Wakkerstroom: Difference between revisions

| demographics1_title2 = [[ColouredsWhite South African|ColouredWhite]]

| demographics1_info2 = 010.32%

| demographics1_title4 = [[White South AfricanColoureds|WhiteColoured]]

| demographics1_info4 = 100.23%

'''Wakkerstroom''', (''Awake Stream''), is the second oldest town in [[Mpumalanga]] province, [[South Africa]]. The town is on the [[KwaZulu-Natal]] border, 27 km east of [[Volksrust]] and 56 km south-east of [[Amersfoort, Mpumalanga|Amersfoort]].

The settlement was laid out on the farm Gryshoek by Dirk Cornelis (Swart Dirk) Uys (1814–1910), proclaimed in 1859 by [[Marthinus Wessel Pretorius|President Pretorius]], and administered by a village council from 1910.<ref name="Dict">{{Cite book|title=Dictionary of Southern African Place Names|last=Raper|first=Peter E|last2=Moller|first2=Lucie A|last3=du Plessis|first3=Theodorus L|publisher=Jonathan Ball Publishers|year=2014|isbn=9781868425501}}</ref> Swart Dirk Uys, who surveyed the property using a 50-yard thong made from an [[Common eland|eland]] he shot on arrival, originally named the town Uysenburg, but the name was changed by the Executive Council of the [[South African Republic]] to Marthinus-Wesselstroom,<ref>{{Cite web|title = South African Military History Society - Journal- A BOER FAMILY|url = http://samilitaryhistory.org/vol036iu.html|website = samilitaryhistory.org|access-date = 2 January 2016-01-02}}</ref> after the president's first names,<ref name="EB1911">{{Cite EB1911|wstitle=Wakkerstroom|volume=28|page=250|short=y}}</ref> and also known as Wesselstroom. In 1904 the name of the town was changed again to Wakkerstroom, meaning "awake stream" or "lively stream", which is an [[Afrikaans]] translation of the [[isiZulu|Zulu]] name for the river {{Proper name|uThaka}} ([[English language|English]]: ''awake)'' that flows near the town.<ref>{{Cite web|title = History|url = http://www.wakkerstroom.co.za/history/|website = www.wakkerstroom.co.za|access-date = 2016-01-02}}</ref>

The courthouse, St. Mark's Church, and the old bridge over the river have been declared national monuments. [[H. Rider Haggard]]'s novel ''[[She: A History of Adventure]]'' was written while he lived on Hoog Street. The bridge dates to 1893, when it was built under the [[South African Republic]] from [[Germany|German]] steel. South Africa's first black member of the [[Christ Community Church]] was baptized by Reverend D. Bryant in 1904.

* [[B.P.J. Erasmus|Erasmus, B.P.J.]] (1995). ''[[Op Pad in Suid-Afrika]]''. New York: Jonathan Ball. {{ISBN|1-86842-026-4}}

* [[Eric Rosenthal (historian)|Rosenthal, Eric]] (1967). ''[[Ensiklopedie van Suidelike Afrika]]''. London: Frederick Warne.