An Oral History of Resistance of South African Indians

By:Vino Reddy

In preserving the history of South Africans of Indian origin, the Documentation Centre of the University of Durban-Westville, South Africa has undertaken a project called “Voices of Resistance” to film, record and transcribe the very significant contribution of this group of South Africans to the liberation struggle of South Africa and its new democracy.  Many of the people interviewed have been involved in the Inaugural Summit of the African Union held in Durban and the World Summit on Sustainable Development held in Johannesburg.

The project spans more than 7 decades of resistance and we have interviewed 3 people in their nineties.  Mr K. Govinthu, 94, spent most of his life working in civic organisations and with the youth.  Mrs M. Naidoo,91,  worked in a peanut and jam factory in Rossborough, Durban and was a Passive Resister.  For this she was imprisoned for one month in Pietermaritzburg Prison in 1944.  When asked why she had joined the Passive Resistance, she replied, “I was fighting for my country.”  Mrs Naidoo’s dearest wish is to meet Mr Mandela.

When the apartheid regime instituted the Group Areas Act and forced removals, townships like Chatsworth, Merebank and Phoenix became the repositories of large-scale political activism.  Many of the participants in the project are from these areas, and it is interesting to note that despite the disadvantaged backgrounds they came from, many of them have excelled in their chosen fields.

In selecting the participants, all areas of society were considered. We have interviewed people from political organisations, Members of Parliament, Trade Unions, Educators, Aids Activists, Academics, the Medical profession, Journalists, the Arts, Civic Organisations, Judges, Religious organisations and Workers.  Many of these men and women suffered gross human rights violations.

Hoosen Haffejee, 28, had just begun his internship as a dentist.  He was abducted from work, brutally tortured and killed within 24 hours.  The police said that the injuries he sustained were as a result of his resisting arrest. This was in 1979.  His family is seeking the truth.  Lenny Naidoo went into exile in 1986.  In 1988 his parents were asked to come to a small border town to identify his body.  They were only able to identify him by a birthmark on his neck. He and eight young women, unarmed, were trying to re-enter South Africa when they were gunned down by Eugene de Kok and his team of killers. His parents are still inconsolable.  Krish Rabilall was killed with 12 other cadres in a cross-border raid in Swaziland by the then South African Defence Force. His father died soon afterwards from grief.

Interview being conducted for the "Voices of Resistance" project.

Michigan State University, through the Mellon Foundation and the MSU/SA Binational Committee, has made it possible for  our university to embark on this vital project which has regional and national significance.  Funding for this project has made it possible for interviews to be conducted and transcribed.  More importantly, this funding has enabled the university to develop specialized and much needed skills in the process of digitisation of sound.  This contribution allows our institution to go further than merely documenting the Indian contribution to South Africa’s liberation struggle.  It will act as the premier training centre for digitisation technology to be disseminated.  Information obtained from these interviews will be available on the website of the Documentation Centre once the project is complete. Our interviewers are students from the UDW campus and represent the various racial groups in our country.  This project has not only exposed them to oral history, but the rich cultural diversity of South Africa.