A rich journey through life
In part two of a three-part series, in the run-up to the commemoration of the arrival of Indians in South Africa on November 16, 1860, Betty Govinden, a member of the 1860 Heritage Centre’s research and development unit, sheds light on the life and times of Senthamani Govender
GRANNY was born into a world (in 1923) in which indentured labour in South Africa had ended nine years only before, and three years before it was concluded in the rest of the British Empire.
However, the colonial government in South Africa was set on a course of racial discrimination, which would continue for the better part of the 20th century.
Indentured families, like those of Granny’s, who did not return to India, were slowly finding their footing in the colony and turning towards other forms of occupation.
Granny’s family had a large, rambling farmhouse made of wood and iron. She recalls a farmyard with an abundance of fruit and vegetables. This seems in clear contrast to the barracks-style houses that many labourers were consigned to on the plantations. Her descriptions suggest a carefree life, simple, but full of bounty; it belies the obvious difficulties that they would have also endured.
Her father worked hard and was a great provider for the family. He was promoted to the rank of sirdar and enjoyed a position of responsibility and privilege. It seemed quite common to elevate workers to the status of “sirdar”, so that they would exercise control over their compatriots.
As was customary at the time, the boys in the household were sent to school, and Granny did not receive any formal schooling. It seems that she became literate through contact with others.
Granny, as she grew up, like so many other underprivileged women, was to learn much in the school of life, absorbing a lively Hindu faith from her parents, becoming fluent in Tamil and English, and coping with the changing demands of a changing life that would span the socio-historical spectrum of the 20th century (and early decades of the 21st century).
Granny says that there was no time to read, nor was there available reading material when she was growing up. It was “work, work, work, all the time”.
After a while the rest of her family, except her brother Perumal, also relocated to Magazine Barracks. When her father’s employer in Nonoti died, her father lost most of the privileges that he enjoyed on the farm. He decided to move from Nonoti and seek new employment in the city.
He became an overseer for a garden services company in Bulwer Park. He acquired a house in Magazine Barracks since he worked for the Durban Corporation. Granny then moved to live with him and her stepmother.
Granny moved from Umgeni Road to Magazine Barracks in the mid-1930s, which marked a new beginning for her. Magazine Barracks was originally used to store magazine powder, and the suburb given to Durban municipal employees from 1887.
Granny was exposed to the vibrant community life here, and she remembers that it was here that she entered puberty.
Different from Nonoti, but nonetheless appealing in its own way, life in Magazine Barracks allowed her to enjoy a happy adolescence. She played with dolls and on the swings, enjoyed skipping and “three tins”, and remembers the community dances. The Diwali season was especially joyous and unforgettable as there was so much activity.
Among the personalities who made an impression on her was Pushpa Murugan, the well-known writer and community worker from Magazine Barracks. Murugan’s memoir, Lotus Blooms on
the Eastern Vlei, is a description of life in Magazine Barracks, also know as the Eastern Vlei.
Also prominent was Sam Ramsamy and his family, and “Bull” Murugan, the linguist. The Magazine Barracks Temple was the centre of much community activity, and Granny also remembers “Archary’s Shop” in Somtseu Road. She would go to the shop regularly to buy bread for the family. She recalls the police station next to the shop, as well as the school.
It is common cause that Indian girls at this time were not encouraged to pursue formal schooling. Those who did were more the exception than the rule, and usually came from the elite and middle-class Indian families rather than from the working class.
Many educationalists and political figures, such as Dr Gonam, actively fought against the prejudice that kept Indian girls away from school.
MARRIED LIFE
After her 16th birthday, Granny was introduced to Nallathambi Gounden, who lived in Westbrook, near Mount Edgecombe.
Nallathambi seemed promising. At 25, he was already a sirdar working for the consortium, Natal Estates. The couple lived in Westbrook, where Asothiamma, her eldest child, was born.
A second child, a boy, died in infancy. The family moved to Magazine Barracks and it was there that her other children, Savithree, Vigie and Devan, were born. Nallathambi worked for the Durban Corporation in Congella, earning £4 (R8) a month.
Nallathambi died in May 1961 in an accident at work.
He was only 47 years old at the time when he was struck by a heavy iron, resulting in his tragic and untimely death.
Granny points out that no proper compensation was received by the family, and she was paid a mere £40 (R79 at the time).
From Magazine Barracks, around 1964-65, Granny moved to Chatsworth. The Group Areas Act, promulgated in 1950, ensured that the different race groups lived separately, and much has been written to depict the trauma and loss caused by this internal uprooting. Granny missed Magazine Barracks greatly but slowly adjusted to the new home and its surroundings, and recalls the new community she then embraced in Chatsworth. Among her neighbours was the David family, who were Christians. Granny’s new home, house 301, road 242, became the hub of much family activity.
Although the practice of naming homes in this anonymous way became the signature of living in Chatsworth and many other black locations in apartheid South Africa, it is remarkable how the occupants resisted such depersonalisation and imbued their lives and living with distinctiveness and individuality.
So many women, like Granny, effaced their own personal ambitions and aspirations and saw their mission as one of caring and providing for their families, spending their lives producing future generations who would take their place as worthy citizens of this country.
This is a thread that runs through the lives of black women in general in South Africa, and the stories of these women must also be celebrated.