Apr
02
New insights into South African Indian history
2010 marks the 150th anniversary of the arrival of Indian indentured labourers to the then colony of Natal. A lecture on the history of these workers entitled, Indentured Indian Workers on the Plantations of Natal and Beyond: 1860 – 1911, was recently presented at the University of Cape Town by Associate Professor Goolam Vahed, of the University of KwaZulu-Natal’s Department of Historical Studies.
In the lecture, Vahed, co-author (with Dr Ashwin Desai) of Inside Indenture: A South African Story, 1860 – 1914, used photographs, official documents and letters from the late 19th century to elucidate the experiences of several indentured Indians who came to South Africa in search of work to give a more nuanced view of South African Indians during this period.
A podcast of this lecture is available at:
The book Inside Indian Indenture A South African Story, 1860-1914 is available as a free download from HSRC Press:
http://www.hsrcpress.ac.za/product.php?productid=2277&cat=0&page=1&featured