Kokstad, KwaZulu-Natal

Kokstad
Kokstad City Hall and Victorian Bandstand. Also visible is the Memorial to Cape Mounted Riflemen & Volunteers, East Griqualand. 1899 -1902.
Kokstad Show map of KwaZulu-Natal Kokstad Show map of South Africa Kokstad Show map of Africa  Kokstad shown within KwaZulu-Natal
Coordinates: 30°33′14″S 29°25′37″E / 30.55389°S 29.42694°E / -30.55389; 29.42694Coordinates: 30°33′14″S 29°25′37″E / 30.55389°S 29.42694°E / -30.55389; 29.42694
Country	South Africa
Province	KwaZulu-Natal
District	Harry Gwala
Municipality	Greater Kokstad
Established	1869
Area
• Total	51.57 km2 (19.91 sq mi)
Elevation	1,302 m (4,272 ft)
Population (2011)
• Total	51,561
• Density	1,000/km2 (2,600/sq mi)
Racial makeup (2011)
• Black African	87.4%
• Coloured	8.9%
• Indian/Asian	1.3%
• White	2.1%
• Other	0.3%
First languages (2011)
• Xhosa	72.9%
• English	9.1%
• Afrikaans	6.8%
• Zulu	5.8%
• Other	5.5%
Postal code (street)	4700
PO box	4700
Area code	039

Kokstad is a town in the Harry Gwala District Municipality of KwaZulu-Natal Province, South Africa. Kokstad is named after the Griqua chief Adam Kok III who settled here in 1863. Stad is the Dutch and Afrikaans word for city.

The town is built on the outer slopes of the Drakensberg and is 1,302 m above the sea level. Behind it Mount Currie rises to a height of 2,224 m. It is a centre for cheese and other dairy products.

Kokstad is currently the fastest growing town in KwaZulu-Natal, with approximately 50,000 people residing there.

In 1820 the Griqua tribe which lived in Griquatown (in central South Africa) split and under the leadership of Adam Kok III, descendant of the ex-cook who established the tribe, one section first moved to Philippolis (southern Free State). In 1861 several hundred Griquas moved across the Drakensberg down the Ongeluks Nek to the vicinity of modern Kokstad. They moved because of the growing confrontation they faced with the Voortrekkers who had moved north of the Orange River to escape the laws of the British. The Voortrekkers, largely Dutch, secured leases over Griqua land and then refused to return the land at the end of the lease. The big hole of Kimberley was at the centre of controversy over one such lease.

The Griquas were forced to travel over the Drakensberg into a region earlier decimated by the great Zulu King, Shaka—thus its name "Nomansland". By the time the Griquas arrived in their new promised land eighteen months later they were exhausted and most of their livestock had perished. The impoverished Griquas named the mountain where they settled Mount Currie after Sir Walter Currie who gave support to their effort to settle here. Once settled their leader, Adam Kok, renamed their new land East Griqualand. Every male Griqua who settled in East Griqualand was able to secure a 3,000 acre (12 km²) farm, but most of them sold their land cheaply to white settlers and squandered their money. The Rev William Dower in his 1902 book "The Early Annals of Kokstad" describes in great detail how cheaply the Griqua gave their farms away.