Zonquas drift
| Zonquas drift | |||
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| Coordinates | 33 ° 20 ′ S , 18 ° 58 ′ E | ||
| Basic data | |||
| Country | South Africa | ||
| Western cape | |||
| District | West coast | ||
| ISO 3166-2 | ZA toilet | ||
| local community | Swartland | ||
| founding | 1718 | ||
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Special features: farm |
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 The main house in Zonquasdrift
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Zonquasdrift is the name of a farm on the Berg River in South Africa . It's about an hour and a quarter by car north of Cape Town . Located in the Riebeek Valley , it was first officially granted to Dirk Cotzee in 1718 after heavy fighting with a Khoikhoi or San tribe, who lived on cattle breeding, had taken place in the same area .
Historical meaning
The place Zonquasdrift gained importance as a defensive post of the settlers on the drift (dt. Ford) of the mountain river. It was one of the few places where the transition between the northern area of the settlers and the southern area of the Khoikhoi was possible. In some historical maps the area of the San is marked with the name Zonqua or Sonkwa . Presumably this is another name for the Khoikhoi, the meaning of Zonquasdrift: the ford of the Zonqua.
history
In the 17th century, many hippos lived in the broad Berg River. Pieter Cruythoff wrote on February 4, 1662: “We saw about 13 horses (probably quagga ), 5 rhinos and thousands of hartebeest . We were even followed by a lion. ”In 1673 and 1674 there were skirmishes at the Zonquasdrift river crossing. The San leader Gonema died in 1684. As early as 1720 - less than 70 years after the arrival of the settlers - the indigenous people who had inhabited the valley for hundreds of years no longer existed as an independent people.
One farm building on Zonquasdrift still has loopholes in the wall indicating that Zonquasdrift was used by settlers as a defensive and / or border post long before it was used as a farm. The farm often changed hands in the 18th century until it was bought by J. C. Redelynghuys in 1801. He probably built the main house as the date 1801 is on the gable and this type of gable was not built beforehand. The home was first classified as a Class 2 Historic Monument under the Historic Sites Act .
A woman le Roux is buried in the small cemetery. She bought three neighboring farms in the area at the end of the 19th century and bequeathed a farm to each son. These three farms are Goudklip , Constantia and Zonquasdrift . Allegedly, Zonquasdrift is the birthplace of Jan Smuts .
literature
- Hans Fransen: The Old Buildings of the Cape. Jonathan Ball Publishers , Jeppestown 2004, ISBN 1-86842-191-0
- AM Oberholzer, M. Baraitser, WD Malherbe: The Cape House and its interior. Stellenbosch 1985
Web links
- Tourism Website of the Riebeek Valley (English)
Individual evidence
- ^ M. Whiting Spilhaus: South Africa in the Making, 1652-1806 . Juta & Company Ltd., Cape Town 1966, p. 27