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Durban

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Durban

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Durban

History of Durban

Activities

Accommodation

Durban

Durban, with the Zulu name eThekwini – which means “The place where the Earth and Ocean meet”- forms part of the eThekwini Metropolitan Municipality and is the largest city in KwaZulu-Natal. Durban is regarded as the busiest port in Africa and is also a major centre of tourism, due to Durban’s warm subtropical climate and beaches. Being a coastal city, Durban is constantly affected by the warm Mozambique current flowing down its coastline, making surfing one of the primary activities on the many beaches.

This is a sophisticated cosmopolitan city where east meets west – a city beneath which beats the pulse of Africa and a city known as the home of Africa’s best managed, busiest port. From its earliest days, Durban possessed a special charm, a certain mystique that adds ‘something extra’ to the meeting of warm Indian Ocean, radiant golden sands and lush sub-tropical greenery. The creation of Durban Metro beckons visitors to this sublime paradise with yet another bonus – the addition of three invaluable elements to our ever-evolving, ever-widening portfolio of irresistible attractions. From your luxury hotel, self-catering apartment or back-packers’ lodge, all the delights of this ‘mega-city’ are linked by efficient transport services – the same network that connects you with the star attractions a little further afield. There are two World Heritage Sites that waits among the majestic Berg, teeming bush, endless beach and monumental battlefields that lie within your easy reach.

Being a coastal city, Durban is constantly affected by the warm sea current flowing down its coastline. One of the most powerful currents in the world is the Agulhas Current which travels southward down the Mozambique and KwaZulu-Natal shoreline. Surfing is one of the primary activities on the many beaches, where you will find the surf lifesavers with several signs demarcating safe swimming areas. Angling and boating are also very popular activities. Durban is famous for its mild, sunny winter climate and year-round “fun-in-the-water” weather and blessed with an abundance of vegetation and a subtropical climate with sunshine for at least 320 days a year. During the winter months of June till August the temperatures ranges from 16° C and 25° C. During the summer months temperatures can reach up to and above 32° C with relatively high humidity. You can swim in the warm indian ocean all year round along this stunning coastline.

Durban’s Bay has been used for shipping for more than 500 years, after first being thought to actually be a lagoon and not connected to the neighbouring Indian Ocean. The city’s seafaring history can be seen at the Natal Maritime Museum. Durban is a thriving industrial centre, supporting a major natural seaport, and a year round holiday destination. Industries include:

• Shipbuilding and repairing

• Sugar refining

• Petroleum refining

• Fishing

• Automobile assembly and the manufacture of food products

• Paint

• Chemicals

• Fertilizers

• Soap

• Footwear, and

• Textiles

This city has everything, from shopping centres such as The Pavilion, and chain-stores to factory shops and supermarkets, as well as hundreds of small businesses ranging from jewellery stores to coffee shops. If you are looking for something to buy, Durban has it all!

Although much of Durban is characterised by British colonial architecture, the city is actually an exciting mix of cultures. There is a large Indian community, descendants of indentured labourers who came to work on the Natal sugar estates in the 1850’s. They also provide the city with an intoxicating oriental flavour enhanced by their shrines, bazaars and tantalizing curry restaurants. There are also the Zulu people whose proud warrior ancestors inhabited the province before the coming of the European colonial powers. The heritage of the amazulu is very evident in the area north of the Tugela River, known as Zululand. This is where King Shaka once ruled supreme and today is where most of KwaZulu-Natal’s game parks are found.

Durban is the gateway to the rolling hills and plain of the Natal Midlands and their backdrop, the majestic, jagged peaks of the Drakensberg Mountains, which border the province in the west. The Golden Mile developed as a welcoming tourist destination in the 1970’s, is still a popular place to visit but at the end there is the stunning Ushaka Marine Park where you can see Dolphin displays to snorkel through a tropical artificial reef teeming with fish. On the back of the Marine park there is the water park which has an array of water slides and fun water attractions. This is an excellent place to bring the family and fun all round for anyone visiting Durban.

The History of Durban

Carbon dating of rock art found in caves in the Drakensberg suggests that the first known inhabitants of Durban area arrived from the north around 100 000 BC. These people lived in the central plains of KwaZulu-Natal until the expansion of Bantu people from the north during the middle of last millennium.

There is little known of the history of the first residents, because there is no written history of the area until it was sighted by Portuguese explorer Vasco da Gama, who sailed parallel to the KwaZulu-Natal coast at Christmastide in 1497 while searching for a route from Europe to India. He named the area ‘Natal’ or Christmas in Portuguese.

The modern city of Durban dated from 1824, when a party of 25 men under British Lieutenant F.G. Farewell arrived from the Cape Colony and established a settlement on the northern shore of the Bay of Natal, near today’s Farewell Square. Farewell was accompanying by an adventurer named Henry Francis Fynn. Fynn was able to befriend Zulu King Shaka by helping him to recover from a stab wound he suffered in battle. Shaka granted Fynn a ’30-mile strip of coast a hundred miles in depth’ as a token of his gratitude.

During a meeting of 35 European residents in Fynn’s territory, was it decided to build a capital town and name it D’Urban after Sir Benjamin D’Urban, then governor of the Cape Colony.

In the beginning it developed very slowly. There was no support or protection from the British government. Life in this little harbour town was characterized by uncertainty. There were assaults and skirmished by the Zulus. They saw Natal as their tribal homeland and only tolerated the white settlers because the town was of use to them as a trading station.

The Voortrekkers arrived in Natal in 1837A delegation lead by Piet Retief negotiated a contract with Zulu King Dingane granting them the land between Durban and the Tugela River to found a Boer Republic in Natal. Shortly afterwards, Dingane had the entire delegation killed. After several more bloody assaults and attacks, the Voortrekkers defeated the Zulus in the dramatic Battle at the Bloodriver. Subsequently the Afrikaners founded their Republic ‘Natalia’ and laid claim on Durban, which met with strong resistance from the British. They sent troops to Durban, who was defeated in the Battle of Congella in 1842, but the following year the English could secure their dominance in Natal. The Voortrekkers resorted to trekking further north and found a new home in the Orange Free State and the Transvaal. In 1844 Natal was incorporated into the British Cape Colony.

Durban was set to become the most important seaports of the British Empire. Particularly significant was the boom of the sugarcane industry in Natal towards the end of the 19th century. Durban’s seaport became the largest sugar terminal in the world.