Stamps of South African homelands
As a large part of the world is preparing to follow the 2010 FIFA World Cup in South Africa, I’ve decided to dedicate few upcoming posts to South African stamps and postal history. Let’s begin the journey with so called homeland or bantustan (peoples land) stamps. In short homelands system was a territory set aside for black inhabitants of South Africa and South West Africa (currently Namibia) as part of the policy of apartheid.
1976 Transkei, 1c Lubisi damn. This is the very first South African homelands stamp issued in October 1976. Bophuthatswana issued their first stamp in December 1977, Ciskei in December 1981, and Venda in September 1979.
In South Africa, territories of Transkei, Bophuthatswana, Venda, and Ciskei (the so-called TBVC states) were declared independent in late 1970’s and early 1980’s. This declaration was however not recognized outside of South Africa. At the same time, South Africa began issuing stamps inscribed with the names of these areas.
Though these stamps were not officially recognized by most postal authorities, they were generally accepted on international mail. As such, they also appear in all major stamp catalogs with the stamps of South Africa.
1986 Bophuthatswana, 14c milling industry. Additional value to 1985 definitive stamps series displaying various industries.
When homeland system was terminated in 1994, each state had issued roughly 300 different stamps. AFAIK, there are no huge rarities with these stamps and they are somewhat easy to find (especially in mint condition).
1984 Transkei, 2c horsemen. The 1984 definitive stamp series (18 diff. values) displays Xhosa culture.
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You are right the homelands don’t many rarities to the table but they do offer collectors a chance to “complete” a country and have fantastic thematic issues. I have yet to see a complete genuine postally used collection of the homelands — that would be a rarity!
The revenue stamps of the homelands are worth a lot more than the postage stamps.