Steinkopf is a town in

Namakwa District Municipality The Namakwa District Municipality () is one of the 5 districts of the Northern Cape province of South Africa. The seat of Namakwa is Springbok and the region is also known as Little Namaqualand. As of 2011, a majority of its 108,118 residents s ...

in the

Northern Cape The Northern Cape ( ; ; ) is the largest and most sparsely populated Provinces of South Africa, province of South Africa. It was created in 1994 when the Cape Province was split up. Its capital is Kimberley, South Africa, Kimberley. It includes ...

province of

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the Southern Africa, southernmost country in Africa. Its Provinces of South Africa, nine provinces are bounded to the south by of coastline that stretches along the Atlantic O ...

. The town is located about 45 km north-north-west of

Springbok The springbok or springbuck (''Antidorcas marsupialis'') is an antelope found mainly in south and southwest Africa. The sole member of the genus (biology), genus ''Antidorcas'', this bovid was first Species description, described by the Germa ...

. Formerly known as Kookfontein, it was established as a mission station 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 tradition, Reformed in outlook, with ...

, but was later taken over by the Rhenish Mission. It is named after Karl Steinkopf ( de), foreign secretary on the

British and Foreign Bible Society The British and Foreign Bible Society, often known in England and Wales as simply the Bible Society, is a non-denominational Christian Bible society with charity status whose purpose is to make the Bible available throughout the world. The ...

. Steinkopf is the birthplace of Tholwana Mohale, winner of South Africa's Got Talent 2014.

History

The Rev. Christiaan Albrecht of the London Missionary Society (LMS) secured permission from the

Cape Colony The Cape Colony (), 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. It existed from 1795 to 1802, and again from 1806 to 1910, when it united with three ...

authorities to minister to the area as early as 1809. The first local mission was founded near Besondermeid in 1817 by Rev. Heinrich Schmelen of the LMS in 1817, and he named it Steinkopf after his spiritual mentor in London, Dr. Karl Steinkopf. When the LMS began working in the area, it was ruled by the Nama chiefs Vigiland and Orlam, vice-captains of captain

Kido Witbooi Cupido Witbooi, variations: Kido and Kiwitti Witbooi, Nama name: ǂA-ǁêib ǃGâmemab, ( – 31 December 1875) was the first Kaptein of the ǀKhowesin (Witbooi Nama), a subtribe of the Oorlam of South-West Africa, present-day Namibia. Witbooi ...

, at the time the predominant leader of

Little Namaqualand Namaqualand (Khoikhoi: "Nama-kwa" meaning Nama Khoi people's land) is an arid region of Namibia and South Africa, extending along the west coast over and covering a total area of . It is divided by the lower course of the Orange River into ...

between Buffelsrivier and the

Orange River The Orange River (from Afrikaans/Dutch language, 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 Namibi ...

. The Rev. Michael Wimmer moved the mission 5 km north of Besondermeid to Kookfontein Farm, where Steinkopf is today. The Rhenish Missionary Society (RMS) took over the LMS's work in 1840, when the latter left the area. Steinkopf became part of

in 1847, when the colonial border shifted to the

, but it was not until 1913, with the implementation of the Mission Stations and Communal Reserves Act of 1909, that direct state control was established. In 1934, the RMS left the region to the

Dutch Reformed Church in South Africa (NGK) The Dutch Reformed Church (, abbreviated NGK) is a Reformed Christian denomination in South Africa. It also has a presence in neighbouring countries, such as Namibia, Eswatini, and parts of Botswana, Zimbabwe and Zambia.

Mission Church, which in 1994 became part of the Uniting Reformed Church in Southern Africa (VGKSA). In the early years of the mission, Steinkopf was wracked by violence between the San hunter-gatherers and pastoral communities. A mass grave of 32 Nama children at Kinderlê just north of town testifies to the bloody struggles that almost wiped out the San from the area. When the railway was built to carry

copper Copper is a chemical element; it has symbol Cu (from Latin ) and atomic number 29. It is a soft, malleable, and ductile metal with very high thermal and electrical conductivity. A freshly exposed surface of pure copper has a pinkish-orang ...

from the mines near

Okiep Okiep is a small town in the Northern Cape province of South Africa, and was in the 1870s ranked as having the richest copper mine in the world. The town is on the site of a spring that was known in the Khoekhoe language of the Nama people as ''U- ...

, it passed through Steinkopf on the way to Port Nolloth, growing the mission town considerably. Steinkopf was also invaded by the Boer forces during the

Second Boer War The Second Boer War (, , 11 October 189931 May 1902), also known as the Boer War, Transvaal War, Anglo–Boer War, or South African War, was a conflict fought between the British Empire and the two Boer republics (the South African Republic and ...

, under the leadership of Gen.

Jan Smuts Field Marshal Jan Christian Smuts, (baptismal name Jan Christiaan Smuts, 24 May 1870 11 September 1950) was a South African statesman, military leader and philosopher. In addition to holding various military and cabinet posts, he served as P ...

, and many fled to the refugee camp in Port Nolloth. Several local citizens served the British as part of the Town Guards and Border Scouts. Around 10 km north of town on the road to Port Nolloth, near Klipfontein, there remain graves of soldiers killed in the war and ruins of the railway station and hotel that served passengers on the copper line.

The area today

The town has a population of around 7,850 and lies in the northernmost portion of the

Namaqualand Namaqualand ( Khoikhoi: "Nama-kwa" meaning Nama Khoi people's land) is an arid region of Namibia and South Africa, extending along the west coast over and covering a total area of . It is divided by the lower course of the Orange River int ...

floral region, where winter rainfall is strongest but summer rains sometimes occur.

Livestock Livestock are the Domestication, domesticated animals that are raised in an Agriculture, agricultural setting to provide labour and produce diversified products for consumption such as meat, Egg as food, eggs, milk, fur, leather, and wool. The t ...

are also pastured in the area, and the mountains around the town feature three distinct plant

biome A biome () is a distinct geographical region with specific climate, vegetation, and animal life. It consists of a biological community that has formed in response to its physical environment and regional climate. In 1935, Tansley added the ...

s, namely Cape

fynbos Fynbos (; , ) is a small belt of natural shrubland or heathland vegetation located in the Western Cape and Eastern Cape provinces of South Africa. The area is predominantly coastal and mountainous, with a Mediterranean climate. The fynbos ...

Kamiesberge The Kamiesberg or Kamiesberge is a mountain range of jumbled granite inselbergs or bornhardts dotted over sandy plains and centered on Kamieskroon in Namaqualand in South Africa. This range is very like the Matopos of Zimbabwe in appearance. It ...

, and

Richtersveld The Richtersveld is a desert landscape characterised by rugged kloofs and high mountains, situated in the north-western corner of South Africa’s Northern Cape province. It is full of changing scenery from flat, sandy, coastal plains, to cragg ...

. The town itself is in the Namaqualand Klein Koperberge, but the eastern pastures are part of

Bushmanland Bushmanland (Boesmanland in Afrikaans) may refer to: * Bushmanland (South West Africa), a bantustan in South West Africa (present-day Namibia) * Bushmanland, Northern Cape Bushmanland is an arid area south of the Orange River and west of Ke ...

and the western ones sandveld. Most inhabitants either raise livestock communally or commute to mines in larger towns. At Henkries, about 50 km to the northeast, a state-run date farm operates; its produce is readily available in Steinkopf. Steinkopf was once a major educational center and featured what was for decades the only high school in Namaqualand for those the

National Party National Party or Nationalist Party may refer to: Active parties * National Party of Australia, commonly known as ''The Nationals'' * Bangladesh: ** Bangladesh Nationalist Party ** Jatiya Party (Ershad) a.k.a. ''National Party (Ershad)'' * Californ ...

government deemed

Cape Coloureds Cape Coloureds () are a South African group of Coloured people who are from the Cape region in South Africa which consists of the Western Cape, Northern Cape and the Eastern Cape. Their ancestry comes from the interracial mixing between the ...

. The school drew students from far and wide. Today, organizations such as the E.J. Appies House old age home and the Immanuel Center for the Disabled here serve people from around Namaqualand.

Sources

* Carstens, W.P. (1966). The Social Structure of Cape Coloured Reserve. * Erasmus, B.P.J. 1995. '' Op Pad in Suid-Afrika''. * Kieran, Brian L. (1995). The Defence and Relief of O'okiep Cape Colony, * Smalberger, John (1975). The History of Copper Mining in Namaqualand. * Trupper, Ursula. The Invisible Women Zara Schmelen. 2006.

References

{{Namakwa District Municipality Populated places in the Nama Khoi Local Municipality