The woman behind the capturing of the NIC
How a visit to the sugar barracks galvanised a Durban doctor to dedicate her life to fighting for the rights of the people
IT WAS in the early 1940s, four years after Dr Kesaveloo Goonam returned home to Durban after qualifying as a doctor at the University of Edinburgh, in the UK, that she and fellow activist Dr Monty Naicker visited Mount Edgecombe sugar barracks to see a traditional Tamil dance show called Therookutoo.
While there, they decided to visit the barracks to see how the people were living. The following is some of what she said to correspondent Subry Govender in November 1995.
“We found the people living in hutments and in conditions of abject poverty. We were horrified that people were being kept in slavery and bondage-like conditions after they had contributed to the sugar estates since their arrival more than 80 years earlier.
“It was their slave work that brought about the prosperity for the sugar plantations and their bosses. Monty and I decided there and then we needed to capture the Natal Indian Congress from the conservative forces to take up the struggles of the people in the sugar estates and in the urban areas.”
Five years earlier, in 1990, she returned from political exile after fleeing for the second time in 1977.
Born in Grey Street, Durban, in 1906, Goonam stood up for her rights from an early age when her father, RK Naidoo, came under the influence of his conservative business friends. They did not want him to send her to Scotland to study to become a doctor as she would lose her cultural identity.
But despite the reservations by her father, she won the support of her mother, Thangatchee, and eventually, in 1928, departed from Durban harbour on a ship to England.
On board was Monty Naicker, who later became president of the Natal and South African Indian Congresses in the heyday of the struggles in the 1950s and 1960s. He was also travelling to Scotland to study medicine.
Life was not easy for Goonam because she missed being away from home and she also experienced financial constraints. But she persevered and succeeded in qualifying as the first Indian woman doctor in South Africa. She returned home in 1936.
Despite early struggles to set up her practice, she was dragged into political, social and community struggles. After enjoying freedom and liberty in the UK for eight years, she could not accept the discrimination and human rights violations perpetrated by the colonial and apartheid regimes in South Africa.
She soon became involved in social and community organisations such as Child Welfare and FOSA (Friends of the Sick Association), and the Passive Resistance campaigns organised by the NIC. Just before she left to go into exile in 1977, she formed the Helping Hands Society to assist families who had been forced to move into Chatsworth from Clairwood, Cato Manor and other suburbs. Because of her outspoken attitude against the social, political and economic oppression of the people, she came under constant surveillance of the then security police. Among the officers she mentioned were Sergeant Moodley and Sergeant Nayager.
As progressive activists of the 1940s, her group planned to gain control of the NIC from the conservatives in order to highlight the plight of former indentured labourers and their children.
“We had liberal study groups at that time, but these were not enough for us. We wanted a political organisation to be the voice of the people. We went to AI Kajee many times but he and PR Pather would not relent.
“But we would not give up and decided to take them to court. When they found that they were not wanted, they gave us letters of resignation. With HA Naidoo, George Poonen and George Singh, I collected the resignation letters. We went to Saville Street and showed all our people that at last we had got rid of the conservatives.”
The #1860Project focuses on deepening non-racialism and highlighting the contributions of diverse communities in the struggle for freedom and building of our country. Choonilall, David, Govender, Naidoo and 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.