Steinkopf, previously known as Kookfontein, is a town situated along the N7 National Route in the Northern Cape Province of South Africa, about 45 km north-west of Springbok and 67.7 km south of Vioolsdrif.
The town was established as a mission station of the London Missionary Society, but was later taken over by the Rhenish Mission. Steinkopf town was named after Karl Steinkopf (de), foreign secretary on the British and Foreign Bible Society.
Steinkopf is the birthplace of Tholwana Mohale, winner of South Africa’s Got Talent 2014.
Steinkopf falls within Nama Khoi Local Municipality and the Namakwa District Municipality.
History
The Rev. Christiaan Albrecht of the London Missionary Society (LMS) secured permission from the Cape Colony authorities to minister to the area as early as 1809.
The first local mission was founded near Besondermeid in 1817 by Rev. Heinrich Schmelen of the LMS in 1817, and he named it Steinkopf after his spiritual mentor in London, Dr. Karl Steinkopf.
When the LMS began working in the area, it was ruled by the Nama chiefs Vigiland and Orlam, vice-captains of captain Kido Witbooi, at the time the predominant leader of Little Namaqualand between Buffelsrivier and the Orange River.
The Rev. Michael Wimmer moved the mission 5 km north of Besondermeid to Kookfontein Farm, where Steinkopf is today. The Rhenish Missionary Society (RMS) took over the LMS’s work in 1840, when the latter left the area. Steinkopf became part of Cape Colony in 1847, when the colonial border shifted to the Orange River, but it was not until 1913, with the implementation of the Mission Stations and Communal Reserves Act of 1909, that direct state control was established. In 1934, the RMS left the region to the Dutch Reformed Church in South Africa (NGK) Mission Church, which in 1994 became part of the Uniting Reformed Church in Southern Africa (VGKSA).
In the early years of the mission, Steinkopf was wracked by violence between the San hunter-gatherers and pastoral communities. A mass grave of 32 Nama children at Kinderlê just north of town testifies to the bloody struggles that almost wiped out the San from the area.
When the railway was built to carry copper from the mines near Okiep, it passed through Steinkopf on the way to Port Nolloth, growing the mission town considerably. Steinkopf was also invaded by the Boer forces during the Second Boer War, under the leadership of Gen. Jan Smuts, and many fled to the refugee camp in Port Nolloth. Several local citizens served the British as part of the Town Guards and Border Scouts. Around 10 km north of town on the road to Port Nolloth, near Klipfontein, there remain graves of soldiers killed in the war and ruins of the railway station and hotel that served passengers on the copper line.