KwaMashu is a township 32km north of Durban, South Africa. The name is in honour of Sir Marshall Campbell and means Place of Marshall.ArtsKwaMashu is notable for its lively performing arts scene, lively performing arts scene thrives including Maskandi, hip hop, pansula dancing, dance, drama, football. Through performance the young people of KwaMashu are raising the cultural profile of KwaMashu, aided significantly by the skills, resources and direction of eKhaya Multi Arts Centre for Arts and Performance.The township also boasts a community radio station at the eKhaya Multi Arts Centre, called Vibe 94.70 FM, which has been in operation for more than 4 years.HistoryFormerly a sugar cane plantation, KwaMashu’s name is a Zulu adaptation of Marshall which means ‘the place of Marshall’. It refers to Sir Marshall Campbell (1848-1917) the sugar cane farmer and magnate who owned the land on which KwaMashu stands and who was a member of the Legislative Assembly of the Natal colony (now KwaZulu Natal).Marshall was the father of the late Dr Killie Campbell (Margaret Roach Killie Campbell), who had a close relationship with the Zulus living in KwaMashu. The area was successively administered by the Durban City Council and the Port Natal Administration Board and, on 1 April 1977, was transferred to the authority of the newly defined KwaZulu government.The Group Areas ActKwaMashu is one of the first of Durban’s townships that emerged with the implementation of the Apartheid Group Areas Act during the 1950s. The Group Areas Act was a system used by the Apartheid government to physically separate Indians, Coloureds and Africans who lived collectively in places such as Umkhumbane (Cato Manor ) an Indian township in Durban, Sophiatown in Johannesburg and District Six in Cape Town. KwaMashu became home to many of the people who were displaced through the implementation of the Act.
