Amanzimtoti, KwaZulu-Natal
Encyclopedia
Description and facilities
Amanzimtoti is renowned for its warm weather and its beaches. It is a popular tourist destination, particularly with surfers, and the annual sardine runSardine run
The sardine run of southern Africa occurs from May through July when billions of sardines – or more specifically the Southern African pilchard Sardinops sagax – spawn in the cool waters of the Agulhas Bank and move northward along the east coast of South Africa...
attracts many to the beaches. Many South Africans flock here during school holidays and on long weekends. Its location on the N2
N2 (South Africa)
The N2 is a National Route in South Africa; it is the main highway along the Indian Ocean coast of the country. The N2 starts in Cape Town in the Western Cape and runs through the cities of Port Elizabeth and East London in the Eastern Cape and Durban in KwaZulu-Natal to end at Ermelo in...
national highway, approximately 11 km from Durban International Airport
Durban International Airport
Durban International Airport was the international airport of Durban from 1951 until 2010, when it was replaced by King Shaka International Airport, to the north. The airport is co-located with AFB Durban.-History:...
made it a convenient destination, however the Airport closed on 1 May 2010 as the new King Shaka International Airport
King Shaka International Airport
King Shaka International Airport, also known as La Mercy Airport and abbreviated as KSIA, is the primary airport serving Durban, South Africa. Located at La Mercy, approximately north of the city centre of Durban, it opened its doors to passengers on May 1, 2010, just over a month before the...
opened to the north of Durban.
There are well established sports facilities in Amanzimtoti, situated at Hutchison park. Included is a tennis-, squash-, cricket-, rugby-, soccer-, cycling- and bowls club.
Amanzimtoti has several malls, arcades and a water park. Arbour Crossing, a major new shopping development, opened on November 20, 2008, with a Pick 'n Pay Hypermarket being the key tenant. The Galleria, a second development nearby, opened on 26 November 2009, with 198 shops including a bowling alley, a skating rink, an 11-screen Nu Metro cinema (including a 3D cinema) and key tenants; Checkers Hyper, Edgars, Game and Woolworths.
History
Legend holds that King ShakaShaka
Shaka kaSenzangakhona , also known as Shaka Zulu , was the most influential leader of the Zulu Kingdom....
named Amanzimtoti after drinking water from a river or stream in the area whilst on a raid down the south coast of what is now known as KwaZulu-Natal. This is thought to have taken place towards the end of his reign which lasted from 1816 to 1828. It is said that Shaka stopped to rest in the area, and had his personal attendant collect water from a nearby stream. This water was presented to King Shaka in a calabash
Calabash
Lagenaria siceraria , bottle gourd, opo squash or long melon is a vine grown for its fruit, which can either be harvested young and used as a vegetable, or harvested mature, dried, and used as a bottle, utensil, or pipe. For this reason, the calabash is widely known as the bottle gourd...
. After Drinking the water he exclaimed "Kanti amanz'amtoti"(isiZulu: "So, the water is sweet"). An extension of the legend was that King Shaka had sat under a large wild fig tree
Ficus
Ficus is a genus of about 850 species of woody trees, shrubs, vines, epiphytes, and hemiepiphyte in the family Moraceae. Collectively known as fig trees or figs, they are native throughout the tropics with a few species extending into the semi-warm temperate zone. The Common Fig Ficus is a genus of...
to drink the water, or that he used to meet local indunas (chiefs) under a specific fig tree. The exact tree is unknown; one tree claimed to have been this tree fell down in March 1972, and another fell down in June 1981.
Dick King passed through the Amanzimtoti area on his way to Grahamstown
Grahamstown
Grahamstown is a city in the Eastern Cape Province of the Republic of South Africa and is the seat of the Makana municipality. The population of greater Grahamstown, as of 2003, was 124,758. The population of the surrounding areas, including the actual city was 41,799 of which 77.4% were black,...
in 1842 in order to request help for the besieged British garrison at Port Natal (now the Old Fort, Durban
Durban
Durban is the largest city in the South African province of KwaZulu-Natal and the third largest city in South Africa. It forms part of the eThekwini metropolitan municipality. Durban is famous for being the busiest port in South Africa. It is also seen as one of the major centres of tourism...
). The route that Dick King took through Amanzimtoti later became a road and was named Kingsway.
In 1847 Dr Newton Adams moved from Umlazi
Umlazi
Umlazi is a township on the east coast of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. The wider Umlazi area has a population of 750,000. The township is located south-west of Durban....
(where he had established a mission station
Mission Station
Mission Station is the eastern terminus station on the West Coast Express commuter rail line connecting Vancouver to Mission, British Columbia, Canada. The station is located on the north side of the Canadian Pacific Railway tracks in Mission on North Railway Avenue. The station opened in 1995,...
in 1836) to Amanzimtoti and started a new mission station. Dr Adams died in 1851, and the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions
American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions
The American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions was the first American Christian foreign mission agency. It was proposed in 1810 by recent graduates of Williams College and officially chartered in 1812. In 1961 it merged with other societies to form the United Church Board for World...
sent Rev. Rood to Amanzimtoti in 1853 with the express object of opening up a school. Adams Mission Church was built inland of Amanzimtoti in 1852, and Adams College was built in 1853. The college was first named "Amanzimtoti Institute" and was later renamed after Dr. Adams in the 1930s.
There is discrepancy as to which was the first house in the Amanzimtoti area, with one reference claiming a house on the south side of the Amanzimtoti River as the oldest house and another claiming a house to the north of the river as the oldest. The "first house" in Amanzimtoti was owned by Howard Wright, and known as Klein Frystaat ("Little Free State"), and was situated "on the north side of the back of the old Anglican Church" on Adams Road. The house was demolished in 1984. However, the "best guess" for the first house built in Amanzimtoti is 1895, and it may have been on the "headland" south of Amanzimtoti Lagoon.
A photograph of a rowing boat on the Amanzimtoti River taken in 1889, shows the banks of the river vegetated with Phragmites australis, Phoenix reclinata
Phoenix reclinata
Phoenix reclinata or Senegal Date Palm is a species of flowering plant in the palm family native to tropical Africa, Madagascar, and the Comoro Islands. The plants are found from sea level to 3000 m, in rain forest clearings, monsoonal forests and rocky mountainsides.-Description:P...
and coastal bush. However a later traveler in 1911 claims to have been the first person to take a camera up the river, but also describes "reed-covered isles", "overhanging trees" and his photographs show Phoenix reclinata growing on the banks.
The railway line from Durban to Isipingo was extended to Park Rynie from 1896, and the first train passed through Amanzimtoti in 1897. This train left Durban on 22 February at 07h55 and consisted of a Dubs-type Engine with two goods trucks, two passenger trucks and a brake-van. There was a tin shanty siding at Amanzimtoti in 1897 which served as a station. The route from the Amanzimtoti train station to Adams Mission was named Adams Road. The first hotel in Amanzimtoti was built in 1898 to cater for holiday makers, some of whom came from as far afield as Johannesburg
Johannesburg
Johannesburg also known as Jozi, Jo'burg or Egoli, is the largest city in South Africa, by population. Johannesburg is the provincial capital of Gauteng, the wealthiest province in South Africa, having the largest economy of any metropolitan region in Sub-Saharan Africa...
on specially organised trains. The first hotel was built of wood and iron, and burnt down in May 1899. Amanzimtoti had its first station master in 1902.
In 1902, Mrs K. Swafton visited Amanzimtoti and reported that the area had 1 hotel, (3 or) 4 houses and 12 huts on the lagoon (clustered on the shore between the lagoon and Chain Rocks). The huts where made of wood and iron or motor car packing cases and served as holiday bungalows, and two of the houses had been built by the Department of Native Affairs for resident officers. The 5th house in Amanzimtoti was built on the corner of Adams Road and Ross Street in 1908 by the Reinbach family, who were from Cape Town
Cape Town
Cape Town is the second-most populous city in South Africa, and the provincial capital and primate city of the Western Cape. As the seat of the National Parliament, it is also the legislative capital of the country. It forms part of the City of Cape Town metropolitan municipality...
.
The Kynoch factory for the manufacture of explosives was built in Arklow
Arklow
Arklow , also known as Inbhear Dé from the Avonmore river's older name Abhainn Dé, is a historic town located in County Wicklow on the east coast of Ireland. Founded by the Vikings in the ninth century, Arklow was the site of one of the bloodiest battles of the 1798 rebellion...
, Ireland
Ireland
Ireland is an island to the northwest of continental Europe. It is the third-largest island in Europe and the twentieth-largest island on Earth...
in 1895. Mr Arthur Chaimberlain of Kynochs visited South Africa in 1907 (1908) to find a place to start another factory. 1,400 acres of land were bought at Umbogintwini, and on 24 October 1907, a group of Irishmen (23 workers and their families) from Arklow sailed from Southampton
Southampton
Southampton is the largest city in the county of Hampshire on the south coast of England, and is situated south-west of London and north-west of Portsmouth. Southampton is a major port and the closest city to the New Forest...
to be factory hands at the new Kynoch's factory in Umbogintwini. These people lived in Amanzimtoti and Isipingo before the village of Umbogintwini took shape. One of these "Irishmen" (Harry Purves) was in fact originally from Durban, where he was born to Scottish
Scotland
Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...
immigrants.
In 1910 Toti had "a dozen families" (according to Bill Bailey), and the Toti Hotel had 50 rooms. In 1911 Toti was an hours ride from Durban by train, and a photograph shows a boat race being held on the Lagoon. The Amanzimtoti River was navigable for 3.5 miles by rowing boat.
In the 1920s there was a steam train (the Port Shepstone Express) that passed through the town once a day, to and from Durban. At around this time there was a Zulu kraal
Kraal
Kraal is an Afrikaans and Dutch word for an enclosure for cattle or other livestock, located within an African settlement or village surrounded by a palisade, mud wall, or other fencing, roughly circular in form.In the Dutch language a kraal is a term derived from the Portuguese word , cognate...
where the original Amanzimtoti Primary School was later built. One of the bathing areas in the sea for holiday makers was a gully with rocks sheltering on either side. A bungalow
Bungalow
A bungalow is a type of house, with varying meanings across the world. Common features to many of these definitions include being detached, low-rise , and the use of verandahs...
was built near this site in the early 1920s by Mrs Miller (nee Reinbach) and her husband Douglas Miller, and a tea room existed there in 1923. The two Reinbach brothers and a Mr Grainger were often called upon to rescue bathers, and it was decided to use the gully, and place suspended chains across it, to provide a safe area for bathers. The chains were put up sometime before 1926, and this place was then called Chain Rocks. Paul Henwood May moved to Amanzimtoti in 1922, and built several colonial style homes (made from wood, with an iron roof and a front verandah
Verandah
A veranda or verandah is a roofed opened gallery or porch. It is also described as an open pillared gallery, generally roofed, built around a central structure...
).
Many people moved to Amanzimtoti during the Great Depression
Great Depression
The Great Depression was a severe worldwide economic depression in the decade preceding World War II. The timing of the Great Depression varied across nations, but in most countries it started in about 1929 and lasted until the late 1930s or early 1940s...
, because the cost of living was cheaper than in the cities. Amanzimtoti was granted local administration in 1934, with a population of 774. One of the "highlights" of the 1930s was the arrival of Gracie Fields
Gracie Fields
Dame Gracie Fields, DBE , was an English-born, later Italian-based actress, singer and comedienne and star of both cinema and music hall.-Early life:...
, a popular singer at the time. Electricity was introduced to the town in 1938; being voted in by a small majority after Alan Allen campaigned on the benefits of electricity. Telephone lines were installed in 1945, and the manually operated telephone exchange was located at the railway station. Running water was introduced in 1949 by the first mayor of Amanzimtoti, Mr Olaf Bjorseth. Before the introduction of running water, residents used to collect rain water from the roofs of their houses. The first petrol pump in the town was owned and operated by Mr and Mrs Silverstone, who also ran a store called "The Silverstones". The first post office was situated on the railway station, next door to Mrs Morton's Tea Room. Mrs North was the first post-mistress. The post office and telephone exchange were moved to the Telephone Exchange building in Bjorseth Cresent in the late 1940s/ early 1950s.
Amanzimtoti offered refuge to many Middle Eastern and British
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
evacuees during the Second World War, many of whom were housed in holiday cottages and private homes. When first a school was started at Toti Town Hall, Dr Frickle paid for two teacher's salaries out of money he made at his clinic selling "No 9s" (red pills "from the army"), which he purportedly prescribed "for everything". Miss Burns (who ran the Guides) held the first Arbour Day in Natal
Natal Province
Natal, meaning "Christmas" in Portuguese, was a province of South Africa from 1910 until 1994. Its capital was Pietermaritzburg. The Natal Province included the bantustan of KwaZulu...
, and along with 16 Guides, planted 60 Erythrina lysistemon
Erythrina lysistemon
Erythrina lysistemon is a species of deciduous tree in the pea family, Fabaceae, that is native to South Africa. Common names include Common Coral Tree, Lucky Bean Tree, Kaffir Boom, Transvaal Kafferboom, Umsintsi , Muvhale , Mophete , Kanniedood , Mokhungwane and Umsinsi...
trees along Beach Road. These trees "blazed red" when in flower and were known as the "glory of Beach Road" - and for this reason, the Coral Tree is included in the Crest of Amanzimtoti. These trees were however cut down in the 1950s when Beach Road was widened and tarred. The first newspapers to be produced in the town were attributed to Ivor Language, and the first issue of The Observer was printed in July 1955. Before this, newspapers had been brought in by train from Durban. From 1957 to 1959, The Observer was replaced by a commercial weekly newspaper, the South Coast Courier. The Observer was again replaced, this time by the South Coast SUN, which was started in 1970 by Archie and Jenny Taylor. Toti's largest building, then known as Sanlam Centre, was constructed during 1972/1973. It consisted of a shopping complex and a 25-storey block of flats, which can accommodate 1,500 people.
Amanzimtoti made the international news when on December 23, 1985, during the peak of the Christmas shopping season, MK
Umkhonto we Sizwe
Umkhonto we Sizwe , translated "Spear of the Nation," was the armed wing of the African National Congress which fought against the South African apartheid government. MK launched its first guerrilla attacks against government installations on 16 December 1961...
cadre Andrew Sibusiso Zondo detonated a bomb in a rubbish bin at the Sanlam shopping centre in an act of anti-Apartheid terrorism. Five people (two women and three children) were killed in the blast and more than forty were injured.
Wildlife
Amanzimtoti is home to a wide variety of wildlife, including Cape Clawless Otters, Blue DuikerBlue Duiker
Blue Duiker is a small forest dwelling duiker found in the Central Africa and southern South Africa.Blue Duikers stand around 35 centimetres tall at the shoulder and weigh 4 kilograms.They are the smallest of the antelope family. Blue Duikers have a brown coat with a slight blue tinge – hence...
and Spotted Ground-thrush
Spotted Ground-thrush
The Spotted Ground-thrush is a species of bird in the Turdidae family.It is found in Democratic Republic of the Congo, Kenya, Malawi, South Africa, Sudan, Tanzania, and possibly Mozambique.-Description:...
. Vervet Monkey
Vervet Monkey
The vervet monkey , or simply vervet, is an Old World monkey of the family Cercopithecidae native to Africa. The term "vervet" is also used to refer to all the members of the genus Chlorocebus....
s are common and can be seen throughout the suburban parts of the town and in the nature reserves.
Most of the wildlife can be found along the Amanzimtoti River
Amanzimtoti River
Amanzimtoti River, , is a short river in the KwaZulu-Natal province of South Africa, that originates northwest of Adams Mission, and flows through the town of Amanzimtoti, South Africa. The N2 crosses the river just before its mouth at the Indian Ocean...
or in the coastal dune vegetation. A nature reserve
Nature reserve
A nature reserve is a protected area of importance for wildlife, flora, fauna or features of geological or other special interest, which is reserved and managed for conservation and to provide special opportunities for study or research...
was established along the banks of the river in 1965 called Ilanda Wilds
Ilanda Wilds
Ilanda Wilds is a nature reserve situated along Amanzimtoti River in the town of Amanzimtoti, KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. This small area of land contains various habitat types, ranging from steep rocky slopes to various riverine habitats, forest and small patches of grassland..- History :A...
. There is also a 'bird park' called Umdoni Bird Sanctuary
Umdoni Bird Sanctuary
Umdoni Bird Sanctuary is situated in Amanzimtoti, Durban, South Africa. The Sanctuary is often simply referred to as 'The Bird Park' by locals or as Amanzimtoti Bird Sanctuary. The area is roughly 4ha of land including a dam on a tributary of the Amanzimtoti River...
along one of the tributaries of the Amanzimtoti River. Other nature reserves and green areas include; Umbogavango, Vumbuka, and the Pipeline Coastal Park
Pipeline Coastal Park
The Pipeline Coastal Park is an area of coastal vegetation in Amanzimtoti, Durban, South Africa. It is an elongated strip of land bordering the Indian Ocean. Plants found here include the Mimusops caffra, Strelitzia nicolai and Brachylaena discolor....
.