A GRAND RE-UNION OF THE DESCENDANTS OF JITLAS OF IZOTSHA AND THEIR NEIGHBOURS

By Subry Govender The hardships, joys, and pleasures of growing up on a farming district near Port Shepstone were brought alive when descendants of a pioneer Indian-origin farmer held a re-union in the south coast town recently. More than 200 descendants of Perumal Jitla and Poonganum Govender, who lived and worked on a farm in the area of Izotsha, their neighbours, and close friends attended the re-union held at the Marburg Secondary School on Saturday, January 25 2014. The people, who attended the culturally-vibrant function, had travelled from as far afield as Johannesburg, Durban, Verulam, Tongaat, and Umzinto.

Among the family members were two elder citizens, Mrs Papathy Govender, aged 87, the widow of Mr Jitla Govender's first son, Thumba Govender, and Mrs Kistamma Govender, aged 97, the sister-in-law of Poonganum.

Mrs Papathy Govender

Mrs Kistamma Govender, 91-years-old "This gathering is something very very special because we don't only have here descendants of our grand-parents, Jitla and Poonganum Govender, but also neighbours and friends who we have not seen for more than 40 years," said Mr Nanda Govender, who spoke on behalf of the extended family of Mr Parasraman Boya Govender, one of the sons of Jitla Govender. Mr Nanda Govender together with his three other brothers - Selva Neelakandan, Sagie, and Sundrasan Sadha, and sister, Vanitha, were born on the farm along with their cousins - the children of the eldest Jitla child, Salatchi, and brother, Thumba. Mr Sundrasan Govender, a grand-son now living in Johannesburg Salatchi's children were Panjala, Neela, Kaniappan Paddy, Perumal Siva, Mogambery, Sadha Subramoney, Thynanagie, Oombathie Yogi, Nagakani Rani, Neelaveni Veni, and Shunmogam Kanagie. Thumba Govender's children were Pushpa, Radha, Ruby, Krish, Sadha, Dhanabagium Baby, and Jaya. Three members of the extended family, Subramoney Subry, Vela and Manakka, also grew up on the farm. Their grand-father, Jitla Govender, was the son of an indentured labourer who had come down from Tamil Nadu in India in the 1860s to work on the sugar plantations in the then Natal Colony administered by the British. Not much is known about their great-grand-father's background but it's learnt that after he completed his indenture sometime in the 1870s, he moved to Inanda, near Verulam, situated about 35km north of Durban. It was here that Jitla Govender was born along with three other brothers. When they were still young, the family moved to Bellair in Durban. Young Jitla worked in various odd jobs and in his early teens he married Poonganam - who was a distant relative. No sooner had Jitla and his wife settled down, they had some problems with the family. This led to the Jitlas, with their young children, moving to Izotsha in the early 1930s. "Although we did not have the luxuries of life we, nevertheless, grew up in an environment where there was a lot of laughter and happiness," Mr Nanda Govender told the people. "We also got into a lot of pranks but these were not of a serious nature. In so far as our neighbours were concerned, we all lived like one big family. "Our beautiful life in Izotsha was disrupted in the early 1960s when the former National Party government during the apartheid era declared our farming area a 'white group area' and forced our fellow Indian-origin farmers to move out. "Our grand-father refused to move and even told the white government that they would only move him when he's dead. My grand-father passed away in 1974 and only moved out of the farm when my grand-mother passed away in the mid-1970s."

Mrs Thyna Subramoney and her sisters

Mrs Thyna Subramoney Another Jitla descendant, Mrs Thyna Subramoney, gave a brief history of her mother and father, Salatchi and Nadasen Govender, and how they struggled to make ends meet from the early 1930s to the 1970s.

Salatchi, the eldest child of Jitla, and her husband, Nadasen. Both are late "Life on the farm was tough for all us - my sisters and brothers and my cousins," she said. "I can recall that as young girls we used to collect water for cooking and other needs from a pond nearby. My cousin, Baby, and I used to also take the cows for grazing. During these days we used tie the cows to trees and go swimming in the river. "I can also recall that we used to walk about 12km to school to Port Shepstone and then in the afternoon we used to walk another 12km back home. "Our late brother, Sadha, used to accompany us and I remember that when we were returning home, he used make us walk fast and run because it used to be late in the afternoon. "Life was tough on the farm but we enjoyed every moment of it. We also had very good neighbours and all of us used to live like one extended family. "I don't think we can get that type of life again." Mrs Subramoney said they fully participated in the re-union because "this is one of the ways in which we can remind our children and grand-children of our rich history and where we come from". "We need to understand that without our ancient roots, cultures, traditions and languages we would become a lost community in South Africa. "Already, some of us seem to be so overcome by western influences that we forget our values, principles, traditions, languages, cultures and music. We must be proud of our indentured past and promote our rich cultures, languages, traditions and music while at the same time developing our lives in this modern world", she said. Another family, Mr Jaya Govender, spoke on behalf of the family of the second Jitla son, Thumba and Papathy Govender. "I have some pleasant memories where we used to go bathing and fishing in the nearby river and playing all kinds of sport. "We got into a lot of troubles for not doing our tasks in the fields. Our parents and grand-parents used to make a lot of noise about us not listening to them. But despite our hardships life was enjoyable. It was a kind of life that we will never be able to recreate again." The Jitla and Poonganum Govender clan today from one daughter and two sons comprises about 150 family members, made up of 23 grand-children, 60 great-grand-children, 57 great-great-grand-children and 10 great-great-great-grand-children. Through sheer hard work and determination some of the grand-children are successful business people, a few are graduates and hold senior positions in corporate companies.

Mrs Ruby Naicker, one of the grand-children, who organised the get together with Mr Sundrasan Govender Some of the great-grand-children are doctors, accountants, engineers and some are studying to become actuarial scientists. Mr Sundras Govender, who was one of the organisers with his cousin, Mrs Ruby Naicker, said they planned to organise similar events every five years. "We also want to put together the Jitla Family Tree as a permanent reminder to future generations of our roots and where we come from," he said.

Respect for all religions was one of the themes at the re-union of the Jitlas.