Place:Mpumalanga, South Africa

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Mpumalanga is a province of South Africa. The name means "East", or literally "The Place Where the Sun Rises" in the Swazi, Xhosa, Ndebele and Zulu languages. Mpumalanga lies in eastern South Africa, bordering Eswatini and Mozambique. It constitutes 6.5% of South Africa's land area. It shares borders with the South African provinces of Limpopo to the north, Gauteng to the west, the Free State to the southwest, and KwaZulu-Natal to the south. The capital is Mbombela. Mpumalanga was formed in 1994, when the Eastern Transvaal was merged with KaNgwane. Although the contemporary borders of the province were only formed at the end of apartheid, the region and its surroundings has a history that extends back thousands of years. Much of its history, and current significance is as a region of trade.

History

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Precolonial Era

Archeological sites in the Mpumalanga region indicate settlement by humans and their ancestors dating back 1.7 million years.^[1] Rock paintings, engravings and other archeological evidence throughout the province indicate that Mpumalanga has a long history of human habitation by groups of hunter gathers. Excavations not far from the Mpumalanga border in the Origstad district, show evidence of Middle Stone Age habitation dating back to 40 000 years ago. The Lion Cavern, in Ngwenya on the Eswatini border, shows evidence of people mining iron ore in the Mpumalanga region and surrounding areas from at least 28 000 years ago. Evidence from mine shafts and trade goods shows that there was notable industry in tin, copper, gold, iron, ochre, and bronze. The Lydenburg Heads, from around 500 CE are Africa's oldest Iron Age artworks south of the equator were found in Mpumalanga. Evidence from a site near Mbombela shows evidence of agricultural societies from between the 6th to 17th century. Bokoni stone-walled sites on the Mpumalanga highveld are indicative of a large precolonial agropastoral society between ~1500 and 1820 CE. These societies became centers of trade, with increasingly large and centralised populations, a pattern that increased as they connected to the Portuguese trading post in Maputo Bay.^[2] In this era, groups that would become the Swazi, Pedi, Ndebele, Mapulana and others established themselves in the area that is now Mpumalanga.

Colonial Era

In 1845, as part of the Great Trek, the first Dutch-speaking colonial settlers arrived in what they called the eastern Transvaal.^[1] The rest of the 19th century in the region was characterised by colonial encroachment and conflict over land and political control. In 1852, the Boers established the South African Republic. The well established Pedi, Swazi and Zulu kingdoms put up significant resistance against the settlers. The Pedi fought wars with the Boers in 1876 (see Sekhukhune Wars) and the Zulu fought with British settlers in 1897 (see Anglo-Zulu War). These interconnected conflicts played a role in shifting the balance of power in southern Africa to colonial control.^[1] After 1860, missionaries, especiailly German missionaries like Alexander Merensky set up mission stations in the region, spreading the Chirstainity and European values.^[1] Just as the region had been a center for trade in the precolonial era, in the colonial era, the Eastern Transvaal region became an important thoroughfare for trade between Johannesburg and Delagoa Bay (now Maputo). Gold mining around areas like Pilgrims Rest and Baberton and farming were the main forms of economic activity. On farms in the Transvaal, under a system known as Inboekstelsel, Boers carried out raids to capture children and forced them into indentured labour. During the South African War, the region was the site of notable battles.

Apartheid

When the National Party came to power in 1948, their policy of apartheid intensified the segregation that had defined communities in the Transvaal. Under a policy of forced removals, Black South Africans were evicted from areas reserved for white people and moved into homelands, including KaNgwane, KwaNdebele, Lebowa and Gazankulu. As the apartheid regime implemented oppressive policies that defined almost every aspect of life, activists responded with resistance. In 1959, the small town of Bethal on what is now the Mpumalanga highveld was the center of the anti-apartheid consumer potato boycott in response to the working conditions Black South African labourers faced farms in the area. The region was influenced by dynamics in exile and elsewhere in the country, for instance Black Consciouness, the Sharpeville Massacre and the 1976 Soweto Uprisings. In the 1980s, under intense repression, youth and labour organizations moblized agaisnt the government and townships and Bantustans erupted in political unrest and violence.^[1] In 1986, an avoidable disaster killed 177 mine workers in Kinross Mine in the region's highveld. The response to the disaster by the National Union of Mineworkers was a key point in South African labour struggle. By the late 1980s, the intensity of resistance across South Africa (including areas like Mpumalanga, which hadn't previously been seen as key areas of resistance) combined with economic factors and international pressure was strong enough to end apartheid. In 1994, when South Africa held its first democratic elections, Mpumalanga province was formed.

Post-apartheid

The liberation movement turned leading party, the African National Congress (ANC) came into power in Mpumalanga after white minority rule ended. A program of land redistribution, aimed at granting land back to the black communities who were forcibly moved during apartheid, had redistributed tens of thousands of hectares to these communities and their descendants. However, the process has been marked by corruption, controversy and has been seen as inadequate to address the extent of apartheid spatial planning. In 2001, 1 270 hectares of the Boomplaats farm near Mashishing was the first farm in South Africa to be expropriated. The post-apartheid era brought significant economic growth to Mpumalanga including has notable progress in extending housing and basic services. However, poor governance, corruption and high levels of wealth and income inequality present persistent challenges to the province.

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