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Durban
KNOWLEDGE OF Durban
The KwaZulu-Natal region has been inhabited since the Stone Age. Remnants of Rock Art are readily found in caves throughout the Drakensberg Mountain range, where the Khoi-San people lived as hunter-gatherers for thousands of years. These same people were still living in the Natal Midlands when the much darker skinned, 'Bantu' African tribes moved from the north sometime during the last millennium.
Vasco de Gama, the Portuguese explorer, while discovering the passage from Europe to India, landed along this coast on Christmas day 1497 and, as a result, called the area 'Natal'. His sailors fished off of the coast of modern day Durban. Slowly, trade developed along the coast, particularly for ivory, and marooned mariners built temporary shelters around present day Durban.
The Bantu tribes went through bloody periods during the 18th and 19th Centuries. Inter-tribal wars were common and the Zulu's, under King Shaka (Chaka), became the dominant tribal force. They remain the largest ethnic group in the province.
The modern city of Durban dates from 1824, when a party of 25 men, under British Lieutenant F. G. Farewell, arrived from the British Colony in the Cape and established themselves on the northern shore of the Bay of Natal, in what is now Farewell Square. The previous year, Lieutenant Farewell had taken shelter there during a violent storm, and had built a small settlement. With Farewell was the adventurer Henry Fynn. Fynn befriended the Zulu King, Shaka (claiming, falsely, to be an envoy of King George), and having helped him to recover from a stab wound received in battle. In thanks, Shaka granted Fynn some prime land, a "25-mile strip of coast, a hundred miles in depth" (over 9,000sqkm). Fynn styled himself 'King of Natal' and took numerous Zulu wives, producing many children by them. On the 23rd June 1835, at a meeting of the 35 white residents in this ‘kingdom’, it was decided to build a town and name it D'Urban after Sir Benjamin D'Urban, then Governor of the Cape.
In 1838 'Voortrekkers' (whites of continental descent trekking from the Cape colony to escape British rule, now known as ‘Afrikaners’) established the Republic of Natalia, just north of Durban, establishing a capital at Pietermaritzburg. Fierce conflict with the Zulus led to the famous ‘Battle of Blood River’. The conflict spilled over into the Durban area and the city had to be evacuated. Finally, under military pressure, the Afrikaners accepted British annexation in 1844. As a result, many Afrikaners left Durban, heading north and helped to establish the Orange Free State and Transvaal. In Durban, a British governor was appointed and settlers came in significant numbers to the area. The municipality of Durban was set up in 1854. You can see the British influence, evident in all of the older buildings around the city, particularly in Farewell Square.
Vasco de Gama, the Portuguese explorer, while discovering the passage from Europe to India, landed along this coast on Christmas day 1497 and, as a result, called the area 'Natal'. His sailors fished off of the coast of modern day Durban. Slowly, trade developed along the coast, particularly for ivory, and marooned mariners built temporary shelters around present day Durban.
The Bantu tribes went through bloody periods during the 18th and 19th Centuries. Inter-tribal wars were common and the Zulu's, under King Shaka (Chaka), became the dominant tribal force. They remain the largest ethnic group in the province.
The modern city of Durban dates from 1824, when a party of 25 men, under British Lieutenant F. G. Farewell, arrived from the British Colony in the Cape and established themselves on the northern shore of the Bay of Natal, in what is now Farewell Square. The previous year, Lieutenant Farewell had taken shelter there during a violent storm, and had built a small settlement. With Farewell was the adventurer Henry Fynn. Fynn befriended the Zulu King, Shaka (claiming, falsely, to be an envoy of King George), and having helped him to recover from a stab wound received in battle. In thanks, Shaka granted Fynn some prime land, a "25-mile strip of coast, a hundred miles in depth" (over 9,000sqkm). Fynn styled himself 'King of Natal' and took numerous Zulu wives, producing many children by them. On the 23rd June 1835, at a meeting of the 35 white residents in this ‘kingdom’, it was decided to build a town and name it D'Urban after Sir Benjamin D'Urban, then Governor of the Cape.
In 1838 'Voortrekkers' (whites of continental descent trekking from the Cape colony to escape British rule, now known as ‘Afrikaners’) established the Republic of Natalia, just north of Durban, establishing a capital at Pietermaritzburg. Fierce conflict with the Zulus led to the famous ‘Battle of Blood River’. The conflict spilled over into the Durban area and the city had to be evacuated. Finally, under military pressure, the Afrikaners accepted British annexation in 1844. As a result, many Afrikaners left Durban, heading north and helped to establish the Orange Free State and Transvaal. In Durban, a British governor was appointed and settlers came in significant numbers to the area. The municipality of Durban was set up in 1854. You can see the British influence, evident in all of the older buildings around the city, particularly in Farewell Square.
Chapi