The Transkei region of South Africa is an historic area larger than Holland or Switzerland. It comprises most of the region of Southern Africa between the nation of Lesotho and the Indian Ocean, including the shoreline known as the Wild Coast. Its name means "Across the Kei River".

Traditionally a home of the Xhosa and Tembu tribes, the area was annexed in 1884 by the British Cape Colony, absorbed into the Union of South Africa in 1910, and has since been enmeshed in the controversies surrounding South Africa's policies toward racial groups. The Transkei was the first of the Bantu territories to be granted self-rule in 1963. In 1976 the Republic of South Africa took steps to declare the area an "independent state". Only the Republic of South Africa and its other Black areas, also declared "independent", gave official recognition of the sovereignty of the Transkei as a nation. In 1994 the Transkei was reincorporated into South Africa and is a part of the Eastern Cape Province.

Largely rural, the Transkei is home to an estimated 3.5 million people. The territory is a beautiful rolling country with a fantastic 150 mile-long coastline mostly in a natural undeveloped state. Wage-paying jobs are limited. Industry is confined to a few centers, and agriculture is plagued by overgrazing and population pressures.

While almost one-third of the population holds to traditional tribal beliefs, evangelistic efforts of the past century and a half have resulted in nearly eighty percent of the people identifying themselves as "Christian". One-third of these are in the many indigenous African Independent Churches.

AIMM began work in this region in 1982, primarily in a Bible-teaching ministry relating to leadership in these indigenous African churches.