The “wall of flesh” of the Conquered Territory : farmhouses and towns established in defence of the eastern boundary of the Orange Free State, beginning 1866

Abstract

To defend the sovereignty of the Conquered Territory along the eastern frontier of the Boer Republic of the Orange Free State (OFS) and Basutoland (Lesotho), the government of the former passed the Occupation Act, 1866, which provided for the establishment of three parallel rows of farms and, during the next year, three border towns. In both cases, applicants had to covenant to militia service and building within a stipulated time. As the towns were of strategic importance, unlike the Boer tradition of church-founded towns with parishioners settling around the place of worship, the brief given the surveyors was to lay out the towns to specific allotment criteria without any spatial provision for religious practices. This article aims to show that even under these circumstances the towns came to feature the familiar diagnostic characteristics of Boer-founded towns with the repertoire of inherited townscape traditions. To bed the argument, the morphology of Boer-founded towns as developed in history is briefly investigated with the implication that the amendments made to the border towns of the OFS were culturally driven. Until now, these planned towns and urban entities have received scant attention within the family of Boer-founded towns.

Die regering van die Oranjevrijstaat (OVS) het die Occupatiewet (Ordinansie 2 van 1866) aanvaar om hulle soewereiniteit oor die Verowerde Gebied langs die oosgrens met Basotholand (Lesotho) te verdedig. Die Occupatiewet het die vestiging van drie paralelle rye plase bepaal en ook drie grensdorpe die daaropvolgende jaar. In beide gevalle moes die aansoekers hulself verbind tot militêre diens en ook die oprig van ’n permanente struktuur binne ’n bepaalde tydperk. Die grensdorpe was van strategiese belang en daarom het die landmeters die opdrag gekry om die dorpe uit te lê volgens ‘n bepaalde blok-uitleg, maar sonder enige riglyne vir die ruimtelike akkommodering van godsdienstige praktyke. Dit was bepaald anders as die boeretradisie van kerkdorpe waar ‘n nedersetting rondom ‘n plek van aanbidding ontstaan het. Die doelwit van hierdie artikel is om aan te toon dat selfs onder hierdie buitengewone omstandighede het die grensdorpe mettertyd die bekende tipiese karaktertrekke van boeredorpe begin vertoon met die volle repertoire van oorgeërfde dorpsbeeldtradisies. Om die argument te versterk sal die ontwikkeling van die morfologie van boeredorpe vlugtig beskou word. Die implikasie daarvan is dat die veranderings wat aan die grensdorpe aangebring was, kultuurgedrewe was. Tot op hede het hierdie beplande dorpe en geboude eenhede min aandag gekry binne die groepering van boeredorpe.