[WeTour] How Johannesburg was founded out of the world's largest gold deposit - Face2Face Africa Face2Face Africa Skip to navigation (n) Skip to content (c) Skip to footer (f) Recent info News History Culture Entertainment Lifestyle Women The Black Agenda Videos Sections Money Moves Tech & Innovation Diaspora Connect We Tour Fashion Finds Art Attack Africa Quiz Foodie Friday Meet the Nigerian business leader who applied to be monarch’s footman Abu Mubarik Former Chicago Public Schools Dean Accused of Sexually Abusing Female Student and Pretending to be Her Stepfather to get Abortions Francis Akhalbey Teacher’s aide accused of choking and injuring 5-year-old student Francis Akhalbey See all Africa’s Oldest Safari Lodge Where Queen Elizabeth Accepted to be Queen of England Stephen Nartey Coins used by African nations before colonialism and post-independence Stephen Nartey How the Mourning of a Nigerian King Birthed the Traditional Yoruba Opera Stephen Nartey See all Early Humans in South Africa’s Wonderwerk Cave Used Fire to Roast Meat a Million Years Ago Stephen Nartey Dambe: the Nigeria traditional boxing where hands are used as spears and shields Stephen Nartey Asafo flags: How the Fante of West Africa used its flags to export cultural identity Stephen Nartey See all Rihanna helps clean restaurant after dining Francis Akhalbey Chadwick Boseman wins his first Emmy Francis Akhalbey From the streets of South Africa to global dance floors: evolution of Amapiano Emmanuel Kwarteng See all Do you know that many Americans are opting for virtual dating because of rising inflation? 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She is currently an Amplify Africa Fellow and member of the Global Shapers Accra Hub. You can find her on Instagram at @boakyeb This Haitian explorer and entrepreneur is the founder and father of Chicago How the King of Buganda massacred 45 Ugandan Christian martyrs in 1886 10 timeless quotes that pay homage to black beauty The story behind the only African country formed by merger of two states Bookmark Facebook Twitter Reddit LinkedIn Pinterest WhatsApp Email Comment Johannesburg, affectionately called Joburg and Jozi by residents is the largest city in South Africa and one of the 50 largest urban areas in the world. Visitors who go to South Africa often flock to Johannesburg for its impeccable eateries, glossy high rises, and delicious wine. However, few know of the town’s history which lent to its other nickname, eGoli (“City of Gold”). Historical records show that the area surrounding Johannesburg was originally inhabited by the San people, the indigenous hunter-gatherer people of South Africa. During the 13th century, groups of Bantu-speaking people from central Africa started moving into the area, encroaching on the indigenous San population. By the mid-18th century, the broader region was settled by a branch of Bantu-speakers known as th Sotho–Tswana communities. The Sotho–Tswana were farmers and miners who smelted metals available in the area. It is believed that the group was exploiting the area for its mineral wealth before the arrival of Europeans or the discovery of gold. Related stories We Tour [WeTour] San Basilio de Palenque, the first free town in the Americas founded by runaway slaves Bridget Boakye We Tour [WeTour] Goree Island, the largest slave trading center in Africa bent on never forgetting its past Bridget Boakye We Tour [WeTour] The sand dunes of Sossusvlei, the world’s highest found in Namibia Bridget Boakye We Tour #WeTour: The little-known underground houses in Matmata, Tunisia Bridget Boakye Historian Revil Mason found many late Iron Age archaeological sites throughout the Johannesburg area from the 12th century and 18th century, many containing the ruins of Sotho–Tswana mines and iron smelting furnaces. Melville Koppies, the most prominent gold site within Johannesburg, contains an iron smelting furnace. DRD Gold retreats old gold mine dumps like this one just south of downtown Johannesburg, South Africa. A movie drive-in theatre – the screen can still be seen in this photo – built on top of the heap was a popular attraction for Joburgers in the 1970s. (Source: mining.com) But Johannesburg did not become the city we know it today until the Gold Rush of the 1880s. In June 1884, Jan Gerritse Bantjeson discovered the main Witwatersrand gold reef on the farm Vogelstruisfontein. The discovery of gold rapidly attracted people to the area, making it necessary for it to have a name and governmental organisation. This gave rise to Johannesburg in 1886, the name coming from popular Dutch names Johann and Johannes. Within ten years, the city of Johannesburg grew to 100,000 people. Johannesburg continues to support the industry. In fact, the world’s deepest mine, Mponeng, lies right outside of the city. Source: The Money Project According to National Geographic, Nearly 40 percent of all gold mined during recorded history has come in the past 120 years from “the Rand”—the Witwatersrand Basin in South Africa. Scientists estimate roughly one-third of the world’s gold resources still lie unmined in the nine million acres of this ancient lake or sea bed, whose name means “ridge of white waters” in Afrikaans. The discovery of gold, unfortunately, helped fuel the city’s dark apartheid past as well. Until 1994, Johannesburg was a white only city. A separate city Soweto, originally an acronym for “South-Western Townships”, originated as settlements on the outskirts of Johannesburg in the late 1970s and was populated by mostly native Africans who worked low minimum wage jobs in the gold mining industry. Soweto was eventually incorporated into Johannesburg at the end of apartheid. For tourists looking to discover the city’s golden past, the southern part of Johannesburg is dotted with “slag heaps” — odd yellow hills revealing the history of mines past. Some of them are good for sandboarding. 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