The sari in SA history

WHEN Sarojini Naidu - poet, nationalist leader and diplomat — arrived in South Africa in 1924, she was unlike anyone the country had seen before: a whirlwind in a sari.

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By then, Indians were increasingly visible in the governance of British India, and were diplomats at Imperial Conferences and the League of Nations. Nationalists viewed overseas Indians “as dispersed fragments of a great Indian nation-in-the-making”, each with their own role to play in the struggle for freedom.

Naidu brought this idea to life. Unlike the cautious Indian diplomat, she was instinctive, responding directly to the bullying of Indians in South Africa.

As a poet, she turned injustice into words that stung, though like many poets, she had a romantic imagination and reached for solidarity.

Decades before formal attempts at nonracial collaboration, Naidu envisioned a growing bond between Indians and Africans in South Africa.

Her impact was profound. At a moment when the optimism of the 1914 agreement had collapsed and harsh new anti-Indian legislation was spreading, Naidu embodied a rising assertiveness.

Sari-clad, she spoke of taking on the Empire, while reducing racist white politicians to howls from the sidelines.

“How uncivilised,” she would quip.

In the Indian community, battered and bruised by constant attacks, she became an icon. Families named their daughters after her, photographs of her hung besides that of Gandhi in countless homes, and her presence lit a path for women like Zuleika Christopher, who later faced prison, banning and exile for her activism.

In 1946, Dr Goonam was jailed for participation in the 1946 Passive Resistance Campaign.