Stories ranging
from the respectful to the bizarre and from the political to the emotional make
fascinating reading. (Review by Caroline Smart)
Azra
Daniel Francis relates that when he was nine years and six months old living in
Clairwood in Durban, he was “among a crowd of adults and children, all
barefoot, following a slow-moving, much-rusted small vehicle driven down Cherry
Road, passed my wood-and-iron home. From the vehicle came a man’s voice over a
loudspeaker announcing the assassination of Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi in
India. By an Indian.”
This is
part of the foreword of A Gandhi
Centenary which is a compilation of original pieces
in response to an
international project Azra Daniel Francis was to create in 2013.
Writers
both established and new, were invited to submit short stories to mark the
hundredth anniversary this year (2014) of the end of Gandhi’s work in British
South Africa. The theme of the written submission was “to be more-or-less
successful non-adversarial response in an adversarial situation. The situation
need not involve M K Gandhi.”
Francis
adds: “Some of my family marched and were jailed with
Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi in South Africa, long before I was born in Durban,
Natal, South Africa. This collection is in memory of them, too.”
Ranging
from the respectful to the bizarre and from the political to the emotional, the
stories make fascinating reading.
artSMart
readers will be interested in Leia by
Michael Reddy which was penned in memory of theatre doyenne, Professor
Elizabeth Sneddon (1907 to 2005). Through her persistent determination and
passion – or, as she called it “bullying” – she eventually wore down the
resistance of the university administrators to create the drama department of
what is now the University of KwaZulu-Natal. This department has produced many
of South Africa’s finest actors and actresses, some of whom have gone on to
international recognition.
Reddy
pays tribute to Professor Sneddon as well as his lecturers in the late 1950’s.
As he explains, these lecturers were “the force that persuaded the authorities
at the hitherto-only whites University of Natal to have a ‘Non-European”
program of classes in Durban.”
In
Reddy’s short play. The main character of Leia is Professor Sneddon. The name
Leia is derived from the constellation “The Pleiades” (The Seven Sisters).
Professor Sneddon herself had seven sisters.
A Gandhi Centenary is published in paperback by
FriesenPress. ISBN 978-1-4602-4308-4 It is also available as an eBook ISBN 978-1-4602-4309-1
For more information visit www.friesenpress.com
– Caroline Smart
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