|
| |
HISTORY OF NATAL AND THE CITY OF DURBAN
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
During the 1600s, the Nguni tribes who emigrated from the north-west were drawn to the plentiful game, clear rivers and rich soil of Zululand. What began as a peaceful pastoral existence was overwhelmed by power struggles from which the might of the Zulu nation
emerged.
Life was precarious as the boundaries of the Zulu kingdom lay fewer than 60 miles north and the Zulus regarded Natal as their raiding ground. A Zulu garrison named
'uKangel ama Nkengana' (to watch the vagabonds) was established nearby and on 17 April 1838 war broke out in which 16 traders and 600 of their African followers died in a clash with the Zulus. The rest either fled Durban or took refuge on an islet in the harbor (Salisbury Island) where the Zulus who had no boats could not follow them. |
|
|
|
In 1823, on behalf of the English Cape traders, when they learnt about the new Zulu nation, James King and Francis Farewell sailed up the coast from Cape Town, in their ship Salisbury, to find a suitable place to establish a trading post. They found a very suitable bay, "Natal Bay", on the way back, after a storm blew them over the sandbank into the bay.
The next year, 1824, Francis Farewell and Henry Flynn returned to establish the trading post. After making contact with the feared Shaka, he gave them 9000 hectares of ground around the bay, from where ivory, hides and skins were exported to the Cape. Dingaan, Shaka's successor, raided the trading post in 1831, but peace returned soon after the raid and more settlers arrived at the
post. |
|
In June 1835, it was decided to establish a town, named D'Urban, after the governor of the Cape, Sir Benjamin D'Urban. The isolation of the town was relieved when the Voortrekkers, under leadership of Piet Retief, started to arrive in 1837. When Piet Retief and his group were murdered by Dingaan on the 6th of February 1838 and D'Urban was attacked soon after the murder, the settlers retreated to the safety of Salisbury Island.
After the Battle of Blood River on the 16th December 1838, when the Zulus were defeated by the Voortrekkers, peace was restored, the first streets were built and D'Urban was changed to Durban. |
|
The Voortrekkers established the Republic of Natalia in 1838 at Pietermaritzburg, which by 1840 included two more districts, Port Natal and Weenen. The British in the Cape were unhappy about the events and sent a expeditionary force under leadership of captain Thomas Smith in 1842 to get the area back under British control. The Voortrekkers besieged the troops in the Fort after their arrival, known today as the Old Fort on Old Fort Street in Durban. |
|
|
|
Dick King made his epic journey to Grahams Town on the 25th of May 1842, for help to end the siege. The Voortrekkers ended the siege on the 26th of June 1842, as they did not want a war with Britain and many returned over the Drakensberg to the Free State after Pietermaritzburg decided to be under British control. Natal was made a separate independent area and Martin West was promoted as the first governor of Natal. |
| From its romantic beginning Durban grew to become a municipality in 1854 a city in 1935. Today it is the principal port on the African continent, a center of industry and a major holiday resort. Durban is the home for a diverse cosmopolitan population of Asians, Africans and Europeans whose different histories and cultures have woven a richly colored mosaic giving Durban its unique character. It is a bustling sub-tropical city with a warm, sometimes sultry and hot climate, with abundant trees and luxurious gardens.
In 1893 a young Indian lawyer arrived in Durban to take part in a lawsuit in the Transvaal. He booked a first class train ticket to Johannesburg -and was ordered off the train because of his color. He spent a cold night in the non-European waiting room at Pietermartizburg's railway station. |
 |
| The lawyer's name was Mahatma Gandhi. His experience made him decide to stay in Natal and help the growing community of Indians who were brought in to Natal to work on the sugar plantations; He stayed for 21 years and it was here that he formulated that his famous doctrine of resistance. |
|
