Kimberley

Kimberley exists because of a diamond rush. After the first finds along the Orange and Vaal rivers in the late 1860s, prospectors turned to the dry ground inland, and in July 1871 diggers struck diamonds on Colesberg Kopje, a low rise on the farm Vooruitzigt. Within months thousands of men were working claims a few metres square on the same hill, and the town that grew around the workings was named Kimberley in 1873 after the British colonial secretary. Britain annexed the diamond fields as Griqualand West, over Boer and Griqua claims.

The pit that the diggers made — the Big Hole — went down through hundreds of individual claims until deep mining replaced hand digging, and consolidation followed: by 1888 Cecil Rhodes had merged the competing companies into De Beers Consolidated Mines, which came to control most of the world's diamond production from offices in the town. Kimberley grew fast and unevenly, drawing migrant labourers from across southern Africa into closed compounds, and it introduced technologies early, including electric street lighting in 1882. The mine workshops and the money that flowed through the town gave it an outsized influence on the country's politics.

Boer forces besieged Kimberley from October 1899 to February 1900 in the South African War, with Rhodes inside the town and civilians sheltering in the mine tunnels; the Long Cecil gun was built in the De Beers workshops during the siege. In the 20th century mining declined as richer fields opened elsewhere, and the town's importance faded. Sol Plaatje, the writer and first secretary-general of the South African Native National Congress, lived and worked here. In 1994 Kimberley became the capital of the new Northern Cape province, which remains its main role.

Kimberley's culture was formed by the rush that made it: a mining camp that drew people from Britain, continental Europe, the Cape, the Boer republics and every part of southern Africa, and left the city more mixed than the farming towns around it. Afrikaans, Setswana and English are heard together, and the accent and slang carry all three.

The Victorian inheritance is visible in the old pubs, the clubs, the sandstone public buildings and the shaded houses of Belgravia, and the city takes its heritage seriously, with museums, monuments and marked historic buildings out of proportion to its size. Alongside that runs the political heritage of the townships, associated with Sol Plaatje and with Robert Sobukwe, who was banished to Kimberley and lived out his last years here; both are commemorated locally.

San and Khoekhoe heritage is a strong presence, most of all at the rock engraving sites of the district, which are managed with the descendant communities and interpreted at the McGregor Museum. Music and choir traditions are strong in the townships, jazz has a following, and rugby and football fill weekends. The city keeps a certain frontier informality — strangers are greeted, conversation starts easily — and its people are used to being asked about diamonds, on which most have an opinion and a family story.

About 225,000 people live in Kimberley, making it a small city by South African standards but by far the largest place in a province of long distances and few towns. Provincial government is now the biggest employer, with the legislature, departments, courts, hospitals and Sol Plaatje University, which opened in 2014 as the first new university in the province. Mining continues on a reduced scale, along with retail, transport and services for the surrounding farms.

Where people live still reflects the segregated planning of the last century. Galeshewe, north-west of the centre, holds a large share of the population in a mix of older township housing, newer state housing and informal settlements; Belgravia and the northern suburbs are quieter and greener. Commuting is by minibus taxi for most, and the centre fills in the morning and empties by evening.

The rhythm of the day is set by the heat. Work and errands are done early, the middle of a summer afternoon is spent indoors, and life returns outside in the evening. Unemployment is high, water supply and municipal services are constant local issues, and power cuts have shaped household routines for years. Weekends turn on church, sport and braais, and on drives out to the river or the reserves.

Kimberley eats the food of the dry interior: meat, maize and bread. Karoo and Kalahari lamb, raised on herb-rich veld, is the local pride, grilled as chops or slow-cooked in a potjie, the three-legged iron pot set over coals. Beef steaks, boerewors sausage and braaied chicken are everyday, served with pap, the stiff maize porridge, and chakalaka, a spiced relish of tomato, onion, beans and carrot.

Setswana and Sesotho kitchens add seswaa, beef boiled until it falls apart and then pounded, morogo, wild leafy greens cooked with onion, and sour porridges such as ting. Vetkoek, fried dough split and filled with curried mince, and skopo, a slow-cooked sheep's head, are common at township stalls and taverns, and skilpadjies, lamb's liver wrapped in caul fat and grilled, are a Northern Cape speciality. Biltong and droëwors, air-dried spiced beef and sausage, are made locally and eaten everywhere.

Game meat appears often on menus, springbok and kudu in particular, as steaks, stews and pies. The Orange River valley to the west supplies the region's raisins, dried fruit, table grapes and wine, all of which reach the shops here, and roosterkoek, bread dough cooked directly on the braai grid, is served with butter and jam. The city's restaurant scene is built on steakhouses, grills and pubs, the oldest of which trade on their diamond-rush history.