Putsonderwater (formerly Putzonderwater) is an abandoned settlement in !Kheis Local Municipality 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. It is located on the R383 road from

Kenhardt Kenhardt (founded 1868) is a small town in the Northern Cape province of South Africa. This little town is about 120 km from Upington, the largest town in the area. History On 27 December 1868, special magistrate Maximillian Jackson with a po ...

Marydale Marydale is a town in the Northern Cape province in western South Africa. Established in 1903 by the Dutch Reformed Church, Marydale was named after Mary Snyman, the wife of Mr GP Snyman, owner of the farm on which the town was laid out. The town ...

. Translated from Afrikaans, the name means "well without water". In South Africa, the term ''Putsonderwater'' is used to indicate a far-off place, similarly to Timbuktu or Brigadoon.

Name origins

The town was allegedly first called Krombegin (Skewed Beginning). One story told regarding the settlement's name goes as follows: Voortrekkers who left the Cape Colony 1838, had arrived in the Northern Cape at the place known today as “Putsonderwater”. As they stayed over there, it started to rain heavily. The water rose it covered the buckets of tar (called teerputs in Afrikaans) that were hung under the wagons, so the farmers called the place "Puts Onder Water" (“tar bucket under water”). This however does not explain the Dutch spelling of "Putzonderwater", and is considered a flight of fancy by

André Brink André Philippus Brink (29 May 1935 – 6 February 2015) was a South African novelist, essayist and poet. He wrote in both Afrikaans and English and taught English at the University of Cape Town. In the 1960s Brink, Ingrid Jonker, Etienne Lerou ...

. Another version claims that a local called David Ockhuis dug a well in the 1880s but was loath to share the water with passers-by, and would claim that his well had no water. When the land was later divided, the one farm was called Putzonderwater and the other called Middelka.

Railway station

The railway siding was named Putsonderwater (with the Afrikaans "s"). Putzonderwater once won certificates for being the neatest railway station in South Africa. Now, there are only four families left.

In popular culture

Bartho Smit Bartho Smit (15 July 1924 – 31 December 1986) was a South African writer, poet, dramatist and director. He was a member of the Sestigers, a group of influential Afrikaans writers of the 1960s. He wrote ''Moeder Hanna'' ("Mother Hanna") in 1959 ...

wrote the play ''Putsonderwater'' in 1962, but it could not be performed in South Africa because of its political message.

References

Populated places in the !Kheis Local Municipality {{NorthernCape-geo-stub