Book celebrates ‘ordinary’ SA lives
THE life stories of an “ordinary” South African man and his wife were hailed as examples of the kind there should be more of at the recent launch in Durban of Mohamed “Mac” Carim’s autobiography, Coolie, Come Out and Fight!
The book was selfpublished by 77-year-old Carim last year and documents the histories of three generations of his family in Cape Town and Johannesburg during the transition from colonialism to apartheid. It also tells of his life and that of his wife, Hajoo, 75, growing up in apartheid-era South Africa.
“I noticed that when people talk about the struggle and struggle heroes they always think about the big names,” said Carim.
“I wanted to write about the other heroes — the ordinary moms and dads who struggled to put us through school under difficult conditions.
“I wanted to write about the politics of survival rather than the politics of liberation.”
The retired management consultant was candid about his colourful past as he spoke during the launch at Ike’s Bookstore, alongside sociologist Ashwin Desai.
“In those days, our role models were the gangsters who had the girls and the cars. Our lives were teetering on the line between two paths.
“I dropped out of school at the age of 16. I was a truck driver, an apprentice plumber, an apprentice cabinet-maker.
“My wife dropped out of school before she was a teenager and worked in a factory. Because of hard work and great perseverance, we worked in several countries. I worked in more than 33 — we lost count at 33 — and altogether I’ve been to more than 60 countries,” said Carim.
The title of his book refers to the taunts of a trio of Afrikaner brothers who used to stop by Carim’s house after church every Sunday to beat him up.
He spoke about the loss of his childhood friends, Sally van Rensburg and Simon Simelane, when he was eight years old, owing to the interference of adults who considered it immoral that children of different races play together.
Desai said the book was a welcome change from the “big man” biographies of prominent people and “tells us another line in a world obsessed with political biographies. There is so much politics, so much honesty, there’s so much talk about race and class and about hope and building a life and love.”
Carim hopes to sell at least 3 000 copies of the book before deciding to try to get it made into a film.
The book is available at book stores for R195.