I am standing in God’s country. While I know that I have used that powerful phrase before to describe the gorgeous landscape that surrounds Durban, this time I am being more literal, for the bright green field from which I am staring up at the blue heavens is part of the Marianhill Monastery.Less than a … Read more
Contents 1 History of St Wendolin’s: 1914-1945 1.1 First World War 1914-1918 1.2 Spanish Influenza Epidemic 1918-1919 1.3 Cultural Conflict 1.4 Peoples Bank and Agricultural Show 1.5 Land Act 1913 and Freehold Titles 1.6 Storm of October, 1939 1.7 Education 1928-1961 1.8 Priests at St. Wendolin’s Church 1.9 Second World War 1939-1945 1.10 References History of St Wendolin’s: … Read more
KZN, uMngeni to uMkhomazi was once settled by amaThuli clan. In approximately 1770 the Amathuli people fled from further north and settled in the land between the Umgeni and Umkomazi Rivers. During the reign of Shaka, a headman Tusika Myeba, was recorded as occupying a homestead called kwaGwabalanda, on the site of present day Pinetown. Between 1818-1820 … Read more
Contents 1 Founding of Mariannhill Monastry 2 Mariannhill School 3 Chief Manzini’s Land Request 4 St Wendolin’s – First Outstation- 1895 5 Mariannhill Christian Villages 6 Settler Opposition to Mariannhill Villages 7 St Wendolin’s Church 1896 8 Tenant Contracts 9 Religious Missionaries of Mariannhill 10 References Founding of Mariannhill Monastry Father Francis Pfanner, an Austrian … Read more
The Victoria street market in Durban is a rich historical site that reflects the struggles of a poor community striving for their own identity and a burning need to make ends to meet to survive in new pasture market currently stands strong in the central business district of Durban, and is an epic in the … Read more
There’s something inevitably foolish about reducing hundreds of years of history to a few pages. For one thing, the texture of history evaporates without the countless individuals whose lives have been played out on its sweeping canvas. For another, in a multicultural society such as Durban, many important contributing strands are bound to fall by … Read more