Welcome to Eshowe

ESHOWE - A CITY SET ON A HILL

It's cool, elevated position on a hilltop overlooking the hot and humid coastal plain gives Eshowe its serenity but the Dlinza Forest around which the town wraps itself, gives Eshowe its spirit.

Eshowe is a busy shopping centre
for a large rural population.

Patches of grassland and wild flowers can still be found in the town.

British military graves near KwaMondi.

No other town in South Africa has blended so organically into its environment as Eshowe.

The core of the 250-hectare coastal scarp Dlinza Forest is a declared nature reserve but tracts of the beautiful, high forest as well as patches of wild flowers and grassland are dispersed throughout the leafy avenues of the town.

Blessed with this abundant natural diversity, Eshowe residents boast that that there is a tree in flower every day of the year in their town.

This lush environment and refreshing climate has always attracted human habitation and no less than four Zulu kings have at some stage lived here, though Eshowe probably owes its modern beginnings to the Norwegian missionaries who established a station here in the mid-19th century.

During the Anglo Zulu War of 1879 British soldiers used the mission as a fort and were besieged by the Zulu army for 10 weeks.

During the Zulu Civil War a few years later, Eshowe became the British military headquarters and a large peacekeeping force of
3 000 British troops was encamped in tents at Fort Curtis for about 16 years.

There was a rush of trading ventures to cater to the needs of such a large garrison and during this period it was made the capital of the colony of Zululand.

No evidence of Fort Curtis remains - it occupied a large area in the vicinity of the present Eshowe Sports Club - but the town remains a busy commercial hub long after the departure of the last British soldier.

Today it continues to charm visitors and Eshowe was recently voted amongst the top 10 towns of South Africa by a popular travel magazine.

Accommodation Tourism Information Office and 24-hour info kiosk.
Contact details: 035 473 3359.

Place of historical interest
Sports facilities.

Hiking Trails
Schools
Restaurants

DLINZA FOREST AERIAL BOARDWALK

Eshowe offers a variety of unusual attractions. Beside the forest itself with its hiking trails, fern-covered glades and rich diversity, visitors can now get a new perspective on the forest - a bird's eyeview - from the recently-built Dlinza Forest Aerial Boardwalk.
The boardwalk - the first in South Africa - is a 125m-walkway which takes visitors from the forest understorey into its leafy canopy giving a close glimpse of life high above the forest floor - birds nesting and feeding, epiphytic orchids flowering in dappled light and giant trees competing for light and space.
At the end of the walkway, visitors can climb the 20m-high viewing tower which emerges above the canopy of the trees and has magnificent views over the forest and of the countryside leading down to the coast.

The Dlinza Forest Aerial Boardwalk gives visitors a new perspective on forest life.

Eshowe's hills are filled with history, and the best starting point to get acquainted with it is at the Museum Village which houses the Zululand Historical Museum in the exotic-looking Fort Nongqayi. Another major attraction at the Village is the Vukani Musem of Zulu Art and Culture which houses an exceptional collection of art based on traditional Zulu culture and craft.

Martyr's Cross overlooking uMlalazi river valley.

The Place of Mondi

Spectacular views can be enjoyed from Martyr's Cross on the outskirts of Eshowe. The simple cross on a high bluff overlooking the deep uMlalazi river valley below marks the burial site of the first Zulu Christian martyr, Maqhamusela Khanyile, a convert who was executed in 1877 for refusing to serve in King Cetshwayo's army.
The site of the original Norwegian Lutheran Church mission station kwaMondi - known as the place of 'Mondi' which was Rev Ommund Oftebro's Zulu name - is nearby but all that remains of this historic site is the Norwegian cemetery.
During the Anglo Zulu War the British forces were surrounded by Zulu warriors for 10 weeks at kwaMondi. By the time relief arrived 25 British officers and soldiers had died due to the lack of adequate medical provisions and they are buried in the nearby British Military Cemetery.
Just a little further south east from this site is Mbomboshana - the highest point in the area - where the besieged soldiers, using shaving mirrors, heliographed messages to their comrades based at Fort Pearson near the mouth of uThukela river.

Rev Ommund Oftebro.

Norwegian Cemetery.

A warm welcome awaits you at Shakaland.

Experiencing Zulu culture

Visitors wishing to experience Zulu culture at first hand have several options, they can go on one of several tours into the surrounding rural areas or they can visit Shakaland or Stewarts Farm in the Nkwaleni Valley just north of Eshowe or stay with the Biyela clan at Simunye Zulu Lodge in the Mfule River valley outside Melmoth.
These cultural villages offer a fascinating few hours of learning about Zulu customs, tasting traditional Zulu beer and cuisine as well as watching a splendid display of Zulu dancing. Visitors wishing to stay over are accommodated in traditional Zulu grass huts.

Where does Eshowe get its name?

Uncertainty surrounds the origins of the town's name, many believing that its name is an onomatopoeic Zulu derivation of the sound of cool breezes sighing through the forest.
Oral history suggests that it was the name of a chief's homestead located near present-day Eshowe. This may be, although it is more likely that the name is drived from the vast number of Xysmalobium (milkwort) shrubs growing in the grasslands around Eshowe.
In pre-Shaka days they were called iShowe or iTshowe by the Nguni clans living in this area. In present-day Zulu the plant is known as ishongwe.
It is used in traditional medicine to treat dysentery and headaches but is also used as a charm to divert storms.

The 'parachute' seeds of the ishongwe plant.

www.visitZululand.co.za is the official website of the uMlalazi Tourism Association
Contact details: Tel: (+27) 35 473 3359
email: ronel@umlalazi.org.za
© uMlalazi Tourism Association