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History of Amanzimtoti


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Legend holds that King Shaka named Amanzimtoti after drinking water from a river or stream in the area whilst on a raid down the south coast of what is now known as KwaZulu-Natal. This is thought to have taken place towards the end of his reign which lasted from 1816 to 1828. It is said that Shaka stopped to rest in the area, and had his personal attendant collect water from a nearby stream. This water was presented to King Shaka in a calabash. After Drinking the water he exclaimed "Kanti amanz'amtoti"(isiZulu: "So, the water is sweet"). An extension of the legend was that King Shaka had sat under a large wild fig tree to drink the water, or that he used to meet local indunas (chiefs) under a specific fig tree. The exact tree is unknown; one tree claimed to have been this tree fell down in March 1972, and another fell down in June 1981.

Dick King passed through the Amanzimtoti area on his way to Grahamstown in 1842 in order to request help for the besieged British garrison at Port Natal (now the Old Fort,Durban). The route that Dick King took through Amanzimtoti later became a road and was named Kingsway.

In 1847 Dr Newton Adams moved from Umlazi (where he had established a mission station in 1836) to Amanzimtoti and started a new mission station. Dr Adams died in 1851, and the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions sent Rev. Rood to Amanzimtoti in 1853 with the express object of opening up a school. Adams Mission Churchwas built inland of Amanzimtoti in 1852, and Adams College was built in 1853. The college was first named "Amanzimtoti Institute" and was later renamed after Dr. Adams in the 1930s.

There is discrepancy as to which was the first house in the Amanzimtoti area, with one reference claiming a house on the south side of the Amanzimtoti River as the oldest house and another claiming a house to the north of the river as the oldest. The "first house" in Amanzimtoti was owned by Howard Wright, and known as Klein Frystaat
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