Lydenburg, officially known as Mashishing, is a town in
Thaba Chweu Local Municipality
Thaba Chweu Local Municipality, is a municipality of South Africa, located in the Ehlanzeni District Municipality, Mpumalanga.
Main places
The 2001 census divided the municipality into the following main places:
Politics
The municipal ...
, on the
Mpumalanga
Mpumalanga () is a province of South Africa. The name means "East", or literally "The Place Where the Sun Rises" in the Swazi, Xhosa, Ndebele and Zulu languages. Mpumalanga lies in eastern South Africa, bordering Eswatini and Mozambique. ...
highveld,
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 coun ...
. It is situated on the Sterkspruit/Dorps River tributary of the
Lepelle River at the summit of the
Long Tom Pass. It has a long, rich history, ranging from AD 500 to the present. The name is derived from the
Dutch ''Lijdenburg'', or "Town of Suffering", and is named for the experiences of the white settlers.
In Northern Sotho, Mashishing means "long green grass." Lydenburg has become the centre of the South African
fly-fishing industry and is an agricultural, tourism and mining hub.
History
Lydenburg Heads
Dating back to AD 500, the earliest known forms of African Iron Age sculpture below the equator, known as the
Lydenburg heads were found in the area. The seven earthenware sculptures of heads and other pottery from the site are intricately decorated and may have been used for ceremonial or initiation purposes. However, this is speculative as there is little we know today about the people who made these sculptures. Their existence nevertheless points to Lydenburg's remarkable heritage.
Pre-colonial History
The Lydenburg area has a long history of human occupation. Rock paintings in surrounding areas point to early
Khoe-San hunter-gather groups living on the land. In addition to the Lydenburg heads, there is significant Iron Age evidence of settlement of the area possibly by the
Bakoni people. There is evidence of
Bapedi people living in Lydenburg as early as the 1700s. t.
Colonial history
Lydenburg, traditionally known to the
Pedi as Mashishing, was founded in 1849 by a group of
Voortrekkers under the leadership of
Andries Potgieter when they abandoned their previous settlement
Ohrigstad (to the north) due to a
malaria
Malaria is a mosquito-borne infectious disease that affects humans and other animals. Malaria causes symptoms that typically include fever, tiredness, vomiting, and headaches. In severe cases, it can cause jaundice, seizures, coma, or death. ...
epidemic. The town became the capital of the Lydenburg Republic ('De Republiek Lydenburg in Zuid Afrika') in 1856 and later in 1857 joined the
Republic of Utrecht but in 1860 both these republics joined the
Zuid Afrikaanse Republiek (ZAR). The town became the capital of the Lydenburg District of the
South African Republic
The South African Republic ( nl, Zuid-Afrikaansche Republiek, abbreviated ZAR; af, Suid-Afrikaanse Republiek), also known as the Transvaal Republic, was an independent Boer Republic in Southern Africa which existed from 1852 to 1902, when i ...
(ZAR).
Lydenburg became important because it was on the wagon route to the port of Delagoa Bay (now
Maputo Bay) which was free of British control. In 1871 construction of the road was started by Abraham Espag under the orders of President
Thomas François Burgers. The first wagons arrived in Lydenburg from Delagoa Bay in 1874.
On 6 February 1873, alluvial gold was discovered and within 3 months the Lydenburg goldfields were proclaimed. The
First Boer War broke out between Britain and the Transvaal Republic in 1880. A British garrison under Lieutenant Walter Hillyar Colquhoun Long (uncle of the 1st
Viscount Long) occupied Lydenburg to control the goldfields. It was from here that the ill-fated 94th Regiment under the command of
Lieutenant-Colonel
Lieutenant colonel ( , ) is a rank of commissioned officers in the armies, most marine forces and some air forces of the world, above a major and below a colonel. Several police forces in the United States use the rank of lieutenant colo ...
Philip Robert Anstruther marched to
Pretoria
Pretoria () is South Africa's administrative capital, serving as the seat of the executive branch of government, and as the host to all foreign embassies to South Africa.
Pretoria straddles the Apies River and extends eastward into the foothi ...
. The remainder of the garrison at Lydenburg was
besieged from 6 January 1881, following Long's refusal to surrender the garrison on 23 December 1880.
Land such as Boomplaats and Aapiesdoorndraai farms, near the town, was purchased by black South Africans in the early 1900s before the
1913 Land Act severely restricted black land ownership in South Africa.
[https://www.sahistory.org.za/sites/default/files/Removals%20and%20Resistance%20Rural%20Communities%20in%20Lydenburg%20South%20Africa%201940-1961.pdf ] The communities here developed and irrigated the initially arid area into valuable and productive farms.
By 1910 the railway reached Lydenburg. In 1927 Lydenburg became a municipality.
Apartheid-Era History
Forced removals from farms surrounding Lydenburg began in the early 1940s and continued through the 1960s. Residents on the farms, especially through the
ICU,
ANC and local chiefs, resisted the removals in different ways depending on local circumstances and allegiances. Often violently, the apartheid state removed the families to farms further from the town or to
Sekhukhuneland. In 2001, in one of South Africa's first completed land restitution claims, Boomplaats farm was bought from Willem Pretorius and returned by the state to the Dinkwanyane community.
Name change
In June 2006, it was announced that Arts and Culture minister,
Pallo Jordan
Zweledinga Pallo Jordan (born 22 May 1942) is a South African politician. He was a member of the National Executive Committee of the African National Congress, and was a cabinet minister from 1994 until 2009.
Early life
Jordan is the son of th ...
, had approved the renaming Lydenburg to Mashishing, meaning "wind blowing through the grass".
Education
* Marambane Primary School
Lydenburg Primary SchoolHöerskool Lydenburg Highschool* Mashishing Secondary School
Mashishing Campus Ehlanzeni TVET College* Lesodi primary school, Mashingshing.
Tourist attractions
* Lydenburg Museum
*
Long Tom Pass
* Sterkspruit Nature Reserve
See also
*
Bapedi
*
Lydenburg heads
*
Mpumalanga
Mpumalanga () is a province of South Africa. The name means "East", or literally "The Place Where the Sun Rises" in the Swazi, Xhosa, Ndebele and Zulu languages. Mpumalanga lies in eastern South Africa, bordering Eswatini and Mozambique. ...
*
Sekhukhuneland
*
Jock of the Bushveld
References
{{Authority control
Populated places in the Thaba Chweu Local Municipality
Mining communities in South Africa
Populated places founded by Afrikaners
Populated places established in 1849
1849 establishments in Africa
Former republics