Alice (South Africa)
| Alice | |||
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| Coordinates | 32 ° 47 ′ 0 ″ S , 26 ° 50 ′ 0 ″ E | ||
| Basic data | |||
| Country | South Africa | ||
| Eastern Cape | |||
| District | Amathole | ||
| ISO 3166-2 | ZA-EC | ||
| local community | Raymond Mhlaba | ||
| surface | 9.9 km² | ||
| Residents | 15,143 (2011) | ||
| density | 1,537.4 Ew. / km² | ||
 View from the south of Alice and the university
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Alice is a town in the Raymond Mhlaba community , Amathole district in the Eastern Cape Province of South Africa. It lies in a shallow valley of the River Tyhume and is surrounded by rolling hills in the immediate vicinity. She gained her fame through the former Lovedale Mission and the Fort Hare University, which is now on the outskirts . In 2011 the city had 15,143 inhabitants.
history
The establishment of the place goes back to European missionaries who settled in the region since 1824. Their settlement initially bore the name Lovedale, a tribute to the Presbyterian John Love (1757-1825) by the Glasgow Missionary Society . Because of multiple destruction, Lovedale was rebuilt in various places not far from today's urban area. The village was later named after Princess Alice , Queen Victoria's daughter .
In 1841 the Presbyterians opened a mission school to the north of the Alice settlement.
At the instigation of the British Colonel John Hare, a fortification line was laid in the border zone to the Xhosa area . The British implemented this project in a series of small forts as part of the border wars . A fortified point of this was Fort Hare in Alice, begun in 1846 and opened a year later . In the border wars, the settlement with its neighboring mission school was threatened and finally partially destroyed. Due to the war, the residents moved the settlement to the west bank of the Tyhume River. They received the land they needed from the British Crown.
When the fort was no longer relevant for military purposes and it was officially abandoned in 1856, its buildings fell into disrepair.
The missionary work was intensified regardless of the destruction in the area. In 1867, James Stewart (1831-1905) began his work in the Lovedale Mission. In the years between 1878 and 1890 he expanded it considerably. A school for young Xhosa women was also established under the direction of Jane Elizabeth Waterston (1843–1932).
From what was initially a small mission training center, a recognized institution for the Xhosa people in the region developed. This finally went in February 1916 under the name of South African Native College later University of Fort Hare forth. The college took over the ruins and remaining buildings of the fort. As a result of this development, the small urban settlement next to the campus also grew. In memory of James Stewart and his work, a memorial tower was erected east of the village after his death.
Until the reorganization of the administrative units of South Africa in the 1990s, Alice was the administrative seat of the Victoria East district .
economy
Alice has so far not had any notable economic priorities. The largest employer is the university. In addition to domestic staff, there are also foreign specialists working here. The student body, almost entirely from South Africa and other African countries, is an important factor in purchasing power.
Alice is the world leader in processing the Pelargonium sidoides root .
There is also retail trade and regional services for the regional population.
traffic
An improvement in the situation is expected with the expansion (2007/2008) of the national road R63 to a modern expressway and its connection to the motorway coming from East London and ending in King William's Town .
Alice has a rail link with connections to East London, Port Elizabeth and the Free State .
Sights and culture
- old fort (today integrated into the university campus)
- De Beers Centenary Art Gallery (art museum on the university campus)
- François Stephanus Malan Museum (art museum on the university campus)
- Archive of Liberation Movements, founded in 1992 (on the university campus)
- University campus of the University of Fort Hare
- University sports facilities
- James Stewart Tower and Memorial on Sandile's Kop hill near Alice (James Stewart's grave)
Web links
- Archive of the Liberation Movements ( Memento of September 28, 2007 in the Internet Archive )
- Dr. Stewart of Lovedale (English)
- Story of Lovedale ( Memento from February 1, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) (English)
Individual evidence
- ↑ 2011 census , accessed November 22, 2013
- ^ Robert HW Shepherd: Lovedale 1940, p. 117
- ↑ Tobias Schwab: Judgment with side effects: Schwabe company withdraws patents for Umckaloabo . Berlin newspaper. April 27, 2010. Retrieved April 28, 2010.