Ikhwezi - The Natal Society Foundation

Ikhwezi was published from February 1950 until June 1955 by Natal’s Local Health Commission for the people of Edendale, Howick West, Waschbank (northern Natal) and Clermont (Durban) for whom it acted as the urban authority. In the words of the editors, it was designed to be ‘the voice of ordinary-talk between us’ and responses were encouraged.

Although short-lived, this publication provides useful insight into a brief period of liberal administration of four urban areas of the province and their socio-economic circumstances. In the case of Edendale the population at this stage was multiracial; predominately African with significant numbers of whites and Indians.

There are, apparently and surprisingly, no hardcopy holdings of Ikhwezi in any KwaZulu-Natal library. This set was preserved by the South African Institute of Race Relations and is now housed by the Historical Papers Research Archive at the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg. Thanks are extended to the archivist for her co-operation in making Ikhwezi available via this website.

You can download the following issues of Ikhwezi free of charge by clicking on the relevant issue

IKHWEZI 1(1) Feb 1950-1(11) Dec 1950

Format: PDF – Zip – 14MB

IKHWEZI 1(12) Jan 1951-2(5) June 1951

Format: PDF – Zip – 23MB

IKHWEZI 2(5) June 1951-Xmas-New Year 1951-1952

Format: PDF – Zip – 32MB

IKHWEZI 3(1) Feb 1952-3(8) Oct 1952

Format: PDF – Zip – 13MB

IKHWEZI 3(9) Nov 1952-3(10)Dec 1952

Format: PDF – Zip – 3MB

IKHWEZI 4(1) Jan 1953-4(9) Oct 1953