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Symbol of the Soil

Symbol of the Soil

Date: 2019-11-15

Daughters and Sons of the Soil is a fresh theme adopted by the Sites of Conscience Collective to mark the 159th anniversary of the first arrival of Indian indentured workers in Durban. "Our toil is in this soil and we stake our claim to it," said Kiru Naidoo a fifth generation descendant of indenture who is one of the members of the Collective looking to preserve historical sites in the Province. They plan to gather at the Durban harbour entrance on 16 November in symbolic tribute to their 152000 forebears who were shipped by the British to the plantations of colonial Natal between 1860 and 1911.

"We are asking people to bring a handful of soil from the plantations and sugar barracks as far afield as Port Shepstone, Sezela, Renishaw, Mount Edgecombe KwaDukuza and beyond," added Selvan Naidoo, the curator of the 1860 Heritage Centre. The group will plant an indigenous tree at the harbour entrance fed by the soil from the different corners of the Province including the townships. Another of its members, Advocate Zandile Qono-Reddy said that indenture education needed to be broadened to embrace the full spectrum of the working people of the Province.

"We must keep in mind that Africans too laboured on the sugar plantations including Amatonga who trekked from Mozambique". She pointed out that freed "Zanzibari" slaves who were actually Makua of northern Mozambique were indentured since 1873 though not necessarily on the plantations. In looking to a fuller "celebration of the working people", Kiru Naidoo said that the Collective has been busy documenting images that have been buried in both public and private archives.

"A consumerist society devalues the dignity of hard work and we must claim that back. At the same we must claim our birthright to the soil and not leave that space to the fake radicals whose politics only extend as far as their noses," added Selvan Naidoo. The event will take place in the vicinity of Addington Hospital at 2pm on 16 November. Small labelled packages of soil may also be dropped off at the 1860 Heritage Centre until 15 November.

Further information is available from kirunaidoo1@gmail.com or 0829408163

1. Advocate Zandile Qono-Reddy who is part of the Sites of Conscience Collective

2. Descendants of Indian indentured labourers pay homage to Selvan Guruvadu who was killed on the plantation in Mount Edgecombe during the 1913 strike.