One of the oldest towns in the country is celebrating its existence. Enon in the Eastern Cape is two-hundred years old.
The town formerly known as Witterivier was formed in 1818 by the Moravian Missionary Society. And it served as a safe place for the Xhosa, Tembu and Fingo tribes living outside the Cape Colony.
The town is home to 1500 residents. Most of the families have lived on the land for generations.
Enon is a hidden gem in the mountainous area, some 13 kilometres east of Kirkwood. The land was granted to the Missionary Society to be administrated on behalf of the Cape Colony.
The town is named after a place in the bible.
79-year-old Tobias Goeda recalls living in the secluded town as a boy.
“There wasn’t water, there wasn’t electricity either. We had to carry water out of the nearby river. I remember playing under the moonlight because we had no lights, that’s how we grew up. We grew up wild and we had the basics. I remember a story about the first coloured learner who attended the missionary school. Before him there were only whites who went to school. We also had church services at school, back then in my days it was important.”
Within the first 35 years of the town’s inception, it was caught in the middle of three Cape Frontier Wars and the First Anglo-Boer War.
The local church also has an abundant historic lineage. Pastor Frans Daniels, the resident priest – still practices the simple method of ringing the church bell for the community to attend not only church, but also get important messages.
The history of colonialism is still evident.
“When they came here in 1800’s the place was very lustrous full of rains and the elephant were roaming tigers were roaming and all these animals that we are accustomed to in the Addo park and when they selected the property they were given permission to occupy the land and bought a plot and this is where we are today,” said Pastor Daniel.
Pastor Daniels deserves the status of a heritage site.
“There were seven frontier wars that were fought eight which the church withstood and at the time it was during war so they evacuated everybody from here and lost them in Uitenhage and eventually they came back so the place had great history as it had the invading Xhosas from the other side but also protected the white farmers but it had the dual purpose as a buffer and a peace maker.”
With such an old town also come a lot of service delivery issues. The town does not have the basic amendments. The community is calling for change.
“I love Enon. I grew up here and lived here for many years, but the community needs services. Our problem is with the roads. The roads are bad and have holes in them,” said resident, Rosemarie Crouws.
The youth are also calling for government to create more opportunities. Even after 200 years, the community in Enon have learned to live with what they have and believe that it’s okay to be happy with a simple life.
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