“Oh brothers… We need strong and brave men to confront Indians…” “… We are poor because all things have been taken by Indians.” Those are lyrics from a song titled AmaNdiya written by Mbongeni Ngema, there a South African writer, composer, lyricist and director. AmaNdiya means Indian in Zulu and Ngema stirred up an intense public debate in 2002 when the song was released. Ngema is most famous in the U.S. for his critically acclaimed play Sarafina, which was later turned into a screenplay starring Whoopi Goldberg. He was nominated for several Tony Awards in 1988 including Best Director. His song AmaNdiya was ultimately banned by the Broadcasting Complaints Commission of South Africa. The song was determined by them to “advocate hatred and incite harm.” The ruling disappointed Ngema; his attempt was to address the fundamental problems between blacks and Indians rather than create confrontation.
Durban, South Africa has a huge Indian population. When visiting Durban for the first time years ago, I was struck by the numbers as I had not experienced seeing that many Indian people in my last trips to South Africa when visiting Johannesburg, Cape Town, Port Elizabeth or East London. Durban, however, had an entirely different demographic population. There were times when in certain areas around the city that I questioned whether I was in Africa at all? Indian people have lived and worked in South Africa for generations.
In 1860, the first Indians were brought to South Africa as slaves to work on the sugar plantations in KwaZulu-Natal (KZN) and to build the railroads. Although South African history books more often characterize 1860 to 1923 as the period of indentured servitude for Indian laborers, the first Indians were stolen and forcibly brought to South Africa as slaves. History’s account goes further to state that many Indians came as so-called passenger Indians to trade and start businesses. Many participated in the resistance campaign of Gandhi and the formation of the Natal Indian Congress in 1894, Transvaal British Indian Association in 1903, Cape British Indian Council before 1917 and the South African Indian Congress in 1919. Indian people had agency that black/native South African people did not have as they struggled against the system of Apartheid and all of its oppressive and racist laws.
White South Africans made a clear distinction between Coloureds and blacks from the beginning employing the strategy of divide and conquer keeping intact a white supremacist rule and culture. Indians and Asians were considered a sub-group of the Coloureds who were mixed-black and white. Indians were educationally and economically closer to whites and therefore by design a wedge was driven between them and the indigenous black cultures particularly in KwaZulu-Natal where the largest percentage of Indians reside in South Africa. The system of Apartheid instituted into law in 1948 and white supremacy are the responsible players in what is an unsettled and historic dysfunction between blacks and Indians in South Africa.
It is unfortunate that the song written by Ngema as an artistic expression of what is a serious problem was banned because the problem between blacks and Indians is an old wound that continues to fester and it needs to be uncovered so that the healing can begin.
Dr.T
Tawnya Pettiford-Wates. Ph.D.
Artistic Director and Founder
The Conciliation Project
Professor at Virginia Commonwealth University
DrT@Margin2theCenter.com
www.theconciliationproject.org
Up Next Week: Superstition OR Cultural Practice?
