THE striking pink highlights in her hair are in sharp contrast with Professor Uma Dhupelia-Mesthrie’s shy demeanour.

She was forced into the limelight last Thursday when her most recent book, Gandhi’s African Legacy: Phoenix Settlement 1904-2024 - A History Through Letters, won the National Institute for Humanities and Social Sciences (HSS) Award in the category of best non-fiction edited volume.

The HSS Awards rank as the “Oscars” on the humanities and social sciences terrain in South Africa. It is something of a crowning of a stellar academic career for Dhupelia-Mesthrie although she is recognised by her peers at the University of the Western Cape as an emeritus professor.

For those who may not be aware of academic conventions, professor is an academic title conferred on those who have reached the pinnacle of professing a particular subject. In Dhupelia-Mesthrie’s case, she has received international acclaim in historical studies.

When a university teacher no longer holds a professorial seat, the convention is to give up the title. The most outstanding among them, may however be invited by their peers to accept the emeritus title based on the merit they lay claim to. They may accordingly use the title for the rest of their lives without any question and enjoy certain privileges like a library card.

Dhupelia-Mesthrie’s exceptional academic record and international standing has her ticking all of the boxes in addition to holding a National Research Foundation (NRF) rating, which places her in the premier league of academic scholarship.

Speaking a little more than a fortnight ago the University of KwaZulu-Natal’s Time of the Writer Festival, she expressed the hope that her voluminous work on Phoenix Settlement would serve as a documentary resource for future generations of researchers who may not have the kind of resources she had in accessing libraries, archives and private collections across the globe.

The only other book in the genre that may have had such generous aspirations may be Documents of Indian Indenture credited to YS Meer, but more than certainly the work of Professor Fatima Meer.

Voluminous is the best description of Dhupelia-Mesthrie’s weighty tome that runs into 660 pages mainly recounting almost 300 letters spread over 60 years from 1915.

Around five or six years ago, I recall watching her hunched over piles of documents at the Killie Campbell Collection in Morningside. Anybody who has undertaken archival research will understand how physically draining such work can be. Hours and hours pawing through material in the hope of finding something useful to one’s project.

Her work took her across continents and deep into almost unknown private collections. Her greater joy was working with the main body of her grandmother, Sushila’s, letters, ones she wrote and the ones she received, variously in Gujarati and English.

The author noted at her initial Phoenix Settlement launch that had she discovered her grandmother’s letters earlier, that might well have been the core subject rather than an overall history of the Phoenix Settlement and its people from workers to political activists and well-wishers.

Although she has written previously about Gandhi’s printing press and her grandfather, Manilal’s role in developing the press, the book is extraordinary in drawing attention to a remarkable woman who kept the legacy alive. The narratives on how Phoenix was a space for political activism for all shades from Congress to Communists and Black Consciousness to liberals make for riveting reading as iconic figures like Biko, Paton, Nowbath, Ramgobin and Ela Gandhi jump out of the pages.

This week, Dhupelia-Mesthrie said she was surprised at winning the award because it was a competitive category.

“There were more than 30 books with some top academics in the long list. I am delighted to win the award as it draws more attention to the Phoenix Settlement as a national heritage site and personally because it’s a recognition of five years of hard work on this book. It’s one of the major national awards judged by other academics.”

She encouraged people to read the book to learn more about the universal timeless values that Gandhi embedded at Phoenix; to understand how his legacy was perpetuated over a century and, in particular, to find out more about how the women at Phoenix realised Gandhi’s hope that women would take an important public role

Dhupelia-Mesthrie is working on another book on the history of Cape Town Indians.

“I started on it some years ago and it’s time to complete writing up that history. There has been little written on this subject.”

Publisher Nirode Bramdaw of African Sun Media, in conjunction with UWC Press, have produced an eminently readable book, which will be a timeless resource to schoolchildren and higher level researchers alike.

The book is locally available from heritage book dealer Anivesh Singh of Micromega at www.madeindurban.co.za

Kiru Naidoo is the co-author of The Indian Africans and an organiser of the Durban International Book Fair.

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Professor Uma Dhupelia-Mesthrie: celebrating a legacy in Gandhi's African History