Ethekwini

eThekwini lies on a sheltered bay of the Indian Ocean, with the Umgeni River entering the sea to its north. The bay, known to European sailors as Port Natal, offered a harbour on a coast where safe landing places were valuable. Its shores were inhabited long before a permanent European trading settlement appeared.

In 1686 the Dutch ship Stavenisse was wrecked farther down the coast, and survivors reached the bay. A Dutch East India Company vessel later collected them and claimed to have purchased the bay from local leaders, a transaction whose meaning was contested. In 1824 traders including Henry Fynn and Francis Farewell established a post and developed relations with the Zulu king Shaka. They traded in ivory, hides, cattle and grain. In 1835 the settlement was named Durban after the Cape governor Benjamin d'Urban.