Ixopo is a town situated on a tributary of the Mkhomazi River in the midlands of KwaZulu-Natal, and forms part of an important sugar farming, and forestry area.
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."
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Ixopo was formerly known as Stuartstown, 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.
