Sanddrif is a town in

Richtersveld Local Municipality Richtersveld is an administrative area in the Namakwa District of Northern Cape in South Africa. The municipality is named after Reverend W Richter, a Dutch missionary of the 20th century who opened a mission station in Koeboes. History Richter ...

in the

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 the Kgalagadi T ...

province of

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

, on the banks of the

Orange River The Orange River (from Afrikaans/Dutch: ''Oranjerivier'') is a river in Southern Africa. It is the longest river in South Africa. With a total length of , the Orange River Basin extends from Lesotho into South Africa and Namibia to the north ...

. It is located 57 km east of Alexander Bay. Mining in the region began in the 1900s leading to the displacement of the indigenous

Nama people Nama (in older sources also called Namaqua) are an African ethnic group of South Africa, Namibia and Botswana. They traditionally speak the Nama language of the Khoe-Kwadi language family, although many Nama also speak Afrikaans. The Nama Peo ...

. Diamond mines were again established in the 1970s, bringing a source of employment but also socio-economic upheaval, threatening the traditional Nama lifestyle. The subsequent migration of

Xhosa people The Xhosa people, or Xhosa language, Xhosa-speaking people (; ) are African people who are direct kinsmen of Tswana people, Sotho people and Twa people, yet are narrowly sub grouped by European as Nguni people, Nguni ethnic group whose traditi ...

who came to the area to work in the mines led Sanddrif to acquire the nickname of "Rainbow Town". Sanddrif has nevertheless seen ethnic conflict between the indigenous Namas and the Xhosa migrants. The Baken diamond mine, located outside Sanddrif, was opened by Trans Hex Group in May 2001. Culture

References

Populated places in the Richtersveld Local Municipality {{NorthernCape-geo-stub