History

Historical Interest

  • Klerksdorp Museum
  • Mafikeng - Old Town
  • Mafikeng Museum
  • Maratiwa House
  • Marico District
  • Rustenburg
  • Schoemanati
  • Christiana
  • Ottoshoop
  • Taung
  • Vryburg

Early Conflict


Pre-European History
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 tyranny of Shaka.


Set on a remote farm in the Pilanesberg region, The People of Welgeval is a superbly crafted and dramatic historical novel.
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HISTORICAL INFORMATION - NORTH WEST PROVINCE

Places of Historical Interest

MAFIKENG - CAPITAL CITY OF GOODWILL

The historic town of Mafikeng (Place of Boulders) was founded in the 1880's. It is world famous for a number of reasons, one for being the founding place of the Boy Scout Movement.

The Mafikeng Museum contains exhibits from the Siege of Mafeking (now Mafikeng), and has been developed to take its part in the official centenary celebrations of the Anglo-Boer/SA War and Siege in the period 1999 to 2002.

Historic tours of the town can be arranged through the curator of the museum and local tour operators.

Also of interest to history-minded people, is Maraliwa House, the home of Silas Molema and Sol Plaatjie, the celebrated Black journalist and founding member of the ANC, who wrote a well-known history of the Siege from his unique vantage point.

Internationally Mafikeng also played an important role as the site where the Boy Scout movement was established by Lord Baden-Powell during the Siege of Mafikeng. Much local history is also on display in the Museum and town.

The surroundings of Mafikeng have further battle relics - Kanon Kopje and Warren's Fort - and tribal history, such as the kgolla or tribal meeting place of the Barolong Boo-Ratshidi people which has been in use since the 1850s. It now holds the bust of Kgosi Besele Montshioa.

MARICO DISTRICT

The Marico district includes rock paintings by early San and Bushmen people, and an old water mill (now a national monument) on the farm Naauwpoort. Also in the district, at Mabotsa, is the ruin of the first mission erected by David Livingstone.

TAUNG

"The Place of the Lion" is internationally known as the site where the Taung skull was found and recognised as an important link in the development of the human species.

VRYBURG

Vryburg still recalls its days as the capital of the Republic of Stellaland. This town, too, has no fewer than three museums, including one dedicated to the early development of agriculture in the area.

RUSTENBURG

Rustenburg was largely Paul Kruger country. His painstakingly restored personal farmhouse is on view at Boekenhoutfontein, 14 km from town.

San rock art is also to be seen near Christiana, while near Ottoshoop, visitors can see a wall 1 km long built by Mzilikazi to serve as an animal trap.

In fact, every town in the Province has its own foundation-era buildings, churches and early grave sites, as well as its local heroes commemorated in stone or museums, which citizens will proudly show the visitor. Lichtenburg, for example, has no fewer than three museums.

This brief review will serve to confirm that if you are interested in the early and more recent history of South Africa, the North West Province is a "must visit" region, with no less than 30 national monuments.