Springbok

Namaqualand was the country of the Nama, Khoekhoe herders who moved stock between seasonal grazing across the granite hills and the sandveld, and San hunter-gatherers before them. Copper in the region was known to them and was being worked long before Europeans arrived; a Dutch expedition under Governor Simon van der Stel reached the Copper Mountains in 1685, and shafts sunk near present-day Okiep revealed a rich lode, but the distance from the coast and the lack of water made mining impractical for another century and a half.

The town dates from the 1850s, when commercial copper mining finally began. The farm Melkboschkuil was bought in 1852 to establish a copper mine, and the Blue Mine there is believed to mark the origins of commercial mining in South Africa. The town was laid out as Springbokfontein in 1862, a name shortened to Springbok in 1911. Okiep proved richer still, and between 1869 and 1876 a mule-drawn narrow-gauge railway was built to carry ore to the coast at Port Nolloth. The first miners at Okiep were Cornish, bringing centuries of tin-mining skill.

The South African War reached the district in 1902, when Boer commandos besieged Okiep for a month and took Concordia; the Klipkoppie in Springbok was used by the Boers as a fort. Through the 20th century the mines rose and declined, closing in stages and leaving the villages shrunken. Springbok survived as the administrative and commercial centre of Namaqualand, and tourism, drawn by the spring flowers, now joins mining, commerce and farming as a source of income.

Springbok is an Afrikaans-speaking town with deep Nama roots, and the two run together in everyday life. The local Afrikaans carries Khoekhoe words and a particular Namaqualand lilt, place names across the district are Nama, and many families trace descent from the herding communities that held this land before the mines. Nama traditions of music, story-telling and crafts, among them the reed flute, are part of the region's heritage.

The mining past shapes identity as much as farming does. Okiep and Nababeep families measure their history in shafts and shifts, and the mining past is treated as heritage. Church life is central — the stone Klipkerk of the Dutch Reformed church in the centre of town is the landmark that visitors photograph most — and mission history is strongly felt in the villages.

Then there is the flower season, which is less a festival than a transformation. For a few weeks in spring the town's population is outnumbered by visitors, guesthouses are full, farmers open gates to their lands, and locals give advice on which road has the best display that morning, since the blooms follow the rain. Outside those weeks life is quiet and slow, sport and braais fill weekends, and people are used to travellers arriving dusty from long drives and are generous with directions.

About 12,800 people lived in Springbok at the 2011 census, making it a small town that functions as a capital: the seat of the local municipality and the place where everyone in Namaqualand comes for a hospital, a high school, a bank, a supermarket or a government office. Employment comes from those services, from small-scale and contract mining, from farming — chiefly sheep and goats on the surrounding veld — and from tourism concentrated into the spring.

Houses climb the hillsides around the central hollow, and the town's older divisions, inherited from apartheid planning, still show in where people live. Many households have members working on mines or farms elsewhere in the province or in Cape Town, and remittances matter. The mining villages north of town, Okiep, Nababeep and Concordia, have lost population as the mines closed, and their future is a standing local concern.

The day starts early and pauses in the afternoon heat. Water is scarce and its supply is a perennial issue, as are unemployment, the long distances to specialist services, and the state of the gravel roads. Power cuts have shaped routines for years. In spring the rhythm changes completely, with traffic on the N7, full restaurants and a short, intense season of income before the quiet returns.

Namaqualand lamb is the local pride: sheep grazed on succulents and veld herbs, which gives the meat a flavour that people here will discuss at length. It is grilled as chops over coals, roasted as a leg, or slow-cooked in a potjie, the three-legged iron pot set on the fire, and skaapkop, a sheep's head cooked slowly, is a traditional dish. Goat is eaten too, and game such as springbok appears as steaks and biltong.

Bread is made on the fire as often as in the oven. Roosterkoek, dough cooked on the braai grid and split with butter, apricot jam or cheese, is a staple, along with potbrood from a cast-iron pot. Mutton stews with potatoes and pumpkin, pap and samp with beans, and thick soups suit the cold winter nights. Preserves, dried fruit and honey come from the farms and the roadside stalls.

Nama and mission traditions contribute sour milk, goat's milk and the use of veld plants, and indigenous roots and herbs appear in country kitchens. Rooibos tea, grown in the mountains to the south, is the everyday drink, and strong coffee is common on farms. On the coast at Port Nolloth the food turns to the Atlantic catch of its fishing fleet.