Re-fashioning an identity: celebrating the 165th anniversary of Indian South Africans

WHEN I taught history in school under the apartheid system, I always put my classes through a simple test relating to their conceptualisation of their identity.

- DR ISMAIL VADI

I would ask exclusively “Indian” pupils: “What do you call a person who is born in America?”

Without hesitation, they would shout out: “American.”

“And someone born in Africa?”

They would proclaim: “African.”

After a momentary pause, I would ask: “In which continent were you born?”

“Africa,” they would say.

“So, you're African?” I would ask musingly.

“No, Sir, we’re Indians, not Africans.” they would state embarrassingly.

A question of identity

In a matter of seconds, a heated debate would ensue among the pupils about whether we are Africans, Indians or South Africans. But one thing most of the pupils were sure about: they were not Africans.

This simple classroom experience raised profound questions about our “identity” in apartheid South Africa. It was really a question of how pupils in the late 1980s saw themselves. Were they Indians? Were they Africans? Were they South Africans, or were they Indian South Africans? That was over 45 years ago. I believe these questions remain relevant today in our democracy.

After 30 years of living in a constitutional democracy, Indian South Africans have not fully grappled with questions of their identity in a rapidly changing society. Do our children know our ancestors? Do we know who we are? And do we know who we want to be in future? Do other South Africans share in our characterisation of ourselves? What is Julius Malema’s or a domestic worker’s perception of Indian South Africans?

Our ancestry