Ginsberg is a township on the banks of the Buffalo River that is next to

King William's Town Qonce, formerly known as King William's Town, is a city in the Eastern Cape province of South Africa along the banks of the Buffalo River. The city is about northwest of the Indian Ocean port of East London. Qonce, with a population of around ...

, in the

Buffalo City Metropolitan Municipality Buffalo City is a metropolitan municipality situated on the east coast of Eastern Cape Province, South Africa. It includes the towns of East London, Bhisho and Qonce, as well as the large townships of Mdantsane and Zwelitsha. History The muni ...

Eastern Cape The Eastern Cape is one of the provinces of South Africa. Its capital is Bhisho, but its two largest cities are East London and Gqeberha. The second largest province in the country (at 168,966 km2) after Northern Cape, it was formed in ...

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 ...

History

Named after local councillor and member of parliament of the

Cape Colony The Cape Colony ( nl, Kaapkolonie), also known as the Cape of Good Hope, was a British Empire, British colony in present-day South Africa named after the Cape of Good Hope, which existed from 1795 to 1802, and again from 1806 to 1910, when i ...

, Senator Franz Ginsberg, for his active role in the establishment of the township, Ginsberg was founded as a direct response to the outbreak of bubonic plague in the Cape Colony in 1901. According to the

council, the advent of the plague made better housing conditions and sanitary requirements prevalent, but it also gave impetus to efforts of segregating the town. Fifty wattle and daub huts, 17 foot in diameter with 6-foot walls, thatched roofs and two glazed windows, were subsequently erected by the council. They were built in five rows of 10, whitewashed inside and out, and contained flooring made of beaten ant heap. The new township of Ginsberg incorporated Tsolo location on the west bank of the Buffalo River. The first residents of Ginsberg were drawn from a predominantly rural background, and were attracted to

by the prospect of finding work and accommodation. The town council initially charged 10 shillings per hut per month, which included an adjacent plot of land. To prevent overcrowding, the town council only allowed a maximum of six inhabitants per house. The immediate response from potential tenants was not enthusiastic. By the middle of December 1901 only 18 of the huts had been let because many black prospective inhabitants from town centre in

struggled to pay this amount in advance, as was required by the council. As more rural migrant workers came from outside

, the town council erected a further 30 huts. By 1908 two trail brick huts, roofed with iron and thatch respectively, were erected. This was viewed by the council as an improvement on the original wattle and daub huts. In the same year 116 houses were occupied by 503 people in Ginsberg. Sixty-two more rondavels were built in Ginsberg in 1924. There were three buildings in the township which served as both school and church. These buildings belonged to the

Salvation Army Salvation (from Latin: ''salvatio'', from ''salva'', 'safe, saved') is the state of being saved or protected from harm or a dire situation. In religion and theology, ''salvation'' generally refers to the deliverance of the soul from sin and its c ...

and the

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ide ...

churches respectively. In 1939, black residents of Brownlee Station in the King William's Town centre were moved to Ginsberg by the white town council. During the 1970s, Ginsberg was a hive of political activity as its most famous son

Steve Biko Bantu Stephen Biko (18 December 1946 – 12 September 1977) was a South African anti-apartheid activist. Ideologically an African nationalist and African socialist, he was at the forefront of a grassroots anti-apartheid campaign known ...

and

Black Consciousness Movement The Black Consciousness Movement (BCM) was a grassroots anti-Apartheid activist movement that emerged in South Africa in the mid-1960s out of the political vacuum created by the jailing and banning of the African National Congress and Pan Afri ...

members lived in the area. Biko had returned to the township after being banned from leaving the

magisterial district by the apartheid government in 1973. In 1975, he founded Zimele Trust Fund and Ginsberg Educational Trust to boost education and economic activity in the township.

Today

According to Census 2011 Crmses, Ginsberg has a population of 10766, 90% of which speaks

IsiXhosa Xhosa (, ) also isiXhosa as an endonym, is a Nguni language and one of the official languages of South Africa and Zimbabwe. Xhosa is spoken as a first language by approximately 8.2 million people and by another 11 million as a second ...

and then 4.16%

Afrikaans Afrikaans (, ) is a West Germanic language that evolved in the Dutch Cape Colony from the Dutch vernacular of Holland proper (i.e., the Hollandic dialect) used by Dutch, French, and German settlers and their enslaved people. Afrikaans gra ...

. Unemployment, poverty and alcoholism are rife in the township, which has been plagued by service delivery protests in recent years. One of the projects that is bringing hope to the township is the multimillion-rand Steve Biko Centre built by the Steve Biko Foundation and which first opened its doors in 2012. The centre houses the

Garden of Remembrance and is a popular tourist attraction that employs locals.

References

{{Reflist

External links

Where a hippo refused to leave
Populated places in Buffalo City Metropolitan Municipality

History

Today

See also

References

External links