In this newsletter...

 * History of Graaff- Reinet (Part 1)

 * The Rebellion

 * Stockenstrom - the game changer

 * The Great Trek

 * Pass of the week

Graaff-Reinet

Graaff-Reinet is the sixth oldest town in South Africa and had its origins as a far-flung frontier settlement at the very limits of the old Cape Colony. The first European inhabitants of the area were the trekboere, or nomadic farmers, who moved away from the restrictive rule of the Dutch East India Company at Cape Town in search of suitable grazing for their cattle and fat-tailed sheep. The first permits for establishing farms in the district were awarded in 1770, including the farms Uitkomst (Outcome), Vergenoegd (Far Enough) and Slegtgenoeg (Bad Enough).

These nomadic farmers first reached the plains of the Camdeboo and the Sneeuberge in the mid-eighteenth century and in answer to a dire need for a settlement to serve their needs Landdrost Mauritz Woeke was despatched to the area from Cape Town. He selected a beautiful site within the broad sweep of the Sundays River and the surrounding mountains in 1786, naming the new settlement Graaff-Reinet after the Dutch Governor Cornelis Jacob van de Graaff and his wife Reynet.

The trekboere had settled the surrounding countryside from the early 1770s and as was common in almost all parts of the Karoo they came into conflict with the indigenous San or Bushmen who had been resident in the area for countless centuries.

Conflict

The hunter gatherer lifestyle of the San conflicted with the pastoral lifestyle of these early farmers and conflict was the inevitable result. As the San were increasingly deprived of their best hunting land they resorted to killing the farmer’s livestock in order to survive. A state of almost perpetual conflict between these early settlers and the San raged for almost 30-years with more than 3,000 San killed in the conflict. The few survivors from this unfortunate period either moved away into the vast northern spaces of the Great Karoo or were assimilated into the population of the Khoikhoi who worked for the new white settlers.

(Read more...)

The nomadic farmers and the early settlers were independently minded and deeply disenchanted with any attempt by the distant colonial government in Cape Town to administer their affairs. The Dutch East India Company, the ultimate authority behind the colonial administration, was in an advanced state of decay by the late eighteenth century and gave little thought to the protection of their burghers, or citizens, in the far flung corners of the vast Cape Colony against the marauding San and the Xhosa tribes from the east.

Known as "Groot Kerk" (Big Church) this iconic church stands guard over the town of Graaff Reinet, imposing and quite lovely. Architecturally, the church is Gothic Revival and based on the lines of Salisbury Cathedral in England and the inaugural sermon delivered on the 11th September 1887. The stone for this church was obtained locally and the church, which can seat 1,250 and boasts a chimney, an unusual feature for a church. / Photo: KarooHeartland.com

Rebellion

In February 1795 the burghers of Graaff-Reinet dismissed Landdrost HC Maynier and his officials and in a flagrant act of rebellion set up their own administration. The British ejected the effete Dutch administration from the Cape at the same time, however the burghers of Graaff-Reinet refused to accept the authority of the new British colonial administration, relenting a few months later. The British authority continued until 1799 when the burghers again rose in revolt freeing Commandant Adriaan van Jaarsveld from prison, who had served as the President of the Graaff-Reinet “War Council.” The rebellion was supressed by General Thomas Vandeleur and the ringleaders including van Jaarsveld and Marthinis Prinsloo were sentenced to death in Cape Town whilst a number of the other rebels were sentenced to terms of imprisonment, banishment or flogging. Van Jaarsveld died in custody in the Castle in Cape Town in 1803.

The independent Republic of Graaff-Reinet ceased to exist reverting under the control of the colonial authorities in Cape Town. During this period the inhabitants of Graaff-Reinet had to contend with repeated cattle raids by Xhosa warriors so depleting their herds that arrangements had to be made to purchase cattle from the Bechuana.

The new village of Graaff-Reinet developed slowly and was none the less pivotal to the development of the surrounding area. Skilled artisans such as wagonwrights, saddlers, blacksmiths, carpenters and builders swelled the population and by the mid nineteenth century the town was the most important settlement on the eastern fringes of the Cape Colony north of Port Elizabeth.

View towards Spandau Kop and the Valley of Desolation / Photo: KarooHeartland.com

Stockenstrom takes charge

Andries Stockenström , later to be appointed Lieutenant Governor of the Eastern Province, was instrumental in cutting the first water furrows round the steep mountain buttress feeding water upstream from the Sundays River into the large garden plots that were a feature of early Graaff-Reinet.

This transformed this rather dusty, arid and somewhat tatty settlement into a veritable Eden of intensive agriculture with the planting of many fruit trees and other crops in the town.

The Great Trek

Graaff-Reinet played an important role during the Great Trek that reached its zenith during the period 1834 to 1837. Fed up with British colonial rule in the Cape Colony and deeply resentful of the intrusion of British influences, including the abolition of slavery in 1834, many burghers decided to trek north into the hitherto largely unexplored vastness of the South African interior beyond the boundaries of the Cape Colony.

Prominent Boer leaders of the Great Trek including Sarel Cilliers, Gerrit Maritz and Andries Pretorius farmed in the Graaff-Reinet district before leading many local followers into the largely unknown territory beyond the Orange River.

During the 1840s many English settlers arrived in the Camdeboo moving away from the endless conflict with the Xhosa along the eastern boundary of the Cape Colony. These new arrivals established prosperous enterprises in Graaff-Reinet and also firmly established the district as one of the premier wool producing regions in South Africa. The Camdeboo prospered on the back of the wool industry and land prices increased particularly during the 1850s.

By 1845 Graaff-Reinet had its own municipality and later served as a gateway to the diamond fields of Kimberley and eventually the gold fields of the Witwatersrand en-route from Port Elizabeth. Construction of the railway line from Port Elizabeth began in 1877 and the line came into service in August 1879.

The town is packed with heritage buildings and national monuments / Photo: KarooWildSafaris

The advent of the Anglo Boer War in 1899 and the invasion of the Cape Colony by Boer Republican Commandos did not result in widespread rebellion by the Cape Afrikaners against the Cape Colonial Government.

Although there was widespread sympathy amongst Cape Afrikaners for the Boer Republics very few Afrikaners from Graaff-Reinet joined up with the Republican Commandos. There was greater direct support for the commandos from the smaller towns of Colesberg, Aliwal North, Jamestown, Venterstad, Aberdeen and Lady Grey. There was however considerable tension between English and Dutch speaking members of the community in Graaff-Reinet that threatened to spill over at any moment into open hostility. In March 1900, 350 Officers and Men of the Sherwood Foresters of the Derbyshire Regiment arrived in Graaff-Reinet and despite the overt hostility of many of the Dutch speaking residents of the town they were treated typically with great hospitality.

Graaff Reinet has an impressive history - too long for this newsletter, so we will publish Part 2 next week.

Source: SA History Online, Graaff Reinet Tourism

PASS OF THE WEEK

The area surrounding the town has many mountain passes to explore. One of the most impressive is the narrow tarred pass that leads up to the viewpoint over the Valley of Desolation. The link below will take you there. Enjoy the video.

* *   C A M D E B O O   P A S S   * *

Trygve Roberts
Editor

Kakorrhaphiophobia - The correct word for fear of failure, which is quite amusing as most people would be too scared to use it in case they failed to pronounce it correctly.