Askham is a village in the

Dawid Kruiper Local Municipality Dawid Kruiper Local Municipality is a local municipality of South Africa. It was established after the August 2016 local elections by merging Mier and //Khara Hais local municipalities. and named after the San politician Dawid Kruiper. Politic ...

in the

ZF Mgcawu District Municipality The ZF Mgcawu District Municipality (known before 1 July 2013 as Siyanda) is one of the 5 districts of the Northern Cape province of South Africa. The seat of ZF Mgcawu is Upington. The majority (76%) of its 236,783 people speak Afrikaans (2011 C ...

in the

Northern Cape The Northern Cape is the largest and most sparsely populated province of South Africa. It was created in 1994 when the Cape Province was split up. Its capital is Kimberley. It includes the Kalahari Gemsbok National Park, part of the Kgalagadi T ...

province of

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the north by the neighbouring countri ...

. Askham lies not far from the confluence of the mostly dry Molopo and Kuruman Rivers in the Red

Kalahari The Kalahari Desert is a large semi-arid sandy savanna in Southern Africa extending for , covering much of Botswana, and parts of Namibia and South Africa. It is not to be confused with the Angolan, Namibian, and South African Namib coastal de ...

Desert, about 200 km north of

Upington Upington ( Nama: //Khara hais) is a town founded in 1873 and located in the Northern Cape province of South Africa, on the banks of the Orange River. The town was originally called Olijvenhoutsdrift ('Olive wood drift'), due to the abundance of ...

at the junction of the R31 and the R360 roads. The village is located in the belt of the irrigated green land that surrounds the

Orange River The Orange River (from Afrikaans/Dutch: ''Oranjerivier'') is a river in Southern Africa. It is the longest river in South Africa. With a total length of , the Orange River Basin extends from Lesotho into South Africa and Namibia to the north ...

, as it flows North-West through the

toward the Namibian border and the Richtersveld area of

Namaqualand Namaqualand (khoekhoe: "Nama-kwa" meaning Nama Khoe people's land) is an arid region of Namibia and South Africa, extending along the west coast over and covering a total area of . It is divided by the lower course of the Orange River into ...

. Askham is located in the southern Kalahari wilderness area on the Red Dune Route, where the dunes grow approximately 35m in height. The area was once home to the San Bushmen,

Koranna 1505 Koranna, provisional designation , is a stony Eunomia asteroid from the central regions of the asteroid belt, approximately 21 kilometers in diameter. It was discovered on 21 April 1939, by South African astronomer Cyril Jackson at the Un ...

and

Nama people Nama (in older sources also called Namaqua) are an African ethnic group of South Africa, Namibia and Botswana. They traditionally speak the Nama language of the Khoe-Kwadi language family, although many Nama also speak Afrikaans. The Nama Peo ...

History

The settlement of Askham developed around a school boarding house, built in 1931, and the

Dutch Reformed Church The Dutch Reformed Church (, abbreviated NHK) was the largest Christian denomination in the Netherlands from the onset of the Protestant Reformation in the 16th century until 1930. It was the original denomination of the Dutch Royal Family and ...

of Askam, which serves the entire

region. Scottish land surveyor, Roger Jackson, gave Askham its name when he surveyed farms in the

Kuruman Kuruman is a small town with just over 53,000 inhabitants in the Northern Cape province of South Africa. It is known for its scenic beauty and the Eye of Kuruman, a geological feature that brings water from deep underground. The abundance of water ...

river in 1919. There are numerous varying explanations given for Roger Jackson’s choice in naming the settlement ‘Askham’. It is believed that Jackson named the town after a town on the

Irish Irish may refer to: Common meanings * Someone or something of, from, or related to: ** Ireland, an island situated off the north-western coast of continental Europe ***Éire, Irish language name for the isle ** Northern Ireland, a constituent unit ...

coast. Many others believe that Jackson derived the name from a farmer’s words: “Ask him”, or from the message he sent to request ingredients for his breakfast: “Ask ham!”. There is no general consensus on the choice of naming the village. The police station was built in 1931 and was a breeding station for

camels A camel (from: la, camelus and grc-gre, κάμηλος (''kamēlos'') from Hebrew or Phoenician: גָמָל ''gāmāl''.) is an even-toed ungulate in the genus ''Camelus'' that bears distinctive fatty deposits known as "humps" on its back. C ...

used for police patrols in the Kalahari. At one stage, the police station kept over 400 camels and supplied them to police stations in

Rietfontein Rietfontein is a town in ZF Mgcawu District Municipality located in the Northern Cape province of South Africa. It functions as the Rietfontein Borderpost with Namibia during the day hours of 08:00-16:30, that gives access to and from south-east N ...

, Obobogorag,

, Van Zylsrus, Deben and

Olifantshoek Olifantshoek is a town in John Taolo Gaetsewe District Municipality in the Northern Cape Province of South Africa. The village is 60 km northwest of Postmasburg and 80 km southwest of Kuruman. It developed from a police post and is a ...

Attractions

Askham provides activities such as dune boarding, guided walks, game drives and bird exhibitions.

Kalahari Red Dune Route

The village of Askham is the starting point of the Kalahari Red Dune. The Route is home to the ancient tribes Khoi and San. Their descendants can be found today producing and selling authentic handicrafts such as bow and arrows, beads made out of ostrich egg shells and animal skin bags. Kalahari red dunes with bush

San Info Centre

The San Info Centre is an information centre located in Askham and constitutes the western point of the Footprints of the San Route, connecting the San community in

Kimberley Kimberly or Kimberley may refer to: Places and historical events Australia * Kimberley (Western Australia) ** Roman Catholic Diocese of Kimberley * Kimberley Warm Springs, Tasmania * Kimberley, Tasmania a small town * County of Kimberley, a ...

to the small community in Andriesville. Made of wooden buildings, the tourism information centre also offers San cultural tours and guided walks with San trackers.

Kalahari Desert Festival

The Kalahari Desert festival is located at the //Uruke bush camp on the farm Witdraai, just outside Askham. The first Festival happened in March 2013 and is now an annual event at the Northern Cape festivals calendar. Local guides from the Askham village host guests with storytelling sessions, gathering medicinal plants and teaching traditional skills such as archery and arts and crafts. . The festival celebrates the indigenous cultures of the Kalahari communities in Southern Africa and is organised by the South African San Institute in collaboration with the ≠Khomani San, the Department of Economic Development and Tourism, the Department of Sports, Arts and Culture and the Northern Cape Province.Suzanne Francis, Michael Francis & Adeoye Akinola (2016) The edge of the periphery: situating the ≠Khomani San of the Southern Kalahari in the political economy of Southern Africa, African Identities, 14:4, 370-383, DOI: 10.1080/14725843.2016.1154813

External links

*http://www.kdfest.com/ *http://experiencenortherncape.com/uploads/files/kdf-program.pdf

References

{{ZF Mgcawu District Municipality Populated places in the Dawid Kruiper Local Municipality