Dorsland Trek

Dorsland Trek (Thirstland Trek) is the collective name of a series of explorations undertaken by Boer settlers from South Africa towards the end of the 19th century and in the first years of the 20th century, in search of political independence and better living conditions. The participants, trekboere (migrating farmers) from the Orange Free State and Transvaal, are called Dorslandtrekkers or Angola-Boere.

After escaping the rule of the Dutch East India Company in the late 18th century, semi-nomadic settlers at the Cape Colony came into conflict both with the indigenous Xhosa tribes in the east and the British who had acquired the Cape as a result of the Napoleonic Wars. In 1836, the Boers set off on what became known as the Great Trek, establishing the Orange Free State and Transvaal as independent Boer republics.

There are two theories why the settlers would take off yet again to explore territory further north. One is that in the 1870s, Britain again began the process of annexing the Boer states; the second theory claims that "[t]hey appeared compelled by a desire to trek," with no particular difficulty facing them at their current place.

The first group of the Dorsland Trek set out on 27 May 1874 under the leadership of Gert Alberts. A number of different groups of farmers, taking different routes, followed the first group. They set off from the areas around Rustenburg,Groot Marico, and Pretoria. The primary destination was the Humpata highlands of south-western Angola. On their journey, the settlers had to traverse through Bechuanaland and the vast, arid areas of the Kalahari desert, in what is today the countries of Namibia and Botswana. It was the harsh and dry conditions that they experienced in the Kalahari that gave the trek the name Dorsland Trek which means "Thirstland Trek" in the Afrikaans language. According to one witness, over 3000 trekkers died during the journey. In 1881, sixty families totaling 300 people arrived in Humpata, and were given 200 hectares (490 acres) per family to farm on.

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