Richmond is easy to miss, but if you do visit, it’s hard to leave

Twins Ian and Hennie Smit had worked as builders on the Cape Flats in Cape Town throughout their adult lives. Putting in hours upon hours of manual labour each day, they always contended with the ever-quickening pace of the city.

The two brothers, who were inseparable, decided that they would retire at 50, after which they would travel all over South Africa to look for a quieter place to settle.

One night, they slept over in the small town of Richmond in the Northern Cape. The next morning, they said to each other: “This is the place.” And a year later, they moved to Richmond, which lies in the province’s central Karoo region.

That was eight years ago. Today, Ian runs multiple businesses in Richmond, including an antique shop that is the information hub of the town. “Richmond is the town you almost missed,” says Ian.

He is right. Richmond is almost hidden away, easy to overlook while driving past on the N1. “If you turned down here, there is something you had to do here,” says Ian.

“If you’re lucky enough not to miss it, you always come back.”

Book town

Entering Richmond, it’s easy to think you have entered a ghost town. Parts of the town even look abandoned. However, stay a little longer and you will realise that quiet does not mean dead.

Culturally, the town is more alive than ever. There are multiple buildings to which the term “bookshop” doesn’t do justice – their rooms are filled from floor to ceiling with books, some more than a century old.

One of them is the Karoo Bookshop, which Hennie opened with his wife Rezia.

A great appreciation of books is not surprising for the African continent’s only registered book town. Every year, during the last weekend of October, Richmond hosts a popular book festival. “Next year will be the 20th edition of the Boekbedonnerd Book Festival,” says John Donaldson, who owns one of the bookshops.

Adding more character is the work of the nonprofit organisation Modern Art Projects South Africa, which has decorated Richmond with pieces of art and poems etched on walls all over town.

But what really makes Richmond special is the people. As people often stop over in the town while travelling, the locals are incredibly accepting of outsiders.

Chloe Wales moved to Richmond from Delft, Cape Town, in 2019 after becoming pregnant. She says the community accepted her immediately. “It’s better here. There’s no crime, there’s no gangsterism. It’s very quiet and it’s peaceful,” she says.

Despite having no family in Richmond besides her twin children, Wales says there is nothing she misses about Cape Town.

Social cohesion

Richmond locals are divided over the level of social cohesion in the town. Spatially, it is still divided by race, with the town centre being mostly white and separate townships for black and coloured people, a legacy of apartheid.

“There’s not a high level of integration here because there isn’t really the infrastructure for that,” says Donaldson. “There’s no place for people to mix.”

However, Valentino Williams, an artist, says he has not experienced any racial discrimination here.

But Williams and Donaldson both admit to a level of tension, or “friction”, between the black and coloured communities.

Hennie Smit passed away in January. His death affected the family greatly. For Ian, who had been with his brother from the cradle to the grave, the loss was particularly devastating.

“That was terrible for us,” says Ian. “I mean, if you’ve got a twin brother and every day of your life you were together, but ­suddenly…”

Ian found solace in one of the friends he had made in Richmond, who would sit and pray with him for an hour every day. “That’s Richmond. I think the other way to spell Richmond is love. Unconditional love. Everybody for everybody.”

Walking into Ian's antique shop, you are likely to find his cat Artemis on the counter watching over the store. Artemis was rescued from a tree across the road about six months ago.

“Artemis was as wild as you can get,” says Ian. But the moment the cat was in his hand, he says, “Artemis just went calm”.

Artemis was Ian’s "samboksalf", his ointment or soothing salve, after he lost Hennie. Artemis has become one of the biggest attractions of the shop. Ian says people will come in just to say hello to the cat and then leave again.

The entire town is very animal-focused, in fact. Maksie, Ian’s wife, runs Richmond Animal Welfare, which recently spayed 90 dogs in a single day.

Runners-up

Vosburg, which lost to Richmond by a hair’s breadth, is a small town that looks to be straight out of the 20th century. The town has very few shops, one of which, Die Hoekwinkel, works on IOUs: people will take what they need and agree to pay later.

And they always do.

Fraserburg, about a two-and-a-half-hour drive from Vosburg, is surrounded by farms and has a night sky unmarred by light pollution. The farmers are some of the friendliest people you’ll ever meet.

Also filled with friendly faces is Springbok, which boasts a beautiful flower season that turns even its cemetery into a beautiful garden. Situated in a valley between two hills, the town “looks like it’s been lost to the rest of the world”, says Marthinus Stander, who is a regular visitor to the area.

Finally, Middelpos, the halfway point between Sutherland and Calvinia, is the smallest town of the bunch, with only about 300 residents, according to SA Venues. However, those who live here speak of the calmness of the town and the authentic Karoo food, particularly the lamb. DM

This story first appeared in our weekly DM168 newspaper, available countrywide for R35.