No Man’s Land, noun phrase

Forms:
Also Nomansland.
Origin:
EnglishShow more Special applications of general English no-man’s land a piece of waste- or unowned land.
1. In historical contexts. The area straddling the boundary between what is now the Eastern Cape (formerly the Transkei), and KwaZulu-Natal (formerly Natal); so called from the mid-1800s, when it had no officially recognized local government or ruler.
Note:
In 1861 the inland section was offered by the Cape governor to the Griquas, and became known as Griqualand East; it was annexed to the Cape Colony in 1866. See also Griqualand (Griqua sense 2). The section nearer the coast was annexed, as Alfred County, to Natal in 1865.
1861 Queenstown Free Press 15 May (Pettman)The country which is called No Man’s Land is claimed by two powerful governments; and Sir George Grey has written to Adam Kok stating that in consequence of the land being claimed as above mentioned, the case has been referred to the British Government.
1875 ‘P.’ in A.M.L. Robinson Sel. Articles from Cape Monthly Mag. (1978) 189At present the country is so broken up under different chiefs that it is a matter of some difficulty to recognize the territory as a whole without enumerating the separate dependencies. A portion of it is known as Nomansland; but this again is rather vague, and the present innovation is certainly a success.
1876 H. Brooks Natal 234In 1866..the Government of the colony took possession of ‘No-man’s-land’.
1882 J. Nixon Among Boers 104The Cape Authorities offered Adam Kok, the Griqua chief, a piece of land on the borders of Natal, known as No Man’s Land.
1913 C. Pettman Africanderisms 341No Man’s Land,..In Sir George Grey’s time as Governor, the territory now known as Griqualand East was so called; but in later times the designation was transferred to the coast country between Zululand and Delagoa Bay.
1965 Brookes & Webb Hist. of Natal (1979) 121The annexation of Nomansland (named Alfred County) in 1866 might, if it had stood alone, have been treated as almost a matter of routine, except for the fact that the High Commissioner had to intervene to prevent the annexation encroaching on Adam Kok’s territory.
1968 E.A. Walker Hist. of Sn Afr. 305The Kaffrarians..hoped..to remain a distinct colony enlarged by the annexation of Nomansland (the northern half of Faku’s Pondo treaty state).
1970 Std Encycl. of Sn Afr. I. 301Alfred, Natal, Area 543 sq. m. Magisterial district in the southern corner of Natal abutting on the Transkei. It was formerly called No Man’s Land, annexed in Sept. 1865 by the Lieutenant-Governor of Natal.
1972 H. Potgieter in Std Encycl. of Sn Afr. V. 351Griqualand East, C.P., The largest region in the Transkei...The region was formerly known as No Man’s Land after the paramount chief of the Pondo had ceded it to the British government in 1844 and gradually evacuated it. In 1861 the governor of the Cape Colony offered it to the Griquas as a settlement area.
1989 Reader’s Digest Illust. Hist. of S. Afr. 190Under Adam Kok III, the Griqua had trekked from the vicinity of Philippolis...They crossed Basutoland..and descended, after two years, to the territory known as No Man’s Land, between the Cape and Natal, in 1862...Despite its name, No Man’s Land was not an empty territory when the Griqua arrived, but was peopled by, among others, Mpondo and Sotho.
1989 Reader’s Digest Illust. Hist. of S. Afr. 490No Man’s Land, Between the Cape Colony and Natal, settled by the Griqua from 1862 and subsequently annexed by Britain. Now Griqualand East.
2. obsolete. The area between Zululand and Delagoa Bay, so called in the late 19th century.
Note:
Now southern Mozambique.
1900 J. Robinson Life Time in S. Afr. 361There still remained the undefined country (still called ‘No Man’s Land’ by the Republic) lying between Zululand and Delagoa Bay, and it was therein that President Kruger hoped to secure a footing on the seaboard.
1913 [see sense 1].
The area straddling the boundary between what is now the Eastern Cape (formerly the Transkei), and KwaZulu-Natal (formerly Natal); so called from the mid-1800s, when it had no officially recognized local government or ruler.
The area between Zululand and Delagoa Bay, so called in the late 19th century.
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