Journal 6
11/17/03
Curry,
saris, and crammed mini-taxis; anyone (who, like me,
has never been there)
would think this is India. We are, in fact, in the second-largest
Indian settlement
in the world outside of that country, and the largest
is only several kilometers
away. A group of thirty Americans receives the same
kind of stares that we have
come to expect, but on our part this is indeed a wholly
new African experience. Our
host families live in Phoenix, a large district of Durban,
the tropical port city
dubbed "South Africa's Playground."
Phoenix is home to mostly people of Indian descent,
many of whom are fourth
generation or more in South Africa. Yet the community
has maintained a strong
Indian flavor, due in part to the Group Areas Act of
the Apartheid Era, which
designated separate areas for the racial categories
determined by the white
government. The Apartheid system is no longer in effect,
but the results of such
forced residence are still quite visible. Many years
of racial discrimination have
left Phoenix with a difficult set of issues, as it has
for black communities in
South Africa.
At the heart of these issues is the question of identity.
Many people in Phoenix
would identify themselves as Indian, despite the fact
that many of the younger
generation (and perhaps the older as well) speak not
a word of an Indian language.
"Have you ever been to India?" I asked my
host brother. "No," he replied, "but
I
know someone who has." India is, in some ways,
as foreign as is England or the
United States, yet remains close enough to call a mother
country.
Among the people I have encountered here, I sense a
pride in self-sufficiency; many
have pointed out Indian communities' initiative toward
building educational centers,
businesses, and religious sites. "It is good that
the blacks have gained their
freedom," one man told me. " We Indians gained
ours one hundred years ago. They
have Nelson Mandela. We had Mahatma Gandhi" (who
spent twenty-one years as a lawyer and nonviolent activist
in South Africa).
Building an effective community in the context of an
oppressive system has
established a strong identity in Phoenix. Here, like
everywhere else, people have
demonstrated the inherent right to dignify themselves
through their own efforts It
has truly been an honor to be welcomed here.
- Peter Sensenig
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