DURBAN, SOUTH AFRICA
MARCH 28, 2014
An explorer found the natural
harbor at Durban on Christmas Day 1497 but it wasn’t settled until 25 British
people came from the Cape much later to colonize it.
A classic melting pot city,
Durban was home of the famous Zulu king Shaka Zulu. He brought together many
tribes to form the large Zulu nation of 55 million. Then the Dutch formed a
colony here but it eventually fell into British hands. They turned it into a
busy port town, the center of the country’s sugar cane trade, and they brought
tens of thousands of laborers from India to work here. Today, a city of nearly
3,500,000, Durban has the
largest Indian population of any city outside of India.
On tour, we went from the port
through Durban, the second largest industrial city in South Africa, about sixty
miles north to Zulu land. The land in
the mountains was claimed by the Zulus.
We were invited into a round, domed thatched roof house that was built as
a community house. Stones were placed around the edge along the inside and
woven mats were put on the stones to sit on.
Men were told to sit on one side and the women on the other side. The
chief sat in the middle smoking his pipe while our Zulu guide told us about
Zulu life. The men could marry as many women as they wanted but they had to pay
her parents 11 cows first. Her mother sold one cow to pay for the wedding which
went on for days. The woman made the
house for them to live in. If the man
saved up for another bride and paid another 11 cows that wife made a new house
and the man lived with whichever one he wanted.
We were then taken to a smaller
house and a Zulu woman showed us how she made the meal using stone implements
to grind the corn and prepare the meal.
It looked like a hard life. Then
the group of young men and women in tradition dress danced their native dances
for over an hour.
Our next stop is Cape Town,
South Africa.
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Zulu Dancers
Zulu Dancers
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