The history behind Pietermaritzburg’s street names - Harriette Colenso Road
To commemorate Pietermaritzburg’s 185th anniversary, Public Eye has been exploring the city’s street name changes and the history behind the names.
Harriette Colenso Road (previously known as Bishopstowe Road), is named after Harriette Colenso who was born in 1847, in Norfolk, England.
She was the eldest of five daughters of John Colenso, who was the first Bishop of Natal.
Colenso worked as his assistant. She assisted her father in the publication of his digest of Zulu Affairs and his efforts to protect the Africans of Natal and Zululand against the threatening policies of the settlers and British administrators.
She was a defender of the Zulu; the Zulu Royal House in particular, and made representations to the British Crown on behalf of Dinuzulu and his uncles, who were in exile from 1890 to 1897 on St. Helena.
Colenso also fought against the attitudes of people such as Sir Theophilus Shepstone, who undermined the Zulu royal family, granted minor chiefs their chiefdoms and inflamed intertribal conflict.
She advised Dinuzulu to surrender to the British in 1888. She secured the services of leading counsel, Harry Escombe, to defend him. She convinced Sir Marshal Clarke, the resident commissioner in Zululand from 1893 until 1897, to see her point of view. The commissioner permitted Dinuzulu to return from exile and be given the position of induna as well as confidant of the government.
After trouble in Zululand in 1906, Colenso once again advised Dinuzulu to surrender to the Natal authorities. Her evidence and that of the Natal Native Affairs Commission led the Colonial Office to insist on a fair trial for Dinuzulu, with an Imperial Judge President from outside Natal.
Colenso’s influence can be seen in her discussions with Martin Luthuli
(South African anti-apartheid activist, traditional leader and politician) and Saul Msane (South African politician and an intellectual) in
1900 regarding the formation of the Natal Native Congress, a precursor to the ANC.
After the creation of the Union of South Africa in 1910, Louis Botha’s government released Dinuzulu as a result of Colenso’s involvement.
Colenso's efforts to sustain the Church of England in Natal failed with the passing of the South African Church Properties Act in 1910, which reintegrated Church of England lands into the Church of the Province of South Africa. Both she and her sister Agnes lost their home in Bishopstowe and relocated to Pietermaritzburg.
After Dinuzulu's death in 1913, Colenso became less active and her influence dwindled. Her appeals to the British Government were of lesser impact after the creation of the Union of South Africa.