Not Built in a Day: The Evolving Landscape of the Botshabelo Mission Station, South Africa, 1865-2015

Abstract

On the 19th-century South African landscape, a 'mission' may have comprised anything from a single building on the outskirts of an African village to a full-blown complex containing church and educational facilities, houses belonging to missionaries and their converts and industrial operations such as a forge, wainwright's workshop and mill. Drawing on archaeological, documentary and pictorial sources, I explore the development of the Berlin Mission Society station of Botshabelo in Mpumalanga, South Africa. Established as a 'place of refuge' in 1865, it grew over time to become an important religious, economic and educational centre. In both the 19th and 20th centuries, its fortunes waxed and waned in concert with broader shifts in the South African social and political landscape. This article presents a reconstruction of the site's chronology and highlights future research directions of the Botshabelo Mission Station Archaeological Project.