Ulundi, town in southeastern South Africa, in the province of KwaZulu-Natal. The name Ulundi means “the high place” in the Zulu language, and the town was named for its site on a hill. Located on the north bank of the Mfolozi River, Ulundi consists of a small business district and a residential area. Roads connect Ulundi to Vryheid and Empangeni. Rail lines link the town to Richards Bay, a port on the Indian Ocean in the southeast, and to Vryheid in the northwest. The small Ulundi airport handles flights to and from Richards Bay and Durban.
Ulundi was the site of royal homesteads for two Zulu kings—Mpande, who ruled from 1840 to 1872, and Cetshwayo, who ruled from 1872 until 1879 and then again briefly before his death in 1884. In July 1879 Ulundi was captured by the British army in the concluding battle of a war between the British and the Zulu. The battlefield of the 1879 war as well as the Zulu royal homesteads, Ondini and Nodwengu, have been reconstructed for visitors. In 1972 Ulundi was designated as the administrative capital of KwaZulu, one of the ten bantustans (or black homelands) created by the South African government as part of the system of apartheid, or separation of the races. At the time of South Africa's first free elections in April 1994, the bantustans were reintegrated into South Africa, and KwaZulu became part of the new province of KwaZulu-Natal. The provincial government has not yet determined whether the permanent capital should be located at Ulundi or at Pietermaritzburg, which was the capital of Natal, one of South Africa's four former provinces. Population (1991) 11,102.Microsoft® Encarta® Online Encyclopedia 2001
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