Griqualand West

Griqualand West and Griqualand East on an 1885 map

Migration movements of the Griqua

Topography and borders around 1830–1860

Griqualand West ( Afrikaans : Griekwaland-Wes; German about: "West-Griqualand") was the name of an independent area and later district of the British Cape Colony in today's South Africa , in the area of ​​today's North Cape Province . It was named after the now largely assimilated people of the Griqua , hybrids of Khoikhoi and Boers . The Griqua lived on the Roggeveld northeast of Cape Town at the beginning of the 19th century , but were pushed across the Orange River by the British colonists in 1825 , where part of them settled in what would later become Griqualand West.

The largest town in the area was Klaarwater, which was later called Griquastad and is now called Griekwastad and was the first South African city north of the Orange River. The area bordered in the east on what was then the Basotho settlement area . From the 1820s, however, Buren penetrated this area during the Great Trek and gradually displaced both population groups. In 1826 Adam Kok II moved with a large group from Klaarwater to Philippolis in the south of what is now the province of Free State , which had only been founded three years earlier. In 1861 Adam Kok III moved. with part of the people over the Drakensberg to the east, where they settled in the Griqualand East area .

In 1867 diamonds were found in the Griqua area on the lower Vaal and in Kimberley . In 1871, the area was ceded to Great Britain by Griqua Chief Waterboer under the Griqualand West Annexation Act and henceforth formed the British colony of Griqualand West. In 1880 it was annexed to the Cape Colony as a province after compensation from the Transvaal Republic through the payment of 90,000 pounds sterling. It comprised the districts of Hay, Herbert, Kimberley and Barkly West with an area of ​​39,359 km² and (1891) 83,375 inhabitants.

literature

• David Arnot , Francis HS Orpen: The Land Question of Griqualand West: An Inquiry Into the Various Claims to Land in That Territory; Together With a Brief History of the Griqua Nation . Saul Solomon & Co, Printers, Cape Town, 1875

Web links

Commons : Griqualand West  - collection of images, videos and audio files

• Meyers Großes Konversations-Lexikon , Volume 8. Leipzig 1907, pp. 347-348.
• Full history of Griqua (English)

Individual evidence

1. ^ Meyers Großes Konversations-Lexikon , Volume 8. Leipzig 1907, pp. 347–348.