Ixopo

Ixopo is a town situated on a tributary of the Mkhomazi River in the midlands of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa and forms part of an important sugar farming and forestry area. It was founded in 1878. Its name is derived from the isiZulu onomatopoeia, eXobo, describing the sound made as cattle squelch through mud. Ixopo is best described by Alan Paton in 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 ..."

In the 1990s leading up to and after South Africa became democratic, Ixopo was the centre of a number of armed clashes between two political parties, the African National Congress and the Inkatha Freedom Party.