LIFESTYLE - AT 86, author Juggie Pather's passion for writing is still burning.
He recently released his latest book, Children of Kala Pani: The Black Water.
Having success with his previous works - a teachers’ resource book on Ethno-cultural Education and Clairwood: The Untold Story - Pather hopes his new release will educate young people on the resilience of Indian indentured trailblazers.
"As we move further from historical events such as the migration and settlement of Indian indentured workers, the effects on the lives of millennials and the Z generations are less impactful.
"It is only by highlighting the true grit and resilience of the indentured Indians as trailblazers, despite the odds stacked against them, that we can enjoy the success, the education and freedom available today."
Pather, who lives in Glenwood, said he fell in love with books while at Mobeni Primary School.
"At 12-years-old, I was in charge of ringing the bell in primary school to signify when school started, the lunch breaks and the end of school. While leaving the bell in the principal’s office, I noticed a glass-panelled bookcase with new books.
"I plucked up the courage and asked the headmaster if I could borrow one of the books. This is how a school bell started my love affair for literature. When I was older, I sold hessian sacks and bottles for a few pennies so I could buy second-hand books."
Pather said he enjoyed reading just as much as he enjoyed writing because it transported him to a new and exciting world.
"My favourite author is Yuval Noah Harari's Sapiens: a brief history of humankind. It is a current, ground-breaking narrative of humanity’s creation and evolution, especially now that man is on a self-destructive path. Through his exploration of history and biology, Harari heightens our understanding of the meaning of being human."
Apart from writing, Pather is a founder and trustee of the 1860 Heritage Centre. The centre seeks to position itself as an organisation that best showcases the heritage of Indian South Africans. He is also an adviser to the Gandhi-Luthuli Documentation Centre at the University of KwaZulu-Natal.
Pather produced a documentary on the history of Indians for the National Film Library and wrote a book on Clairwood: The Untold Story in 2015.
The father of four said Children of Kala Pani: The Black Water was about Indian labourers that settled in South Africa. It highlights their contributions and challenges.
"This book is a narrative history that was waiting to be written. It’s a multiplicity of stories with a central thread of how in the main the British Empire in replacing emancipated African slaves with Indian semi-slaves virtually destroyed thousands of lives.
"The themes that are ever-present in all the colonies that employed Indian labour were: questions of identity and non-belonging in the diaspora and in relation to India, resistance to cultural assimilation, gender ideologies, and many more."
Pather said some of the themes in the book included: The inhumane treatment of workers, the abuse of women-child labour, the divide and rule policy during the indenture period and the exploitation and degradation of land during the 1800s and 1900s.
*Copies of the book are available at the 1860 Heritage Centre. For information, call Yatin on 031 309 1858 or 079 565 1536.
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