ISMAIL "MALEE" SAYED FAMILY - PIONEERS OF OTTAWA AT THE CORNER OF MUNN AND SCHOOL ROADS
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BY SUBRY GOVENDER
“Life for us in the early days in Ottawa was enjoyable, safe, friendly and we celebrated the company of our neighbours and friends. This kind of life we will never enjoy again.”
This is how 67-year-old Rookaya Bibi Ismail, known as Zubee, described her life and that of her parents, three sisters and four brothers when I talked to her at the family home at the corner of Munn and School Roads in December 2022.
Her parents, Ismail Sayed, also known as Malee, and Momien Bibi Sayed, moved to the property in the early 1940s when they were a newly-married couple.
They first stayed in a two-room wood and iron house situated about 50 metres from the present house.
Mr Sayed married his wife, Momien Bibi Hassan, who was from the Mount Edgecombe Sugar Estate, in the early 1940s when he was living with his parents at their sugar cane farm in the upper Mount Vernon area of Inanda, near Verulam.
His father, Dadoo Saib, who was also known as Toba Mia, came down as an indentured labourer from the district of Secunderabad in the state of Andhra Pradesh in the late 1890s.
Secunderabad is today a twin city of Hyderabad in the newly-created state of Telegana in South India.
His mother’s name was Zaitun. Her father was Sheik, who worked as a chef for a family known as Latta in Mount Edgecombe in the early 1900s. Her mother, Kathija, had two brothers whose names were Mohammed and Ebrahim.
Mr Dadoo Saib and Zaitun had 14 children, the youngest of whom was Ismail Sayed. Nearly all the children, including Ismail Sayed, helped their father on their small sugar cane farm while they were still in their teens.
One of Ismail’s nephews was Pathan, whose family was well known in Verulam in the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s. Two of Ismail's sisters travelled to and settled in the district where their father came from in India.
Life for Mr Ismail Sayed, who worked all his life for Grafton Everest in Sydney Road in Durban, and his wife, Momien Bibi, who was both a house wife and dress maker, was tough but manageable.
Mrs Sayed became a favourite of her Tamil neighbours because she interacted with them fluently in the Tamil language. She became a Tamil linguist while growing up and learning the language in Mount Edgecombe.
Here at number seven School Road, their eight children – four sons and four daughters – were born and grew up into teens and adults.
The children in order of their births were: 
1. Amina Bibi Cassim (born 1942);
2. Saeed - Imaam (1944);
3. Adam – (1946);
4. Mustafa (1948);
5. Zain Ahmed (1952);
6. Hawa Bibi Gori (1954);
7. Rookaya Bibi Zubee (30 March 1956); and
8. Sheriffa Bibi (1960).
Mr Ismail Sayed while providing for the children, also involved himself with other residents in the building of the new Jhugroo School and in the Verulam Child Welfare Society.
( (One of the Sayed daughters, behind teacher Dhanraj Sivasanker, with her class mates at the new Jhugroo school).
All of the Sayed children attended the local Jhugroo Primary schools and continued their high school education at Verulam and Mount Edgecombe high schools.
(Another school photo)
All the boys – Imam, Adam, Mustapha and Ahmed – became an integral part of the sporting and social sectors of life in Ottawa. They participated fully in soccer and also fishing. Many a time they were part of expeditions to the nearby sugar cane fields, playing soccer on the vast tract of river sand and swimming in the river at the bottom end of the Tin Town area.
Adam and Mustapha became household names in Ottawa for more than two decades because of their sporting and social interaction with the rest of the young people in Ottawa.
Over time, most of the Sayed children went onto lead independent lives after starting work and getting married.
Imaam settled in Ladysmith in northern KwaZulu-Natal after marrying; Adam, who joined his father at Grafton Everest, moved to Overport in Durban after tying the knot; Mustapha, who also worked at Grafton Everest, remained at the Ottawa home till his passing a few years ago; and Zain Ahmed, who worked for Encyclopaedia Britannica, moved to Johannesburg.
Of the girls – Amina got married and settled in Riverside in Durban; Gori married and settled in Phoenix but later moved to California in the United States; Rookaya married and settled in Mobeni Heights and Sheriffa married and settled in Overport.
Today (Dec 14 2022) the only surviving members of the tightknit Sayed family are Gori, who has settled in the United States; Rookaya, who stays at the Ottawa house; and Sheriffa, who stays in Overport.
The Sayed children have produced 15 grand-children and four great-grand-children. Of the grand-children, two adult sons of Amina Bibi Cassim stay at the far end of Maharaj Road in Ottawa. They moved to Maharaj Road more than two decades ago.
“Our roots are in Ottawa and our family members are proud to have been associated with the early residents of the village. The life we led then will be difficult to resuscitate today.”
(One of the Sayed wedding photos)
According Zubee Ismail, their historical home at number 7 School Road, has been bestowed to the three children of their youngest brother, Zain Ahmed. But because the children are based in Johannesburg, they have decided to sell the house.
“This will be a sad day for all of us because the house was built on a property that my parents and the children had stayed in for nearly 90 years.” - Ends – subrygovender@gmail.com Dec 14 2022
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