Adelaide is a town in the Eastern Cape Province of South Africa, situated at the intersection of the R63 Provincial Route and R344 Regional Route.
Adelaide lies on the banks of the Koonap River and at the foothills of the Great Winterberg mountain range, 25 km east of Bedford and 39 km north-west of KwaMaqoma (formerly Fort Beaufort) on the R63 road.
Adelaide falls within the Raymond Mhlaba Local Municipality and the Amathole District Municipality.
Lingelethu is the largest Black African township in Adelaide, with a population share of 77% of the municipal area. The Coloureds reside in the Bezuidenhoutville township, 3 km from the central town, and represent 19% of Adelaide’s population.
Adelaide is an important centre for wool and sheep farming. Beef, mutton, venison, and citrus fruit are also important products. The specialised abattoir for venison (farm-hunted game meat) operating in the central town provides much-needed employment to the residents.
History
Before European arrival
The first recorded settlement of the modern-day area of Adelaide was during the late 18th and 19th centuries, when white farmers (known as trekboers) settled here and started productive farming. Before that time, there may have been some dispersed groups of Bushmen, however they left no written records.
Colonial Adelaide
Adelaide’s origins date back to 1835, when a British officer named Captain Alexander Boswell Armstrong (1787–1862) established a military encampment which he named Fort Adelaide after Queen Adelaide. Despite the earlier English settlers, who were part of the 1820 Settlers, later on, a large number of both Scottish and Afrikaans people soon immigrated here too. The Scots were also the first to erect a church in the local area.
