The Kimberley area has produced a number of personalities who became legends in their time. Cecil John Rhodes came to the diamond diggings as an 18-year-old and by the age of 38 was already Prime Minister of the Cape Colony and Chairperson of De Beers Consolidated Mines Ltd and Consolidated Goldfields.
Sol Plaatje was the first black South African to publish a novel in English. He also translated the works of Shakespeare into Setswana, served as editor of numerous newspapers and authored documentary books. Plaatje, a founder member of the ANC, died in 1932.
His house in Angel Street is today a museum and a national monument. Kgosi (Chief) Galeshewe was a Tlhaping ‘Kgosi’ (chief) after whom the Kimberley ‘township’ of Galeshewe is named. He was captured in 1878 following the attack on Cornforth Hill near Taung and imprisoned for 12 years. In 1897 he was again imprisoned for his part in the uprising known as the Langeberg Rebellion.
Jan Bloem, born in 1775, succeeded his father as chief of the Springbok Korana and his Khoisan group exploited the trading and raiding opportunities of the late eighteenth century frontier here. A much feared frontiersman, Bloem subsequently allowed the Berlin Missionaries to settle at Pniel in 1845. Bloem died at Pniel in about 1858.
Marie Bocciarelli became the first South African woman to be trained as a pilot. She ‘received her wings’ at the Kimberley Flying School in 1913. Henrietta Stockdale, a member of the Anglican Nursing Order, was the founder of professional nursing in South Africa. She first worked in Kimberley in 1876, returning as Matron of the Carnarvon Hospital in 1879. The first state registration of nurses in the world resulted from her efforts to establish professional standards.
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