For decades before 1961, at the height of apartheid, Indians were still regarded as a problem in South Africa. How to get rid of them? For a long time they were considered to be “temporary” in South Africa and a thorn in the flesh of those who felt threatened. The authorities plotted all sorts of schemes to send them back to India, without success. Why were the industrious Indians so despised?
Well, after completing their contracts as girmitiyas or indentured labourers, many stayed and became traders or small business owners. Their economic success often led to resentment from both the white colonial settlers and the local African population, who saw them as competitors. Thus the anti-Indian agitation. Also, Indians were opposed to white domination. They were active in resisting discriminatory laws. Their activism made them targets of the government, which viewed them as a challenge to the status quo.
In 1961, Indians were officially recognised as a permanent part of the South African population. But those who wanted Indians out of sight, especially in Durban, almost had their wish fulfilled two decades earlier when the dreaded tuberculosis disease was rife. So great was the death-rate from TB among Durban Indians in the 1940s that Dr Stanley Copley, one of the early doctors at St Aidan’s Hospital, exaggeratedly stated that unless something was done urgently to halt the spread of TB, there would be no Indians left.
Enter philanthropist and practical humanitarian Paul Sykes. More about him in a short while.
I got thinking of Indians and TB on World TB Day recently (March 24). TB remains a major global health threat with more than 10 million people falling ill with TB each year, causing 1.25 million deaths annually. South Africa carries one of the highest burdens globally with an estimated 250 000 people developing TB each year.
Back to Paul Sykes. He was born in England in 1903. He had a strong hatred of violence and became a deeply committed Christian filled with a desire to serve his fellow men in any way or in any place to which he was called. He refused to acknowledge differences of class and was completely colour blind.
On leaving school in 1920, he intended to study for the Anglican ministry. When his parents objected, he left England for then Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe) where he worked as a teacher. He contracted TB while here and the long stay in hospital, at a time when rest and diet were the only treatments, gave him the opportunity to consider his future plans.
To improve his teaching qualifications, he registered at the University of the Witwatersrand to study Bantu (now African) languages and social anthropology. In the late 1930s, he arrived in South Africa and taught at various places. In 1939, he worked as assistant-secretary to the Agent-General for India, Sir Benegal Ram Rau. It was only when he came into close contact with the Indian community that he realised the full extent of racial prejudice in South Africa.
He witnessed first-hand that despite his rank, the Agent-General had to endure insults on numerous occasions, being turned away from elevators in Durban city buildings. He later accepted a job as a research assistant at the then University of Natal's Department of Economics. In his work among the Indian community, Sykes had at last found a worthwhile cause to espouse that was much in line with his Christian view of justice and the equality of all men.
Sykes was expected to visit Indian families in their homes and to assist them to complete questionnaires. That’s when he came face to face with the poverty and slum conditions in which many Indians were forced to live. His own experience had made him aware of the dangers of TB and he found it rife in the Indian community.
In 1942, there were 1 300 known cases and only 81 hospital beds available for them. Sykes found the worst living conditions in the Durban Corporation's Magazine Barracks, which consisted of old mule stables with no proper sanitation. Sykes persuaded the mayoress, Mrs Clairc EIlis-Brown, to inspect the barracks. She was appalled. The cleaning-up operation began soon afterwards. Sykes then turned his attention to the high incidence of TB among Indians, who lived in over-crowded conditions with a shortage of facilities.
With some like-minded friends, he was instrumental in the founding of the Friends of the Sick Association (Fosa). Care committees were formed in all areas in then Natal where Indians were settled. The committees were responsible for locating TB patients and for looking after their welfare and that of their families, while they were receiving medical attention.
Pat Poovalingam, attorney (and later POST columnist) was the first Fosa secretary and later became chairman. Phyllis Naidoo, Lutchmanna Naidoo, Nadas and his wife Athie Pillay, Koosiram Badal, Ghunshiam Harkoo, RD Naidu, Kenneth Nair, Sivaramen Moodley, R Brijrajh, Mannie Naidoo, HS Singh, Dhama Nair, Nadarajan Moodley, Pydiah Naidoo, Vadi Runga, and many others, gave distinguished service.
Disability grants were applied for on behalf of the patients and financial assistance was provided until the grants were received. Despite the work of care committees, it soon became apparent that unless patients could be removed from their unhealthy environment, the disease would continue to spread.
Sykes decided to open a TB settlement. He wanted to treat the TB patient within his/her family group and not remove him/her from the nuclear family. The family must be involved in the treatment. They would be housed in cottages on the settlement and would be trained in the care of the patient. He also wanted to remove the financial worries from the sufferer, so that recovery could be unimpeded and once the patient was on the way to recovery, he/she could continue to live in the cottage.
A property, consisting of 25 acres (10 ha) owned by the Paruk and Lockhat families was secured in Newlands in 1944. Sykes resigned from his research post to concentrate on Fosa, moved out to the site and began putting up the first buildings. Fund-raising continued and slowly the settlement took shape. Volunteer nurses were engaged. The project included a children's hospital, cottages for the families of TB patients, a school for their children, vegetable gardens, a poultry section and a weaving school to help in the rehabilitation of convalescent patients.
There are many people today who will be able to fondly recall their connection to the Fosa settlement at Newlands, either living in one of the cottages or visiting relatives and friends there. The Newlands Settlement helped save many lives being lost to TB. Sykes set up other similar TB settlements around the country. The Newlands Settlement was by now run largely by members of the Indian community. This allowed Sykes to fulfil a lifelong dream to pursue religious work.
He joined the ministry because he admired the strong stand taken by the Anglican Church in speaking out against what they believed to be unjust. Throughout his stay in Durban, Sykes was an admirer of the Indian people, noting that “there runs throughout this outward evidence of poverty and sordidness, a silver thread of striving for the higher things, of a determination through hard work and application to improve standards, if not for the older ones but for the young so that they may have a fuller inheritance than was ever realisable for themselves”.
At the age of 80, Paul Sykes suffered a stroke. He was admitted to the King George V Hospital (now King Dinuzulu Hospital) where he died peacefully on May 7, 1983. His ashes were interred beside the original cottage at the Fosa Newlands Settlement.
Today the legacy of Paul Sykes lives on. Fosa continues working within communities, visiting the sick, and encouraging and aiding families in whatever way possible.The world is most certainly a poorer place today because we do not have enough people like Sykes. His ideals are best summed up in his own words: "Let us never be afraid to climb a little higher, to see a little further, to give of ourselves - our energy and our youth - so that we may put into practice the almost limitless project of care for our fellows.”
Yogin Devan is a media consultant and social commentator. Share your comments with him on: [email protected]
** The views expressed do not necessarily reflect the views of IOL or Independent Media.