in 2022
Prehistory Cave sites in the area, such as Albany, Wilton and
Howieson's Poort, have given their names to various archaeological cultures. The Howieson's Poort site has been of particular interest to interpretations about the origins of fully modern human behaviour. Dating to 65,000 to 62,000years ago, it has yielded extremely old evidence for bow-and-arrow hunting and shell-bead jewellery. Earlier and Middle Stone Age lithic material has been found in the Sundays River Valley, while at the important site of
Amanzi Springs, 40km north of Gqeberha near Addo, Earlier Stone Age artefacts are found
in situ with well-preserved plant and faunal remains within spring sediments (Deacon, 1970). There is Later Stone Age archaeological material preserved in caves and rock shelters, such as
Melkhoutboom Cave, in the Cape Fold Mountain Belt surrounding Gqeberha (see Deacon and Deacon, 1963; Deacon, 1976; Binneman, 1997) and large numbers of coastal shell middens have been reported at Humewood,
St Georges Strand and the Coega River Mouth (Rudner, 1968). Most recently, Binneman and Webley (1997) reported thirteen shell middens and stone tool scatters about 500m east of the Coega River mouth in the archaeological assessment carried out for the development of maritime infrastructure for the
Port of Ngqura. Importantly, some of this archaeological material was recorded in secondary context in the gravels from older river terraces along the banks of the Coega River.
Early history Hunters and gatherers ancestral to the
San first settled the area around what is now called Algoa Bay at least 10,000 years ago. Around 2,000 years ago, they were gradually assimilated by agriculturalist populations ancestral to the
Xhosa people.
British settlement The first Europeans to visit the area sailed with the Portuguese explorers
Bartholomeu Dias, who landed on St Croix Island in Algoa Bay in 1488, and
Vasco da Gama, who noted the nearby
Bird Island in 1497. For centuries, the area appeared on European navigation charts marked simply as "a landing place with fresh water". The area later became part of the
Cape Colony. This area had a turbulent
history between the settlement by the
Dutch East India Company in 1652 and the formation of the
Union of South Africa in 1910. In 1799, at the time of the first British
occupation of the Colony during the
Napoleonic Wars, British troops built a stone fort named
Fort Frederick after the
Duke of York. This fort, aiming to deter a possible landing of French troops, was constructed to oversee the site of what later became Port Elizabeth. The fort is now preserved as a monument. From 1814 to 1821, the Strandfontein farm to the south of the Gqeberha River was owned by
Piet Retief. He later became a
Voortrekker leader and was killed in 1837 by Zulu king
Dingane during negotiations about land. An estimated 500 men, woman and children of his party were killed. Frederik Korsten, after whom the suburb of Korsten is named, owned the Strandfontein farm after Retief. This area was later developed as Summerstrand, a beachfront suburb. In 1820, a party of 4,000
British settlers arrived by sea, encouraged by the government of the Cape Colony to form a settlement to strengthen the border region between the Cape Colony and the Xhosa people. At this time the seaport town was founded by Sir
Rufane Shaw Donkin, the Acting
Governor of the Cape Colony (in office from 1820 to 1821). Diplomat
Edmund Roberts visited Gqeberha in the early 1830s. Roberts noted that Gqeberha in the 1820s had "contained four houses, and now it has upward of one hundred houses, and its residents are rated at above twelve hundred persons". The British garrison of Gqeberha saw the arrival of a further 500 settlers in 1825, one of whom was Rev Francis McClelland, who in the same year was appointed Colonial Chaplain. The Roman Catholic Church established the
Apostolic Vicariate of the Cape of Good Hope, Eastern District in the city in 1847. Gqeberha, then named Port Elizabeth, was granted the status of an autonomous municipality in 1861. Cape Colony Prime Minister
John Molteno had formed the
Cape Government Railways in 1872. Completion of the railway to
Kimberley in 1873 was a major stimulus to trade and a rapid increase in population in the town. With the massive expansion of the Cape Colony's railway network to the interior over the following years, the harbour of Gqeberha became the focus for serving import and export needs of a large area of the Cape's hinterland. The rapid economic development around the port, which followed the railway construction, caused Gqeberha to be nicknamed "the
Liverpool of South Africa", after the major British port. The town expanded as a diverse community, comprising Xhosa as well as European,
Cape Malay, and other immigrants. During the
Second Boer War of 1899–1902, the port served as an important transit-point for British soldiers, horses, and materials headed by railway to the front. No armed conflict took place within the city, but it felt the effects of the war with the arrival of many
refugees who moved into the city. These included Boer women and children, whom the British
interned in a
concentration camp. After the war, the British erected a monument to military horses that died during the war. "The unveiling of the monument commemorating the services of the
horses which perished during the Anglo Boer War, 1899–1902, took place on Saturday afternoon, 11 February 1905, with the Mayor, Mr A Fettes, performing the ceremony."
Apartheid era Under
apartheid, the South African government established legal
racial segregation and started programs to separate communities physically as well as by classification and custom. The forced relocation under the auspices of the
Group Areas Act of the non-white population from mixed areas began in 1962, causing various
townships to be built for their use. Classification was sometimes arbitrary, and as in many other localities throughout the country, many citizens appearing to have mixed ancestry were at times subject to re-classification, which often had intrusive sociopolitical results. The non-white tenants of South End, and land owners in Fairview were forcibly relocated from 1965 through to 1975, as these areas were valued as prime real estate. The city-planning was viewed as the prototypical apartheid city. As
black South Africans organised to try to achieve civil rights and social justice, government repression increased. In 1977
Steve Biko, the black anti-apartheid activist, was interrogated and tortured by the security police in Gqeberha before being taken to
Pretoria, where he died. Other notable deaths in the city during this time included those of the
Cradock Four, and of George Botha, a high-school teacher.
1952 Defiance Campaign In 1952 the
African National Congress and the
South African Indian Congress (SAIC) called all South Africans to stand up against the apartheid government's unjust laws directed at the black African, Indian and
coloured population. On 6 April, while most white
South Africans celebrated the tercentenary of
Jan van Riebeeck's arrival at the Cape in 1652, the
ANC and
SAIC called on black
South Africans to observe the day as "A National Day of Pledge and Prayer". 15 000 people attended in
Johannesburg, 10 000 in
Cape Town, 10 000 in
Durban and 20 000 in Gqeberha. The meeting in Gqeberha was led by Professor
Z. K. Matthews and by
Raymond Mhlaba. On 25 July 1952, a day before the official start of the
Defiance Campaign, 30 volunteers led by Raymond Mhlaba gathered at the New Brighton Civic Centre and prayed throughout the night. At 5am on 26 July, they left the Civic Centre and walked towards the
New Brighton Railway Station. In ''Raymond Mhlaba's Personal Memoirs: Reminiscing from Rwanda and Uganda'', Mhlaba recalled: "I led the very first group and we entered the '
Europeans Only' section of the
New Brighton station. By half past six we were already in police vans on our way to jail. It turned out that my party (group) was the very first to defy unjust laws in the whole of
South Africa. Little did we know that we were making history." Mhlaba became the first man to be arrested during the campaign, while
Florence Matomela was the first woman. 2 007 people were arrested in Gqeberha during the
Defiance Campaign included
Oom Gov (Govan Mbeki) and
Vuyisile Mini. Other volunteers who emerged as key role players during the campaign included
Nosipho Dastile, Nontuthuzelo Mabala,
Lilian Diedricks and
Veronica Sobukwe.
1985 Consumer Boycotts After the formation of the
ANC-affiliated
United Democratic Front in 1983, political consciousness in black townships grew. With numerous protests across the country and the massacre in
Langa township near
Uitenhage, police presence had increased in South African townships. In the townships, black
South Africans demanded the integration of public institutions, the removal of troops from black townships, and the end of
workplace discrimination. To launch an effective campaign to cripple the white-owned institutions of Gqeberha and to undermine the legitimacy of apartheid, several women suggested the idea of a consumer boycott to the
Port Elizabeth Black Civic Organisation (PEBCO) in May 1985. The economic boycott began on 15 July 1985, and received massive support in townships around Gqeberha. By September 1985, white business-owners became desperate and called on the government to meet the demands of black
South Africans. In November the boycott was still hurting white businesses in Gqeberha greatly. The white
South African government reached an agreement with PEBCO which stated that the boycott would halt until March 1986 if business owners arranged for the release of black
leaders. In 1986, as the deal was approaching its end, the boycotters imposed a deadline of 31 March, stating that the boycott would resume if the initial demands were not met. On 11 March the government unexpectedly banned two leaders, one of whom was
Mkuseli Jack. However, on 22 March the ban was lifted by the decision of a Supreme Court Justice on the grounds that the government had given insufficient reasons. Jack ripped up the ban papers, and used the celebration as a way to represent the solidarity that the campaign required. As the demands of the boycotters were not met by 31 March, the boycott was renewed on 1 April. The boycott continued for nine weeks, but on 12 June 1986 another state of emergency was imposed by the
National Party government. Security forces searched through the townships, arresting thousands and raiding the offices of black civics, trade unions, the
UDF, the South African Council, and churches and also confiscating documents.
Modern history With the establishment of the
Coega Industrial Development Zone (CIDZ), foreign direct and also national-level investment has improved in the greater region of Nelson Mandela Bay. The IDZ, under the stewardship of the Coega Development Corporation (CDC), since inception has managed to attract to investment account in excess of R140-billion into the economy of the Eastern Cape and has enabled the
creation of over 45,000 jobs. This is significant for the area and the economy of the Eastern Cape. In 2001, the
Nelson Mandela Bay Metropolitan Municipality was formed as an administrative area covering Gqeberha, the neighbouring towns of
Uitenhage and Despatch and the surrounding agricultural areas. The name honours former
President Nelson Mandela. The combined metropolitan area had a population estimated at around 1.3 million in 2006.
2010 FIFA World Cup Overtaking its next door neighbouring city
East London, it became a host city for the
2010 FIFA World Cup. The
Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium hosted eight World Cup games:
South Korea vs
Greece,
Ivory Coast vs
Portugal,
Germany vs
Serbia;
Chile vs
Switzerland, and
Slovenia vs
England in the Group Stage, then
Uruguay, South Korea in the Round of 16. A quarter-final between
Netherlands,
Brazil was hosted, then for the Third Place playoff, Uruguay and Germany were hosted at the stadium. The World Cup was played between 11 June 2010 and 11 July 2010.
Spain were the eventual champions.
2013 Africa Cup of Nations The city was also one of the five that hosted the 2013 Africa Cup of Nations. The same stadium that was used in the 2010 World Cup hosted eight games: five matches in Group B—
Ghana vs
DR Congo,
Mali vs
Niger, Ghana vs Mali; DR Congo vs Niger, and Ghana vs Niger; one match in Group A—
Cape Verde vs
Angola, the quarterfinal—Ghana vs Cape Verde, and the third place playoff—Ghana vs Mali. The Africa Cup of Nations took place between 19 January and 10 February 2013.
Nigeria were eventual champions. ==Geography==