Graaff-Reinet
| Graaff-Reinet | |||
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| Coordinates | 32 ° 15 ′ S , 24 ° 32 ′ E | ||
| Basic data | |||
| Country | South Africa | ||
| Eastern Cape | |||
| District | Sarah Baartman | ||
| ISO 3166-2 | ZA-EC | ||
| local community | Dr Beyers Naudé | ||
| Residents | 26,585 (2011) | ||
| founding | July 19, 1786 | ||
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Special features: fourth oldest city in South Africa |
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 View from the Valley of Desolation to Graaff-Reinet
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Graaff-Reinet is a city of 26,585 inhabitants (as of 2011; census) in the municipality of Dr Beyers Naudé , Sarah Baartman district , Eastern Cape Province in South Africa .
geography
The city lies in the Karoo at the foothills of the Sneeuberge and is surrounded on three sides by the Sundays River by a bend in the river . Near the city is the Valley of Desolation (German: " Valley of Desolation ").
The small town itself has over 200 monuments, mostly buildings in the Cape Dutch or Victorian style.
Graaff-Reinet is an important economic and trade center. Livestock is an important branch of the economy (especially sheep and ostrich breeding ). The city is also a center of South African viticulture .
history
The city was founded on July 19, 1786 by the authorities of the Cape Dutch , i.e. under the authority of the Dutch East India Company , and is the fourth oldest city in South Africa after Cape Town , Stellenbosch and Swellendam . The town received its town charter in 1845. It was named in honor of the Dutch governor Cornelis Jacob van de Graeff and his wife Hester Cornelia Reinet .
The Dutch Reformed Parish in Graaff-Reinet was founded in 1792. Honoratus Maynier became land drost von Graaff-Reinet in 1793 . He tried to restore peace between European farmers and the Xhosa after the end of the Second Border War - which broke out in 1789. The Boer settlers in Graaf-Reinet rebelled against the Dutch East India Company in 1795 and founded the Graaff-Reinet Republic . It was the first Boer republic . Jan Theodorus van der Kemp of the London Missionary Society and other missionaries were attacked by Boers from the region in 1801. The Boers were against the missionaries who wanted to “educate” the Khoikhoi and convert them to Christianity. The Parsonage Church Mission established the first private school for non-white children. The Drostdy building was completed in 1806.
On August 4, 1847, Graaff-Reinet received a public library. On May 30, 1851, the first local newspaper, The Graaff-Reinet Courant, appeared . The second newspaper The Graaff-Reinet Advertiser was published from 1860; this sheet appears to this day. In 1879 the city was connected to the rail network. The first train from Port Elizabeth arrived on August 25, 1879. In the 19th century, the area around the city was the scene of numerous battles between the Boers and Khoisan . In 2001 the railway line was shut down. The Karoo Nature Reserve, which lies outside the city, became the 22nd national park in South Africa in 2005 under the name "Camdeboo" .
In 2016, Graaff-Reinet became the administrative seat of the newly founded municipality of Dr Beyers Naudé, after it had previously been the administrative seat of the municipality of Camdeboo .
sons and daughters of the town
- Andries Hendrik Potgieter (1792–1852), Boer politician
- Marthinus Wessel Pretorius (1819–1901), first President of the South African Republic
- Francis Guthrie (1831–1899), mathematician and botanist
- Harry Bolus (April 28, 1834– May 25, 1911), botanist
- Robert Mangaliso Sobukwe (1924–1978), first chairman of the Pan Africanist Congress (PAC)
- Antony Edward Rupert (1916–2006), South African entrepreneur and billionaire, co-founder of the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) .
- Carla Swart (1987-2011), racing cyclist
Web links
- Website about Graaff-Reinet with pictures (English)
- Detailed website about Graaff-Reinet from "Ingrids Welt"
Individual evidence
- ↑ 2011 census , accessed November 22, 2013
- ^ Peter Edmund Raper : Dictionary of Southern African Place Names . Lowry Publishers, Johannesburg 1987 (2nd ed.), Pp. 128-129