Botshabelo in the district of Middelburg

Middelburg, Mpumalanga

Middelburg is a large farming and industrial town in the South African province of Mpumalanga.Middelburg was established as Nasareth, , in 1864 by the Voortrekkers on the banks of the Klein Olifants River. The name was changed in 1872 to Middelburg to mark its situation midway between the Transvaal...

, in Mpumalanga Province, South Africa

South Africa

The Republic of South Africa is a country in southern Africa. Located at the southern tip of Africa, it is divided into nine provinces, with of coastline on the Atlantic and Indian oceans...

, originated as a mission station

Mission Station

Mission Station is the eastern terminus station on the West Coast Express commuter rail line connecting Vancouver to Mission, British Columbia, Canada. The station is located on the north side of the Canadian Pacific Railway tracks in Mission on North Railway Avenue. The station opened in 1995,...

 established by Alexander Merensky

Alexander Merensky

Alexander Merensky was a German missionary, working in South Africa since 1859.-Life:...

 of the Berlin Missionary Society

Berlin Missionary Society

The Berlin Missionary Society or Society for the Advancement of evangelistic Missions amongst the Heathen was a German Protestant Christian missionary society that was constituted on 29 February 1824 by a group of pious laymen from the...

 (BMS), in February 1865 in what was then the Transvaal Republic (ZAR)

South African Republic

The South African Republic , often informally known as the Transvaal Republic, was an independent Boer-ruled country in Southern Africa during the second half of the 19th century. Not to be confused with the present-day Republic of South Africa, it occupied the area later known as the South African...

. Merensky had fled with a small number of parishioners following the attacks on his previous mission station, Ga-Ratau, by the soldiers of Sekhukhune

Sekhukhune

Sekhukhune , was king of the Marota , in the current Mpumalanga province, Limpopo province, Gauteng province of South Africa. He became king upon his father's death in September 1861, and lived at a mountain, now known as Thaba Ya Sekhukhune, which he fortified.The Marota lived in the land between...

, the king of the baPedi. Within a year of having established the mission station, the population had grown to 420 persons.

The BMS focused on providing schooling and bringing the gospel to people in their own language. Hence the Society’s missionaries were often at the forefront of publishing Bible translations, dictionaries and grammars in indigenous languages. It was as part of this process that Africans, duly trained and sometimes salaried, were accepted into the Society as teachers, catechists and lay-preachers, the so-called Nationalhelferen or national helpers.

One of these was one Jan Sekoto who was sent for further training in Germany. Returning earlier than anticipated, however, he took up a teaching post at Botshabelo. Sekoto’s son Gerard Sekoto

Gerard Sekoto

Gerard Sekoto , was a South African artist and musician. He is recognized as the pioneer of urban black art, social realism, and more recently as the father of South African art and of his 8 daughters and 3 sons...

, born at Botshabelo in 1913, would later emigrate to Europe, obtaining French citizenship and achieving considerable renown as an artist.

Besides the vestiges of the past, today Botshabelo is a living museum for the Ndebele architecture.

External links

• http://www.mpumalanga.com/index.php?att_view+6978 Mpumalanga tourism.
• http://www.southafrica-travel.net/north/a1mpuma2.htm Ndebele Village Museum .