Free State is located in the east center of South Africa(1) and holds 129 thousand square kilometers. Most of the state is in the high veldt between the Vaal River, along the northwest, and the Orange(2) River, along the south. The very east is along the Drakensberg, which top 2,000 meters, as do another piece of the nation's peripheral highlands, the Witterberg, in Free State's southeast, and the Roosiberge, which connects the ranges.
The Vaal's left bank tributaries include the Klip, forming part of the province's northeast border; the Liebenbergsvlei, in the north; the Vals; the Vet; and the Riet with its tributary, the Modder.
The Orange's chief local tributary is the Caledon(3), which forms much of the border with Lesotho. Where the Orange and Caledon join is the large reservoir, Gariep Dam.
Free State has 2.7 million residents (2004). Almost 11 in 20 speak Souther Sotho(4); more than one in ten, Afrikaans; less than that, Xhosa(5); about one in 20, Zulu(6); and more than that, Tswana(7). The majority are Protestant Christian, with may of them following churches that encourage adhering to ways that originate in the indiginous religions. A minority follow these exclusively, with attention to the importance of ancestral spirits and local healers.
Bloemfontein(8), is the capital of Free State and has a population just short of half a million. It is located on the high veldt south of the Modder River, and is the judicial capital of the nation. It is called the City of Roses, partly for the bushes around the main square. The tallest building is the three-winged, 27 story, Loch Logan Park, a residential building.
Before the Bantu arrived there were speakers of two language groups, Southern Bushman(9) and Khwe(10). The Khwe's numbers diminished due to smallpox in the 18th century, and they ceased to have any speakers in the 20th.
The Bantu speakers arrived late, perhaps only in the last 500 years. The Tswana-Sotho speakers migrated southwestward from the Limpopo and mingled with and assimulated the local Zulu, who had moved in from the southeast, influencing the Sotho language fundamentally.
Afrikaaners, descendents of the Dutch, spread into the province in the 18th and 19th centuries, introducing Christianity, which was furthered by many foreign missionaries, and by local leaders.
northeast
east
south
west
northwest
(1) Afrika in Afrikaans.
(2) Oranje in Afrikaans.
(3) Called the Mohokare in Lesotho.
(4) Also called Sesotho or just Sotho.
(5) Also called Isixhosa.
(6) Also called Isizulu.
(7) Also called Setswana.
(8) Mangaug, or place of big cats (cheetahs or leopards), in Southern Sotho. Bloemfontein means flower garden in Afrikaans.
(9) Or Southern San.
(10) Or Khoe or Hottentot or Central Khoisan.