How sugar’s rise and collapse shaped KZN – The Mail & Guardian

How sugar’s rise and collapse shaped KZN – The Mail & Guardian

Sugar was never just a crop in KwaZulu-Natal. It was an empire, an economy and for thousands of indentured labourers who arrived in 1860, it was a destiny. A single crop grown over swathes of hectares of rolling green hills was the life force of the Indian and Zulu-speaking communities. For more than a century-and-a-half, this shimmering grass transformed the Natal coastline into a corridor of green gold, enriching colonial barons and anchoring …