Williston is a town in

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 ...

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 ...

. Town 103 km north-east of

Calvinia Calvinia is a regional town in the Northern Cape province of South Africa named after the French people, French religious reformer Jean Calvin. The town falls under the Hantam Local Municipality which forms part of the Namakwa District Municipalit ...

and 140 km south-west of Carnarvon.

History

Williston was originally known as Amandelboom (''

Afrikaans Afrikaans is a West Germanic languages, West Germanic language spoken in South Africa, Namibia and to a lesser extent Botswana, Zambia, Zimbabwe and also Argentina where there is a group in Sarmiento, Chubut, Sarmiento that speaks the Pat ...

'' "almond tree") as a large almond tree stood as the focal point of the town by the Sak River. The tree had been planted in 1768 by Johan Abraham Nel, a farmer and owner of the land that was to become the town, to commemorate the birth of one of his sons. In the early 19th century, the district was populated by pastoralists who constantly moved their livestock between springs in search of fresh grazing areas. These pastoralists were derogatorily referred to as '

Basters The Basters (also known as Baasters, Rehobothers, or Rehoboth Basters) are a Southern African ethnic group descended from Cape Coloureds and Nama of Khoisan origin. Since the second half of the 19th century, the Rehoboth Baster community has ...

' as the pastoralists were of mixed race and descendants of the

Khoi Khoikhoi ( /ˈkɔɪkɔɪ/ ''KOY-koy'') (or Khoekhoe in Namibian orthography) are the traditionally nomadic pastoralist indigenous population of South Africa. They are often grouped with the hunter-gatherer San (literally "foragers") peop ...

and Dutch. In 1845, the community requested that the Rhenish Church, which had a mission station in Wuppertal, establish another mission station in Williston. Two missionaries were sent to Williston to assist the community with their spiritual needs. By 1845 a Rhenish mission station was established in the area by Johann Heinrich Lutz. In the 1860s a population of white nomadic farmers moved into the area. The arrival of the new farmers precipitated the movement of many mixed race community members out of Williston. The mixed race population migrated north across Bushmanland and crossed 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 ...

into

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 the north, Botswana to the east and South Africa to the south; in the no ...

to the town of Rohoboth. Williston grew into a town around the mission station and it was declared a municipality in 1881. The town was formally renamed Williston in 1919 after the British Colonial Secretary of 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 ...

, Colonel Hampden Willis. The town became an official district in 1926 and the area became known for its sheep farming, which continues to this day. The town often experience droughts and water shortages. A local clergyman, Reverend S Kuhn, used dynamite to blow up the towns central spring near the Sak River in an attempt to increase the flow of water. Unfortunately, all that Reverend Kuhn succeeded in doing was destroying the historic almond tree.

Buildings

Dutch Reformed Church

The first Dutch Reformed Church in Williston was built in 1878 while the town was still named 'Amandelboom'. The stone Dutch Reformed Church in the centre of the town was completed in 1912. A primary school teacher, Mr J.H. Swart, who lived in Williston during the 1930s, engaged in a large tree planting project with his students. The tree-lined roads in Williston that remain are evidence of this planting project.

Corbelled Houses

These houses were originally built by pioneer farmers in Williston,

Fraserburg Fraserburg is a town in the Karoo region of South Africa's Northern Cape province. It is located in the Karoo Hoogland Local Municipality. The town has some of the coldest winters in South Africa. The nearest towns are Williston, Northern Cape, W ...

and Carnarvon between 1811 and 1815. The

Corbel In architecture, a corbel is a structural piece of stone, wood or metal keyed into and projecting from a wall to carry a wikt:superincumbent, bearing weight, a type of bracket (architecture), bracket. A corbel is a solid piece of material in t ...

House is regarded as the first architectural style in the northwest

Karoo The Karoo ( ; from the Afrikaans borrowing of the South Khoekhoe Khoemana (also known as !Orakobab or Korana) word is a semidesert natural region of South Africa. No exact definition of what constitutes the Karoo is available, so its extent is ...

. ''Corbelled'' describes the manner in which stones are stacked in the construction of these buildings. The farmers used flat stones, which are common in the area, to build the homes. The floors were made of sand which had been mixed with animal fat and blood. The floor was then polished with a flat stone.

Attractions

The Williston Winter Festival is an annual regional festival which takes place at the end of winter in September. It celebrates local dance, song and storytelling. Nama Riel dancers perform an ancient celebratory dance in the courtyard of the Williston Mall where the festival is held. Williston mall 4

The town also offers a Tombstone Route out of Williston which follows the work of Cornelius, a master-carver who engraved gravestones for the people of the Upper

References

External links

*https://cosmopolitankaroo.co.za/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/Andre-Breytenbach-Dance-to-Advance-Honours-Research-Project-March-2017.pdf {{Authority control Populated places established in 1883 Populated places in the Karoo Hoogland Local Municipality Karoo 1883 establishments in the Cape Colony