Chapter 13 - South Asian Diasporic Connections and Afro-Asian Solidarities in the Life of Phyllis Naidoo

Summary

Abstract Lawyer, writer, traveller, exile, mother, friend: these were some of the facets that made up the complex personality of anti-apartheid activist Phyllis Naidoo (1928-2013). As a third-generation South African of Indian origins, the story of Naidoo is one of deep entanglement with South Africa and a rooted commitment to a place and its people. As the grandchild of indentured workers and a member of an Indian diasporic community on the east coast of Southern Africa, it is equally the story of migration and networks, speaking to the multilayered identities of migrant Indians. This chapter focuses on the life and activism of Naidoo as an entry point for exploring how the meaning of being African and the nature of Indian diasporic identity intersected and provided a space forging Afro-Asian solidarities centered around the liberation struggle.

Key words: Phyllis Naidoo, South Africans of Indian origin, anti-apartheid movement, Afro-Asian solidarity

Sitting in an uncatalogued box at the Gandhi-Luthuli Documentation Centre in Durban, South Africa, is a file labelled “Memorabilia from my walls at 4 Glenariff, Umbilo Road, Durban… July 2003.” Containing photographs, newspaper clippings, articles, and drawings, each of these images and texts, “[r]emoved to paint my walls,” represents a facet of the personal history and political activism of Phyllis Naidoo (1928-2013). There is an obituary and picture of Phyllis together with Abdul Khalek Mahomed Docrat, leading political activist in the Natal Indian Congress and a fellow comrade in the Durban underground struggle; a newspaper photograph of struggle stalwart Walter Sisulu together with Nelson Mandela; an article on imprisoned First Nation's activist, Leonard Pelter, calling for a new society where we “share the wealth with the poor and needy;” a news clipping on US civil rights activist Angela Davis's visit to Durban for the Global March Against Racism in September 2001; and a drawing of an imposing stone eagle sculpture found at the ruins of Great Zimbabwe, referring to Phyllis's time in exile in that country. Amongst this collection is also a map of India, an historic photograph of a group of indentured Indians disembarking at the Durban harbour, and a dust jacket of Phyllis's book Footprints in Grey Street.