EARLY WARFARE
Pre-European history included conflicts between the local
Tswana people and the migrating Ndebele people who left
Zululand under their leader Mzilikasi to get away from the
tyrany of Shaka.
Wartime
It was in the North West Province, in 1838,
where General Potgieter settled after he defeated the armies
of Mzilikazi at Kapain and Mosega. He was assisted in this
effort by the Griqua and the Barolong, a terrorised tribe.
Some of ancestors of these people still
live in North West. Potgieter later left the area but not
before founding the oldest town, north of the Vaal River,
in South Africa, namely Potchefstroom.
The Jameson Raid
In 1895 the Jameson raid was launched from
Mafikeng, another historic
town in the North West. The aim of the raid was to topple
the government of President Kruger, in the then South African
Republic. The raid failed miserably.
The Anglo-Boer War
Mafikeng was in the main stream of South African history
again during the early years of the Anglo-Boer War when
the Boer forces besieged the town for 217 days, from 1899
until May 1900; during which time Sol Plaatje wrote his
literary masterpiece "The Boer War Diary of Sol T Plaatje:
an African at Mafikeng".
Plaatje was later to become one of the founding fathers
of the South African Native National Congress, the forerunner
of the African National Congress, in 1912.
The first phase of the Anglo-Boer War lasted less than
a year and was followed by two years of guerilla warfare.
During that phase more engagements took place in the then
Western Transvaal than in any other part of the country.
Apart from the famous siege of Mafikeng, no less than
20 significant engagements took place during the 20 months
between 7 August 1900 and 11 April 1902. These battles
were spread evenly across the old Western Transvaal, now
the Eastern half of the North West Province.
 More
on the Anglo Boer War.
The Union of South Africa
After the formation of the Union of South
Africa in 1910 most of the area now known as the North
West formed part of the "old Transvaal", throughout
the period of Afrikaner nationalism and the founding of
the Republic of South Africa in 1961.
Homeland Policy
During the leadership of BJ Vorster
the implementation of the Homeland Policy lead to the
incorporation of a large part of modern day North West
into a homeland called Bophuthatswana, over which Lucas
Mangope presided.
Our Oldest Towns
The three oldest towns in the old Transvaal
are all located in the North West Province, being Potchefstroom,
Klerksdorp and
Rustenburg.
The white settlement of the interior was aided by a process
called the Difaqane, meaning "human scattering"
and amounted to the almost frenzied movement of large
communities away from the impi's (armies) of Mzilikazi,
with the result that the Boers found the interior largely
unpopulated.
Today
The country was finally reincorporated
into the North West Province under the new dispensation
of the new Republic of South Africa in 1994.
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