The journey of the first indentured ship, the Truro

THIS Sunday, October 12, marks the 165th anniversary of the SS Truro's departure from the port city of Madras (now Chennai) in India, carrying 342 indentured workers on board the first ship that arrived in South Africa on November 16, 1860.

- SELVAN NAIDOO

MADRAS Port in 1880. East India Company & Raj Research Group 1600 -1919. | Supplied MADRAS Port in 1860. East India Company & Raj Research Group 1600 -1919. | Supplied

Recalling the events that transpired on the journey, together with how the passengers were received and where they were placed, allows us to get a better picture of the extraordinary journey of the first indentured workers brought to the British Colony of Natal to grow an ailing economy.

Perhaps, even more fascinating would be to understand what became of the first indentured workers to arrive in Natal.

An equally compelling story would be to trace some of the descendants of these 342 passengers on the occasion of the 165th anniversary of the first Indian indentured workers arriving in South Africa.

In telling this story of indenture, South Africa is perhaps the only country in the world that still houses the gravesite of one of the passengers of their first ship to land in indentured colonies spread across the world.

Hazrat Badsha Peer entombed at the Mazar at the Brooks Street Cemetery, is the only existing physical link to the SS Truro, passenger number 282, Sheik Ahmed, who hailed from Chitoor, North Arcot, in the Madras Presidency.

Peer belonged to the Julaha caste and was posthumously conferred the title of a Great Saint for enthralling people with his spiritual and healing gifts.

The shrine of Hazrat Sheik Ahmed Badsha Peer remains a place of pilgrimage for people of all faiths and races in Durban.