Place Of Refuge: "The Fighting Missionary", Alexander Merensky, And The Forts Of Botshabelo Mission Station, South Africa.

Author(s): Natalie J Swanepoel

Year: 2018

Summary

Botshabelo Mission Station, Mpumalanga, South Africa was established in 1865 within the borders of the Zuid Afrikaanse Republiek (ZAR) by Alexander Merensky and groups of Bapedi and Bakopa converts and refugees, all of whom had been displaced from territories further to the north through processes of intra-societal and colonial violence. It is perhaps for this reason that the mission station boasted three forts, unusual features for such a site. This paper examines the ways in which the object biographies of the site’s forts intertwine with the life histories of the Berlin missionary, Merensky and the other residents on the station, as well as the ways in which they have been memorialised.

Cite this Record

Place Of Refuge: "The Fighting Missionary", Alexander Merensky, And The Forts Of Botshabelo Mission Station, South Africa.. Natalie J Swanepoel. Presented at Society for Historical Archaeology, New Orleans, Louisiana. 2018 ( tDAR id: 441195)

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Keywords

General
Biography Forts mission

Geographic Keywords
South Africa Sub-Saharan Africa

Temporal Keywords
19th-20th Centuries

Spatial Coverage

min long: 16.49; min lat: -46.97 ; max long: 37.82; max lat: -22.192 ;

Individual & Institutional Roles

Contact(s): Society for Historical Archaeology

Record Identifiers

PaperId(s): 251