Mzanzi Travel - Local Travel Inspiration (Issue 5)

Discover
war, established a spinning and weaving school for women in Philippolis in
1905. Hobhouse is buried at the Women’s Memorial in Bloemfontein.
In the museum the inside of a house as it was in the time of Adam Kok, has
been recreated. Behind the town’s museum, and below the hill with the two
naval canon, is a Griqua kraal with restored Griqua huts, and in the museum’s
backyard one can view a scarce horse mill and stable. Also in the museum’s
backyard is an original stookketel or distilling kettle salvaged from the district
and used by the museum to make its own Witblits (very strong spirits).
During the final year of the 1800s the tragedy of war came to this district, as it
did all over the two Boer republics when the British sought control over them.
Men and boys from the district joined the local Boer commando and bravely
fought the British that greatly outnumbered them. Later many of their women
and children would die in British concentration camps, and their farms torched
to the ground on the orders of Lord Kitchener, commander of the British forces.
A major battle occurred some 55km north of Philippolis at Jagersfontein, where
British forces wwere attacked by a republican Boer force led by Gen. J.B.M.
Hertzog, a future prime minister of the later Union of South Africa. A former
Philippolis magistrate, William Gostling, was appointed superintendent of the
Springfontein concentration camp east of Philippolis. To the south, at Norvals
Pont, was another concentration camp. It was in these camps, among others,
that Emily Hobhouse won the hearts of South Africans with her good work, and
which is honoured in the museum in Philippolis.
It was also at Zandrift, near Philippolis, that Gen. Christiaan de Wet, who
commanded the Free State forces, invaded the Cape Colony for the second
time. And just outside the town is Tomkins Koppie (hill), named after the
commanding officer of the British troops that occupied Philippolis during the
Anglo Boer War. Tomkins and his men were cornered on the koppie for several
days without food or water by the Boer forces.
In the final year of the war the bittereinder commandos led by Gen. Jan Smuts,
future prime minister of South Africa, would also pass this way on their way to
attack the British in the Cape. With Smuts was a young officer named Deneys
Reitz, son of a former president of the Free State who would later serve in both
World Wars with Smuts and become a South African cabinet minister in the
Smuts government. In his post-war book, Commando - A Boer Journal of the
Boer War, considered one of the best books ever written about the war, Reitz
gives a haunting account of the desertion and ruin his commando encountered
in Fauresmith, a town neighbouring Philippolis 66km away.
One would imagine that a similar fate might have befallen Philippolis during the
war. Nonetheless, today it is a happy, bustling little town of which its citizens
are immensely proud and offers much for travellers to enjoy. Today the town
has a population of some 7,500, about double the Griqua population that once
lived here.
The town cemetery is considered one of the most interesting in the Free State,
with graves of Griquas, English and Boer soldiers, prominent Jewish citizens,
and even a Free State president, all telling their own stories. The old jail in the
town on Justisie Street has been converted to a privately-owned guesthouse,
using cell blocks and other buildings for guest accommodation. Or you can
stay in a renovated Griqua cottage at Starry Nights Karoo Cottages, another
national monument. A visit to the Kruithuis (powder house) built in 1870, with
walls 48cm thick, is also worthwhile.
When entering the town from the north, visitors will find the Laurens van der
Post Memorial Centre, which commemorates the life of this famous native of
Philippolis - Afrikaner intellectual, author, adviser to the British government,
close friend of Prince Charles, and godfather of Prince William. The centre is
one of the town’s many national monuments. The Dutch Reformed Church
standing on the site of the old Griqua church is a national monument too.
Tiger Canyons lies near Philippolis on the Van der Kloof Dam, established by
John Varty, renowned wildlife filmmaker and conservationist, as an experiment
to create a free-ranging, self-sustaining tiger population outside Asia. Also a
short distance outside Philippolis on the road to Colesberg lies Waterkloof,
a ghost town. A shop there sells the locally brewed Karoo Ale which is made
with Karoobossie and Kapokbossie, two Karoo plants said to be the reason why
Karoo lambs has such a great taste! Philippolis most certainly is a town for all
seasons, tastes and experiences, and many, many interesting stories.
A cemetery full of history/Emily Ingle
Van der Post Memorial Centre/Felix Myburgh