Kuruman
Encyclopedia
Northern Cape
The Northern Cape is the largest and most sparsely populated province of South Africa. It was created in 1994 when the Cape Province was split up. Its capital is Kimberley. It includes the Kalahari Gemsbok National Park, part of an international park shared with Botswana...
province of 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...
, famous for its scenic beauty and the Eye of Kuruman
Eye of Kuruman
The Eye of Kuruman is a spring in the town of Kuruman in the province of Northern Cape, South Africa. It is the largest known natural spring in the southern hemisphere....
, a geological feature bringing water from deep underground to the surface in the Kalahari Desert
Kalahari Desert
The Kalahari Desert is a large semi-arid sandy savannah in Southern Africa extending , covering much of Botswana and parts of Namibia and South Africa, as semi-desert, with huge tracts of excellent grazing after good rains. The Kalahari supports more animals and plants than a true desert...
.
The Kuruman River (which is dry except for flash flood
Flash flood
A flash flood is a rapid flooding of geomorphic low-lying areas—washes, rivers, dry lakes and basins. It may be caused by heavy rain associated with a storm, hurricane, or tropical storm or meltwater from ice or snow flowing over ice sheets or snowfields...
s after heavy rain (see wadi
Wadi
Wadi is the Arabic term traditionally referring to a valley. In some cases, it may refer to a dry riverbed that contains water only during times of heavy rain or simply an intermittent stream.-Variant names:...
)), is named after it.
Kuruman was a London Missionary Society
London Missionary Society
The London Missionary Society was a non-denominational missionary society formed in England in 1795 by evangelical Anglicans and Nonconformists, largely Congregationalist in outlook, with missions in the islands of the South Pacific and Africa...
mission station founded by Robert Moffat
Robert Moffat
Robert Moffat was a Scottish Congregationalist missionary to Africa, and father in law of David Livingstone....
in 1821
1821 in South Africa
-Events:* The London Missionary Society mission station at Kuruman, Northern Cape is started by Robert Moffat...
and the place where David Livingstone
David Livingstone
David Livingstone was a Scottish Congregationalist pioneer medical missionary with the London Missionary Society and an explorer in Africa. His meeting with H. M. Stanley gave rise to the popular quotation, "Dr...
arrived for his first position as a missionary in 1841
1841 in South Africa
-Events:* Missionary David Livingstone arrives in the Cape Colony and proceeds to Kuruman before journeying through Central Africa.* Voortrekkers set up a council in Potchefstroom-Deaths:...
.
The Kalahari Meerkat Project
Kalahari Meerkat Project
The Kalahari Meerkat Project, or KMP, is a long term research project focused on studying the evolutionary causes and ecological consequences of cooperative behaviors in meerkats...
, made famous by the television series Meerkat Manor
Meerkat Manor
Meerkat Manor is a British television programme produced by Oxford Scientific Films for Animal Planet International that premiered in September 2005 and ran for four series until its cancellation in August 2008...
, is located nearby.
Kuruman is home to famous author and Sanusi or Zulu traditional healer, Credo Mutwa
Vusamazulu Credo Mutwa
Vusamazulu Credo Mutwa is a Zulu Sangoma and Sanusi from South Africa. He is also the author of several books.-Early life:...
.
Kuruman is located along the border that bounds the northern Cape from the North West Province and is a local town for most communities surrounding the town, including those that live in the North West Province.
Kuruman has relatively mild weather patterns compared to other Northern Cape towns, such as Upington and Springbok
Springbok, Northern Cape
Springbok is the largest town in the Namaqualand area in the Northern Cape province of South Africa. it had a population of 10,294. Springbok is located on the N7 national road which connects the Cape with Namibia, and at the western end of the N14, which connects it with Upington and Pretoria...
, and is surrounded by more vegetation as compared to the Upington and Springbok, which are surrounded by desertic environments.
The local people in Kuruman mainly speak Tswana
Tswana language
Tswana or Setswana is a language spoken in Southern Africa by about 4.5 million people. It is a Bantu language belonging to the Niger–Congo language family within the Sotho languages branch of Zone S , and is closely related to the Northern- and Southern Sotho languages, as well as the Kgalagadi...
and Afrikaans
Afrikaans
Afrikaans is a West Germanic language, spoken natively in South Africa and Namibia. It is a daughter language of Dutch, originating in its 17th century dialects, collectively referred to as Cape Dutch .Afrikaans is a daughter language of Dutch; see , , , , , .Afrikaans was historically called Cape...
. The demographics of Kuruman are composed of mainly African people, Coloured
Coloured
In the South African, Namibian, Zambian, Botswana and Zimbabwean context, the term Coloured refers to an heterogenous ethnic group who possess ancestry from Europe, various Khoisan and Bantu tribes of Southern Africa, West Africa, Indonesia, Madagascar, Malaya, India, Mozambique,...
and Afrikaans people respectively.