Durban

The story of Durban's Desi culture starts in 1860 with the Truro, a ship bringing Indian indentured workers to labour on African plantations. Sirdars – overseers – brought dholaks with them to encourage music on the three month voyage. Durban sugar entrepreneurs had learned about indenture - effectively contractual slavery  -  in Mauritius. They imported it to Durban, along with an estimated 150,000 Indian labourers. Righteous South Africans protested the harshness of the Indenture contracts, but Indian workers were escaping a rural homeland blighted by colonial oppression, caste prejudice and princely politics. Soon Passenger Indians would follow them – teachers, traders and fortune hunters. But in Durban cultural tensions were flowering into legal restrictions. In 1893 Mohandas Gandhi's personal experience of legalised inequality would have profound public effects. Those in Durban who fought with Gandhi for the rights of Indentured Labourers would change the world. In the 1950s, while the grip of Empire was loosening elsewhere, Apartheid came to South Africa. Now only White owned businesses were permitted within Durban city limits; Danceclub venues were closed down. Musicians looked for work abroad. Later Café Geneve and other Supper Clubs offered dining and dancing for Durban's Indian and Coloured communities in the 1970s. The Palladium Indian Danceclub opened in 1986 near the Designated Indian Residential area of Chatsworth. By the mid nineties Bhangra music was in fashion, playing at Stringfellas, the Silver Slipper and Throb. Alcohol free Bhangra Matinee Parties for under eighteens - modelled on the UK's Daytimers – became a craze. As in the UK, competition between clubs and promoters could be violent. In March 2000 thirteen youngsters died when a tear gas canister was let off in a Matinee Party at Throb. Today, in less ruthless and more relaxed times we can find Bhangra music nights even at the Durban Hilton. Durban is justly famous for its blue collar Indian culture – it is the acknowledged home of the Bunny Chow. But with a rich mix of cultures, including the largest Asian community in South Africa, Durban has a contemporary, international feel. Durban is a world crossroads for container shipping; used by minority cultures the world over to  import fashions, music, books - cubic feet of culture from the homeland. Durban is also a sophisticated tourist destination. The Durban International Film Festival regularly screens Indian films and has hosted musicians including Ustad Wajahat Khan. Local lifestyle magazines are in vogue across South Africa, and Durban based Lotus FM reaches 300,000 people nationwide with a modern and optimistic Indian sound.

 

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