Schoemansdal, Limpopo
Schoemansdal
"Zoutpansbergdorp" "Oude Dorp" | ||
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PO box 1331 | ||
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Schoemansdal (
After the S.A.R. reestablished control over the area in 1898, the former settlement was ignored and a new one started, at the present Louis Trichardt. Consequently Schoemansdal was the only Voortrekker settlement not to evolve into a modern town. The archaeological site with traces of the former settlement is currently state property and access is controlled. It is situated on the north bank of the Dorps River at 552 m.a.s.l., near present-day Hamantsha and Tshiozwi townships and the Schoemansdal railway siding.
Early Voortrekkers
The earliest western visitors to the area after the renegade Coenraad de Buys, were the Voortrekker parties led by Hans van Rensburg and Louis Tregardt. They arrived separately at the Zoutpansberg in 1836, after parting ways over an earlier disagreement. Van Rensburg headed east towards Inhambane but his entire party was exterminated en route. Tregardt stayed at the Salt Pan from May to August 1836 and arrived at the site of future Schoemansdal on 3 November 1836. They stayed about two weeks, but resided in the general vicinity for more than a year. After reconnaissance missions into the current Zimbabwe and eastwards into current Mozambique in search of the Van Rensburg clan, they made Delagoa Bay their destination, away from British influence. They started on their epic journey in September 1837 and reached Delagoa Bay seven months later. The trek exacted a high toll; 27 of 53 persons perished from malaria, including Tregardt.
Zoutpansbergdorp
Eleven years after Tregardt's departure, a settlement named Oude Dorp was established at Tregardt's earlier camp. It was founded by
The settlement had a promising start. Portuguese traders opened trading stores and the ivory trade blossomed. Rice and wheat croplands, fruit orchards and coffee plantations were established. The town also traded in salt, game and ostrich skins, ostrich feathers, animal horns and wood.[5][7] Wood used for trading or construction included yellowwood, tamboti and beech wood.[5]
Potgieter enjoyed independence in this northern outpost and ruled over extensive territory. He and his followers opposed the notion of a
In September 1854 Piet's uncle, field cornet Hermanus Potgieter (Groot Hermaans), was searching for ivory near the Nyl River, an area ruled by chiefs Makapan and Mankopane (also: Mapela or Mapele). For reasons imperfectly known, the chiefs decided to massacre them and other unrelated white travellers. The act claimed the lives of 28 white settlers,[9] and the Potchefstroom governance authorized a punitive commando under the command of Piet Potgieter and M. W. Pretorius. The tribesmen retreated into Makapansgat cave, where they were to suffer heavy casualties. One of their snipers, however, managed to fatally shoot Piet Potgieter.[10] This was the only Boer casualty of the campaign, but his death brought an end to the Potgieters' hegemony in the north.
Schoemansdal
By 1855, the town's de facto leader was
With the arrival of a resident minister, reverend
Professional medical services were however unavailable, and the residents relied on home remedies.
Hostilities and demise
Total discord broke out in 1866, after the Voortrekkers had intervened in khosi Ramabulana's succession dispute,[11] and one claimant, his youngest son Makhado (also: Makhato or Magato), attacked and torched an outlying Voortrekker settlement.[3] The town residents moved to the redoubt at the center of town for safety.
The next year
Following its abandonment Katze-Katze razed the town. The loss of Schoemansdal, once a prosperous settlement by Boer standards, was considered a great humiliation by many burghers. The Transvaal government formally exonerated Kruger over the matter, ruling that he had been forced to evacuate Schoemansdal by factors beyond his control, but some still argued that he had given the town up too readily.[12] Peace returned to Zoutpansberg in 1869, following the intervention of the republic's Swazi allies.[13] After its razing, Schoemansdal was never rebuilt and all that remained was its graveyard,[14] irrigation systems and roads.[7]
Layout
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First settlement
Families in the first settlement, Zoutpansbergdorp, lived exclusively in hartbeeshuise (etymology perhaps "hard-reed house"), which were elongate, pitched-roof shelters built directly on the ground, with or without internal partitions. These were constructed of wooden poles and laths, with the spaces between the laths plastered over or filled in with reeds, which were obtained from a large reed marsh in the Dorps River.[15]
Pastor Joaquim de S.R. Montanha who visited the settlement in 1855 on behalf of the governor in Inhambane reported that some small houses were occupied by more than one, or even several families.[16] Windows were merely holes above the reed door, which according to Montanha were closed off with hessian fabric.
Second settlement
Construction of a second redoubt preceded the town of Schoeman's day. It was constructed of raw and burnt clay bricks, with cannons stationed on two bastions and loopholes in the walls. The subsequent market square, parsonage and church were in its immediate vicinity. Das Neves estimated that there were never more than 70 houses, though excavations at the site suggest a higher number.[5] The town had a rectangular layout and all erven were of the same size. Fountain and stream water was channeled to town in two furrows, one of them 8 kilometres (5.0 mi) long.[5]
Recent developments
The Transvaal Provincial Museum Service began excavations in 1985. Reports of the partial excavations are housed in the museum offices at Louis Trichardt. During 1989 experimental reconstructions were made of some shelters, to the south of the archaeological site. An open-air museum was established which managed an area of 600 ha,[5] but its information centre burnt down in 2008, and some irreplaceable items were lost.[7]
See also
- Hanglip
- Great Trek
- Voortrekkers
- Venda people
- List of Castles and Fortifications in South Africa
References
- ISBN 9780549518686.
- ISBN 9780864864710.
- ^ ISBN 1-85532-612-4.
- ^ ISBN 1-77007-303-5.
- ^ a b c d e f g h Küsel, Dr. Udo S. "Schoemansdal archaeological site management plan" (PDF). limpopo.gov.za. African Heritage Consultants. Retrieved 16 September 2016.
- ^ a b Rademeyer, Jacobus Ignatius. "Die Oorlog teen Magato (M'pefu) 1898" (PDF). repository.up.ac.za. M. A. dissertation, University of Pretoria. Retrieved 17 September 2016.
- ^ a b c "Schoemansdal, Soutpansberg, Limpopo". showme. 30 January 2013.
- ^ a b c "Die Eerste Gesamentlike Vergadering van die ZAR se Volksraad in 1849 (The first joint meeting of the ZAR Volksraad in 1849)". toxinews.blogspot.com. Retrieved 4 March 2013.
- ^ "Site 9/2/257/0001". SAHRA. Archived from the original on 24 October 2013. Retrieved 24 October 2013.
- ^ "Geskiedenis van Makapansgat" (PDF). solidariteit.co.za. Archived from the original (PDF) on 29 October 2013. Retrieved 24 October 2013.
- ^ ISBN 9789004282292.
- ISBN 978-0-304-29423-7.
- .
- ISBN 1-86842-026-4
- ^ Nathan, Manfred (1941). Paul Kruger: His life and times. Durban: Knox. p. 101.
- ^ Montanha, Pater J. de S. R. (1857). "Transvaalse Argiefbewaarplek, Pretoria: A 81" (PDF). p. 10.