The Northern Cape & the Kalahari

The Northern Cape holds some of the longest records of human life in southern Africa, and Wonderwerk Cave near Kuruman preserves evidence of human activity going back more than a million years. For thousands of years the region was home to San hunter-gatherers and Khoekhoe herders, including the Nama of the north-west, and Tswana communities lived on its north-eastern edge. The Griqua, a people of mixed descent, settled around Griquatown in the early 19th century.

Missionaries arrived early: Robert Moffat's mission at Kuruman, founded in the 1820s, printed the Bible in Setswana, and David Livingstone took his first missionary post there in 1841. In 1866 a diamond was found near the Orange River, and in 1871 prospectors began digging at Colesberg Kopje, where the town of Kimberley grew around the mine that became the Big Hole. Britain annexed the diamond fields as Griqualand West, and by 1888 Cecil Rhodes had consolidated the mines into De Beers. Kimberley was besieged by Boer forces for four months in 1899–1900.

In the 20th century the vast area remained sparsely settled, with sheep farming on the Karoo plains, copper at Okiep and diamond mining along the Namaqualand coast. Sol Plaatje, the first secretary-general of the South African Native National Congress, forerunner of the ANC, lived and worked in Kimberley. The Northern Cape became a separate province in 1994, and in 2003 the Nama of the Richtersveld won back their land and its minerals in a landmark court ruling.

Afrikaans is the first language of most people in the Northern Cape, spoken by coloured and white communities alike, and the province's rural Afrikaans carries Nama and Khoekhoe words. Setswana is widely spoken in the north-east around Kuruman, and isiXhosa in pockets. Nama is still spoken in the Richtersveld, and ‡Khomani San families in the southern Kalahari have kept their heritage alive, recognised in the ‡Khomani Cultural Landscape, a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

The Nama people of the Richtersveld still build portable dome-shaped reed-mat houses, called matjieshuise, and move livestock between seasonal grazing areas, a way of life recognised in the Richtersveld Cultural and Botanical Landscape, also a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Their crafts include leatherwork, mats and reed flutes.

Farming communities are close-knit and religious, and sport, especially rugby, fills weekend afternoons in small towns. Kimberley's diamond-rush history, which drew fortune-seekers from across the world, gave it a more mixed urban culture than the farming towns around it.

The Northern Cape is South Africa's largest province but has only about 1.4 million people, the smallest provincial population. Kimberley, the capital, has around 225,000 people, and Upington, Springbok, Kuruman and De Aar are the other main towns, separated by hundreds of kilometres of open country.

Mining is the economic mainstay. The iron-ore mines around Kathu and Sishen are among the biggest in the world, manganese is mined too, while diamond mining has declined. The Orange River valley around Upington grows table grapes, raisins and wine, and sheep farming covers the Karoo. The province is also home to big solar power plants and, in the Meerkat National Park, the MeerKAT radio telescope, part of the Square Kilometre Array project, while the Southern African Large Telescope stands near Sutherland.

Daily life in small towns revolves around farming seasons, church and the long drive to the nearest big town. Water scarcity, drought, joblessness and the decline of the mining towns are the main concerns.

The dry Karoo and Kalahari veld produce some of South Africa's most prized lamb, flavoured by the wild herbs the sheep graze on. Karoo lamb chops on the braai, lamb potjie — a stew slow-cooked in a three-legged iron pot over coals — and skilpadjies, lamb's liver wrapped in the fatty membrane from around the kidneys and grilled, are local favourites. Game meat, especially springbok, is eaten as steaks, stews and biltong.

The Orange River valley around Upington and Kakamas is South Africa's main raisin-producing area, and its wineries make wine. Table grapes are also grown along the river.

In Namaqualand and the Richtersveld, cooking leans on mutton, goat's milk and veld plants, with roosterkoek, bread cooked on a grill over coals, beside the braai. After good rains, Kalahari truffles are gathered from the sand.

Kimberley's Big Hole, with its museum, old mining village and the viewing platform over the flooded pit, is the city's main sight, along with the McGregor Museum and the Sol Plaatje House. Near Kuruman, the Moffat Mission and the Eye of Kuruman spring are worth visiting, and Wonderwerk Cave lies to the south.

In the north, the Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park, shared with Botswana, covers red dunes and the dry riverbeds of the Auob and Nossob, where lions, cheetahs, leopards, gemsbok and springbok gather. Augrabies Falls National Park, west of Upington, protects the waterfall and the granite gorge of the Orange River, with viewpoints along its rim.

On the west coast, Namaqualand's spring flower season fills the Namaqua National Park, the Goegap Nature Reserve near Springbok and the surrounding farmland with colour. North of there, the Richtersveld, a mountain desert of succulents and quiver trees along the Orange River, forms part of the |Ai-|Ais/Richtersveld Transfrontier Park with Namibia.

In the south, Sutherland's observatory offers stargazing tours under some of the darkest skies in the country, and the Tankwa Karoo National Park lies to the west.