Graaff-reinet, karoo - rsa

Of all the wild and wonderful places Toerboer has visited, we decided to settle in Graaff-Reinet, in South Africa’s Great Karoo.
We have set up an office, three beautiful self-catering units as well as exclusive experiences in the surrounding area. Join me and my team in exploring the Gem of the Karoo and share our complete immersion. 
  
In 2018 we decided that we are ready to open up to the warm hospitality of the Karoo. We were looking for a house with a story to tell, one with history. Graaff-Reinet was definitely the town for that, being the fourth oldest town in South Africa, established in 1786. The house had to be specific: old, fixable, wooden floors, open-plan kitchen with a coal stove. Karlien saw this house in Noord Street on the internet and made an offer. To our surprise the offer was accepted and there was no turning back. The first time we saw the house was after we signed the contract. It was a very hot day – 2 January 2018. The house was not in a good shape and has not received any attention during the past eight years of being rented out. It was dark and dirty. The garden was a semi-desert. A good description was that it had “potential” – normally a universal term used to describe an optimistic owner not sure of the future of the house. We were a bit disheartened to be honest. The house officially became ours on the 13th of April 2018. Then the work started. And still continues. But we are so happy, contend and satisfied. 
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The house has ten bedrooms, of which we as a family use three. One is used as the communal lounge in the main house. Two rooms in the main house is used as guest rooms (The Dalrymple Room and 1786), two in the Tradesman Shop and two in Voetpad Cottage. The house also has two entrances - at the back is Ryneveld Square and in the front Noord Street. 
 
HISTORY OF THE HOUSE
 
The house was built in the Victorian style with steep, pitched roofs, turrets and chimney pots to accommodate the fireplaces. The large front porch, or “Stoep” is also very characteristic of this style. We are still in the process of locating the precise history of the house. The first documented transfer of the property took place in 1832 – from a deceased estate of Mrs Pretorius. The local historians believe the house date back to at least 1850 – looking at the Yellow wood floors and ceilings and the overall design (Yellow wood and Oregon pine beams and plank ceilings and floors, which was preserved by coating it with aloe juice). There are still wonderful examples of a “brandsolder” in the garage in Noord Street and the double garage in Ryneveld Square. The house is also one of the last in Graaff-Reinet with an adjoining Tradesman Shop (Noord Street). It is in close proximity to Church Square. We regularly get visitors that had some kind of connection with the house – grandparents that lived here or visiting family members and remembering the house from early childhood. 
We are very proud and appreciative of the history of the house and intend to combine this with our personal taste of old and new. We hope you enjoy it too.
 
RYNEVELD SQUARE
The fenced square behind our house used to be called the Fietspark or Bicycle Park, as this is where traffic officials taught young children how to use the road as cyclists or pedestrians. You are more than welcome to use the park when staying over. We try and look after the park along with our neighbours, even though the upkeep is the municipality’s responsibility. 
 
Named after Willem Cornelius van Ryneveld – appointed Civil Commissioner in 1828 in Graaff-Reinet. From 1834 to shortly before his death in 1852 he was the resident Magistrate. The Coldstream Guards camped here during the Anglo Boer War. By 7 January 1901 there were some 2000 troops, mainly mounted, encamped on the slopes of Magazine Hill and on Van Ryneveld’s Square.
 
Our town is special in so many ways:

• Fourth oldest town/district in South Africa;
• Almost completely surrounded by the Camdeboo National Park;
• Most national monuments or proclaimed heritage sites in the country – more than 220 (buildings and public spaces);
• Home of Montego Dog Food, Karoo Catch and other thriving businesses;
• Central hub to Merino and Angora goat farms, as well as game farms;
• Famous people: Anton Rupert, Robert Sobukwe

The town is situated in the horse-shoe bend formed by the Sundays River (that rises further north on the southern slopes of the Sneeuberg). It lies 750 metres above sea level and receives 350mm rainfall per year, which makes the Karoo in general a semi desert. It has a population of 45 000 people with Afrikaans as the main language. 
 
History
 
Khoi and San – this area of the Karoo was initially inhabited by Khoi and San groups as can be derived from the many rock art etchings found in the area as well as documented accounts of the first Europeans that arrived here.
 
1652- Dutch East India Company (VOC) establishes a refreshment station where Cape Town is today. The town grew and farmers started moving inland to look for grazing for their livestock. They were the original “Trek Boers”. They came into contact with local tribes and clashed for fresh water, grazing and wild animals for the pot. 

1779 – Trek Boers have moved far to the East of Cape Town, along the coast and inland, and clashed with the local Xhosa groups in what was to become the First Frontier War. 
 
1786 – The border between the Trek Boers and Xhosa was settled as the Great Fish River, but of course there were further battles. The district needed protection and administration, as well as infrastructure such as schools and churches, hospitals and trading posts for the farmers – and thus the establishment of Graaff-Reinet. 
Mauritz Hermann Otto Woeke was sent to establish a Drostdy (seat of local government) and bought the land from farmer Dirk Coetzee*. The Drostdy was proclaimed by the Governor, Cornelis Jacob van der Graaffe (hence the name: combination with his surname and his wife’s surname: Cornelia Rijnet). The district was the fourth in the Cape Colony (Cape Town, Stellenbosch (1685) and Swellendam (1745) – all between 450km – 600 km from Graaff-Reinet) and covering a huge 130 000km2 . 
The Drostdy, a jail, public offices and homesteads were built from clay, mud and reeds. Everything was handmade or locally grown. 

1789 – There was a long drought during this time, as well as another Xhosa invasion which made the Landdrost Woeke’s work challenging. Families moved into town for protection and put strain on the towns infrastructure.

1793 – Christiaan Maynier became landdrost. After the Second Frontier War, many farmers were unhappy and wanted revenge.

1795 – 6 July – Willem Prinsloo and six other men proclaimed Graaff-Reinet an independent colony. The new leader, Head of the National Assembly, David Gerotz. 

In the same year, Britain took control of the Cape Colony. 
1803-1804 – British gave control to the Batavian Republic and Andries Stockenström became landdrost. Stockenström and later his son made huge strides in improving living conditions in the town. Reinet House and the Drostdy was built. 

1835 – Dutch farmers and Burghers (Afrikaners) were unhappy with the British government’s handling of the frontier problems, the abolition of slavery and increasing taxes. Several thousand people packed up their belongings in ox wagons and moved north – the start of the Great Trek. 

1879 – 25 Aug and the first train arrived in Graaff-Reinet. 
Graaff-Reinet contributed 50% to the Colonial revenue in 1860, mainly due to wool export. This made Graaff-Reinet the most important inland centre in the Cape Colony. But there was an economic depression in the Cape Colony during the 1860’s that went with a drop in wool prices. The discovery of diamonds in 1867 again uplifted the economy in Graaff-Reinet as immigrants and adventurers in their thousands entered the Cape Colony via Port Elizabeth. Another depression followed in the Cape Colony during 1884 – 1886. In the 1881 Railway Bill it was decided that Graaff-Reinet should be bypassed and this meant that it relinquished any hope of staying an important interior town. Even more so when gold was discovered on the Witwatersrand in 1886. 

1900 – In March of that year during the Anglo Boer War, 350 soldiers from the British Sherwood Foresters arrived in town. Martial Law was declared in the town on 20 December 1900. Six hundred British Coldstream Guards also arrived by armoured train in town on New Year’s Eve. Two thousand Imperial Troops camped on the slopes of Magazine Hill and Van Ryneveld’s Square. Graaff-Reinet was the centre for British Military Operations for the Eastern Cape during the war.

During the war, 201 Boers (Cape Rebels and others) were sentenced to death in Graaff-Reinet, but only eight were carried out in Graaff-Reinet, including the well-known Gideon Scheepers. He was tried by a military court on more than 30 charges (including murder, arson, robbery and high treason) and executed by means of a firing squad next to an open grave in the Sundays River bed (18 January 1902) on the Murraysburg Road. His body was disinterred by the British during the night and secretly reburied. 
 
Interesting bits and pieces on the history of Graaff-Reinet
 
The establishment of the Drostdy in 1786 meant more protection for the farmers. This also resulted in the renewal of the Commando system (civil defence), responsible for 2504 Bushmen killed during 1786 and 1795, with 276 Colonist lives lost during the same period, along with 19 161 head of cattle and 84 094 sheep.

Rev Andrew Murray described the people of Graaff-Reinet as “die oproerigste en ongehoorsaamste in die ganse kolonie” (the most rebellious and most disobedient in the entire colony). 

The conflict of the late 1700’s up to the mid 1800’s had a huge influence on the South African history (Xhosa and Khoisan being dominated by the Dutch and English settlers). The border (more in the mind than a physical border) that was created during this time between the Xhosa and whites (1778) had a lingering effect that lasted long into the Twentieth century.

The !Xam chief, Koerikei lies buried in the Camdeboo Conservancy.

Rhino horn from a black rhinoceros that was shot in the parsonage garden by James Murray in 1880’s can be seen in the Reinet House (due to drought the rhino came through the dry river bed to raid the vegetable garden).

History continued – more about our perceived family footprint in Graaff-Reinet from the very beginning

*Dirk Coetzee was the second generation of Coetzee’s born in South Africa from the original Dirk and Sara Coetzee from Kampen in The Netherlands. Coincidently, Coetzenburg, the famous sport grounds in Stellenbosch was also named after Dirk Coetzee (the land was given to the family by Simon van der Stel). 

The seventh child of Dirk and Sara, Cornelius Coetzee, was born on 13 Feb 1692. His son, Dirk (30 Sep 1742) married Anna Elizabeth and they were the pioneer farmers that moved inland and settled on the Zondags River. This is the farm that was exchanged for two loan farms in the Pearston district as well as 8000 Gulden to become Graaff-Reinet. His farmhouse formed the first Drostdy. Another Coetzee, JA, was amongst those that were to be executed in Graaff-Reinet as a rebel during the Anglo Boer War or South African War, but his sentence was changed to life imprisonment by Kitchener. He was released after at the end of the war on 31 May 1902. One of these two farms in the Pearston district had the name of “Hoop van Afrika” – Hope of Africa. And this is also the name of our backyard ;-)

Sources: 

• A Guide to Graaff-Reinet, Fifth Edition. Country Mouse Design, Graaff-Reinet. 2019. 
• Reardon, M. 2018. Wild Karoo. Struik Nature Publishers. 
• Sparrius, J. 2019.