sb. (a.) [f. TRANS- 7 + Kei, a river of S. Africa.] A territory situated across the river Kei, which falls into the Indian Ocean, c. 28° 20′ E., and was from 1847 to 1877 the boundary between Kafirland or Caffraria and Cape Colony, of which the Transkei territory now forms a part. Also attrib. or as adj. Hence Trans[-]keian a.
1851. Daily News, 9 July, 5/5. Another [column of troops] can, by a simultaneous movement, sweep round the mountains and threaten the Trans-Keian Kaffirs, spreading terror thereby among them.
1879. Whitaker’s Almanack, 259/1. The area [of Cape Colony], including Basutoland and Transkei, 222,308 square miles. Ibid., 259/2. The Transkeian territories stretch from the Kei to Natal. Ibid. (1898), 515 (Cape Colony). The Transkei territories. Ibid. (Principal events). Incorporation of all the Transkeian territories, except part of Pondoland, with the Colony, completed 1885; annexation of Pondoland 1894.
1899. Daily News, 10 Oct., 7/1. The Pondos and the other Transkei tribes are not absolutely to be relied on.
1911. J. Lennox, Missions S. Afr., 81. A question of a much more difficult nature has exercised the Kafrarian and Transkeian Churches.
