Somerset East

Not to be confused with East Somerset.

Somerset East
KwaNojoli
From top: Somerset East at the foot of the Bosberg Mountains, left: Town Hall, right: Gill College, left: War Memorial, right: Somerset-East Reformed Church (NGK)
Somerset East Location within Eastern Cape Somerset East Location within South Africa Somerset East Location within Africa
Coordinates: 32°43′S 25°35′E
Country	South Africa
Province	Eastern Cape
District	Sarah Baartman
Municipality	Blue Crane Route
Established	1825 (1825)
Government
• Councillors	Archer Heynse (DA) Lorraine Smith-Johnson (DA) Ayanda Dyantyi (ANC)
Area
• Total	72.8 km2 (28.1 sq mi)
Elevation	750 m (2,460 ft)
Population  (2011)
• Total	18,825
• Density	259/km2 (670/sq mi)
Racial makeup (2011)
• Black African	48%
• Coloured	32%
• Indian/Asian	0.4%
• White	20%
• Other	0.5%
First languages (2011)
• Xhosa	51.8%
• Afrikaans	42.9%
• English	3.7%
• Other	1.6%
Time zone	UTC+2 (SAST)
Postal code (street)	5850
PO box	5850

Somerset East, officially KwaNojoli since 2023, is a small historic town in the Blue Crane Route Local Municipality in the Eastern Cape, South Africa. It was founded by Lord Charles Somerset in 1825.

The area surrounding the modern town has had numerous names over the years. Hintsani, a Khoikhoi chief named the area Nojoli. As colonial influence moved further east, it was named Agter Bruintjies Hoogte, Somerset Farm, Somerset, Somerset East, and recently the town was renamed KwaNojoli.

Somerset East, at the foot of the Bosberg Mountains (Xhosa: Intaba kaNojoli), is known for its natural environment and for its provincial heritage sites and buildings. The forested, mountainous backdrop frames the town, with a number of hiking trails in the wooded Bosberg Nature Reserve. The area is a bird-watching destination, with other outdoor activities including trout fishing (rainbow and brown trout), malaria-free safari and hunting trips. The Somerset East Golf Club, one of the oldest in the country, was formally opened in 1897. The present course has 9 holes located at the foot of the Bosberg.

Notable buildings and monuments in the town include the Old Wesleyan Chapel, which houses the Somerset East Museum, and the Officers' Mess, which houses the largest permanent exhibition of paintings by the South African artist Walter Battiss. The Dutch Reformed Church congregation is the fourth oldest in the Eastern Cape. The Somerset East War Memorial also called the Delville Wood War Memorial is located at the western entrance to the town.

Annual events include the Biltong Festival, the Bruintjieshoogte Marathon, the Bruintjieshoogte Cycle Fest, the Walter Battiss Art Festival, as well as the Somerset East Agricultural show.

History

Pre-colonial

The region encompassing modern KwaNojoli was inhabited by Khoisan hunter-gatherers for millennia before the arrival of Bantu-speaking peoples, including the Xhosa people, around the 15th century. The area's fertile valleys and proximity to the Great Fish River made it a vital corridor for migration and trade. Documented Xhosa oral histories, describe the land as part of the broader AmaXhosa territory, with clans like the Ngqika utilizing the Boschberg slopes for grazing and spiritual practices.

European explorers, including Swedish botanist Anders Sparrman in the late 1770s, noted the region's abundant wildlife, diverse flora, and established indigenous communities in their journals, highlighting a landscape teeming with antelope, birds, and endemic plants. French ornithologist Francois Levaillant collected bird specimens in the area in 1781 - 1782, where he discovered and named the Red-chested cuckoo, the "Piet-my-vrou".

The Boschberg (or Bosberg) area, encountered by Dutch explorers as early as 1711 and named for its dense bush vegetation, served as a natural boundary and resource hub for local Xhosa groups. Conflicts over land use foreshadowed later colonial tensions, as Trekboers began encroaching from the west in the mid-18th century.

The Cape of Good Hope under Dutch East India Company rule

European settlement in the Somerset East district began in earnest during the late 18th century amid the Cape Colony's eastward expansion. In 1775 the Dutch governor of the Cape Colony, Baron Joachim van Plettenberg, and his Council of Policy in Cape Town defined the new eastern Cape Colony. It drew a line from the soon-to-be-established towns of Cradock and Somerset, forming a triangle towards the Bushman's River in the south to the sea. In the previous year the Governor had granted settlement rights in the vicinity of Bruintjieshoogte to the Sneeuwbergen Boers, like Willem Prinsloo and his family, who established a farm in Agter Bruintjies Hoogte under the Boschberg. Van Plettenberg formally established the Great Fish River in 1778 as the border between the Cape Colony and Xhosaland.

By the mid-1770s, at least 20 Dutch-speaking families had joined him, petitioning Cape authorities for a district outpost and church—requests that contributed in 1786 to the founding of nearby Graaff-Reinet. Prinsloo's farm, spanning much of the modern townsite, was subdivided for settlers. Jakobus Cornelius Otto moved into the corner now known as Bestershoek, farming wheat, livestock, and tobacco. He was followed by the future Voortrekker leader Louis Tregardt and Bester families.

Cape Colony under the Second British Occupation

The early 19th century brought intensified British influence following the Cape's second occupation in 1806. The 1811–1812 Zuurveld clearances, also known as the Fourth Frontier War or Fourth Xhosa War, marked a brutal escalation in the Cape Colony's expansionist policies against the Xhosa people. This conflict, the first major engagement under direct British rule after their 1806 occupation of the Cape, resulted in the forcible expulsion of approximately 20 000 Xhosa and allied Khoekhoe from the Zuurveld (Suurveld)—a fertile neutral buffer zone between the Sundays River and the Great Fish River, spanning modern-day Eastern Cape districts like Albany and Bathurst. By mid-1812, the Zuurveld was "cleared" and fortified with blockhouses and a military line along the Fish River. It was renamed the "Cape Eastern Frontier." This paved the way for the 1820 British Settler influx, who occupied the depopulated lands as a buffer against future Xhosa incursions.

Lord Charles Somerset, Governor of the Cape Colony, envisioned frontier settlements to secure the border against Xhosa incursions and support military logistics. Under the management of American botanist Dr. Joseph Mackrill, and selected from sites including the Gamtoos and Swartkops Valleys, "Somerset Farm" was established in 1815 at the foot of the Boschberg. It was an experimental farm to breed superior livestock, cultivate export crops like tobacco, and supply troops with grain and fodder. Subsidized infrastructure, including soldiers' barracks and a water mill, was constructed, transforming the site into a semi-military outpost. Under Captain Robert Hart, who replaced Mackrill in 1817, the farm prospered as a refreshment station, procuring local produce for distribution.

By 1825 the project was faltering due to administrative shifts, and provisions were cheaper and easier to buy elsewhere. After the Somerset Farm was subdivided and sold at auction, Robert Hart moved onto land he had been gifted by Lord Somerset for his role in the Zuurveld clearances and named the farm Glen Avon, which hosts one of South Africa's highest private waterfalls.

In January 1825, the Sub-Drostdy of Cradock was dissolved, and a new Drostdy (magistrate's district) named Somerset was proclaimed, stretching from the Orange River north to the Zuurberg south, and from the Sundays River west to the Koonap east. William Mackay was appointed the first magistrate on 31 January 1825, formalizing the town's layout along the Little Fish River. The "East" suffix was added around 1855 to distinguish it from Somerset West in the Western Cape.

The Slachter's Nek Rebellion of 1815–1816 was a pivotal frontier uprising. Led by Hendrik Prinsloo, son of Marthinus Prinsloo, dispossessed Boers protested land seizures and stock thefts amid Xhosa-British skirmishes. Five rebels were executed by hanging from a beam (now displayed in the local museum) after a botched gallows collapse—symbolizing colonial overreach and fueling Afrikaner grievances. The event strained relations between settlers, authorities, and indigenous groups.

The mid-19th century saw Somerset East emerge as a bustling frontier hub, fueled by the wool boom and the arrival of the 1820 Settlers. Positioned on routes to the interior, it became a vital stopover for wagons bound for Graaff-Reinet and beyond. Industries flourished: wool trading dominated, supplemented by tanning, wagon-making, brickworks, and milling.

The town expanded with civic institutions. The Dutch Reformed Church congregation, the Eastern Cape's fourth oldest, was formalized in the 1830s, while the Old Wesleyan Chapel (1821), Anglican Church (1836) and British Officers' Mess (now the Walter Battiss Art Museum) reflected dual Anglo-Dutch influences. The first government school in the town was opened in 1842, and many of the early teachers and trustees were 1820 descendants. Gill College, a university college, opened in 1869. A municipality was established in 1884, overseeing growth amid the Anglo-Boer tensions.

The Frontier Wars (1779–1879), particularly the Sixth (1834–1836) and Eighth (1850–1853), directly impacted the district. Xhosa resistance to land dispossession led to raids and reprisals, with Somerset East serving as a British supply depot. Post-war, the area stabilized, but at the cost of Xhosa displacement, exacerbating racial divides.

The early 20th century brought infrastructural advances. The railway reached Somerset East in 1902, linking it to Port Elizabeth and enhancing wool exports. The town served as a conservative electoral constituency from 1910 to 1981, consistently returning Afrikaans-speaking National Party members, reflecting its rural, white-dominated polity.

Culturally, the town nurtured talents like artist Walter Battiss (1906–1982), born locally, whose modernist works drew on Xhosa motifs and rock art. Institutions like the Somerset East Museum (housed in the old parsonage) preserved frontier artifacts, including Slachter's Nek relics, fostering a narrative centered on white settler heritage.

Renaming Somerset East to KwaNojoli

In March 2023 the town was officially renamed KwaNojoli, honoring Xhosa etymology and the area's pre-colonial significance, particularly the legacy of Nojoli. Documented oral histories depict Nojoli as a real 18th-century Thembu princess (daughter of Nkosi Ndungwana), who married Xhosa chief Rharhabe and became his inkosikazi enkulu (great wife). The publication asserts she lived at Rharhabe's Great Kraal (iDlelo) "under the foot of Boschberg," with the mountain itself named Intaba kaNojoli ("Nojoli's Mountain") after her. This ties the area's "spiritual and communal ties" to her legacy.

The change, approved by the South African Geographical Names Council, sparked debate: proponents viewed it as restorative justice, while critics decried erasure of colonial history. Community dialogues, facilitated by groups like the Jakes Gerwel Foundation, highlighted racial tensions but fostered cohesion. Abel Boyce Piki's advocacy was instrumental, with his efforts culminating in the name's revival just before his passing in 2024.

KwaNojoli challenges

In the post-apartheid era, KwaNojoli within the Blue Crane Route Local Municipality has grappled with chronic service delivery failures, including prolonged water outages and electricity disruptions that have sparked resident protests. In January 2022, locals burned tires outside the municipal offices after enduring 38 days without piped water since December 2021, highlighting infrastructural neglect and inadequate maintenance. By October 2025, households faced over three weeks of dry taps, dependent on sporadic water truck deliveries amid reports of sabotaged infrastructure and mismanagement. These issues reflect broader causal shortcomings in local governance, such as poor financial oversight and failure to sustain basic utilities, exacerbating resource strains from informal population growth without corresponding capacity expansion.

Local economic interventions via the Blue Crane Development Agency (BCDA) have aimed to counter peripheral decline through project facilitation, including tourism promotion and small-scale infrastructure upgrades, though outcomes remain limited with high national failure rates. Assets like the Somerset East Aerodrome, completed in 2016 for R53 million, was reduced to a hazardous grazing area after fencing theft went unaddressed. The Progress Flight Academy, which rented the aerodrome for entry-level pilot training, was forced to quit in 2023 due to increasing hazardous landing conditions as cattle grazed uncontrolled in the area. Plans are currently afoot for a State-owned multi-purpose industrial park adjacent to the now unused aerodrome, in an attempt to create much-needed employment.

Today, KwaNojoli's population of around 20,000 blends agricultural roots with eco-tourism. Challenges include rural depopulation and inequality, but its preserved architecture, oak-lined streets, Victorian homes and cultural sites position it as a gateway to Eastern Cape heritage.

Educational institutions

Source:

• Gill College, a Secondary School, is one of the oldest educational institutes in the Eastern Cape
• Gill Primary serves as a feeder school for Gill College
• Aeroville Secondary School
• William Oates Primary School
• W G Olivier Primary School
• Nonzwakazi Primary School
• Gilbert Xuza Junior Primary School
• St. Teresa's Roman Catholic Primary School

Notable residents

• Robert Hart (1 January 1777 – 14 September 1867) was a Scottish soldier, farmer and pioneer often regarded as a foundational figure in the history of Somerset East. Born in Strathaven, Lanarkshire, he arrived at the Cape in 1795 as an 18-year-old private in the Argyllshire Highlanders and later returned as an officer in the Cape Regiment. From about 1817 he managed the government Somerset Farm (at the foot of the Boschberg), which supplied the frontier garrison; when the farm was closed in 1825 and the town of Somerset East was laid out on its site. He was granted adjacent land that he named Glen Avon. There he pioneered Merino sheep farming in the Eastern Province, grew grain and citrus, and built a commercial watermill. He remained a leading local figure until his death at Glen Avon at the age of 90.
• William Gill (c. 1795 – 14 September 1863) was a British-born surgeon, botanist and benefactor who served as District Surgeon of Somerset (later Somerset East) from 1829. After qualifying in medicine (including studies at the University of Glasgow) he arrived at the Cape in 1818, practised in various districts, and settled permanently in the Eastern Cape Colony frontier town, where he also farmed Merino sheep successfully and helped found the local Reading Society (forerunner of the public library). In his will he bequeathed £23 000 for an institution of higher education in the Eastern Cape Colony; the resulting Gill College opened in Somerset East in 1869 and still bears his name. His remains were reinterred in front of the college in 1916.
• Walter Battiss (6 January 1906 – 20 August 1982) was a pioneering abstract painter and the creator of the imaginative “Fook Island” concept. Born in Somerset East, he developed an early fascination with rock art and later became a founding member of the New Group. He taught for decades at Pretoria Boys’ High School and served as Professor of Fine Art at UNISA. In 1948 he won a bronze medal in the Olympic art competition (engravings and etchings) at the London Games. Inspired by travels to Greece and the Seychelles, he invented Fook Island, a utopian fantasy with its own map, stamps, and currency. In 1981 he donated a major collection of his work to the Walter Battiss Art Museum in his birthplace.
• Walter Rubusana (21 February 1858 – 19 April 1936) was a Congregational minister, teacher, writer, and pioneering politician. Born at Mnandi in the Somerset East district, he became the first Black person elected to the Cape Provincial Council (for Tembuland in 1910). A co-founder of the Xhosa newspaper Izwi Labantu and an early leader in the South African Native National Congress (later the ANC), he served as one of its first vice-presidents and helped lead opposition to the 1913 Natives Land Act.
• Ivan Mitford-Barberton (1 February 1896 – 9 June 1976) was a sculptor, writer, and authority on heraldry. Born in Somerset East to a family of 1820 Settler descendants, he studied at the Grahamstown School of Art and the Royal College of Art in London under Henry Moore and Derwent Wood. He produced numerous public sculptures, including decorative work for Cape Town’s Mutual Building, the Jock of the Bushveld monument in Barberton, a leopard statue in Hout Bay, and the Peter Pan figure at the Red Cross Children’s Hospital. He also wrote on South African family history and lived much of his later life in Hout Bay.
• Jakes Gerwel (18 January 1946 – 28 November 2012) was an academic, anti-apartheid activist, and public servant. Born to farmworkers near Somerset East, he rose to become vice-chancellor of the University of the Western Cape (1987–1994), transforming the apartheid-era institution into an “intellectual home of the left.” From 1994 to 1999 he served as Director-General in President Nelson Mandela’s office and secretary of the cabinet; he later chaired the Nelson Mandela Foundation and the Mandela Rhodes Foundation.
• Nonkqubela Pieters (born 12 April 1965) is a politician and educator. Born in Somerset East, she is a member of the African National Congress and has served in the Eastern Cape Provincial Legislature since 2019. She has held several MEC portfolios, including Human Settlements (2019–2021), Rural Development and Agrarian Reform (2021–2024), and Economic Development, Environmental Affairs and Tourism (since 2024). Earlier in her career she was Speaker of the Sarah Baartman (formerly Cacadu) District Municipality from 2006 to 2018.
• Andries Heydenrich Vosloo (17 May 1912 – 11 March 1982) was a medical doctor and a National Party politician. Born on the farm Sterkfontein in the Somerset East district, he attended Gill College locally before graduating from the University of Cape Town at the age of 22. He practiced as a general practitioner and surgeon in Somerset East (in partnership with Dr J. M. Beyers), served on the local town council from 1943 to 1966 (twice as deputy mayor), and was active in the Medical Association of South Africa. A member of a prominent local political family (related to earlier MPs Johannes Vosloo and Lodewyk “Lood” Vosloo), he was elected National Party Member of Parliament for the Somerset East constituency in 1953, holding the rural seat until 1970. In 1966 he was appointed Deputy Minister of Bantu Development, serving first in the cabinet of Prime Minister Hendrik Verwoerd and then under John Vorster after Verwoerd’s assassination later that year. He held the post until 1970, when he became Administrator of the Cape Province, a position he occupied until 1975. The local provincial Andries Vosloo Hospital is named in his honour.
• John Kepe (c. 1898 – 25 June 1952) was a notorious stock thief and outlaw. Born near Pearston in the Eastern Cape, he lived for over a decade in a cave on the Boschberg mountain, carrying out burglaries, stock theft, and other crimes in the surrounding area while often blending into the local community. After the murder of a farmworker in 1951, he was captured, convicted and hanged in Pretoria. His story later inspired the 2018 film Sew the Winter to My Skin.
• Gavin Watson, (12 July 1948 – 26 August 2019) was a disgraced and corrupted South African businessman. Born near Somerset East, he grew up in a family known for anti-apartheid activism and for defying racial segregation laws. He served as CEO of Bosasa (later African Global Operations) from 2000 until his death. The company secured billions of rands in government contracts and was heavily implicated in state-capture and corruption allegations at the Zondo Commission. Watson died in a car accident near O.R. Tambo International Airport in Johannesburg.
• Lucas Rudman, convicted human trafficker and pedophile

Coat of arms (pre-2000)

Somerset East Coat of Arms

Somerset East established a municipality in 1884. By 1931, the town council had assumed a coat of arms.

The shield is divided horizontally. The upper half depicts a bushbuck on a golden background. The lower half is divided vertically, depicting a swallow on a red background and a sunflower on a black background. The swallow was taken from the arms of Gill College and the sunflower possibly from the badge of a now-defunct local school. The supporters are a goat and a ram.

The crest is a phoenix issuing from a golden crown, and the motto is Foy pour devoir (Faith for duty, or Fidelity unto Duty), both elements similar to that of the Duke of Somerset.

Somerset East was incorporated into a larger municipality (Blue Crane Route) after the 2000 local government reforms, and individual town coats of arms were generally discontinued in favor of modern municipal logos or emblems. The current Blue Crane Route Municipality uses a logo featuring a traditional African shield with blue cranes (the national bird after which the municipality is named), the Bosberg mountain, and streams.

External links

• Tourism information site for Somerset East