Namaqualand
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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 two portions – Little Namaqualand to the south and Great Namaqualand to the north. Little Namaqualand is within the Namakwa District Municipality, forming part of Northern Cape Province, South Africa. It is geographically the largest district in the country, spanning over 26,836 km2. A typical municipality is Kamiesberg Local Municipality. The semidesert Succulent Karoo region experiences hot summers, sparse rainfall, and cold winters.Discover South Africa: Your Online Travel Directory. Discover Namakwa. Great Namaqualand, in the Karas Region of Namibia Namibia, officially the Republic of Namibia, is a country on the west coast of Southern Africa. Its borders include the Atlantic Ocean to the west, Angola and Zambia to th ...
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Namaqualand Desert Road
Namaqualand (Khoekhoe language, Khoikhoi: "Nama-kwa" meaning Nama people, Nama Khoisan, 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 two portions – Little Namaqualand to the south and Great Namaqualand to the north. Little Namaqualand is within the Namakwa District Municipality, forming part of Northern Cape Province, South Africa. It is geographically the largest district in the country, spanning over 26,836 km2. A typical municipality is Kamiesberg Local Municipality. The semidesert Succulent Karoo region experiences hot summers, sparse rainfall, and cold winters.Discover South Africa: Your Online Travel Directory. Discover Namakwa. Great Namaqualand, in the Karas Region of Namibia, is sparsely populated by the Nama people, Nama, a Khoikhoi people who have traditionally inhabited the Namaqualand region. Tourism The are ...
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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 Transfrontier Park and an international park shared with Botswana. It also includes the Augrabies Falls and the diamond mining regions in Kimberley and Alexander Bay. The Namaqualand region in the west is famous for its Namaqualand daisies. The southern towns of De Aar and Colesberg found within the Great Karoo are major transport nodes between Johannesburg, Cape Town and Gqeberha. Kuruman can be found in the north-east and is known as a mission station. It is also well known for its artesian spring and Eye of Kuruman. The Orange River flows through the province, forming the borders with the Free State in the southeast and with Namibia to the northwest. The river is also used to irrigate the many vineyards in the arid reg ...
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Springbok, Northern Cape
Springbok is the largest town in the Namaqualand area in the Northern Cape province of South Africa. It was called Springbokfontein until 1911, when it was shortened to Springbok. Springbok is located on the N7 national route which connects the Cape with Namibia, and at the western end of the N14, which connects it with Upington and Pretoria. It is the main town of the Nama Khoi Local Municipality, which also includes a number of surrounding towns such as Okiep and Nababeep. The town lies at an elevation of in a narrow valley between the high granite domes of the ''Klein Koperberge'' (Small Copper Mountains). This name gives away the reason for the early settlement which gradually turned into a major commercial and administrative centre for copper mining operations in the region. While the town initially developed rapidly, this slowed when rich copper deposits were discovered in Okiep. As the main source of water, Springbok continued to develop as the commercial and administra ...
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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 speak Afrikaans. The district code is DC6. Geography Neighbours Namakwa is surrounded by: * the republic of Namibia in the north * ZF Mgcawu (DC8) in the north-east * Pixley ka Seme (DC7) in the east * Central Karoo (DC5) in the south-east * Cape Winelands (DC2) – in the south (formerly the Boland District Municipality) * West Coast (DC1) in the south-west * the Atlantic Ocean in the west Local municipalities The district contains the following local municipalities: Demographics The following statistics are from the 2001 census. Gender Ethnic group Age Politics Election results Election results for Namakwa in the South African general election, 2004 General elections were held in South Africa on Wednesday, 14 Apri ...
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Port Nolloth
Port Nolloth is a town and seaport in the Namaqualand region on the northwestern coast of South Africa, northwest of Springbok. It is the seat of the Richtersveld Local Municipality. The port was previously a transshipment point for copper from the Okiep mines and diamonds from the Namaqua coast. Since the 1970s, the main seagoing activities have been fishing and small-vessel tourism. Today the town is a commercial hub with several holiday homes and a caravan park at the adjacent McDougalls Bay. It is also a gateway to the Richtersveld National Park, located to the north along the Orange River. History The bay where the port is located was known by the indigenous Nama people as ''Aukwatowa'' ('Where the water took away the old man'). Its location was marked by Portuguese explorer Bartolomeu Dias on his voyage around the Cape of Good Hope in 1487. It was the last landfall he sighted before a wild storm blew his ship off course and out to sea for 30 days. The land surrounding ...
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Khoikhoi
Khoikhoi (Help:IPA/English, /ˈkɔɪkɔɪ/ Help:Pronunciation respelling key, ''KOY-koy'') (or Khoekhoe in Namibian orthography) are the traditionally Nomad, nomadic pastoralist Indigenous peoples, indigenous population of South Africa. They are often grouped with the hunter-gatherer San people, San (literally "foragers") peoples, the accepted term for the two people being Khoisan. The designation "Khoikhoi" is actually a ''kare'' or praise address, not an ethnic endonym, but it has been used in the literature as an ethnic term for Khoe–Kwadi languages, Khoe-speaking peoples of Southern Africa, particularly pastoralist groups, such as the Inqua people, Inqua, Griqua people, Griqua, Gonaqua, Nama people, Nama, Attequa. The Khoekhoe were once known as ''Hottentot (racial term), Hottentots'', a term now considered offensive."Hottentot, n. and adj." ''OED Online'', Oxford University Press, March 2018, www.oed.com/view/Entry/88829. Accessed 13 May 2018. Citing G. S. Nienaber, 'Th ...
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Kleinzee
Kleinzee ( IPA: klˈe͡ɪnzi) is a small village on the west coast of Northern Cape province, South Africa, located at the mouth of the Buffels River and just south of Grootmis. It is 72 km southeast of Port Nolloth and 105 km west of Springbok. Previously a closed company town, it was known for its diamond-mining operations until the 2000s. The Buffels River "flows" through Kleinzee, but most of the time it is just a dry river bed, and only flows with heavy rainfall, approximately once every several years. Bounded by semidesert on three sides and the Atlantic Ocean to the west, Kleinzee has a significant underground water table. History It was originally the site of a freehold farm called Kleyne Zee. The name means 'small sea', referring to a lagoon at the mouth of the Buffels River. Jack Carstens was searching the coast (later Diamond Coast) for diamonds when he heard word of their discovery on the grounds of Kleyne Zee by locals de Villiers and Alberts in 1926. A ...
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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 Ocean, South Atlantic and Indian Ocean; to the north by the neighbouring countries of Namibia, Botswana, and Zimbabwe; to the east and northeast by Mozambique and Eswatini; and it encloses Lesotho. Covering an area of , the country has Demographics of South Africa, a population of over 64 million people. Pretoria is the administrative capital, while Cape Town, as the seat of Parliament of South Africa, Parliament, is the legislative capital, and Bloemfontein is regarded as the judicial capital. The largest, most populous city is Johannesburg, followed by Cape Town and Durban. Cradle of Humankind, Archaeological findings suggest that various hominid species existed in South Africa about 2.5 million years ago, and modern humans inhabited the ...
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Nama People
Nama (in older sources also called Namaqua) are an African ethnic group of South Africa, Namibia and Botswana. They traditionally speak the Khoekhoe language, Nama language of the Khoe languages, Khoe-Kwadi language family, although many Nama also speak Afrikaans. The Nama People (or Nama-Khoe people) are the largest group of the Khoekhoe people, many of whom have disappeared as a group. Many of the Nama clans live in Central Namibia and the other smaller groups live in Namaqualand, which today straddles the Namibian border with South Africa. History The Khoisan peoples of South Africa and southern Namibia maintained a nomadic life since time immemorial. The Khoekhoe were pastoralists and the San people lived as hunter-gatherers. The Nama are a Khoekhoe group. They originally inhabited the Orange River in southern Namibia and northern South Africa. The early colonialists referred to them as ''Hottentots''. Their alternative historical name, "Namaqua", stems from the addition o ...
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Kamiesberg Local Municipality
Kamiesberg Municipality () is a local municipality within the Namakwa District Municipality, in the Northern Cape province of South Africa. Population According to the 2022 South African census, the municipality had a population of 15,130 people. Of those, 88.3% identified as "Coloured," 5.8% as "White," and 4.3% as "Black African." Kharkams village represents, in many ways, the typical small town in Kamiesberg: the average education level is 6.7 years; electricity reached the village in 1999; water is available in nearly every house; villagers have access to health care once a week. Sheep and goats are kept on villager-owned land between Kamiesberg's eleven villages. Topography and climate Kamiesberg municipality spans three topographic zones. The area stretches from the sandy coastal lowlands (Sandveld) to the mountainous central Kamiesberg escarpment ( Hardveld), and to the eastern plateau of Bushmanland. There are no perennial rivers in the area. Water is obtained from subt ...
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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 Namibia to the north. It rises in the Drakensberg mountains in Lesotho, flowing westwards through South Africa to the Atlantic Ocean. The river forms part of the international borders between South Africa and Lesotho and between South Africa and Namibia, as well as several provincial borders within South Africa. Except for Upington, it does not pass through any major cities. The Orange River plays an important role in the South African economy by providing water for irrigation and Hydroelectricity, hydroelectric power. The river was named the Orange River in honour of the Dutch ruling family, the House of Orange-Nassau, House of Orange, by the Dutch explorer Robert Jacob Gordon. Other names include simply the word for river, in Khoekhoe language, ...
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Vioolsdrif
Vioolsdrif is a village on the Orange River in the north-western Namaqualand area of South Africa. Origin of name The name in Afrikaans means 'the ford (shallow river crossing) of the violin'. It is reportedly named after Jan Viool ("John Violin"), who is said to have played the fiddle in these parts in the nineteenth century. Some say he was a Nama man, who used to guide ox-wagons across the ford. An accomplished player, he would fiddle away merrily on the river bank while waiting for wagons to arrive. These claims await elaboration. Geography A road bridge here on the N7 national road links South Africa with Namibia and the town harbours the South African border post. At the other end of the bridge is the small Namibian village of Noordoewer (meaning "north bank" in Afrikaans). The area is profoundly arid and the crossing is overlooked by steep and spectacular sandstone cliffs hundreds of metres in height. In general, the surrounding region is almost unpopulated. T ...
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