KwaZulu-Natal

(kwäzo͞o`lo͞o-nätäl`), province (2011 pop. 10,267,300), 36,433 sq mi (94,361 sq km), E South Africa, on the Indian Ocean. Formerly Natal province, in the post-apartheid constitution of 1994 it was renamed KwaZulu-Natal. The province is bounded on the north by Mpumalanga, Eswatini (formerly Swaziland), and Mozambique, on the south by Eastern Cape, and on the west by Lesotho and Free State.

Land and People

The capital is PietermaritzburgPietermaritzburg
, city, part and seat of Msunduzi local municipality and capital of KwaZulu-Natal prov., E South Africa, in the foothills of the Drakensberg Range. The city is an administrative and industrial center.
..... Click the link for more information. and the largest city is DurbanDurban
, city, now part and seat of eThekwini metropolitan municipality, KwaZulu-Natal prov., E South Africa, on Natal Bay, an arm of the Indian Ocean. Durban is an industrial center, a major seaport, and a year-round resort.
..... Click the link for more information. . Betwen 1994 and 2004 Pietermaritzburg and UlundiUlundi
[Zulu,=the high place], town, part and seat of Ulundi local municipality (2011 pop. 187,271), KwaZulu-Natal prov., SE South Africa. Situated on a hill overlooking the White Mfolozi River, the town possesses a modern administrative complex that is among the largest in the
..... Click the link for more information. alternated as the capital. The province rises from a narrow (except in the north) coastal belt to an inland region fringed in the west by the Drakensberg Range, whose highest point in the province is c.11,200 ft (3,410 m). The Tugela River flows west to east across the center of the province.

Sugar-cane plantations along the Indian Ocean coastal belt are a mainstay of the economy. Citrus fruits, corn, sorghum, cotton, bananas, and pineapples are also grown, and sheep and cattle are raised. Industries, located mainly in and around Durban, include (besides sugar refineries) textile, clothing, rubber, fertilizer, paper, and food-processing plants, tanneries, and oil refineries. There are large aluminum-smelting plants at Richards Bay, on the central coast. The province produces considerable coal, timber, and tea. It has a good rail network; Durban is one of South Africa's major ports. The main institution of higher education is the Univ. of KwaZulu-Natal (at Durban, Westville, Pinetown, and Pietermaritzburg). Royal Natal National Park in the Drakensberg Range includes falls (c.2,800 ft/850 m) of the Tugela River. The main languages are Zulu, English, and Afrikaans.

History

In the early 19th cent. the area was inhabited primarily by Bantu-speaking Zulu people (see ZululandZululand
, historic region and home of the Zulus, c.10,000 sq mi (25,900 sq km), NE KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. Zululand is bordered by the Indian Ocean on the east, by Mozambique on the north, and by Eswatini (formerly Swaziland) on the west.
..... Click the link for more information. ). In the 1820s and 30s the British acquired much of Natal from the Zulu chiefs ShakaShaka
, d. 1828, paramount chief (1818–28) of the Zulus. He organized an army of some 40,000, and after reducing many enemy peoples to vassalage, he subjugated all of what is now KwaZulu-Natal. Shaka was murdered by his half-brother, Dingane. His name is also spelled Chaka.
..... Click the link for more information. and Dingane. Afrikaner farmers (BoersBoer
[Du.,=farmer], inhabitant of South Africa of Dutch or French Huguenot descent. Boers are also known as Afrikaners. They first settled (1652) near the Cape of Good Hope in what was formerly Cape Province.
..... Click the link for more information. ) arrived (see Trek, GreatTrek, Great
, the journey by Afrikaner farmers (Boers) who left the Cape Colony to escape British domination and eventually founded Natal, Transvaal, and the Orange Free State. Trek is an Afrikaans term, originally meaning a journey by ox wagon.
..... Click the link for more information. ) in 1837 and, after battles with the Zulu (notably the Boer victory over Dingane at Blood River in 1838), established (1838–39) a republic. In 1843, Britain annexed Natal to Cape Colony, and a Boer exodus followed. In 1856, Natal became a separate colony. Sugarcane cultivation began c.1860, and many Indians (mostly indentured laborers) came to work in the sugar industry. Many Indians remained in Natal after their indenture expired; by 1900 they outnumbered whites. In 1893, Natal was given internal self-government; in 1910 it became a founding province of the Union (now Republic) of South Africa.

In 1970 South Africa's apartheid government established a Zulu "homeland," or bantustanbantustan,
in 20th-century South African history, territory that was set aside under apartheid for black South Africans and slated for eventual independence. Ten bantustans (later generally referred to as homelands), covering 14% of the country's land, were created from the
..... Click the link for more information. , from a number of isolated enclaves within Natal. It was initially known as Zululand but soon called KwaZulu, and was given nominal self-government in 1977; Ulundi was the capital from 1980. During apartheid, a large percentage of the province's black population was forced to live in KwaZulu, which had a subsistence economy based on cattle raising and corn growing. In the 1980s and 90s, the black townships of Natal were wracked by conflict between the African National CongressAfrican National Congress
(ANC), the oldest black (now multiracial) political organization in South Africa; founded in 1912. Prominent in its opposition to apartheid, the organization began as a nonviolent civil-rights group.
..... Click the link for more information. and the Zulu-nationalist Inkatha Freedom Party, under the leadership of Chief Mangosuthu ButheleziButhelezi, Mangosuthu Gatsha
(Ashpenaz Nathan Mangosuthu Gatsha Buthelezi) , 1928–, South African political leader. A Zulu chief, he served as chief minister of the bantustan KwaZulu (1970–94, initially as head of the Zululand Territorial Authority; see Zululand) but
..... Click the link for more information. , which dominated the KwaZulu government; fighting diminished in the late 1990s. Under the post-apartheid constitution, KwaZulu was joined with the rest of Natal to form KwaZulu-Natal.

KwaZulu-Natal

KwaZulu-Natal

KwaZulu-Natal

KwaZulu-Natal

Land and People

History

KwaZulu-Natal

Synonyms for KwaZulu-Natal

noun a region of eastern South Africa on the Indian Ocean

Synonyms

Related Words