A legacy of violence and healing: remembering the 1949 Durban Riots
SELVAN NAIDOO and KIRU NAIDOO
“Violence happens when we don’t know what to do with our suffering”. - Parker J Palmer.
Throughout history violence of any kind is often preceded by conditions of human torment through a protracted period of conducive festering. No act of violence happens without some degree of premeditation.
This January marks 76 years since the horrific 1949 race riots in Durban. Sparked by a rather minuscule dispute that started in Grey Street (now Yusuf Dadoo), it spread into a reign of terror that saw an unspeakable pathos of human tragedy. Three days from January 13 to 16, 1949, saw Africans and Indians, who lived peacefully together for close to 90 years prior, debauch themselves into an abyss of psychological trauma that still lingers today.
The statistics of the ensuing carnage saw the loss of 142 deaths with 1 087 people being injured. The madness saw the destruction of one school and factory, 58 trading stores with 247 houses being destroyed. Two factories, 652 trading stores with 1 258 houses being partially damaged. The real tragedy was evidenced by the psychological trauma that remained with the riot’s survivors on both sides.
The reasons behind the violence vary. It was less than a year after the Nationalist Party came to power on the apartheid ticket. It was almost two years after the signing of the historic Doctors Pact that sought a cooperation agreement between the African National Congress and the Indian Congresses. The non-racialism in the pact was in direct opposition to the rigid segregation demanded by apartheid.
The Durban Riots and After written by Maurice Webb and Kenneth Kirkwood, of the South African Institute of Race Relations, gives an intriguing account of the riots.
Webb’s vivid account of the riot reveals: “Europeans gather in office windows and on balconies watching the scene, regarding it with amusement. On the pavement, a European comments: ‘I am all for the natives. Serves the Coolie right’ Europeans stand aside, spectators. They do not go to the aid of the Indians or try to restrain the natives. By evening a reign of terror was in existence throughout the poorer parts of Durban and district. Houses were being burned by the score; many were killed or left to die in flaming houses; many men were clubbed to death; women and young girls were raped.”
The relative ease and quickness at which the violence spread suggests that the spontaneity of the violence could not have been random. The inaction of the police to intervene, together with the suggestion that authorities delayed intervention suggests a far more sinister analysis of the riots. It was only early in the following week around January 17, 1949, did the government dispatch military force with tanks that saw the orgy of violence dissipate.
The resultant commission, strangely set up by a non-partisan cohort was not acknowledged by the Natal Indian Congress or the African National Congress.
The findings however make for very interesting reading. The causative factors for the riots were listed as follows:
Transport facilities: Durban and the peri-urban areas have very poor communications.’ Virtually all the transport services debouch in one spot; traffic regulations in this congested area is primitive and ineffectual and no provision is made for the protection of the passengers from the elements or for their convenience.’ ‘Masses of irritable human beings’ are found here during the rush periods.
Undesirable elements: removal of the unemployed.
Housing: “the slum areas on the fringes of Durban are a disgrace to any community which calls itself civilised… The fact that numbers of Natives are herded together in compounds seem to have bearing on the riots...”
The mere mention of the 1949 riots to the survivors’ reveals a disturbed gaze of anxiety. One of its survivors, Dr Juggie Pather was 15 years old at that time, living in Clairwood, recalled: “The loud stomping of Impis (Zulu warriors) feet delivered with thunderous unison was the scariest thing I had ever experienced”.
He also recalls “how the poorest of the poor like those in Coedmore near Seaview were first affected with houses and occupants being burned alive...”
Not all accounts of the riots showed humanity’s dark side. In the ensuing carnage, the spirit of goodwill was evidenced by the Stainbank’s of Coedmore Castle Estate that once employed indentured Indians and their descendants. In the year after the 1949 riots, Kenneth Lyne Stainbank, was presented with a beautiful scroll by the Indian community of Coedmore Zeekoe Valley and Chatsworth that read:
“Sir, we wish to record our sincere gratitude and appreciation of great kindness and generosity in giving shelter to 2800 of us who were worried, fear-stricken, and grieved as comfortably as possible at Coedmore during the Native – Indian riots in January 1949. It would be impossible to thank you adequately for rendering humane service, making great self-sacrifice, and without any sleep or rest for two days, placing yourself in readiness to offer any help within your means. The example of kindness demonstrated by you and your family will be long remembered by many an Indian Family that took refuge in your premises.”
Reflecting on this horrific period in time creates an uncomfortable memory for many of its survivors and their descendants. Some people argue that the riot’s annual ' commemoration’ should receive as little attention drawn to it as possible. Conversely, others argue that its reminding forces us to engage with healing for the meaningful society we seek to build.
In learning how we can heal from a traumatic episode in South Africa’s history, we can draw on the lessons of the 1994 Rwandan genocide. In the years leading up to the genocide against the Tutsi in the Democratic Government of Congo, the government used all its propaganda machinery to spread bigotry and hatred of the Tutsi. To this end, the late, former UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan, who in 1994 was serving as the head of UN peacekeeping operations, issued a statement 10 years after the genocide saying he should have done more to stop it.
"We must never forget our collective failure to protect at least 800 000 defenceless men, women, and children who perished in Rwanda 10 years ago," Annan said. "We must acknowledge our responsibility for not having done more to prevent or stop the genocide."
In learning from the history of our fractured and painful past, lessons of working together to build a better society have more value than working against each other. Trolling through social media gives one a frightening sense of the real diversionist and anarchic thoughts that persist on the ground, here in South Africa and across the world. Both racial and xenophobic conflicts pose significant dangers to peace and social cohesion. Those risks are amplified by rising inequality which we must constantly seek to eradicate by “doing more” in avoiding conflict.
Selvan Naidoo and Kiru Naidoo are co-authors of The Indian Africans
** The views expressed do not necessarily reflect the views of IOL or Independent Media.