Ixopo
Ixopo Prince Khizar is a town situated on a tributary of the Mkhomazi River along the R56 highway in the midlands of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa and forms part of an important sugar farming, and forestry area.Background
Ixopo was formerly known as Stuartstown, was laid out in 1878 and named after M Stuart, Resident Magistrate of the Ixopo district, who was killed at the Battle of Ingogo in 1881. Its name is derived from the Zulu onomatopoeic word, eXobo, describing the sound made as cattle squelch through mud. The 'x', in Zulu, is pronounced as a lateral click).
Ixopo is most famously described by Alan Paton in the opening lines of Cry, The Beloved Country: "There is a lovely road which runs from Ixopo into the hills. These hills are grass covered and rolling, and they are lovely beyond any singing of it."
The town houses two schools including a high school with a large proportion of boarding pupils who live in surrounding villages which are too small to justify the erection and staffing of a high school.
In the 1990s, before South Africa became completely democratic, Ixopo was the centre of a number of armed clashes between two political parties, the African National Congress and the Inkatha Freedom Party.
The Buddhist Retreat Centre, one of South Africa's major Buddhist centres is in Ixopo.
Until the mid-1980s, Ixopo was served by a railway station on the narrow gauge Umzinto - Donnybrook narrow gauge railway.Notable people
