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{{more citations needed|date=April 2007}}
{{Infobox settlement
| name = Lydenburg
| image_skyline = Dutch Reformed Church Lydenburg.JPG
| other_name = Mashishing
| image_skyline image_caption = Dutch Reformed Church, Lydenburg.JPG
| image_caption pushpin_map = DutchSouth ReformedAfrica Church,Mpumalanga#South LydenburgAfrica#Africa
| coordinates = {{coord|25.096|S|30.446|E|region:ZA|display=inline,title}}▼
| pushpin_map = South Africa Mpumalanga#South Africa#Africa
| subdivision_type = [[Country]]
▲| coordinates = {{coord|25.096|S|30.446|E|region:ZA|display=inline,title}}
| subdivision_type subdivision_name = [[CountrySouth Africa]]
| subdivision_name subdivision_type1 = [[Provinces of South Africa|Province]]
| subdivision_name1 = [[Mpumalanga]]▼
| subdivision_type1 = [[Provinces of South Africa|Province]]
| subdivision_type2 = [[List of districts of South Africa|District]] ▼
▲| subdivision_name1 = [[Mpumalanga]]
| subdivision_name2 = [[Ehlanzeni District Municipality|Ehlanzeni]]
▲| subdivision_type2 = [[List of districts of South Africa|District]]
| subdivision_name2 subdivision_type3 = [[Ehlanzeni District Municipality|Ehlanzeni]]
| subdivision_name3 = [[Thaba Chweu Local Municipality|Thaba Chweu]]▼
| subdivision_type3 = Municipality
| subdivision_type4 = Main Place▼
▲| subdivision_name3 = [[Thaba Chweu Local Municipality|Thaba Chweu]]
| established_title = Established
▲| subdivision_type4 = Main Place
| established_titleleader_title = EstablishedCouncillor
| area_footnotes = <ref name="census2011">{{cite web |url=http://census2011.adrianfrith.com/place/873012003 |title = Sub Place Lydenburg |work=Census 2011}}</ref>▼
| leader_title = Councillor
| area_total_km2 = 17.31▼
▲| area_footnotes = <ref name="census2011">{{cite web |url=http://census2011.adrianfrith.com/place/873012003 |title = Sub Place Lydenburg |work=Census 2011}}</ref>
| population_footnotes = <ref name="census2011" />▼
▲| area_total_km2 = 17.31
| population_total = 37258
▲| population_footnotes = <ref name="census2011" />
| population_total population_as_of = 372582011
| population_density_km2 = auto▼
| population_as_of = 2011
<!-- demographics (section 1) -->| demographics_type1 = Racial makeup (2011)▼
▲| population_density_km2 = auto
▲<!-- demographics (section 1) -->
| demographics_type1 = Racial makeup (2011)
| demographics1_footnotes = <ref name="census2011" />
| demographics1_title1 = [[Bantu peoples of South Africa|Black African]]
| demographics1_info1 = 75.3%
| demographics1_title2 = [[Coloureds|Coloured]]
| demographics1_info2 = 1.4%
| demographics1_title3 = [[Indian South African|Indian]]/[[Asian South African|Asian]]
| demographics1_info3 = 0.5%
| demographics1_title4 = [[White South African|White]]
| demographics1_info4 = 22.5%
| demographics1_title5 = Other
| demographics1_info5 = 0.3%
<!-- demographics (section 2) -->| demographics_type2 = [[First language]]s (2011)
| demographics_type2 = [[First language]]s (2011)
| demographics2_footnotes = <ref name="census2011" />
| demographics2_title1 = [[Northern Sotho language|Northern Sotho]]
| demographics2_info1 = 26.2%
| demographics2_title2 = [[Afrikaans]]
| demographics2_info2 = 22.8%
| demographics2_title3 = [[Swazi language|Swazi]]
| demographics2_info3 = 18.7%
| demographics2_title4 = [[Zulu language|Zulu]]
| demographics2_info4 = 13.1%
| demographics2_title5 = Other
| demographics2_info5 = 19.2%
<!-- blank fields (section 2) -->
<!-- Other information -->| timezone1 = [[South African Standard Time|SAST]]
| utc_offset1 = +2▼
| timezone1 = [[South African Standard Time|SAST]]
| postal_code_type = [[List of postal codes in South Africa|Postal code]] (street)▼
▲| utc_offset1 = +2
| postal_code = 1120▼
▲| postal_code_type = [[List of postal codes in South Africa|Postal code]] (street)
| postal2_code_type = [[Post-office box|PO box]]
▲| postal_code = 1120
| postal2_code_typepostal2_code = [[Post-office box|PO box]]1120
| area_code_type = [[Telephone numbers in South Africa|Area code]]▼
| postal2_code area_code = 1120013
▲| area_code_type = [[Telephone numbers in South Africa|Area code]]
| area_code other_name = 013Mashishing
}}
{{SouthAfrica state}}
'''Lydenburg''', also known as '''Mashishing''',<ref name=":1" /><ref name=":0" /> is a town in [[Thaba Chweu Local Municipality]], on the [[Mpumalanga]] highveld, [[South Africa]]. Alternatively and originally known as '''Mashishing''', LydenburgIt is situated on the Sterkspruit/Dorps River tributary of the [[Lepelle/Letaba River|Lepelle River]] at the summit of the [[Long Tom Pass]]. It has a long, rich history, ranging from AD 500 to the present. The name is derived from the [[Dutch language|Dutch]] ''Lijdenburg'', or "Town of Suffering", and is named for the experiences of the white settlers.<ref name=":1">{{cite news |last1=Carroll |first1=Rory |title=Whites protest at African name changes |url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2006/jul/28/southafrica.rorycarroll |access-date=10 February 2022 |work=the Guardian |date=27 July 2006 |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|title=South Africa|url=https://www.worldstatesmen.org/South_Africa.html|access-date=2021-09-04|website=worldstatesmen.org}}</ref> In Northern Sotho, Mashishing means "long green grass."<ref>{{cite web| url = https://mg.co.za/article/2011-08-09-old-south-africa-collides-with-new-in-city-names/| title = Old South Africa collides with new in city names - The Mail & Guardian| date = 9 August 2011}} </ref> Lydenburg has become the centre of the South African [[fly-fishing]] industry and is an agricultural, tourism and mining hub.
 
==History==
 
===LydenburgAncient Headshistory===
The area surrounding present day Lydenburg has a long history of human occupation. Rock paintings in surrounding areas point to early [[Khoe-San]] hunter-gather groups living on the land.<ref>{{Cite web |title=History – MAWR |url=https://www.mountanderson.com/history/ |access-date=2021-09-04 |language=en-US}}</ref>
Dating back to AD 500, the earliest known forms of African Iron Age sculpture below the equator, known as the [[Lydenburg heads]] were found in the area. The seven earthenware sculptures of heads and other pottery from the site are intricately decorated and may have been used for ceremonial or initiation purposes. However, this is speculative as there is little we know today about the people who made these sculptures.<ref>https://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/lyde/hd_lyde.htm</ref> Their existence nevertheless points to Lydenburg's remarkable heritage.▼
 
==== Lydenburg Heads ====
▲Dating back to AD 500, the earliest known forms of African Iron Age sculpture below the equator, known as the [[Lydenburg heads]] were found in the area. The seven earthenware sculptures of heads and other pottery from the site are intricately decorated and may have been used for ceremonial or initiation purposes. However, this is speculative as there is little we know today about the people who made these sculptures.<ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/lyde/hd_lyde.htm | title=Lydenburg Heads (Ca. 500 A.D.) &#124; Essay &#124; the Metropolitan Museum of Art &#124; Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History }}</ref> Their existence nevertheless points to Lydenburg's remarkable heritage.
 
===Pre-colonial History===
TheFrom Lydenburgaround areathe has16th century a longgroup historyreferred ofto humanas occupation. Rock paintings in surrounding areas point to earlythe [[Khoe-SanBakoni]] hunter-gatherpeople groups living onoccupied the landarea.<ref>{{Cite web|title=History – MAWR|url=https://www.mountanderson.com/history/|access-date=2021-09-04|language=en-US}}</ref> In addition to the Lydenburg heads, thereThere is significant Iron Age evidence of settlement[[Bapedi]] ofpeople, thewho areareferred possibly byto the [[Bakoni]]area people.as ThereMashishing, isthat evidencelived ofin [[Bapedi]]the peoplesurrounding livingarea in Lydenburgfrom as early as the 1700s. t.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Mashishing (Lydenburg), Mpumalanga|url=https://www.artefacts.co.za/main/Buildings/towndetframes.php?townid=260|access-date=2021-09-04|website=artefacts.co.za}}</ref>
 
===Colonial historyHistory===▼
 
==== Founding of the town Lydenburg ====
▲===Colonial history===
Mashishing, later renamed Lydenburg (place of suffering), was colonisedfounded in 1849 by a group of [[Voortrekkers]] under the leadership of [[Andries Potgieter]] when they abandoned their previous settlement [[Ohrigstad]] (to the north) due to a [[malaria]] epidemic. The town became the capital of the Lydenburg Republic ('De Republiek Lydenburg in Zuid Afrika') in 1856 and later in 1857 joined the [[Republic of Utrecht]] but in 1860 both these republics joined the [[South African Republic|Zuid Afrikaanse Republiek (ZAR)]]. The town became the capital of the Lydenburg District of the [[South African Republic]] (ZAR).
 
Lydenburg became important because it was on the wagon route to the port of Delagoa Bay (now [[Maputo Bay]]) which was freenot ofunder British control. In 1871 construction of the road was started by Abraham Espag under the orders of President [[Thomas François Burgers]]. The first wagons arrived in Lydenburg from Delagoa Bay in 1874.
 
==== Gold Rush ====
On 6 February 1873, alluvial gold was discovered and within 3 months the Lydenburg goldfields were proclaimed. The [[First Boer War]] broke out between Britain and the Transvaal Republic in 1880. A British garrison under Lieutenant Walter Hillyar Colquhoun Long (uncle of the 1st [[Viscount Long]]) occupied Lydenburg to control the goldfields. It was from here that the ill-fated 94th Regiment under the command of [[Lieutenant colonel (United Kingdom)|Lieutenant-Colonel]] Philip Robert Anstruther marched to [[Pretoria]]. The remainder of the garrison at Lydenburg was [[Siege of Lydenburg|besieged]] from 6 January 1881,<ref>{{cite web|url=http://samilitaryhistory.org/vol052mg.html|access-date=15 December 2013|author=M. Gough Palmer|quote=The Boers took up a position two miles off on the road to Middelburg on 3 January 1881 and commenced their attack on the 6th.|title=The Besieged Towns of the First Boer War, 1880-1881}}</ref> following Long's refusal to surrender the garrison on 23 December 1880.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://samilitaryhistory.org/vol052mg.html|access-date=15 December 2013|author=M. Gough Palmer|quote=On 23 December Long was visited by Dietrich Muller who said he had been deputed by the Boer Government to demand the immediate surrender of the garrison which was refused by Long.|title=The Besieged Towns of the First Boer War, 1880-1881}}</ref>
 
Land such as Boomplaats and Aapiesdoorndraai farms, near the town, was purchased by black South Africans in the early 1900s before the [[Natives Land Act, 1913|1913 Land Act]] severely restricted black land ownership in South Africa.<ref name="sahistory.org.za">https://www.sahistory.org.za/sites/default/files/Removals%20and%20Resistance%20Rural%20Communities%20in%20Lydenburg%20South%20Africa%201940-1961.pdf {{Bare URL PDF|date=March 2022}}</ref> The communities here developed and irrigated the initially arid area into valuable and productive farms.<ref name="sahistory.org.za"/>
 
By 1910 the railway reached Lydenburg. In 1927 Lydenburg became a municipality.
Line 90 ⟶ 93:
 
=== Name change ===
In June 2006, it was announced that Arts and Culture minister, [[Pallo Jordan]], had approved the name change ofrenaming Lydenburg back to its original name Mashishing, (meaning "long, green grass").<ref name=":1" /><ref name=":0">{{Cite web|url=http://www.news24.com/SouthAfrica/News/Lydenburg-takes-on-new-name-20060906|title=Lydenburg takes on new name}}</ref> However, the decision was appealed to court which ruled the change illegal and ordered the name to be changed back to Lydenburg. However, the township outside Lydenburg remains Mashishing. Road signs still say Lydenburg and businesses and local buildings such as the [[Lydenburg Museum]] have kept the old name. However, some road signs say Mashishing towards the more developed part of the town.{{citation needed|date=May 2018}}
 
[[File:A street in Lydenburg.JPG|thumbnail|left|A side street in Lydenburg]]
Line 101 ⟶ 104:
* Mashishing Secondary School
* [https://www.ehlanzenicollege.co.za/campuses/mashishing/ Mashishing Campus Ehlanzeni TVET College]
* Lesodi primary school, Mashingshing.<ref>{{citation |url=https://schooldirect.org/south-africa/lesodi-primary-school-fees-registration-contact/ |title=Lesodi Primary School |work=School Direct|date=17 May 2021 }}</ref>
 
==Tourist attractions==
Line 128 ⟶ 132:
[[Category:Populated places established in 1849]]
[[Category:1849 establishments in Africa]]
[[Category:Former republics]]
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lydenburg"