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King William’s Town is attractively positioned at the foothills of the Amathole Mountain range, and there are many hiking and fly fishing opportunities.
KING WILLIAM’S TOWN
This centre was established on the orders of the then Governor of the Cape in 1835 during the War of Hintza on the banks of the Buffalo River near the mission of the Rev Charles Brownlee. The town was named after King William IV and was intended to consolidate the British gains in the area. It was abandoned in 1836 after the dispatch of the Secretary of the Colonies Lord Glenelg which ordered that the colonial forces withdraw to the west of the Great Fish River but was reestablished in 1846 during the War of the Axe. After the War of Mlanjeni the main British Garrison moved from Grahamstown to King William’s Town and the old military Reserve, which remained the main garrison until after the Second Anglo Boer War still remains.
The town flourished after the founding of the port at East London and after the railway line between East London and the gold fields of Johannesburg was established and became a major commercial centre as well as being the administrative capital for the area. The first settlement of German people in Africa took place in the area in the 1850s after the War of Mlanjeni which accounts for the reason that many of the names of the surrounding villages have German names such as Potsdam, Frankfort, and Braunscheig amongst others.
King William’s Town became one of the first places in South Africa where enforced segregation of the different races was established although the excuse given was hygiene, when all African people were ordered to settle in Ginsberg outside the town after an outbreak of the bubonic plague in 1911.
King William’s Town became a major centre in the struggle against Apartheid, and many of the leaders of the anti apartheid struggle hailed from the area. These include the renowned activist Steve Biko, whose life and death was commemorated in the movie Cry Freedom. Biko operated from Ginsberg and his home is a declared heritage site. After his brutal death at the hands of the security police while he was imprisoned without trial, Biko was buried in the cemetery outside Ginsberg which is now a Garden of Remembrance. Several other anti apartheid activists are also buried in the area including Griffiths and Victoria Mxenge, who were assassinated by apartheid agents in the 1980s.
King William’s Town is attractively positioned at the foothills of the Amathole Mountain range, and there are many hikes and fly fishing opportunities. The area is filled with reminders of its often turbulent past and the old military reserve still has many buildings that date back to the Frontier Wars. King William’s Town is the home to the Amathole Museum which has many displays depicting the life and times of the town and has the second largest mammal collection in Africa.
Source: Courtesy Eastern Cape Tourism Board - www.ectb.co.za
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