Emmarentia

Emmarentia (which usually encompases Emmarentia Ridge and Emmarentia Ext. 1) is a suburb of Johannesburg, South Africa.

History

The Emmarentia lies on land that once made up the Braamfontein Farm, one of many large farms that make what is Johannesburg and its suburbs. The land was bought in 1886 by Lourens Geldenhuys for its mining rights as it was hoped that the Confidence Reef would extend into his farm but it did not. Land remained as a farm and by 1891 it was divided, along what is now Orange Road, between his son's Frans and Louw where the brothers had already built two farm houses. Frans' farmhouse still exists as the clubhouse at the Marks Park Sports Club and Louw's which exists close by at 14 Greenhill Road.

After the Second Boer War, in which Louw Geldenhuys and his brother had taken part of as members of the Krugersdorp Commando, he decided to help some landless and unemployed Boers war veterans. He used them to construct a stone and earth dam from blocks of stone from the Melville Koppies behind the farm and cost £12,000. The dam was built over the Westdene spruit which is a tributary of the larger Braamfontein Spruit. The dam was then named after his wife Emmarentia Botha. A hundred of these workers were then settled in 14 irrigated smallholdings on 145 morgens of the farm in what are now the suburbs of Emmarentia, Linden and Greenside where they grew fruits and vegetables with rent based on a third of the profits of the sale of the produce.

The Dogs

The Dogs were a 1990s hip-hop group consisting of Disco Rick, Keith Bell, Labrant Dennis, and Fergus "Cracked Up" Smith, best known for "Crack Rock," their hit single with the chant "Yo' Mama's on Crack Rock!" The group released three studio albums The Dogs in 1990, Beware of The Dogs in 1991 and K-9 Bass in 1992.

The group officially disbanded in 1996 when Labrant Dennis was arrested for the murder of his ex-girlfriend, Timwanika Lumpkins, and her lover Marlin Barnes, a linebacker for the University of Miami football team. Dennis was convicted of the double-murders in 1998, and sentenced to death in 1999. Dennis remains on death row.

Discography

References

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