INDIAN INK

((Pic: "Rita Lazarus - Miss Durban,1960)

Indian South Africans in the media: a photographic history of propaganda and resistance

For the average person who grew up in apartheid South Africa, the bizarre reality of being confined almost exclusively to living and interacting with people classified under the same racial category created fertile grounds for racialised notions of ‘us’ and ‘them’. Under these conditions racial stereotypes were deeply internalised, resulting often in oversimplified and exaggerated negative archetypes, which continue to live on in overt and subtle ways today.

Photography has been used by colonial regimes since the mid-nineteenth century to construct and perpetuate racial stereotypes of the Other. For example, the photos in publications such Meet the Indian in South Africa (1950) and The Indian South African (1975) produced by the State Information Office were intended to exploit notions such as the rich ‘Indian’ to create the perception abroad that ‘black’ people (ie ‘Africans’, ‘Indians’ and ‘Coloureds’) were benefiting under apartheid.

The book Indian Ink, launched with this exhibition, analyses this official representation and deconstructs this state portrayal by using photographs from the DRUM magazine archives to show other South African Indian identities that have been repressed in official and popular presentations of this community.

The DRUM photos here on display give us a glimpse of the ‘Indian’ underworld with the Crimson League and Salot gangs in Victoria Street in Durban and kingpin Sheriff Khan in Johannesburg revealing rebel identities in the community.

They speak of defiance across racial lines in the personal spheres of romance and marriage and in places like Cato Manor. Pumpy Naidoo and the Goodwill Lounge in Durban show that jazz was an integral part of ‘Indian’ life there with locals like Sonny Pillay on vocals and Gambi George on drums filling up the venue notorious for hosting international jazz acts such as Tony Scott and Jazz West Coast.

In the public sphere Yusuf Dadoo and Monty Naicker are shown taking the lead in politics side by side with Nelson Mandela and Walter Sisulu in the Defiance Campaign of 1952 and later as co-accused during the Treason Trial. Images of 800 schoolchildren who come out in protest against the arrest of their leaders and ‘Indian’ and ‘African’ women defying laws in Boksburg reveal the extent of the Defiance Campaign and throw up examples of cosmopolitan ‘Indian’ identities.

The huge popularity of football is reflected through star footballers such as Links Padayachee and goalkeeper Juggie Naidoo. Images of the Sam China Cup at a packed Curries Fountain are testament to the stadium holding a store of memory for thousands who frequented the space in its long history. Boxing legend Benny Singh, gives a glimpse of the long line of ‘Indian’ boxers in the first five decades of last century and both boxing and football reveal masculine identities not generally portrayed with the ‘Indian’ today.

It was the story of self-trained golfing champion, Papwa Sewgolum, who lived with his family in a shack on the banks of Durban’s Umgeni River and who burst onto the international scene with his unorthodox grip to win the Dutch Open in 1959. His victory over Gary Player, another South African, in the 1965 Natal Open – at a time when Player was considered the best golfer in the world with the United States, Australian and South African Open titles and with triumphs in the World Series, the World Match Play, the NTL Challenge Cup and the World Cup Individual – reveals an example of how apartheid put the lid the career of a world-class ‘Indian’ sportsman.

Glamour photos such as those of Rita Lazarus (pictured) posing for a DRUM photographer in a bathing suit in 1960 alongside one of activist Dr Goonam tell of modern, independent and professional women. But it is Amaranee Naidoo, a stuntwoman riding a Harley Davidson on the ‘Wall of Death’ in 1957 that defies all the traditional and conservative labels generally associated with ‘Indian’ women.

And images of communities in Cato Manor in 1959 and on the sugar farms in 1957 – in an era when three quarters of the community lived in poverty in areas like Junction, Clairwood, Clare Estate, Newlands, and on the banks of the Umgeni River – contribute to breaking down the widespread South African notion of the wealthy ‘Indian’.

The exhibition includes previously unseen photos taken by well-known names such as Bob Gosani, Alf Kumalo, Jürgen Schadeberg, Peter Magubane and Barney Desai that relate to the theme although the major body of work comes from Ranjith Kally and G. R. Naidoo who were based at the DRUM office in Durban. It is the intention that these photos, selected from a few hundred thousand negatives from the DRUM archives of the 1950s, will also assist in the restoration of a memory of this community.

Author and curator of the exhibition is Riason Naidoo who was born in Chatsworth, Durban in 1970. In 1997 he had his first solo exhibition of paintings at the NSA Gallery in Durban, continues to work in painting and new media and recently completed an MA in fine arts from Wits University. He joined the Durban Art Gallery as education officer for three years in 1996 and soon thereafter he took up a Wits University position as a lecturer in painting, drawing and art history in the Department of Architecture. Riason has been on exchanges to the Faculty of Fine Arts at the University of Baroda in India (1997) and the Museum of Contemporary Art of Bordeaux in France (2001).

After returning from France, he coordinated the French Institute of South Africa’s (IFAS) cultural projects. One of these was Soweto-Warwick, a public art project that took place on the streets in Johannesburg and Durban, which involved working with French artist Ernest Pignon-Ernest. In 2004 Riason curated veteran photographer Ranjith Kally’s first solo exhibition at the Goodman Gallery in Johannesburg; since shown at the Durban Art Gallery and several museums abroad. In 2006 he curated The Indian in DRUM in the 1950s, curated from Bailey’s African History Archive. From 2003 he has worked as director of the South Africa-Mali Project: Timbuktu Manuscripts for the Presidency and the Department of Arts & Culture.

Indian Ink, runs at the Durban Art Gallery until February 15.