Griekwastad is a country town in South Africa. It is sometimes still called Griquatown (the meaning of the town's name in

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 ...

), a name which is now considered historical. The town is in the

Northern Cape Province 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 ...

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

by road west from the city of Kimberley. It was the first town to be established in the country north of 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 ...

History

In 1801 William Anderson and Cornelius Kramer, of the

London Missionary Society The London Missionary Society was an interdenominational evangelical missionary society formed in England in 1795 at the instigation of Welsh Congregationalist minister Edward Williams. It was largely Reformed in outlook, with Congregational m ...

, established a station among the

Griqua Griqua may refer to: * Griqua people * Griqua language or Xiri language * Griquas (rugby) Griquas (known as the Windhoek Draught Griquas for sponsorship reasons since April 2022) are a South African rugby union team that participates in the an ...

at ''Leeuwenkuil''. The site proved too arid for cultivation. In about 1805 they moved the station to another spring further up the valley and called it ''Klaarwater''. Their second choice was little better than their first, and for many years a lack of water prevented any further development. The name of the settlement was changed later to Griquatown or ''Griekwastad'' in

. They lived among a mixed nomadic community of the Chaguriqua tribe and "bastaards" (people of mixed origin) from

Piketberg Piketberg (also sometimes spelt Piquetberg in the past) is a town in the Western Cape, South Africa, located about 80 km east of Saldanha Bay. The original spelling of the name was "Piquetberg". The town is in the foothills of the Piketberg mount ...

. Their two leaders

Andries Waterboer Andries Waterboer (c.1789 - 1852) was a leader ("kaptijn") of the Griqua people. He founded the Waterboer dynasty of Griqualand West, and led to a split of the Griqua people, as the factions of the Kok and Barends dynasties migrated to the south ...

and Adam Kok II later had a dispute and Kok left for

Philippolis Philippolis is a town in the Free State province of South Africa. The town is the birthplace of many South African celebrities including the writer and intellectual Sir Laurens van der Post, actress Brümilda van Rensburg and Springboks rugby ...

. From 1813 to 17 July 1871, the town and its surrounding area functioned as ''Waterboer's Land''. Waterboer himself lived in a "palace", which in reality was a house with six rooms. A monument for Waterboer was later erected near the town's hospital. Dr. Robert Moffat and his wife

Mary Moffat Mary Moffat born Mary Smith (1795 – 9 January 1871) was a British missionary who became a role model for women involved in missionary work. She was the wife of Robert Moffat, the mother of Mary Moffat Livingstone and David Livingstone was her s ...

, on their way to the town of

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 ...

, were residing in Griquatown when their daughter, also

Mary Mary may refer to: People * Mary (name), a feminine given name (includes a list of people with the name) Religious contexts * New Testament people named Mary, overview article linking to many of those below * Mary, mother of Jesus, also calle ...

(later Mrs.

David Livingstone David Livingstone (; 19 March 1813 – 1 May 1873) was a Scottish physician, Congregationalist, and pioneer Christian missionary with the London Missionary Society, an explorer in Africa, and one of the most popular British heroes of t ...

), was born in 1821. There is now a museum that is dedicated to her rather than the founder of the town, William Anderson. That ''Griekwastad'' was later the capital of British Colony

Griqualand West Griqualand West is an area of central South Africa with an area of 40,000 km2 that now forms part of the Northern Cape Province. It was inhabited by the Griqua people – a semi-nomadic, Afrikaans-speaking nation of mixed-race origin, wh ...

from 1873 to 1880, with its own flag and currency, before it was annexed into the

Cape Colony The Cape Colony ( nl, Kaapkolonie), also known as the Cape of Good Hope, was a 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 it united with t ...

. During the Apartheid era from 1969 till 2001, it was the garrison of the 4 Armoured Regiment, an SADF Tank Battalion equipped with

Eland Mk7 The Eland is an air portable light armoured car based on the Panhard AML. Designed and built for long-range reconnaissance, it mounts either a 60mm (2.4 in) breech-loading mortar or a Denel 90mm (3.5 in) gun on a very compact cha ...

Tanks. Nowadays, the town is best known for the semi-precious stones found there, particularly

tiger's eye Tiger's eye (also called tiger eye) is a chatoyant gemstone that is usually a metamorphic rock with a golden to red-brown colour and a silky lustre. As members of the quartz group, tiger's eye and the related blue-coloured mineral hawk's eye ...

and

jasper Jasper, an aggregate of microgranular quartz and/or cryptocrystalline chalcedony and other mineral phases,Kostov, R. I. 2010. Review on the mineralogical systematics of jasper and related rocks. – Archaeometry Workshop, 7, 3, 209-213PDF/ref> ...

Sheep farming Sheep farming or sheep husbandry is the raising and breeding of domestic sheep. It is a branch of animal husbandry. Sheep are raised principally for their meat (lamb and mutton), milk (sheep's milk), and fiber (wool). They also yield sheepskin an ...

occurs with

dorper The Dorper is a South African breed of domestic sheep developed by crossing Dorset Horn and the Blackhead Persian sheep. The breed was created through the efforts of the South African Department of Agriculture to breed a meat sheep suitable to ...

s, a South African breed, which can now be found in places such as Australia.

Crime

On 6th April 2012 ( Good Friday), Griekwastad farmer Deon Steenkamp (44), his wife Christelle (43) and their daughter Marthella (14) were killed. Later, Marthella was also found to have been raped during the last 24 hours of her life. Eventually the family's sole survivor, fifteen-year-old Don Steenkamp, who stood to gain a sizable inheritance, was suspected and accused of murdering his father. In 2014, he was found guilty of the murders, of raping his sister and of lying to the police and sentenced to twenty years imprisonment.

History

Crime

References

See also