Abstract
ABSTRACTThis paper aims to deepen our understanding of the social and historic dimension of the Wesleyan Mission Station, Plaatberg, located in the Free State province of South Africa. It argues that the footprint of the mission station, exposed during an archaeological study of this landscape, lays bare the individual, as well as the general Methodist philosophy and political ideals. By placing acts of enclosure at the centre of the study it forefronts the missionary mind-set, and the desire to emulate a European social landscape. The paper also reflects on how, within the context of the broader imperial campaign, the Methodists’ ideal becomes a fleeting reality, but also how the mirage of a colonial town and country rapidly dissolved as the British withdrew from the Orange River Sovereignty. Finally, the paper considers the role of the boundary walls in the landscape, the region’s shifting political borders and the less tangible boundaries of prejudice that conferred obligations, responsibilities and expectations on the people who lived at Plaatberg.
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