Campbell is a small town situated on the edge of the Ghaap Plateau 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 ...

. It is located 48 km east of

Griquatown Griekwastad is a country town in South Africa. It is sometimes still called Griquatown (the meaning of the town's name in Afrikaans), a name which is now considered historical. On maps from the 1840s is the town also called "Karrikamma". or calle ...

on the N8 road. It was originally known as ''Knovel Valley'' and then ''Groote Fontein'', but was renamed in honour of the Reverend John Campbell who visited 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 ...

in 1813.

Origin of the settlement

The history of modern settlement of Campbell dates back to 1805 when a group of

Griqua Griqua may refer to: * Griqua people, of South Africa * Griqua language or Xiri language, their endangered Khoi language * Griquas (rugby) Griquas (), known as the Suzuki Griquas for sponsorship reasons, are a South African professional rugby ...

, including Captain

Andries Waterboer Andries Waterboer ( – 1852) was a leader ("kaptijn") of the Griqua people. He founded the Waterboer dynasty of Griqualand West, and led to a split of the Griqua people, as the factions of the Kok and Barends dynasties migrated to the south ea ...

, travelled with missionary Jan Matthys Kok from Klaarwater (now

) to the territory of the

Tswana Tswana may refer to: * Tswana people, the Bantu languages, 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 * Tswanaland, ...

near the modern town of

Kuruman Kuruman is a small town in the Northern Cape province of South Africa. It is known for its scenery and the Eye of Kuruman, a geological feature that brings water from deep underground. The abundance of water produces an unexpected swathe of green ...

. Encountering strong springs in a valley at the edge of the Ghaap Plateau, they gave the place the name of ''Knovel Valley'', noting its potential for future crop cultivation. It was only in 1811 that the Reverend Lambert Jansz, accompanying the traveller

William Burchell __NOTOC__ William John Burchell (23 July 1781 – 23 March 1863) was an English explorer, naturalist, traveller, artist, and author. His thousands of plant specimens, as well as field journals from his South African expedition, are held by Kew ...

, revisited the place, taking possession of the springs, by now known as ''Groote Fontein'' (Great Fountain), in the name 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 ...

. Before long the name of the place would be changed again: when the Reverend John Campbell, on a tour of inspection in 1813, reached the nascent village and asked its name, he was told it was Campbell.Humphreys, A.J.B. 2010. The destruction of the Griqua Mission Church at Campbell – the ultimate irony. ''The Digging Stick'' 27(2):9-10. In 1816 Cornelis Kok II (1778-1858) was declared Griqua ''Kaptyn'' (Captain) of Campbell. Other members of the Kok family had resided there from the beginning of the settlement. The Reverend John Bartlett was stationed as a missionary at Campbell from 1825 and supervised the construction of a mission church there between 1827 and 1831. Many missionaries and travellers of the nineteenth century passed through the valley and the settlement – including

, George Thompson, Andrew Smith, Robert Moffat,

David Livingstone David Livingstone (; 19 March 1813 – 1 May 1873) was a Scottish physician, Congregationalist, pioneer Christian missionary with the London Missionary Society, and an explorer in Africa. Livingstone was married to Mary Moffat Livings ...

and G.A. Farini.

Cornelis Kok II and 34 others re-interred

The remains of Cornelis Kok II (1778-1858) were exhumed from a grave, which was threatened by agricultural encroachment, on 19 April 1961, with the intention that the remains should be reburied at the historic precinct near the mission church. ''Kaptyn'' Adam Kok IV presided over the disinterment by Prof P.V. Tobias and Dr G.J. Fock, following three years of community consultation by Basil Humphreys. Subsequently, 34 other

skeletons were exhumed by Tobias and his students and all were removed for study at the

University of the Witwatersrand The University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg (), commonly known as Wits University or Wits, is a multi-campus Public university, public research university situated in the northern areas of central Johannesburg, South Africa. The universit ...

. The exhumed remains of Cornelis Kok II and the 34 other Griqua individuals were re-interred alongside the mission church on 23 September 2007. A letter from Phillip Tobias to Adam Kok V was read at the ceremony which was presided over by Northern Cape premier

Dipuo Peters Elizabeth Dipuo Peters (born 13 May 1960 in Kimberley, Northern Cape) is a South African politician who is the Deputy Minister of Small Business Development of the Republic of South Africa from 7 March 2023. She was previously the Minister of Tr ...

.Coetzee, Frans. "Cornelis Kok II en 34 volgelinge herbegrawe" ''Volksblad'' 24 Sep 2007

References

{{Authority control Populated places in the Siyancuma Local Municipality