History of Newcastle
Newcastle KZN is a rich history from the 18th century to date. Join us on a wonderful journey in time of one of South Africa’s best and fastest growing city.
THE BUSHMAN ERA
Africa is as old as the Dinosaurs but one certain historical fact about Northern KwaZulu-Natal’s ancient past is that during the 18th century, the only inhabitants were the bushmen, the amaZizi and the amaHlubi. The bushmen were skilled hunters who also lived off roots and plants. The amaZizi and amaHlubi were pastoralists: they knew how to cultivate millet and melons and also understood the art of iron smelting. The little yellow men in their rocky caves and black men neighbours in their beehive huts on the plains below, led a tranquil existence for some hundred years.
THE SHAKA ERA
During the 16th and 17th Centuries the warlike Nguni people migrated south. From one of these groups came the amaZulu, descendants of a young man ironically called Zulu (heaven) by his mother. By 1818, several clans had established themselves in the area and led by Dingiswayo and Shaka a series of savage civil wars broke ending only when Shaka had established himself as leader of all the Zulu. But this still did not bring peace as the Zulu nation extending their power and raiding all the neighbouring tribes bringing about a period known as the Mafakeng or turmoil, creating chaos and devestation across the Midlands and Northern KwaZulu-Natal into Lesotho and the land now known as the Free State.
ARRIVAL OF THE EUROPEANS
During the 1500 and 1600 the Dutch settlers arrived in the Cape while the Portuguese pushed into Africa from their settlements on the East and West coasts. By the early 1800s large numbers of European settlers, tired of the Napoleonic wars and the religious upheavals in Europe, were arriving in Southern Africa. Britain took control of the Dutch holdings in the Cape creating much dissatisfaction amongst the primarily Dutch settlers who started to migrate Northwards to get beyond British control and establish Republics of their own.
One such group led by Piet Retief had heard of the beautiful lands of Natal from hunters and traders operating out of the small trading post of Port Natal. These Voortrekkers crossed over the Drakensberg mountains and sought to settle in Natal with tragic consequences. Retief and some 80 of his men who went to the Zulu King Dingaan to seek permission to settle were brutally murdered and their families set upon by the Zulu. Matters finally came to a head on the 16th December 1838 when the Zulu army attacked a Voortrekker Commando on the banks of the Ncome River with disastrous results. The Zulu Army was decimated and the water in the river ran red with their blood Dingaan was forced to flee and his half brother Mpande was enthroned by the Trekkers. Peace for a short time came to Natal but only until the British decided to extend their sovereignty over the new territory bringing about clashes between themselves and the Trekkers many of whom moved back over the Drakensberg.
ESTABLISHMENT OF NEWCASTLE
During the years 1849-1851 some 5000 odd British settlers arrived in the colony settling the Buffalo Border region and up into Northern Natal. The Colony was suddenly transformed. Permanent structures were built, land was fenced off and wagon roads were carved out. With roads came the Post Chaise and regular stops sprang up to service the travellers. One such stop was Post Halt II on the banks of the Ncandu River. In 1854 a Dr Sutherland, who was to become the Surveyor General of the Colony, found himself and his new wife, trapped by the swollen river. So for the next two weeks he spent his time setting out the township that he was later to register as Newcastle after the then Secretary for the Colonies. Strategically situated where the main road split to lead up into the Orange Free State and the Zuid-Afrikaansche Republiek (Transvaal), the town was to grow rapidly.
In 1876 with the threat of trouble from the new Zulu Kingdom of Cetshwayo and the pending annexation of the Transvaal by the British the colonial autho