Kakamas - oasis in the desert

Abstract

Water History From mid-1895 to late 1896 a severe drought raged over large parts of South Africa. At the same time rinderpest, a fatal cattle disease, swept through southern Africa. In the Transvaal alone, half of the farmers’ cattle herds were wiped out. Then the South African War broke out in 1899. Apart from killing thousands of people, mostly civilians, the war finally crushed the Republics’ farming communities through Britain’s Scorched Earth Policy, which saw an estimated 30 000 farmsteads being destroyed in the Transvaal and the Orange Free State. Most of the herds in the Boer republics were decimated, with crops and implements destroyed. These events brought thousands of farmers to their knees, and many found themselves without income and on the brink of starvation. Those that did not become bywoners (labourers who provided their services in exchange for privileges such as housing and grazing) on other farms flocked to cities in search of work.

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