Joubertina (E 16)

Name: Joubertina

Krakeel (Dutch for fighting) is a railway station 12Km to the west of Joubertina.

Haarlem
In 1856 Haarlem was established as a mission station, but first named Anhalt-Schmidt. The first missionary was Friedrich Prietsch, who came from Anhalt in Germany. As the locals struggeld with the pronunciation of the name, it was changed to Haarlem, a Dutch town near Amsterdam. In 1880 a church was built in the Neo-Gothic style. Its building was initiated by Heinrich Howe and Cristoph Markotter.

History
In 1770 a loan farm was awarded in the area to Matthijs Strijdom.

In 1802 a group of Xhosa attacked European settlers on the Waboom River. During the Anglo-Boer War (1899-1902) British troops camped on the banks of the river.

Joubertina was founded in 1907 on a portion of a farm owned by Daniel Kritzinger, a teetotaller. A condition of sale was that alcohol could not be served within the town borders. The Joubertina was built outside the border to get around this clause.

The town was originally named Joubertsburg, and then Joubertville after the Dutch Reformed minister of Uniondale, WA Joubert (who served from 1879 to 1892), but as there already was a railway station with the latter name, it was changed to Joubertina.

Joubertina became a municipality in 1971.

Before road transport took over from rail transport, a train did the route through the valley between Avontuur and Port Elizabeth. As soft fruits was the dominant goods to be transported, it was known as the Apple Express. Today the Apple Express runs as a tourist attraction, but not through the valley. It runs northward of Port Elizabeth to Patensie.

Source: http://www.routes.co.za/ec/joubertina/index.html

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Other interesting info:
The valley was inhabited by Bushmen in a previous era. Traces of their presence are reflected in rock art paintings on the walls of many of the rock shelters. 'Hottentot' pastoralists came into the area after the Bushmen, and contributed to many of the place names in the valley, like Gwarina or Querina ('the ravine of the eland'), Kouga ('place of the blue wildebeest'); Traka ('place of the women') and Humtata ('plain where the Hottentot figs grow'). These and other names are reminders of a vanished people, whose absence is largely a result of smallpox epidemics.

Izaak Schryver’s expedition was the first European exploration of the area in 1689. Subsequently, hunters, botanists and explorers followed. The first European settlers came into the area in 1740. These settlers aggrieved the Cape Town authorities as they were pioneers of sorts and were constantly expanding the frontiers in an attempt to stay one step ahead of the tax collectors. The tax gatherers invariably followed them.

Source: http://www.openafrica.org/route/langkloof-route
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