Having started establishing themselves as a nation from around 500AD, and by 1800 being one of 2 lands under King Faku (the last head of the Faku family) who inherited it from King Faku (the man who fathered the last King) before him, Pondoland (emaMpondweni) was a fully institutionalized society for hundreds of years before encountering Europeans or Zulu. During the colonial and Apartheid era, the Mpondo people lived in emaMpondweni in the Transkei along with a minority of free Europeans and Xhosas.