MUNIAMMA FAMILY HISTORY RADIO DOCUMENTARY - A TRIBUTE TO MUNIAMMA COOPOOSAMY GOVENDER, HER SISTER, YELLAMMA, THEIR HUSBANDS AND 11 OF MUNIAMMA'S SECOND GENERATION CHILDREN

BY SUBRY GOVENDER (

This year 2018 will be the 158th anniversary of the arrival of our forefathers and mothers from a number of villages in the South and North of India to work as indentured sugar cane labourers in the former British Natal Colony. The descendants of two of the indentured labourers, Kandasamy Naiken and his partner, Thanji, who traced their roots back to the little village of Navalpore in the former North Arcott District of Tamil Nadu launched their family history book in Durban in South Africa on Saturday, April 28 2018. Their ancestors arrived nearly 22 years after the first batch of indentured labourers or semi-slaves arrived in 1860. Their forefather and mother left their village under difficult conditions as they fell in love and conceived the first generation and head of the extended family, Muniamma, without being married. This radio documentary is dedicated to Muniamma and her husband - Coopoosamy, her sister, Yellamma and her husband – Coopoosamy Pillay, and 11 of Muniamma and her husband, Cooposamy’s 14 children who survived to give birth to the greater Muniamma family. Their great-great-great-great-great-great grand-mother – Thanji – died at Dayal Road in Clairwood in Durban, South Africa, sometime in the early 1920s. Her husband – Kandasami – could not accept her death and sometime in the late 1920s returned to Tamil Nadu on a way ticket. This radio documentary that has been produced relates the early history of their ancestors, and the first and second generation descendants. This radio documentary was compiled by the writer and played at the launch of the book, Flight of Young Lovers”.