1860 centre advances social cohesion
PROJECTS like the 1860 Heritage Centre – the first phase of which was officially launched in Durban just over a week ago – are invaluable reminders of a chapter integral to the rich tapestry of South African history.
Visitors to the centre, housed in a double-storey building in Derby Road in the city’s CBD, will be transported on a journey taking them back to a time when the first group of indentured Indians left India for South Africa more than 157 years ago; the anxiety and frustrations experienced by the new arrivals in a strange land; the conditions in which they lived and worked during their indenture and the sacrifices they made to survive in unwelcoming surroundings.
It’s a fascinating story of struggle and extraordinary resilience that you don’t easily find in school text books, and the centre is well worth visiting to gain an understanding of the history of the local Indian community within the broader context of the struggle for liberation and freedom in our country.
While the opening of the project is to be welcomed, the question that has to be asked is: what took it so long to get off the ground?
And, while we are on that subject, what has become of the 1860 Indentured Labour Memorial sculpture that was to have been erected on a beachfront site to commemorate the arrival of the indentured labourers? A panel of artists had been selected to come up with design ideas for the monument, but everything appears to have come to a standstill.
We owe it to the memories of those early pioneers to expedite these projects and give full meaning to the role they played in building the new South Africa.
In welcoming the opening of the 1860 Heritage Centre, we hope it will be a landmark that is visited not just by members of the Indian community, but by all South Africans and foreign tourists too.
It is after all a project that is inclusive and one that unifies all the people of the country.
What is also encouraging is that the centre includes artefacts, paintings and pictures that vividly portray early life by the indentured labourers.
It will be multifunctional, including a wing incorporating the history of Indians and Africans in the country as well as a replica of Nelson Mandela’s cell on Robben Island.
If supported well, it could turn out to be a worthy contribution to the cause of social cohesion and nation building in our country.