Buffelsbaai (also Buffels Bay and Buffalo Bay) is a small seaside village 15 kilometres from

Knysna Knysna (; ) is a town with 76,150 inhabitants (2019 mid-year estimates) in the Western Cape province of South Africa. It is one of the destinations on the loosely defined Garden Route tourist route. It is situated 60 kilometres east of the c ...

in the

Garden Route District Municipality The Garden Route District Municipality (; ), formerly known as the Eden District Municipality, is a district municipality located in the Western Cape province of South Africa. Its municipality code is DC4. Geography The Garden Route District Muni ...

in the

Western Cape The Western Cape ( ; , ) is a provinces of South Africa, province of South Africa, situated on the south-western coast of the country. It is the List of South African provinces by area, fourth largest of the nine provinces with an area of , an ...

province of

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the Southern Africa, southernmost country in Africa. Its Provinces of South Africa, nine provinces are bounded to the south by of coastline that stretches along the Atlantic O ...

. The village is named after Buffelsbaai which stretches east of the village. It is a popular vacation destination with a small waterfront with stores.

History

Source:

The Early Inhabitants

The area around Buffelsbaai was home to the Khoi and San people for thousands of years before the arrival of European settlers. These

indigenous people There is no generally accepted definition of Indigenous peoples, although in the 21st century the focus has been on self-identification, cultural difference from other groups in a state, a special relationship with their traditional territ ...

were hunters and gatherers who lived off the land, and their way of life was closely tied to the seasons and the weather. They had a rich culture, with their own languages, traditions, and beliefs.

The Early Settlers

In the 1700s, the

Dutch East India Company The United East India Company ( ; VOC ), commonly known as the Dutch East India Company, was a chartered company, chartered trading company and one of the first joint-stock companies in the world. Established on 20 March 1602 by the States Ge ...

established a trading post in the nearby town of

Mossel Bay Mossel Bay () is a harbour town of about 170,000 people on the Garden Route of South Africa. It is an important tourism and farming region of the Western Cape Province. Mossel Bay lies 400 kilometres east of the country's seat of parliament, Ca ...

, which marked the beginning of European settlement in the area. The Dutch farmers, known as

Boers Boers ( ; ; ) are the descendants of the proto Afrikaans-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 the Dutch ...

, began to migrate inland from the coast and establish farms in the region. They were followed by

British 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 th ...

, who arrived in the 1800s and established trading posts in the area. Buffelsbaai was initially established as a farming community, with many of the early settlers working as farmers and ranchers. The area was particularly well-suited for

cattle farming A ranch (from /Mexican Spanish) is an area of land, including various structures, given primarily to ranching, the practice of raising grazing livestock such as cattle and sheep. It is a subtype of farm. These terms are most often applied to li ...

, and many of the early farms focused on producing

beef Beef is the culinary name for meat from cattle (''Bos taurus''). Beef can be prepared in various ways; Cut of beef, cuts are often used for steak, which can be cooked to varying degrees of doneness, while trimmings are often Ground beef, grou ...

dairy products Dairy products or milk products are food products made from (or containing) milk. The most common dairy animals are cow, water buffalo, goat, nanny goat, and Sheep, ewe. Dairy products include common grocery store food around the world such as y ...

, and

wool Wool is the textile fiber obtained from sheep and other mammals, especially goats, rabbits, and camelids. The term may also refer to inorganic materials, such as mineral wool and glass wool, that have some properties similar to animal w ...

. The town grew slowly over the years, and by the turn of the 20th century, it was a small, self-sufficient community.

Incidents

The cargo ship ''Kiani Satu'', travelling from

Hong Kong Hong Kong)., Legally Hong Kong, China in international treaties and organizations. is a special administrative region of China. With 7.5 million residents in a territory, Hong Kong is the fourth most densely populated region in the wor ...

Ghana Ghana, officially the Republic of Ghana, is a country in West Africa. It is situated along the Gulf of Guinea and the Atlantic Ocean to the south, and shares borders with Côte d’Ivoire to the west, Burkina Faso to the north, and Togo to t ...

with a shipment of

rice Rice is a cereal grain and in its Domestication, domesticated form is the staple food of over half of the world's population, particularly in Asia and Africa. Rice is the seed of the grass species ''Oryza sativa'' (Asian rice)—or, much l ...

, ran aground and sank off the coast of the town in August 2013. Leaked oil from the vessel threatened the nearby Goukamma Nature Reserve; 217 birds were cleaned by SANCCOB after the spill.

References

External links

{{Eden District Municipality Populated places in the Knysna Local Municipality