South Africa's Indian population.
I grew up with Indians. In fact, I was once the only black guy in a white class & the only black guy in a group of Indians. I can imagine how odd that looked but didn't think much of race growing up until race affected me heavily in my teens which is a story for another day.
Recently, South Africa's Indian population celebrated its' 175th anniversary in South Africa in 2013, if I'm not mistaken. They are 2,5% of the South African population & around 7,4% of the KwaZulu-Natal population.
They were originally brought to South Africa as indentured labourers to work in KwaZulu-Natal's sugarcane fields becoming the the second group of Asians brought into South Africa after the Malays of Cape Town. Some went back to India like the famous Mahatma Gandhi & some decided to stay. The Indians that decided to stay faced discrimination under the Apartheid system but were still treated better than the black population & today still have better salaries than the black & coloured people of South Africa.
Their stay in South Africa, however, was not very welcome. We can talk of the Cato Manor riots where Indians were assaulted & Indian shops destroyed as well as being spoken in a bad light by various South African celebrities & musicians.
Today, Indians have more or less settled in the modern South Africa & have adopted South African customs & intermarried with the black, white & coloured communities. They were not expelled from South Africa by the black majority government as was done with Idi Amin's government in Uganda but stayed & even became part of the structures of governance in South Africa. Which is more status than Africans who often go to study in India's cities & Siddhis have gotten in India where they still languish in far-flung villages living in squalor.
As a minority in a country with ever increasing tensions due to poverty & population growth, the future remains uncertain for South Africa's Indian population. No matter how hard they try to cling on to their community, they will always be overpowered as a minority in South Africa.
Recently, South Africa's Indian population celebrated its' 175th anniversary in South Africa in 2013, if I'm not mistaken. They are 2,5% of the South African population & around 7,4% of the KwaZulu-Natal population.
They were originally brought to South Africa as indentured labourers to work in KwaZulu-Natal's sugarcane fields becoming the the second group of Asians brought into South Africa after the Malays of Cape Town. Some went back to India like the famous Mahatma Gandhi & some decided to stay. The Indians that decided to stay faced discrimination under the Apartheid system but were still treated better than the black population & today still have better salaries than the black & coloured people of South Africa.
Their stay in South Africa, however, was not very welcome. We can talk of the Cato Manor riots where Indians were assaulted & Indian shops destroyed as well as being spoken in a bad light by various South African celebrities & musicians.
Today, Indians have more or less settled in the modern South Africa & have adopted South African customs & intermarried with the black, white & coloured communities. They were not expelled from South Africa by the black majority government as was done with Idi Amin's government in Uganda but stayed & even became part of the structures of governance in South Africa. Which is more status than Africans who often go to study in India's cities & Siddhis have gotten in India where they still languish in far-flung villages living in squalor.
As a minority in a country with ever increasing tensions due to poverty & population growth, the future remains uncertain for South Africa's Indian population. No matter how hard they try to cling on to their community, they will always be overpowered as a minority in South Africa.
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