Albany, South Africa (also known as Cape Borders, Cape Frontier, Settler Country, and Western Region) was a

district A district is a type of administrative division that, in some countries, is managed by the local government. Across the world, areas known as "districts" vary greatly in size, spanning regions or county, counties, several municipality, municipa ...

in the Eastern Cape,

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the Southern Africa, southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the Atlantic Ocean, South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the ...

. Grahamstown was traditionally the administrative capital, cultural centre and largest town of the Albany district. The area was previously known as the 'Zuurveld' by migrating

Boer Boers ( ; af, Boere ()) are the descendants of the Dutch-speaking Free Burghers of the eastern Cape frontier in Southern Africa during the 17th, 18th, and 19th centuries. From 1652 to 1795, the Dutch East India Company controlled this are ...

farmers in the late 18th century, and it lay near the boundary between the Cape Colony and the traditional

Xhosa Xhosa may refer to: * Xhosa people, a nation, and ethnic group, who live in south-central and southeasterly region of South Africa * Xhosa language, one of the 11 official languages of South Africa, principally spoken by the Xhosa people See als ...

lands to the east. The

1820 Settlers The 1820 Settlers were several groups of British colonists from England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales, settled by the government of the United Kingdom and the Cape Colony authorities in the Eastern Cape of South Africa in 1820. Origins After ...

were instrumental in settling and farming the district and giving it some of its distinctive local culture. The ANC government merged the Albany area with the large

township of Alice as the municipal area of 'Cacadu'br>

History

Thomas Baines - The British Settlers of 1820 Landing in Algoa Bay - 1853

General Jacob Glen Cuyler, the ''

Landdrost {{Use dmy dates, date=December 2020 ''Landdrost'' was the title of various officials with local jurisdiction in the Netherlands and a number of former territories in the Dutch Empire. The term is a Dutch compound, with ''land'' meaning "region" an ...

'' of the Uitenhage district, named the area between the

Sundays The Sundays were an English alternative rock band, formed in the late 1980s, which released three albums throughout the 1990s. The band's beginnings came with the meeting of singer Harriet Wheeler and guitarist David Gavurin while attending ...

and

Fish Fish are aquatic, craniate, gill-bearing animals that lack limbs with digits. Included in this definition are the living hagfish, lampreys, and cartilaginous and bony fish as well as various extinct related groups. Approximately 95% of ...

rivers "Albany" after Albany in his native New York. Albany became the destination for the

by the Cape Colony's new British masters. It accepted one of the largest waves of British immigrant settlers to

, and the development of Albany was a milestone in the formation of the

British diaspora The British diaspora consists of people of British ancestry (and their descendants) who emigrated from the United Kingdom. For the purposes of this article, the people of British Overseas Territories are not included as ''British people'' thoug ...

. Grahamstown, Bathurst, and Port Alfred became important villages in Albany following the arrival of the 1820 Settlers.

Geographical features

The district forms part of the rural hinterland beyond Port Elizabeth. The Albany area is of extreme ecological importance because of its unique indigenous vegetation, composed of deep, lush " Albany thickets". Albany Thicket is an

ecoregion An ecoregion (ecological region) or ecozone (ecological zone) is an ecologically and geographically defined area that is smaller than a bioregion, which in turn is smaller than a biogeographic realm. Ecoregions cover relatively large areas of ...

and

biodiversity hotspot A biodiversity hotspot is a biogeographic region with significant levels of biodiversity that is threatened by human habitation. Norman Myers wrote about the concept in two articles in ''The Environmentalist'' in 1988 and 1990, after which the c ...

of dense woodland, containing many endemic species. Ecologically it forms part of the greater Cape Floristic Region. The coastal belt is a temperate, winter rainfall area, with rains of 500 to 700 mm per annum and above. Further to the interior, the terrain is mostly dry Karoo and grasslands composed of large commercial farms and vast expanses. Despite the arid interior, the

and

rivers support extensive irrigated farming. They are fed by water from the Orange River under the Fish River Transfer Scheme.

Culture

Grahamstown is still a major cultural centre, being home to both

Rhodes University Rhodes University is a public research university located in Makhanda (Grahamstown) in the Eastern Cape Province of South Africa. It is one of four universities in the province. Established in 1904, Rhodes University is the province's oldest ...

as well as the

National Arts Festival The National Arts Festival (NAF) is an annual festival of performing arts in Grahamstown, South Africa. It is the largest arts festival on the African continent and one of the largest performing arts festivals in the world by visitor numbers. Th ...

. The university is the authority on South African English. The city, formed by John Graham, was traditionally the capital of the Albany District Council.

History

Geographical features

Culture

See also

References

External links