Indian settlements in South Africa

Photo courtesy of www.emu.edu

Junior Chris Fretz and sophomore Kiara Yoder take in the view of Table Mountain on a boat taking the group to Robben Island.

Curry, saris, and crammed mini-taxis; anyone (who, like me, has never been there) would think this is India. We are, in fact, in the second-largest Indian settlement in the world outside of that country, and the largest is only several kilometers away.

A group of thirty Americans receives the same kind of stares that we have come to expect, but on our part this is indeed a wholly new African experience. Our host families live in Phoenix, a large district of Durban, the tropical port city dubbed "South Africa's Playground."

Phoenix is home to mostly people of Indian descent, many of whom have been in South Africa for four generations or longer. Yet the community has maintained a strong Indian flavor, due in part to the Group Areas Act of the Apartheid Era, which designated separate areas for the racial categories determined by the white government. The Apartheid system is no longer in effect, but the results of such forced residence are still quite visible. Many years of racial discrimination have left Phoenix with a difficult set of issues, as it has for black communities in South Africa.

At the heart of these issues is the question of identity. Many people in Phoenix would identify themselves as Indian, despite the fact that many of the younger generation (and perhaps the older as well) speak not a word of an Indian language. "Have you ever been to India?" I asked my host brother. "No," he replied, "but I know someone who has." India is, in some ways, as foreign as is England or the United States, yet remains close enough to call a mother country.

Among the people I have encountered here, I sense a pride in self-sufficiency; many have pointed out Indian communities' initiative toward building educational centers, businesses, and religious sites. "It is good that the blacks have gained their freedom," one man told me. "We Indians gained ours one hundred years ago. They have Nelson Mandela. We had Mahatma Gandhi" (who spent twenty-one years as a lawyer and nonviolent activist in South Africa).

Building an effective community in the context of an oppressive system has established a strong identity in Phoenix. Here, like everywhere else, people have demonstrated the inherent right to dignify themselves through their own efforts. It has truly been an honor to be welcomed here.