Pniel was a

mission station A Christian mission is an organized effort for the propagation of the Christian faith. Missions involve sending individuals and groups across boundaries, most commonly geographical boundaries, to carry on evangelism or other activities, such as ...

established by the

Berlin Missionary Society The Berlin Missionary Society (BMS) or ''Society for the Advancement of evangelistic Missions amongst the Heathen'' (German: '' Berliner Missionsgesellschaft'' or ''Gesellschaft zur Beförderung der evangelischen Missionen unter den Heiden'') was a ...

on the

Vaal River The Vaal River ( ; Khoemana: ) is the largest tributary of the Orange River in South Africa. The river has its source near Breyten in Mpumalanga province, east of Johannesburg and about north of Ermelo and only about from the Indian Ocean. ...

between modern

Barkly West Barkly West is a town in the Northern Cape province of South Africa, situated on the north bank of the Vaal River west of Kimberley. Establishment and naming Barkly West was the site of the first major diamond rush, in 1870, on the South African ...

and Kimberley,

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 ...

, in 1845.Schoeman, K. 1985. ''Die huis van die armes: die Berlynse Sendinggenootskap in die OVS, 1833-1869'', pp 67-76

Establishment and early history

The Pniel Mission was established in 1845 by the Revd Winter, after exploratory expeditions from the Berlin Missionary (BMS) station at Bethanie. The missionaries had negotiated setting up a station with the Korana leader Jan Bloem jnr. Winter withdrew owing to ill health and was replaced by the Revd Ludwick Zerwick from Bethanie and Brother Nikolaas Meyfarth. The

Orange Free State The Orange Free State ( nl, Oranje Vrijstaat; af, Oranje-Vrystaat;) was an independent Boer sovereign republic under British suzerainty in Southern Africa during the second half of the 19th century, which ceased to exist after it was defeat ...

claimed sovereignty over Pniel, and President

Johannes Brand Sir Johannes Henricus Brand, (popularly known as Sir Jan Brand and sometimes as Sir John Henry Brand or Jan Henrick Brand; 6 December 1823 – 14 July 1888) was a South African lawyer and politician who served as the fourth state president ...

appointed a

landrost {{Use dmy dates, date=December 2020 ''Landdrost'' was the title of various officials with local jurisdiction in the Netherlands and a number of former territories in the Dutch Empire. The term is a Dutch compound, with ''land'' meaning "region" and ...

to preside over it. A school, a courthouse and a prison were built, and the Free State Volksraad passed legislation to regulate the activities on alluvial diggings. In 1847 an outstation was established at an old Wesleyan mission site at Platberg near the modern Warrenton, with the Revd Winter (now recovered) in charge. By 1850, however, Winter had retired yet again and was replaced by August Schmidt and F. W. Salzman.

Prominent individuals associated with the mission

* Carl Wuras - missionary at Bethanie who directed the work at Pniel. * Richard Miles - Tswana catechist, probably at Pniel in the late 1860s/early 1870s..Richard Miles: Motswana preacher "to the native tribes beyond the border
*

Sol Plaatje Solomon Tshekisho Plaatje (9 October 1876 – 19 June 1932) was a South African intellectual, journalist, linguist, politician, translator and writer. Plaatje was a founding member and first General Secretary of the South African Native Nation ...

- the

Tswana Tswana may refer to: * Tswana people, the Bantu speaking people in Botswana, South Africa, Namibia, Zimbabwe, Zambia, and other Southern Africa regions * Tswana language, the language spoken by the (Ba)Tswana people * Bophuthatswana, the former ba ...

author and first secretary of the

African National Congress The African National Congress (ANC) is a social-democratic political party in South Africa. A liberation movement known for its opposition to apartheid, it has governed the country since 1994, when the first post-apartheid election install ...

References

{{Reflist Kimberley, Northern Cape Christian missions in South Africa