{{Short description|Former name for a region in South Africa}} {{other uses}} {{Use dmy dates|date=January 2025}} [[File:Eastern Frontier, Cape of Good Hope, ca 1835.png|alt=|thumb| Eastern Frontier, Cape of Good Hope, ''circa'' 1835]] [[File:Transkei Cape frontier - 1875-1890.jpg|thumb|Divisions of Kaffraria on a map of the Transkei Cape frontier 1875-1890]] [[File:Mission Premises, Wesleyville, Kaffraria (July 1852, p.75, IX) - Copy.jpg|thumb|Mission Premises, Wesleyville, Kaffraria (July 1852)<ref name="Juvenile1852">{{cite journal|title=Mission Premises, Wesleyville, Kaffraria|journal=The Wesleyan Juvenile Offering: A Miscellany of Missionary Information for Young Persons|date=July 1852|volume=IX|page=75|url=https://archive.org/download/wesleyanjuvenil08socigoog/wesleyanjuvenil08socigoog.pdf|accessdate=24 February 2016|publisher=Wesleyan Missionary Society}}</ref>]]
'''Kaffraria''', '''Kaffiria''', or '''Kaffirland,''' was the descriptive name given to the southeast part of what is today the [[Eastern Cape]] of [[South Africa]]. Kaffraria, i.e., the land of the [[Kaffir (ethnic slur)|Kaffir]]s, is no longer an official designation<ref name=EB1911>{{EB1911 |wstitle=Kaffraria |volume=15 |pages=629–630 |inline=1}}</ref> (with the term ''kaffir'', originally the Arabic term for a non-believer in Islam, now considered an offensive [[ethnic slur|racial slur]] in South Africa).
The districts now known as [[King Williams Town]] and [[East London, South Africa|East London]] were annexed by the British early on and were thus known as [[British Kaffraria]] (later annexed to [[Cape Colony]] in 1865).<ref name=EB1911/> The remaining [[Xhosa people|Xhosa]] territory beyond the [[Kei River]], south of the [[Drakensberg]] Mountains and as far as the [[KwaZulu-Natal Province|Natal]] frontier, remained independent for longer and was known as Kaffraria proper.<ref name=EB1911/>
As a geographical term, it was later used to indicate the Transkeian territories of the Cape provinces comprising the four administrative divisions of [[Transkei]], [[Pondoland]], [[Tembuland]], and [[Griqualand East]], incorporated into Cape Colony at various periods between 1879 and 1894. They had a total area of 18,310 km<sup>2</sup> and a population (1904) of 834,644, of whom 16,777 were designated white by the colonial government. Excluding Pondoland — not counted before 1904 — the population had increased from 487,364 in 1891 to 631,887 in 1904.<ref name=EB1911/>
==See also== * [[Ciskei]] * [[Transkei]] * [[Xhosa Wars]] * [[Kaffrarian Rifles]] * [[Diocese of Kaffraria]]
==References== {{Reflist}}
==External links== * [http://archiver.rootsweb.ancestry.com/th/read/SOUTH-AFRICA-IMMIGRANTS-BRITISH/2003-10/1066308479 Thunder from a Clear Sky]
{{Authority control}} {{Use British English|date=January 2025}} {{coord missing|South Africa}}
[[Category:Former subdivisions of South Africa]]
{{EasternCape-geo-stub}}