse, chat, joke; to speak familiarly, as among friends; to gossip" Kropf's Dictionary, Lovedale Mission Press, 1915). Intonjane at Nkondlo. 1962.
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Portrait of a red-blanketed woman with pipe. It is rude to call the red-blanketed people (abantu ababomvu) &quotamaqaba" (literally: the body or face smeared). Whereas it is acceptable to call christian converts amagqoboka (literally: pierced through a hole in the heart) or amakholwa (believers). c.1954.
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A woman takes advantage of a downpour to collect water, instead of what is often a daily walk of several kilometres to the nearest river. c.1954.
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