The Eastern Cape is one of the nine provinces of South Africa. Its capital is Bhisho, but its two largest cities are East London and Gqeberha. Due to its climate and nineteenth century towns, it is a common location for tourists. It is also known for being home to many anti-apartheid activists, the most famous being Nelson Mandela hailing from the province.
The southern part of the province seen from space. Various mountain ranges in the Cape Fold Belt are visible, besides Cape Recife and Cape St. Francis.
Aloe ferox on the R61 route between Cofimvaba and Ngcobo.
Xhosa, formerly spelled Xosa and also known by its local name isiXhosa, is a Nguni language, indigenous to Southern Africa and one of the official languages of South Africa and Zimbabwe. Xhosa is spoken as a first language by approximately 10 million people and as a second language by another 10 million, mostly in South Africa, particularly in Eastern Cape, Western Cape, Northern Cape and Gauteng, and also in parts of Zimbabwe and Lesotho. It has perhaps the heaviest functional load of click consonants in a Bantu language, with one count finding that 10% of basic vocabulary items contained a click.
Trilingual government building sign in Afrikaans, English and Xhosa
Sign outside the AmaZink township theatre restaurant in Kayamandi welcoming visitors in Xhosa
English missionary Henry Hare Dugmore helped translate the Bible into Xhosa in 1859
Nelson Mandela was a Xhosa and was a member of the royal family of the Thembu tribe