From the plantations and into a brighter future

Equipped with education, the community of Indian origin can lay claim to having made a powerful contribution to the development of South Africa

“Why are your minds so fixed on indenture?” That is a valid criticism of these columns. “There are so many good stories to tell.”

There are good stories on the wide tableau that makes up the story of South African freedom and the struggles and successes of all our people. President Cyril Ramaphosa’s words echo in this reader’s feedback: “Let’s grow South Africa together.”

No story is, however, complete without context. All South Africans come from a particular moment in history. As early as the 1650s, slaves and kidnapped children were trafficked to the Cape from India, the East Indies, East and West Africa. The Huguenots fled religious persecution in France.

Two-hundred years later Eastern European Jews migrated in the face of similar persecution. Sailors from the Philippines made their homes in the southern Cape when shipwreck prevented them from returning home.

English peasants and artisans were settled in the Eastern Cape in the 1820s to bolster the colonial ambitions of their governments and private companies.

The Khoisan were victims of colonial aggression and migrations as their lands withered, forcing them onto the margins of society. The

Zulu empire built by King Shaka kasenzangakhona in the early 19th century was dismantled by British conquest. So too were the great Tswana, Sotho, Pedi and Xhosa kingdoms, among others.

The European discovery of gold and diamonds brought migrant workers from Mozambique, then later Rhodesia, Malawi and further afield. Their labour remains the mainstay of our mineral economy.

The community, collectively and erroneously named Zanzibaris, were former slaves originating in northern Mozambique.

Most South Africans of Indian origin trace their history to the human cargo shipped to the sugar plantations of colonial Natal.

Migrations, whether forced, voluntary, commercial or with colonising intent, have shaped our history and are a feature of the present.

Returning to the original subject, our correspondent interrogated:

“Tell us what took us out of the plantations.” A resounding chorus is no doubt the investment in education. Going back a few generations, families with meagre resources saved to send at least one child to school.

Invariably that was an elder male child. His responsibility was to see to the well-being of the rest.

That is not a unique feature of the Indian experience but is nevertheless a compelling one.

Community-built schools also played a significant part. Equipped with basic education and increasingly higher education, the community of Indian origin can lay claim to having made a powerful contribution to the development of South African society and its economy.

Contributions of women of Indian origin do not get their just due. In the political trials of the 1970s and 1980s, Navanethem Pillay, Phyllis Naidoo and Priscilla Jana, among others, loomed large.

They paved the way for another remarkable legal eagle in Shamila Batohi who has just assumed one of our country’s highest offices as the national director of public prosecutions.

It is incumbent on all freedomloving South Africans to protect her from the racially-inspired assaults of EFF leader Julius Malema. Like her sisters of a generation earlier, she must strike fear in big men whose skeletons she rattles.

High-achieving women medics among whom we count Nazia

Peer, Reshma Badal and Zubeida Hamed have built on the legacies of Ansuyah Singh, Kesaveloo Goonum, Manimekalai Pather and Khorshed Ginwala.

Contemporary women scholars such as Quarraisha Abdool Karim, Betty Govinden, Anusuya Chinsamyturan, Devi Moodley-rajab, Manimagalay Chetty and Geraldine Jagganath build on the stellar achievements of predecessors like Sabitha Jithoo and Devi Bhagwan.

In the media, pioneered by

Dhanee Bramdaw, editors and journalists like Yogas Nair, Ferial Haffajee, Salma Patel and Devi Sankaree-govender have been breaking new ground.

So too in the professions as diverse as actuarial science and chemical engineering, women of Indian origin are coming to the fore as forces to be reckoned with.

The words of University of Cape Town vice-chancellor Mamokgethi Phakeng are useful synopsis of what it takes to pave a successful path: “Big dreams mean nothing if we are not prepared to work hard.”

The #1860Project focuses on deepening non-racialism and highlighting the contributions of diverse communities in the struggle for freedom and the building of our country. Authors Ranjith Choonilall, Paul David, Subry Govender, Kiru Naidoo and Selvan Naidoo will present weekly segments.

The outcome will be a pictorial published by the 1860 Pioneers Foundation in 2020 to coincide with the 160th anniversary of the first Indian indenture. Feedback from readers, especially to identify persons or events depicted or to correct the record is encouraged on kirunaidoo1@gmail.com or Whatsapp 082 940 8163.