Enon is a small town in the
Eastern Cape
The Eastern Cape ( ; ) is one of the nine provinces of South Africa. Its capital is Bhisho, and its largest city is Gqeberha (Port Elizabeth). Due to its climate and nineteenth-century towns, it is a common location for tourists. It is also kno ...
in
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 named after the biblical place mentioned in It lies east of
Kirkwood and north-east of
Uitenhage.
Enon (formerly known as Witterivier) was formed in 1818 by the
Moravian Missionary Society on request of the Area
Landdrost Jacob Glen Cuyler, to serve as a buffer between the
Xhosa,
Tembu and
Fingo tribes living outside 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 ...
and the European farmers and towns inside the Cape Colony. The land was granted to the Missionary Society in trust, to be administrated on behalf of the Cape Colony in the interests of residents of the missionary station.
Within the first 35 years of its inception it was caught in the middle of three
Cape Frontier Wars and the
First Anglo-Boer War, and has been evacuated on three separate occasions.
Enon is referred to in the 1840s by
James Backhouse in his diary.
In 1909 control of the town was ceded back to the
Union of South Africa
The Union of South Africa (; , ) was the historical predecessor to the present-day South Africa, Republic of South Africa. It came into existence on 31 May 1910 with the unification of the British Cape Colony, Cape, Colony of Natal, Natal, Tra ...
. The governance of Enon currently falls under the
Sundays River Valley Local Municipality.
References
Bibliography
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{{Sarah Baartman District Municipality
Populated places in the Sunday's River Valley Local Municipality
Populated places established in 1818