Why is it called the Swartland?
The 'black land' got its name from a shrub, not from the soil.
Swartland means 'black land'. Visitors often assume the name refers to dark soil, but the story is different.
Early Dutch settlers, in the time of Jan van Riebeeck, saw the plains north of Cape Town covered in renosterbos, a native shrub. After the winter rains, the renosterbos turns dark, and from a distance the landscape looked almost black. They called it Het Zwarte Land: the black land.
Much of that renosterveld was later turned into farmland. For most of the twentieth century, the Swartland was South Africa's breadbasket, known above all for wheat. Today wheat still covers much of the land, alongside vineyards and olive groves.
The landscape is a gently rolling plain with a few isolated mountains rising from it, such as the Paardeberg, the Kasteelberg and the Piketberg. The Riebeek Valley lies at the foot of the Kasteelberg, sheltered and fertile.
Look out for patches of renosterbos when you walk or drive in the area. You are looking at the plant that gave the whole region its name.
