Having crossed over the Drakensberg range into Zulu territory on their Great Trek from British dominion in the Cape Colony, the Voortrekkers (pioneer settlers) founded Pietermaritzburg on 23 October 1838 and laid the foundation of a neat grid of streets and lanes. They named the new settlement after Piet Retief and Gert Maritz, two great Voortrekker leaders, both of whom had died before the Voortrekkers had been able to establish their republic in Natal. King Dingane of the Zulus, successor to King Shaka, murdered Piet Retief and his small group of negotiators when they came unarmed to negotiate for land.
Rival British expansionists were a safe distance away at Port Natal, later called Durban, and the surrounding tribes were predominantly 'scatterings', the result of King Shaka's empire-building exploits, which posed no threat.
At the time of the rise of the Zulu Empire, the Pietermaritzburg area was known as the "Place of the Elephant", or Umgungundlovu in isiZulu. Local legend has it that King Shaka's Zulu warriors used to hunt elephant for ivory there, on command of the King, to sell to English traders at Port Natal.
The Voortrekkers had a good eye for town sites, because the city lies in the very fertile hollow of the upper Msunduzi Valley (known then as Umsindusi), at the foot of a tree-covered escarpment where the midlands of Natal rises 400 metres above the surrounding landscape. The village was laid out under leadership of Commandant Piet Greyling, on the Boesmansrand, between the Dorpspruit and the main stream of the Msunduzi.
During Pietermaritzburg 's first years, the settlement was run much like a laager, one of the defensive ox wagon formations the Voortrekkers used to safeguard against attacks. The town remained a laager until 1840, when Dingane's military power was finally broken.
Capital of Natalia
The Boers made Pietermaritzburg the capital of the short-lived Voortrekker Republic of Natalia (1839-1943). The Republic of Natalia was the first of three Boer Republics, where the uniquely African nation, the Afrikaners, hoped to find a peaceful home.
One of the first decisions of the republic's Volksraad concerned the survey and administration of the town of Pietermaritzburg. This decision was embodied in a proclamation of 15 February 1839. The original township was a parallelogram roughly 2 km by 1.5 km, with a market square in the centre. Water from the Dorpspruit provided irrigation for all the erven (plots). These water furrows have since disappeared, but for much of the 19th century were very visible and characteristic of the town of Pietermaritzburg.
In 1840, the Raadzaal (a chamber for the Volksraad), jail, a powder magazine and a church (now known as the Church of the Vow) were built. Pietermaritzburg's first landdrost, Jacobus Nicolaas Boshoff, was appointed in February 1841. Boshoff would later serve as president of the Republic of the Oranje Vrij Staat.
Only a few hard years after establishing Pietermaritzburg, the Boers succumbed to British military might, When Britain annexed the Republic of Natalia and vacated the area, leaving their carefully-laid foundations to be stamped with a world-renowned legacy of Edwardian and Victorian architecture.
British Annexation
Pietermaritzburg became the seat of the Natal colony's administration in 1843, and home to the first lieutenant governor of Natal, Martin West. The British built a fort on the hill at the southern end the town, to house a garrison at Pietermaritzburg. They named it Fort Napier, after Sir George Napier, then governor of the Cape Colony. Pietermaritzburg became an important British colonial military centre.
The town grew steadily and the first Natal newspaper, Die Natalier, established in 1844, was able to report that there were 132 brick or stone dwellings. The oldest newspaper still continuously published in South Africa, the Natal Witness, first appeared in Pietermaritzburg in 1846.
The Byrne immigration scheme saw to it that Natal's settler population grew by some 2 000 people from Britain and Germany in 1849 and 1850. By 1852 the total population of Pietermaritzburg was 2 400.
The town of Pietermaritzburg was proclaimed a borough in 1854. Under the first mayor, Mr. D.D. Buchanan, the town of Pietermaritzburg also adopted its first coat of arms that year. The emblem of the elephant and the sun, charged with its cross of mullets, have formed part of the symbolism of Pietermaritzburg since then.
Pietermaritzburg formally became the capital of the Crown Colony of Natal in 1856. In that same year a Christian Mission was established in what was to become Georgetown, and the first landowning Black community in South Africa. Britain delegated responsibility for the government of Natal in 1893, and an assembly building, along with the city hall, was build.
The Voortrekker Raadzaal, completed in 1842, was used as the Supreme Court of the colony from 1846 to 1871.
The site of the Voortrekker Raadzaal is now occupied by the 1893 City Hall, which was destroyed by fire in 1898 and later rebuilt. The Duke of Cornwall and York (later King George V), formally opened the Pietermaritzburg City Hall after restoration, on 14 August 1901. The City Hall building in Pietermaritzburg, reputed to be the largest all-brick structure in the world, is a national monument today.
End Of Another Dream
Louis, the great nephew of Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte, exiled to England, had volunteered to 'observe' with British forces engaged in the Anglo-Zulu War of 1879. Zulu warriors speared Louis to death, after dismounting to sketch the surrounding countryside. His coffin, all that remained of the last hopes of a Napoleonic dynasty, was sent back to England, passing through Pietermaritzburg, en route from the battlefields of Zululand.
Anglo Boer War
A steam-operated railway line linked Pietermaritzburg to Durban by 1880, which proved invaluable in keeping the British military forces in supplies during the Anglo Boer War. But 13 more years would pass before it would be linked to Johannesburg by rail.
The British built a concentration camp here during the Boer War to detain Boer women and children who were removed from farms in the Pietermaritzburg area, after their homes were destroyed in accordance to the "scorched earth" tactic employed by the British.
Provincial Capital
Pietermaritzburg did not attain the status of a national capital with the formation of the Union of South Africa in 1910. However, it remained the capital of what now became the Province of Natal. Pietermaritzburg also became the seat of the Natal Provincial Division of the Supreme Court of South Africa.
When Natal became the KwaZulu-Natal Province of South Africa, Pietermaritzburg had to share its capital status with Ulundi.
A Journey Ends
The forceful eviction, in 1893, of a young Indian lawyer, Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, from a first class 'Whites Only' railway carriage on Pietermaritzburg station, was another unfortunate event. But this seemingly insignificant action had enormous ramifications.
Gandhi had arrived in Durban, South Africa, in 1893 to serve as legal counsel to the merchant Dada Abdulla. On a June trip to Pretoria in the Transvaal, on Dada Abdulla's orders, the journey first took Gandhi to Pietermaritzburg. There, Gandhi was sitting in the first-class compartment, with a valid first-class ticket he had purchased. A European entered the compartment, took one look, and hastened to summon railway officials. Gandhi was ordered to the van compartment. The 'whites only' sign displayed at the compartment entrance meant that 'coolies' and non-whites were not permitted. Gandhi protested and produced his ticket, but was warned that he would be forcibly removed if he did not make a gracious exit.
Gandhi refused to comply with the order and he and his luggage was put of the train and left standing on the Pietermaritzburg station platform. This incident inspired Gandhi to begin his career protesting against oppression. So, this short-lived train trip was to be the symbolic start to a life-long journey that would lead to Mahatma (meaning "great soul") Gandhi leading India to independence.
In a moving ceremony at Pietermaritzburg Railway Station on 25 April 1997, the President of a new South Africa, Nelson Mandela, posthumously conferred the Freedom of Pietermaritzburg on Mahatma Gandhi. India's High Commissioner to South Africa, Gopalkrishna Gandhi, received the Freedom of Pietermaritzburg on behalf of his grandfather.
A striking statue in Church Street Mall pays homage to Mahatma Gandhi today.
Another Journey Starts
For former president Nelson Mandela, Pietermaritzburg has also been a place of significance. His biography, 'Long Walk To Freedom', sees the city heading three chapters. The arrest that led to his 26-year incarceration on Robben Island took place beyond the city limits, near Howick, where a small monument stands witness. Nelson Mandela's first appearance in a court of law, as a young attorney, took place in Pietermaritzburg. President Nelson Mandela also gave his final public speech, as the leader of a democratic South Africa, in Pietermaritzburg.
