Durban

Demography

Durban counts more than 1.100.000 inhabitants within a metropolis of almost 4 million inhabitants is 68% of blacks, 19% of Indians and 8% of white.

The majority of the inhabitants are of native tongue Zoulou, followed by minrotiés of language English E, Afrikaans and Hindi.

History

The December 25th 1497, the Portuguese navigator Vasco de Gama accosted in a natural port on the African coast at the edge of the Indian Ocean. It named this coast “native” and the natural port “Rio De Natal” renamed later Port-Native .

In 1823, Henery Fynn, a British merchant, obtains from the king Zoulou Shaka the authorization to establish a permanent commercial establishment with Native Port.

In 1835, Native Port is renamed Durban in the honor of the governor of the Colonie of the Cape, Sir Benjamin d' Urban.

The area was definitively annexed to the Colonie of the Cape in 1844.

At the end of the years 1800, the port of Durban experienced a considerable economic development making of this city the true economic capital of the Native one. Thousands of Indians and the Asian ones unloaded in Durban starting from 1855 to come to work in the fields of Canne to sugar.

This Indian population was fixed at Durban.

Anglophone, liberal, Indian city and Zulu during all the 20th century, the city eclipsed all its rivals of sub-Saharan Africa to very become the largest port of the sub-continent as well as a tourist destination appraisal of the inhabitants of the Transvaal.

In the Nineties, Durban supplants Wraps-Town like second plus big city of South Africa of many inhabitants behind Johannesburg.

In 2001, the city accommodates the world summit discussed on racism.

Municipality of eThekwini

Since 2000, the town of Durban is integrated in the Municipalité post- Apartheid of eThekwini, at the side of the cities, Township S and localities of Adams Mission, Amanzimtoti, Assagay, Berea, Botha' S Hill, Cato Ridge, Chatsworth, Clansthal, Clermont, Dsainagar, Drummond, Elangeni, Gillits-Emberton, Gologodo, Hillcrest, It, Inanda, Inchanga, Isipingo Beach, Kingsburgh, Kloof, KwaDabeka, KwaMakhutha, KwaMashu, KwaNdengezi, Lucia, Mercy, Magabeni, Maidstone, Monteseel, Mpumalanga, Naidooville, New Germany, Newtown, Ntuzuma, Ottawa, Phoenix, Pinetown, Queensburgh, Roseneath, The Bluff, Tongaat, Umbogintwini, Umbumbulu, Umdloti Beach, Umgababa, Umhlanga, Umkomaas, Umlazi, Verulam, Waterfall, Westbrook, Westville, Winklespruit and Winston Park.

In March 2006, the ANC gained 59% of the votes of the residents of the municipality of eThekwini against 17% with the democratic Alliance, 11% with the Inkatha Freedom Party and 6% in Minority Front.

Industry

Durban is the greatest harbor center of the Indian Ocean and the largest wearing of import and export of South Africa. In 2004, its port had thus treated 1,6 million Conteneur S EVP. Located in an area where are cultivated large fields of Canne to sugar, Durban is thus the largest sugar port in the world.

It is also a famous industrial town for its sugar refineries, its textile industry and its manufacturing planies of paintings, soap and canning facilities.

Tourism

If the city suffers from a very strong criminality which exploded in the Nineties, Durban remains the center of a balneal and tourist area which is stretched on 500 km of coasts.

The principal tourist sites of the city are:

Waterfront (Golden delicious Mile), walk skirting the sea on more than one kilometer, broadside of hotels, restaurants and amusement parks,
the aquarium and delphinarium,
uShaka Marine World,
the town hall (1910) copied from that of Belfast, in which is located the " Durban Museum" devoted to the natural history of Native (of which a complete skeleton of dodo) and country Zulu,
the Room History Museum, located in the old court (1866), devoted to the history of Native,
colonial statues of Francis Farewell Square (of which that of the Queen Victoria,
the post office (1885),
the clock Da Gama, on Victoria Embankment, offered by the Portuguese government in 1877 in remembering Vasco de Gama,
the Juma mosque, one of the largest mosques of the southern hemisphere,
the Emmanuel cathedral (1904),
Salisbury House (1925),
Britannia Hotel (1877),
Old station (1892),
Old House Museum (1849),
the Elephant House (1850),
the statue of Dick King on its mounting Somerset,
the botanical gardens, open in 1849, count among most beautiful of the world.
Old Fort (1842), whose museum is devoted to the history of the state of Natalia and the colonial wars of the Native one.
the beach of South Beach with its pontoon of fishing and its bathing huts, broadside of shops and cinemas.

At one hour of road in north the capital of the province is, the charming town of Pietermaritzburg, accessible by a panoramic road offering from the points of view on the Zulu hills and villages.

Durban is the point of required passage for the beaches and the coastal towns. To the North-East of the city, the coastal Autoroute N2 leads thus to Umhlanga Rocks, one of the seaside resorts smartest of the country, then to Stanger where is located it fall from king Shaka, and to the Zoulouland after the bridge crossing the river Tugela. Eshowe and Shakaland (reconstitution of a Zulu village) is thus of other accessible tourist destinations since Durban.

To 27 km in the south of Durban, on the coast of the Indian Ocean, the Seaside resort of Amanzimtoti is located. The southern part strewn with lagoons, natural parks and Zulu villages crosses Port Shepstone and the area protected from the Oribi throat to the coast of Hibiscus, famous for its seaside resorts and its falls of impressive water, and Port Edward at the border of the province of the Cape-Eastern (to 170 km).

Service road

The town of Durban is served by the international airport of Durban (ex- Louis Botha Airport).

Toponymy

In 2005, the municipality of eThekwini decided to Africanize the town of Durban and éradiquer its past colonial or been dependant on the Apartheid. It had initially decided to make withdraw public places all the statues related to the white history. It partly reconsidered this decision while deciding to set up a statue of Zulu king Dinizulu beside that existing of the general Louis Botha. In the same way, it decided to preserve the statue of the Queen Victoria in front of the town hall and to set up at its sides that of another Zulu king.

In 2007, the process is started again, not without polemics in all the cities of the municipalities whereas the Inkhata opposition and that of democratic Alliance show the persons in charge of the municipality to propose only names of militants or sympathizers of the ANC. May 1st, 2007, more than 10.000 people ravel in the streets of Durban to protest against the absence of consultation of the inhabitants.

A hundred buildings and streets were or are being renamed since March 2007:

M4 southern freeway (direction airport): Albert Luthuli
St Andrews Street: Diakonia Which occurred
NMR Which occurred: Masabalala Yengwa
Alice Street: Johannes Nkosi
Grey/Broad Street : Yusuf Daddoo
Stanger Street : Stalwart Simelane
Commercial Road: Bram Fischer
M4 northern freeway (Umhlanga direction): Ruth First
Victoria Embarkment: Dr. Margaret Mncadi
Not Road: Mahatma Gandhi
Rockdale Avenue (Westville): Nhlakanipho Ndebele Avenue.
Pinetown Civic Centers: Josiah Gumede
Town hall: Madiba Building
General headquarter of the police force: Umkhonto Wesizwe Building.
Station of the firemen: Njengabantu Sithole building
Stage of Westridge: Tap Tap Makhathini
Jan Smuts Highway (Dawncliffe): King Cetshwayo Highway and Denis Hurley Highway
Queen Street: Denis Hurley Highway
Phoenix Highway: Mahatma Gandhi Highway
Smith Str. : Anton Lembede Street
Edwin Swales Drive : Solomon Mahlangu drive
Dick King AV or Kingsway Road: Andrew Zondo AV.
Kensington Drive : Fidel Castro drive
Moore Road: Che Guevara road
Higginson Highway: Govan Mbeki Highway
Broadway Drive: SWAPO Drive
Umhlanga Drive Rock'n'rolls: King Shaka Drive
West Street : Dr. Pixley KaSeme Street

Twinnings

Archbishop's palace

Archdiocese of Durban
Saint-Emmanuel Cathedral of Durban

Random links: