Researching through my files on articles and stories
I had written while working for the Daily News of Durban in South Africa
between 1973 and 1980, I came across an item about a non-indentured Indian who
died at his home in Merebank, Durban at
the age of 105. The Daily News at that time was situated at 85 Field Street in
the Durban Centre. Field Street is now known as Joe Slovo Street.
The article written at the end of April 1973 was
published under the headline: “Indian Settler dies at 105.”
This article is relevant at a time when South
Africans of Indian-origin mark the 160th anniversary of the arrival
of indentured sugar cane labourers in the former Natal Colony, which was under
British colonial control.
The article read:
INDIAN SETTLER DIES AT 105
(Daily News Reporter)
ONE OF THE oldest men in Merebank, Durban, who
arrived in South Africa from Madras as a free passenger in 1903, has died at
the age of 105.
Mr Davamoney Dhyrium was believed to be one of the
last-surviving Indian immigrants.
Born in Madras nine years after the arrival of the
first indentured labourers in Natal, Mr Dhyrium, better known as Nyanah, became
a lay preacher for the Indian Methodist Mission in the Transvaal and later in
Natal.
He was associated with the Merebank Indian
Association and promoted his mother tongue, Tamil. He was an inspector of
Merebank Tamil School and was elected vice-president of the Merebank Tamil
School Society.
He visited Madras in 1969, where he has a brother who
is 89-years-old.
Mr Dhyrium had personal communication with Mahatma
Gandhi at Ladysmith during the first passive resistance campaign.
He had a large family which included five daughters,
one son, 39 grand-children and 58 great-grand-children.
He was buried at Merebank cemetery on Sunday. Ends –
Daily News Reporter April 30 1973
FOOTNOTE: It would be appreciated if any of his descendants
could contact the writer on: subrygovender@gmail.com
(082 376 9053)
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