Trakamma

Trakamma was a Khoekhoe name for the river later called the Olifants, which flows north through the western Cape towards the Atlantic. At its meeting with the Jan Dissels River lies a settlement once known as Jan Disselsvlei. In 1808 a deputy magistrate was stationed there to administer the distant district. The settlement was renamed Clanwilliam in 1814, after the father-in-law of the Cape governor John Cradock. The river valley provided a route through the mountains and a source of water in the dry country beyond.