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Our Town
words MACK MAKHATHINI and KEN MCHUNU | pictures JON IVINS
Inanda Heritage Trail:The city’s rough diamond
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THE TOWNSHIP of Inanda has a richculture, and a history intertwined with thestruggle for freedom in South Africa.
By far one of the oldest blacksettlements located north of Durban,Inanda is regarded as the place where thereis more history per square meter than anyother in South Africa.
Inanda was established in the 1800s asa “reserve” for black people.A substantial local Indian population alsoresided in the area until 1936, when it wasproclaimed a “released area” for exclusiveoccupation by blacks.
And although the area comprisespredominantly informal settlements, andhas a substantial formal housing backlog,it is home to scores of pioneers of thefreedom struggle. Moreover, the tirelessactivity of those from the precedinggenerations, who fought tooth and nail tominimise the impact of apartheid on theblack majority, saw most of Inanda goingdown in history books as a touristattraction.
Hence, the demarcation of the InandaHeritage Trail.
The trail has become somewhat thegolden goose of Inanda, and rightfully so.
Its historic significance has earned thetrail global repute, and this has continuedto attract scores of visitors from within ournational borders and abroad.
Through the bleak years of apartheidthe spirit of the people of Inanda ensureda continuity of this heritage, and now theair is full of rebuilding and renewal. Andwith plans to upgrade some of the trail’sfacilities for visitors in the pipelines, thetrail only promises to get better.
John Dube’s grandson, Langa, said theyare now promoting homestays as anotherwing of the trail’s hospitality. “This is whereguests would stay with families and beoffered a spare room with toilet facilitiesfrom a four roomed house,” said Langa.
The first call on the trail is the GandhiSettlement, the place where MahatmaGandhi worked out his philosophy ofpassive resistance against injustice – a
strategy he used to win freedom fromoppression. Gandhi’s original home wasdestroyed in the anti-apartheid turbulenceof the 1980s, but has now been rebuilt atthe heart of Inanda and rededicated as amonument to peace and justice.
The next stop is Ohlange Institute, theschool founded by John LangalibaleleDube, the first president of the AfricanNational Congress and founder of IlangalaseNatali, the very first provincial IsiZulunewspaper – founded in 1903 and run atOhlange.
Dube’s active and go-getter tendenciesdid not just earn him major achievementsalone, but the nickname Mafukuzela,meaning an energetic and industriousperson.
His typical wattle-and-daub NatalColonial veranda house, also situated onthe prominent hill at Ohlange, was declareda national monument in 1995.
This was after former president NelsonMandela had cast his vote, at Ohlange, inthe first democratic elections in the new
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