Cradock - Olive Schreiner House

The house once occupied by Olive Schreiner now contains a small museum commemorating the well known South African writer, born in Wittebergen (now in Lesotho) in 1855, the daughter of a German Methodist missionary. At the age of 15 she became a governess in a Boer family on the fringes of the Karoo. From 1881 to 1889 she lived in England, where her "Story of an African Farm" was published. Throughout her life she was concerned in her novels and short stories with the problems of her country and rebelled against Victorian racism and imperialism. As a result of her political opposition to Cecil Rhodes she was interned during the Boer War. Olive Schreiner died in Cradock in 1920 and was buried in Buffelkop, to the south of the town.