Vryburg () is a large agricultural

town A town is a human settlement. Towns are generally larger than villages and smaller than cities, though the criteria to distinguish between them vary considerably in different parts of the world. Origin and use The word "town" shares an ori ...

with a population of 48,400 situated in the

Dr Ruth Segomotsi Mompati District Municipality Dr Ruth Segomotsi Mompati District Municipality (formerly Bophirima District Municipality) is one of the 4 districts of North West province of South Africa. The seat of Mompati District is Vryburg. The majority of its 439,637 people speak Setswana ...

of the

North West Province North West is a province of South Africa. Its capital is Mahikeng. The province is located to the west of the major population centre of Gauteng and south of Botswana. History North West was incorporated after the end of Apartheid in 1994, an ...

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 ...

. It is the seat and the industrial and agricultural heartland of the district of the Bophirima region.

Location

The town is situated halfway between Kimberley (the capital of 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 ...

) and

Mahikeng Mafikeng, officially known as Mahikeng and previously Mafeking (, ), is the capital city of the North West Province (South Africa), North West province of South Africa. Close to South Africa's border with Botswana, Mafikeng is northeast of Cape ...

(the capital of the

). Vryburg is on Cecil Rhodes’s great northern railway, which ran from

Cape Town Cape Town ( af, Kaapstad; , xh, iKapa) is one of South Africa's three capital cities, serving as the seat of the Parliament of South Africa. It is the legislative capital of the country, the oldest city in the country, and the second largest ...

through the Kimberley diamond fields, Vryburg, Mafeking, and northwards beyond the

Victoria Falls Victoria Falls ( Lozi: ''Mosi-oa-Tunya'', "The Smoke That Thunders"; Tonga: ''Shungu Namutitima'', "Boiling Water") is a waterfall on the Zambezi River in southern Africa, which provides habitat for several unique species of plants and anim ...

. It is also on the N14 National Road which runs from

Gauteng Province Gauteng ( ) is one of the nine provinces of South Africa. The name in Sotho-Tswana languages means 'place of gold'. Situated on the Highveld, Gauteng is the smallest province by land area in South Africa. Although Gauteng accounts for only 1 ...

in a southwesterly direction through Vryburg,

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 ...

and

Upington Upington ( Nama: //Khara hais) is a town founded in 1873 and located in the Northern Cape province of South Africa, on the banks of the Orange River. The town was originally called Olijvenhoutsdrift ('Olive wood drift'), due to the abundance of ...

to the mining town of

Springbok The springbok (''Antidorcas marsupialis'') is a medium-sized antelope found mainly in south and southwest Africa. The sole member of the genus ''Antidorcas'', this bovid was first described by the German zoologist Eberhard August Wilhelm ...

in the north-western Cape. This road also connects Gauteng Province with

Namibia Namibia (, ), officially the Republic of Namibia, is a country in Southern Africa. Its western border is the Atlantic Ocean. It shares land borders with Zambia and Angola to the north, Botswana to the east and South Africa to the south and ea ...

. The township of Huhudi (

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 ...

for “running water”) is situated just south of the town.

History

Capital of a Republic

The name ''Vryburg'' comes from the period in the 1882 when Vryburg was established as the capital of the Republic of Stellaland. The Republicans called themselves ''Vryburgers'' (“free citizens”), and since the Afrikaans word for “citizen” is ''burger'' and the word for “borough” (or “fortress”) is ''burg'' the name of the town followed. The first and only president was G.J. van Niekerk. A site for the township was selected and named Endvogelfontein. On 15 November the same year, the name was changed to Vryburg. In December that year, newly laid out plots were apportioned to the volunteers by means of a lottery and by February 1883 some 400 farms had been established. The and plots were earned by Afrikaners when they helped a native tribe to get back stolen cattle from another rival native tribe of the region.On 16 August 1883, Administrator Van Niekerk proclaimed the Republic of Stellaland with Vryburg as capital and himself as President. By 1884 the town consisted of about 20 houses. Stellaland split into two rival factions – those who supported annexation 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 ...

as mooted by Cecil Rhodes, and those who preferred independence.

British Bechuanaland

In February 1884, the London Convention was signed, making Stellaland a British protectorate, with the Reverend John McKenzie appointed Commissioner to British Bechuanaland. In 1885, the

British British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories, and Crown Dependencies. ** Britishness, the British identity and common culture * British English, ...

seized the town and incorporated the area into British Bechuanaland, which in turn became part of the

in 1895. Vryburg today is the industrial and agricultural capital of the Bophirima (Western) region.

Concentration camp

During the

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

, the British built a

concentration camp Internment is the imprisonment of people, commonly in large groups, without charges or intent to file charges. The term is especially used for the confinement "of enemy citizens in wartime or of terrorism suspects". Thus, while it can simpl ...

here to house

Boer Boers ( ; af, Boere ()) are the descendants of the Dutch-speaking Free Burghers of the eastern Cape frontier in Southern Africa during the 17th, 18th, and 19th centuries. From 1652 to 1795, the Dutch East India Company controlled this are ...

women and children.

London Missionary Society

The Tiger Kloof Native Institute was set up south of the town by 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 ...

in 1904. A cornerstone for the building of the institute was laid in 1905 by the

Earl of Selborne Earl of Selborne, in the County of Southampton, is a title in the Peerage of the United Kingdom. It was created in 1882 for the lawyer and Liberal politician Roundell Palmer, 1st Baron Selborne, along with the subsidiary title of Viscount Wo ...

. The stone church on the premises is a national monument.

Colony to Province

By 1910, the Cape Colony became the

Cape Province The Province of the Cape of Good Hope ( af, Provinsie Kaap die Goeie Hoop), commonly referred to as the Cape Province ( af, Kaapprovinsie) and colloquially as The Cape ( af, Die Kaap), was a province in the Union of South Africa and subsequen ...

, one of the four provinces of the

Union of South Africa The Union of South Africa ( nl, Unie van Zuid-Afrika; af, Unie van Suid-Afrika; ) was the historical predecessor to the present-day Republic of South Africa. It came into existence on 31 May 1910 with the unification of the Cape, Natal, Tran ...

and later the Republic of South Africa. When nine provinces were established in 1994, Vryburg finally became part of the

Cold War

Vryburg hosted two squadrons of Dassault Mirage F1 (36 aircraft) of the

South African Air Force "Through hardships to the stars" , colours = , colours_label = , march = , mascot = , anniversaries = , equipment ...

from 1971 to 1993, co located with a Tank Squadron of

2 Special Service Battalion 2 Special Service Battalion (usually abbreviated to ''2SSB'') was an armoured regiment of the South African Army and only one of two such in its regular force. The Regiment was based at Zeerust. It was known in English as, ''2 Special Service Bat ...

, 2 Transport and Airlift Squadrons of the

Douglas C-47 Skytrain The Douglas C-47 Skytrain or Dakota ( RAF, RAAF, RCAF, RNZAF, and SAAF designation) is a military transport aircraft developed from the civilian Douglas DC-3 airliner. It was used extensively by the Allies during World War II and remained ...

(10 Aircraft), 2 Companies of

1 Parachute Battalion 1 Parachute Battalion (''Ex Alto Vincimus'') is the only full-time paratroop unit of the South African Army. It was established on 1 April 1961 with the formation of the Parachute Battalion. After 1998 this unit was renamed to Parachute Traini ...

and 6 Companies of the 2 South African Infantry Battalion.

Economy

Beef production

Vryburg is South Africa's largest

beef Beef is the culinary name for meat from cattle (''Bos taurus''). In prehistoric times, humankind hunted aurochs and later domesticated them. Since that time, numerous breeds of cattle have been bred specifically for the quality or quantit ...

-producing district, with Bonsmara cattle the most popular. It is sometimes called "the

Texas Texas (, ; Spanish: ''Texas'', ''Tejas'') is a state in the South Central region of the United States. At 268,596 square miles (695,662 km2), and with more than 29.1 million residents in 2020, it is the second-largest U.S. state by ...

of South Africa".

Other produce

Maize Maize ( ; ''Zea mays'' subsp. ''mays'', from es, maíz after tnq, mahiz), also known as corn (North American and Australian English), is a cereal grain first domesticated by indigenous peoples in southern Mexico about 10,000 years ago. The ...

and

peanut The peanut (''Arachis hypogaea''), also known as the groundnut, goober (US), pindar (US) or monkey nut (UK), is a legume crop grown mainly for its edible seeds. It is widely grown in the tropics and subtropics, important to both small and ...

s are important crops produced in the district. The town hosts South Africa's third largest agricultural show. The town today is an industrial and agricultural hub. Its modern architecture blends naturally with its surroundings and the well-preserved old buildings are carefully maintained.

Transport

There are roads, rail and air connections to all the major centers in the country. Vryburg is also situated on the main railway line from

Botswana Botswana (, ), officially the Republic of Botswana ( tn, Lefatshe la Botswana, label= Setswana, ), is a landlocked country in Southern Africa. Botswana is topographically flat, with approximately 70 percent of its territory being the Kalaha ...

and

Zimbabwe Zimbabwe (), officially the Republic of Zimbabwe, is a landlocked country located in Southeast Africa, between the Zambezi and Limpopo Rivers, bordered by South Africa to the south, Botswana to the south-west, Zambia to the north, and ...

. The town is served by Vryburg Airport.

Culture

The Theiler Museum on the farm Armoedsvlakte, 8 km west of Vryburg, holds a collection of equipment used by Sir Arnold Theiler, the

veterinarian A veterinarian (vet), also known as a veterinary surgeon or veterinary physician, is a medical professional who practices veterinary medicine. They manage a wide range of health conditions and injuries in non-human animals. Along with this, vet ...

who established the

Onderstepoort Onderstepoort is situated in Pretoria, Gauteng, South Africa. Onderstepoort Veterinary Institute and the University of Pretoria Faculty of Veterinary Science, founded by Sir Arnold Theiler, is also situated here. The institute is known for tro ...

veterinary research institute near

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 foot ...

Fauna and flora

The Leon Taljaard Nature Reserve is located north west of the town with the Swartfontein resort located adjacent to the reserve. The reserve has a number of animal species including

Rhino A rhinoceros (; ; ), commonly abbreviated to rhino, is a member of any of the five extant species (or numerous extinct species) of odd-toed ungulates in the family Rhinocerotidae. (It can also refer to a member of any of the extinct species o ...

, Eland, Buffalo,

Black Wildebeest The black wildebeest or white-tailed gnu (''Connochaetes gnou'') is one of the two closely related wildebeest species. It is a member of the genus '' Connochaetes'' and family Bovidae. It was first described in 1780 by Eberhard August Wilhelm ...

Waterbuck The waterbuck (''Kobus ellipsiprymnus'') is a large antelope found widely in sub-Saharan Africa. It is placed in the genus '' Kobus'' of the family Bovidae. It was first described by Irish naturalist William Ogilby in 1833. Its 13 subspecies ar ...

and Springbuck. It is open daily to the public.

References

* Vryburg 1882-1982

External links

Vryburg.com Online Portal

Tiger Kloof Educational Institute

Onderstepoort Veterinary Institute
{{Authority control Capitals of former nations Former colonial capitals Populated places in the Naledi Local Municipality Second Boer War concentration camps Populated places established in 1882 Populated places founded by Afrikaners