Although the town which today is Upington only officially came to be named in 1884, its tempestuous prior history cannot be ignored. Long before white settlers reached the area, Korana Hottentots had settled at the ford in the Great River they called Gariep, the northern border of the Cape Colony. They had been ousted from their ancestral lands in the south and found a last refuge here, on the lush banks of the river. When, inevitably, eventually the white man followed, war broke out between them and the Korana, who had nowhere else to go. They were defeated and the few remaining tribespeople dispersed.
Earlier, a Dutch Reformed Mission had been established under the guidance of the Reverend C. Schreuder at Olijvenhouts Drift, as the ford was called by hunters and traders because of the many wild olivewood trees growing there.
In 1879, after the second and last Korana War, Sir Thomas Upington, Attorney-General of the Cape Colony, sent 80 policemen to the Drift to maintain law and order along the river. Commanded by Captain Dyason they set up camp under the trees, but by 1885 already barracks had been built where later the police station was erected. Dyason’s police was very unpopular as they impounded loose animals and generally tried to keep order, while Schreuder only wanted to run a Mission. He venomously referred to the police as “idle ne’erdowells
” and said of Dyason, “we beseech to be delivered from such tyranny
.”
Schreuder wanted the Mission to be moved elsewhere and in a letter dated the 11th of February 1884 writes, “It is my wish that Olyvendrift or Upington not become a town but remain a Mission Station.
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This was the first time the name Upington was officially written to denote the place known as Olijvenhouts Drift and then only out of resentment against the police sent by Thomas Upington.
However, the Missionary had to learn to live with the growing of his Mission station into a fully-fledged town which is now the unofficial capital of the Kalahari and proudly called the Purse of the Orange by its people. It is a bustling, growing place, economically viable in an otherwise unstable environment and can only be called, dynamic.
Unfortunately it is losing its former charm with every old building razed to make way for other, modern ones. The once unpredictable Orange has been tamed, its banks contained and, sadly, polluted with the detritus of present-day good living. The only legacy of the past which must of essence remain are the wide streets, laid out so that a wagon with a full span of oxen can comfortably turn around in them.
Much of Upington’s economy is based on agriculture and especially vineyards are springing up all over the red sand surrounding the town, irrigated from the river with kilometres of pipes. The grapes are exported as table fruit, pressed to wine or dried as raisins.
The district used to produce the bulk of South Africa’s persian lamb pelts before the social ban on animal products made karakul farming unprofitable. Although the fur market is slowly recovering and slaughtering lambs may soon be viable again, the tall grey sheep of Gordonia are now mostly utilised for their other claim to fame - that of being the best mutton around.
Co-Cathedral of St. Augustine
One of the landmarks in Upington is the beautiful neo-Gothic Catholic Church, a declared National Monument. Although the Roman Catholic Mission was founded in 1911 already - Father Sollier arrived on horseback from Pella one sweltering hot afternoon in February - the initial small chapel which also served as school was replaced by the present impressive buildings much later.
Father Sollier had no congregation, there were no Catholics in Upington at the time. He was not daunted, however, and in 1912 the State granted him the land he needed. By 1915 he had built a chapel which also served as school and in 1935 when Father Simbrunner succeeded the crusading priest, there were about fifty children regularly attending classes. These numbers soon rose to about eight hundred and the small chapel was enlarged to include a state-subsidised orphanage and a convent where four Oblate Sisters taught the children and tended the sick. From 1942 until 1949 Father Simbrunner, aided only by Brother Hugo and whatever unskilled labour (including schoolchildren!) was available, built the beautiful Church.
For several decades the Mission right in the middle of town rang with the voices of its children, until in 1973 the school was closed and the pupils transferred to the State School newly built in what was under the existing Group Areas Act the Coloureds’ residential area. Even though the Act has since been repealed, the school has not as yet been reopened.