Durban: Difference between revisions

Archaeological evidence from the [[Drakensberg]] mountains suggests that the Durban area has been inhabited by communities of [[hunter-gatherer]]s since [[Middle Paleolithic|100,000 BC]]. These people lived throughout the area of [[KwaZulu-Natal]] until the [[Bantu expansion|expansion of agro-pastoralists and pastoralists]] from the north saw their gradual incorporation. [[oral tradition|Oral history]] has been passed down from generation to generation by the Zulu nation, who were inhabitants of the land before colonisers, but there is no [[Recorded history|written history]] of the area until it was sighted by Portuguese explorer [[Vasco da Gama]], who sailed parallel to the KwaZulu-Natal coast at [[Christmastide]] in 1497 while searching for a route from Europe to India. He named the area {{Lang|pt|Natal}}, meaning "Christmas" in [[Portuguese language|Portuguese]].<ref name=walker1>{{cite book|title = A History of Southern Africa|author=Eric A. Walker|publisher=Longmans|orig-year = 1928|year = 1964|location = London|chapter = Chapter I: The discovery}}</ref>