Durban, Kwa-Zulu Natal | South African History Online

Durban is South Africa’s third-largest City and one of the fastest-growing urban Areas in the World. It's Port is the busiest in South Africa and also one of the 10 largest in the World. Durban is blessed with humid weather and a warm current in the Ocean, making it the 'perfect holiday paradise!' This was the smallest of the four traditional Provinces, in the South Eastern part, of South Africa. However in 1996, under South Africa’s, new Democratic Constitution the Homelands were dismantled and South Africa consolidated into what is today’s nine Provinces. Thus making the Province of Gauteng the smallest.

The Portuguese navigator Vasco da Gama discovered along the Coast what is now, Durban. This event occurred on Christmas Day, in 1497. (This was why the Area was named:'Terra Natalis', which is the Portuguese word for Christmas.) The British settlement at Port Natal grew rapidly because in 1835, Captain A.F. Gardiner secured a treaty with Dingane. This treaty ceded the Southern half of Natal to the British. This apparently, empty interior was only entered into by the Voortrekkers,in October 1837. (This was name given to the Afrikaners, who had left the British-ruled, Cape Colony)

The Local 'Rickshaws' on Durban Beachfront Image Source

The Heritage of Durban continued into the 1700's when

The Beachfront is bordered by holiday accommodation and 5 Star Hotels and luxury apartments, all of which have an idyllic view of the Indian Ocean. Watersports such as surfing, bodyboarding, sailing and scuba diving are obvious, given Durban's proximity to the warm Indian Ocean. Rugby, soccer and cricket are also very popular with Durban boasting a World class Stadium, for all major sports. It is the promise of gorgeous stretches of golden sands, separated by artificial piers, sub-tropical sunshine and the warm waters of the Indian Ocean, together with the reputation as a surfer’s haven that draws thousands of people Year upon Year. Add to this the array and fusion of international-class, ultra-modern and colonial-style accommodation that lines Durban’s beachfront. Most of this beautiful part of the World was once a Coastal Dune Forest System and there are still parts of it preserved in the Mangrove Swamps, and the Umgeni Bird Park, bears testimony to the number of birds attracted to the Area.

Much of Durban’s big business has moved out to more modern business complexes and what was once Umhlanga Rocks Village, with a sprinkling of Cottages, Hotels and Guest Houses is today; a thriving Suburb and the playground of young and old who come here for the pristine Beaches, Hotels and sophisticated Shopping Malls. The Umhlanga Lagoon Nature Reserve, with the surviving Stone Age sea shell discovered at its lagoon mouth, provides a number of stunning trails and coastal forest boardwalks and the unique 'Hawaan' Forest and its coastal Wetlands, Grasslands and dune Forest is a beautiful place to visit!

The Heritage of Durban continued after Colonists came into contact with Bantu-speaking Chiefdoms, some 800 km East of Cape Town. A Century of intermittent warfare ensued during which the Colonists gained ascendancy over the isiXhosa-speaking chiefdoms. In 1795, the British occupied the Cape as a strategic base against the French, controlling the sea route to the East.

In the 1820s, the celebrated Zulu leader- Shaka, established sway over a vast area of South-East Africa. As splinter Zulu groups conquered and absorbed communities in their path, the region experienced a fundamental disruption. Substantial states, such as Moshoeshoe’s Lesotho and other Sotho-Tswana chiefdoms were established.

This temporary disruption of life on the Highveld served to facilitate the expansion Northwards of the original Dutch settlers’ descendants- the Boer Voortrekkers, from the 1830's.

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