The Orange River Convention (sometimes also called the Bloemfontein Convention) was a convention whereby Great Britain formally recognised the independence of the Boers in the area between the Orange and Vaal rivers, which had previously been known as the Orange River Sovereignty. This resulted in the formation of the independent Boer Republic of the Orange Free State (OFS).
The convention was signed on 23 February 1854 at the Green Lodge in Bloemfontein.
The convention did not state what the boundaries between the Basotho kingdom and the OFS were to be; this omission was the cause of much conflict in later years.
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—Unknown. The Old Orange Flute (l. 8)
“I cannot tell how many times we had to walk on account of falls or rapids. We were expecting all the while that the river would take a final leap and get to smooth water, but there was no improvement this forenoon.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
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—Martha Nussbaum (b. 1947)