TRUE NORTH

Shaking off your cabin fever? You’re not alone. So make like Durbs locals Andy Davis and Clinton Friedman, who were on a mission to explore the culinary finds among the sugar-cane fields, new malls and housing estates of the North Coast

- ANDY DAVIS

THE AREA NORTH OF UMHLANGA IS A MODERN AFRICAN FRONTIER.

A boomtown of upmarket gated housing estates and big-brand shiny consumer retail spaces set among the sugar cane and lush sub-tropical foliage. While central (old) Durban changes hands like a banknote and struggles lackadaisically against the nickname “Dirtbin”, the north rises like a shiny pulsing beacon of opportunity, leisure, and luxury.

Now I have a theory to explain Durban’s moneyed migration north. The whole idea of the North Coast is premised on it being a clean break from the past, much like the Sandton CBD or the West Coast of Cape Town. None of this existed during apartheid. The buildings and spaces are devoid of historical baggage and context, albeit still shaped by the ghost hand of our underlying structural inequalities. This is the South African lifestyle as envisioned by capital. And while this may make the average university-read socialist uncomfortable, New Durban, with its heady Indian Ocean inspirations and Shaka-goes-to-Disneyland aesthetic, is a land of many treasures.