Dorp (town)

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Bredasdorp was the first dorp in South Africa, founded in 1838 by Michiel van Breda, the first Mayor of Cape Town. Bredasdorpuitsig.JPG
Bredasdorp was the first dorp in South Africa, founded in 1838 by Michiel van Breda, the first Mayor of Cape Town.

Dorp is a village or small town, in the Dutch communities of countries such as Netherlands, Suriname, Belgian Flanders and South Africa. In some places, a dorp is also a local government area or municipality, which may also administer one or more separate, smaller settlements, such as hamlets.

As a Dutch language term, dorp is also used in Afrikaans which originated from 17th Century Dutch. It is often used in South African English, in which it is a loanword from Afrikaans.

Roger Ballen photographed the dorps of South Africa while touring the country as a geologist in the 1980s. His photographs evoke the character of these small towns of the apartheid era. [2] Other artistic works which are based on these Calvinist communities founded by the Boers include Stephen Black's 1920 novel, The Dorp and Herman Charles Bosman's 1977 novel Willemsdorp. [3]

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References

  1. Chris Schoeman (2017), The Historical Overberg: Traces of the Past in South Africa's Southernmost Region, Penguin Random House South Africa, p. 155, ISBN   9781776090730
  2. Roger Ballen (2010), Dorps: Small Towns of South Africa, Protea Book House, ISBN   9781869193942 [ page needed ]
  3. Salomé Snyman (2012), "Willemsdorp by Herman Charles Bosman: the small-town locale as fictional vehicle for commentary on social and moral issues in the South African historical context", Tydskrif vir Letterkunde, 49 (2): 60–71

See also