History

• Diamond


  The hardest and purest mineral on Earth, only a diamond can cut another diamond, formed in Earth's core by intense heat and pressure
• Diamonds


  • Rare, for every million diamonds found, only one is a high quality diamond of at least a carat in size, most are very small and of poorer, or industrial quality, used for things like drill points to cut into steel and glass
• Diamonds


  When cut and polished, become beautiful gemstones that reflect light, first discovered in India about 3,000 years ago, used to make beautiful jewellery and to show wealth
• First diamonds found in Hopetown and along the banks of the Orange/Gariep and Vaal Rivers


  1867
• Wealth of diamonds found in dry areas away from the river on farms south of Klipdrift (Barkly West)


  1870-1871
• Groups with rights to land in the area of the Vaal and Orange/Gariep Rivers

  • Thlaping and other Tswana-speaking groups west of the Vaal River
  • Griqua north of the Orange/Gariep Rivers (on both sides of the Vaal River)
  • Orange Free State (between the Orange/Gariep and Vaal Rivers)
  • South African Republic (Transvaal) north of the Vaal River
  • Cape Colony south of the length of the Orange/Gariep River
• Keate Award 1871


  Lieutenant-Governor of Natal, RW Keate, was the judge in a legal court case to decide on the ownership of the 'diamond fields', Keate decided that the Griqua had the strongest case, and awarded the whole area to them
• The Griqua were persuaded to ask for British protection against the Boers, the diamond fields became the British Colony of Griqualand West in 1872, and it became part of the Cape Colony in 1880
• The discovery of diamonds in southern Africa led to South Africa changing rapidly from an agricultural society to an industrial society, largely as a result of the discovery of large diamond deposits in Kimberley in 1867, followed in 1886 by the discovery of gold on the Witwatersrand