Culture and history info

The area around the bay was once covered with mangroves and inhabited by pelicans, flamingos and hippos. The earliest inhabitants were members of the Lala tribe who fished in the estuary, and hunted and grew crops in the fertile tropical forests along the coast. The first Europeans to land here were Portuguese explorers en route to the east. On 25 December 1497, Vasco da Gama sighted land and called it Natal, though this was probably off the coast of present-day Eastern Cape. The Portuguese cartographer Manuel Perestrello mapped the coast of Natal in 1576, but it was nearly 200 years after the earliest European sighting that the first trading ships arrived. In 1684 the Francis began a new era when she sailed to Natal to buy ivory.

After the relative success of the first trading expedition, the Dutch East India Company planned to open a trading post here (after buying land off Chief Inyangesi for 1000 guilders worth of beads, copper rings and iron). But after a few technical hitches involving the estuary's sandbars, trade was never really developed and in 1730 the Dutch established an alternative trading station at Delagoa Bay.

The first British traders arrived in 1823 on the Salisbury, spurred on by news of Shaka, the powerful chief of the Zulus and his Empire. Lieutenant Francis and George Farewell arrived in the Bay of Natal and were blown over the sandbars in a storm. They returned in May 1824, with Henry Francis Fynn and a group of other adventurers, and set up their first camp in what is now known as Farewell Square. Henry Fynn was the first European trader to make contact with Shaka. Fynn and the other adventurers claimed (falsely) to be envoys of King George and were well received. Fynn became a favorite of the royal household after he helped Shaka recover from a stab wound sustained during a battle. In thanks Shaka granted Fynn a huge tract of land, over 9000 sq km.

Fynn and his young colleague Nathaniel Issacs ran this area as their own personal fiefdom, taking many Zulu wives and fathering dozens of children. Fynn declared himself King of Natal and wielded power in the same brutal manner as his infamous neighbor, Shaka. Even though Fynn and his men broke many Zulu laws, including the prohibition on all but the king from trading in ivory, they were treated with great respect by Shaka.

The area remained undeveloped, however, with just a few dozen European settlers, and the British refused to annex the region. It was not until the establishment of the Voortrekker republic of Natalia in 1838 that the British felt their interests to be under threat. The capital of Natalia was in Pietermaritzburg, but settlements had also been established at Weenen and Durban, giving the Voortrekkers access to the sea. The possibility of a viable independent Voortrekker republic wasn't acceptable to the Cape Colony and an expeditionary force was sent from the Cape in 1842. Although they were besieged by the Voortrekkers on their arrival, by June of that year the parliament in Pietermaritzburg had accepted British rule. The Cape Colony annexed Natal in 1844, and the security given by becoming part of the Cape Colony encouraged many new settlers in search of land to come to Durban.

The development of the sugarcane industry in the 1860s encouraged the growth of Durban as a port and gave the city one of its most unique characteristics. Initially the sugarcane industry suffered from a lack of cheap labor, so the planters imported a large number of indentured laborers from India, who lived in conditions not dissimilar to slavery. After working off their five-year indenture contracts some returned home, but a number remained in Natal. Many continued farming and eventually came to dominate the local fruit and vegetable market. Others established small businesses and gradually built up important trade connections with India. These ex-indentured laborers were joined by a number of more affluent traders, mainly from Gujarat, who arrived direct from India to set up a business.

With the development of the Golden Mile in the 1970s, Durban was promoted as a seaside resort for white holidaymakers, particularly for families from Gauteng. During apartheid, the extensive beach was split according to color - black people were permitted to walk the length of the whole beach but, on the whites-only Addington Beach, they were not allowed to sit down or go into the sea. The late 1980s, however, saw a huge influx of workers from Zululand, transforming the fabric of the city. With the end of Apartheid came another influx: that of black holidaymakers, which gave the city the tag of 'Soweto-on-Sea' - a phrase used by both whites and blacks. However, divisions still remain: far fewer white people holiday in Durban, while the city center has taken on a distinctly African feel.