By Subry Govender
When the early sugar cane indentured Indian labourers of 1860
completed their five-year contracts, some elected to be re-indentured,
a few chose to return to India while most sought to remain in the then
Natal Colony as free citizens to start a new life.
Many of these people rented small plots of land in areas like
Merebank, Clairwood, Malvern, Cato Manor, Springfield, Sea Cow Lake
and Clare Estate to earn a livelihood as market gardeners. These
early market gardeners sold their vegetables in some of the streets of
Durban despite the severe restrictions and discrimination practised by
the then Durban Town Council.
Some 2 000 of these market gardeners also sold their goods in and
around the old Victoria Street Market before the Early Morning Market
was established in the early 1930s. These market gardeners and traders
have been doing business in the Victoria Street area since the early
1890s.
Early Market gardeners
Many of the descendants - children and grand-children - of these early
market gardeners have continued to eke out a living at this market -
which is now under threat at the hands of the new
democratically-elected city council.
"The history of the early market gardeners is one of hardship, toil,
discrimination and suffering at the hands of the former colonial town
council," said Mr Roy Chetty, chairman of the Early Morning Support
Committee.
"Do you know that our forefathers and mothers not only toiled to grow
their vegetables and fruits, but also used various means such as
carts, boxes, baskets, and sacks to transport their goods to the
street in the Victoria street area. Before this street market was
established, our early people were restricted from selling their
produce at a fresh produce market near the old central railway
station," said Mr Chetty, whose grand-mother was a market gardener.
"At this market they were charged a very high entrance fee compared to
that paid by whites. They were also only allowed to sell their produce
after the whites had finished selling their goods and they were
ordered to sell at lower prices than those charged by white traders.
They were prevented from trading here after a short while and the
market gardeners were moved to the area around Victoria Street.
Clairwood and other areas
"Many of these market gardeners would arrive from areas such as
Clairwood, Merebank, Springfield, Sea Cow Lake, Springfield, Malvern
and Cato Manor by horse-and-cart overnight and sleep on the streets.
The area where these market gardeners squatted used to be called the
Squatters Market.
"Many market gardeners also came from places like Cavendish, Umlaas,
Shallcross and Mount Vernon. But these people had a great deal of
problem in transporting their goods and a lot of restrictions were
placed on them. Despite the restrictions and discrimination, the
squatters who moved to the Early Morning Market survived and managed
to make a living for themselves and their families," he said.
Around 1885, when there was about 2000 market gardeners in and around
Durban, and up to the establishment of the Early Morning Market there
were a number of organisations that represented the people. They
included the Indian Agricultural Farmers Association, the Indian
Market Stallholders' Association, the Early Morning Market Squatters
Association and the Natal Indian Farmers' Association.
Because of the hardships they experienced, the market gardeners and
others competed very strongly for space and opportunities. This led to
a number of conflicts.
"Competition and class differences between traders, farmers and
non-farming street traders led to several conflicts and struggles,"
said Mr Chetty.
"This was to impact on even the political struggles of the time. The
early Indians were not an homogenous group."
Jumma Masjid
At this time the officials of the Jumma Masjid (Grey Street Mosque)
invited the market gardeners to sell their produce in the mosque
courtyard. The mosque officials did not charge any fees for some time
but later a small fee was levied for maintenance.
Mr Chetty said more than 140 years later, there are hardly any market
gardeners in and around the Durban area. Most of the people who ply
their trade at the Early Morning Market today purchase their goods
through agents from the bulk market in Clairwood.
"Sadly, market gardening in and around Durban has all but been
destroyed, thanks to large-scale commercial farming and the
proletarianisation of the descendants of the indentured. So has the
African tenant farmers.
"Nevertheless, this does not in any way weaken the case for the Early
Morning Market's right to exist. Even a hundred years ago, a section
of the stallholders were non-farmers. That agriculture by small
producers in the areas surrounding Durban has collapsed over the
decades is no fault of the now non-racial marketplace," said Mr
Chetty.
In an ironic twist of fate, a few years before the descendants of
indentured labourers could observe the 150th anniversary of the
arrival of their forefathers to South Africa, the new democratic
Ethekwini Municipality embarked on a programme to bulldoze the Early
Morning Market and in the process destroy the legacy of the indentured
labourers.
The so-called democratic city council used all kinds of tactics to
intimidate the stallholders and to force the poor people to submit.
Support Group
The Early Morning Market Support Group (EMMCG) embarked on a programme
to protect the market and the stallholders. The committee took their
fight to the High Court and also presented a theatre production of
"MarkeTears" in an effort to continue to defend the right of those who
ue the Early Morning Market to earn a livelihood.
"The plans by the eThekwini Municipality to evict the stallholders of
the EMM together with all street traders from the Warwick Triangle
first surfaced in early 2009, almost exactly seventy five years after
the EMM was built," said Mr Chetty.
"From February 2009 to the end of 2010, the stallholders of the
market were subjected to every manner of administrative harassment,
threats, beatings, shootings and charges - unprecedented in all of the
more than 120 years of trading including the colonial and apartheid
times.
Police and council brutality
"While the world mourns the massacre at Marikana, very few knew of the
police assaults and tear-gassing of stallholders inside the market on
the night of May 30, 2009 even though the city manager had given
permission for the stallholders to be there that night. He had hoped
that those would be their very last hours in that historic, holy
place
"Very few knew that they were violently pushed out into the winter
night at about 9:00pm and that they spent that cold Saturday night
outside in solidarity with the workers who had no way of going home.
Very few knew or acknowledged that for about 2 weeks the market folk
were locked-out, and that they pleaded each day, from before sunrise,
to be let in – the market had been invaded by hundreds of the city’s
armed gendarmerie.
"And very few knew of the deliberate cordoning off of the
stallholders, barrow-operators and workers into a small enclosed
parking lot, followed by vicious police beatings and shootings. The
television cameras of the media were not there! Then to justify their
brutality the police arrested a group, pushed them into the back of
police vans before rushing them to the CR Swart police station.
"And strangely, like at Marikana, the private ambulance and paramedics
were brought in to attend to the wounded and traumatized, many old
women. The cheek of it was that the ambulance services later sent a
bill to the victims. Very few know that one day after the shootings,
on June 16 2009, an attempt was made to burn down the market.
"The struggle for the market was not just about the loss of
livelihoods, as crucially important as it is, but is also about
preserving our past – Durban’s past. This market could be our living,
functioning, working-museum. It is the hot-house for developing a non
racial, egalitarian, freedom loving South Africa. This market is a key
link with our own history. The early history of the EMM is
inextricable intertwined with the history of indenture.
Do not forget our legacy
"Let us not forget that though the indentured were treated as slaves,
they themselves came here with the full sense of their worth, their
rich history, traceable unbroken in practice for thousands of years,
going back to prehistoric times – some 5000 or so years. Their dances,
their ancient history, their religious practice, lifestyle and
resistance to foreign domination they brought with them.
"Small wonder then, that more than a hundred years ago, Victoria
Street was the scene each night of 2000-traders and some 200 horse
carts and wagons. Every night must have been a festival in Victoria
Street, a hundred years ago."
Mr Chetty said the larger community needed to rally behind the market.
"Faint heart will not win any victory! South Africans of Indian
origin, in particular, must campaign for the Early Morning Market
(EMM) to be granted national monument status, and we should strive to
upgrade it to also include a museum of the indentured market
gardeners. Rather than face being confronted by the ever-present
threat of demolition this market must enjoy the permanent protection
of the state authorities. Nothing short of that will satisfy us."
South Africans - a wake up call
He added:
"The history of the Early Morning Market is inextricably intertwined
with that of the history of the indentured Indian labourers. The
standpoint of the Early Morning Market Support Group (EMMSG) is that
the building of the EMM structure was struggled for by the early
market gardeners and ‘squatter stallholders’ over many decades. It is
monument of the indentured, bequeathed to the present and future
generations. The Early Morning Market structure is now a 76-year-old
grand lady of Durban, and has survived the tribulations of racist
colonialism and apartheid, to emerge in the 1990s as a shining example
of non-racial workplace harmony. It must therefore be our solemn
mission to see the EMM structure declared a national monument, so that
it could enjoy permanent protection from the bull-dozers of property
developers." ends - subrygovender@gmail.com
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