Ottawa Pioneer Residents

(Mr K C Moonisami and his wife, Ponnamah, (seated centre) with their children. Standing from (left to right) : Reggie as a school boy; Sam; sister Anjila; George, Ali (George's wife); Indranee; Sunny; and Velloo) INTRODUCTION:  On Saturday, February 24, 2024, the last surviving sibling of the pioneer K C Moonisami Family of Gazard Road, Ottawa,  passed away at the age of 73. Dharmalingam "Reggie" Moonisami had survived four other brothers and two sisters. A year or two before his passing, I had interacted with him about the history of the K C Moonisami Family. His funeral took place at the Clare Estate Crematorium in Durban on Monday, February 26. Large numbers of family members, business associates, friends, golfing mates and some old-time residents of Ottawa attended the ceremony to bid Reggie their last respects. As a tribute to Reggie and his extended family, I am today (Feb 27 2024), publishing the article about the well-known pioneer K C Moonisami Family. (Dharmalin

  (Indentured labourers - Ramcharan, who arrived from the State of Uttar Pradesh in North India, and his wife,  Phoojaria. They are the ancestors of Mahabir and his siblings who were born and grew up in the villlage then known as Mount Vernon.)   INDENTURED ANCESTOR - RAMCHARAN - ARRIVED FROM THE VILLAGE OF JUGRAJ IN THE DISTRICT OF FAIZABAD IN UTTAR PRADESH   By Subry Govender     One of the extended families that became an integral part of the Ottawa community since 1910 were the descendants of an indentured labourer who worked as a Sirdar (supervisor) in four sugar estates in Ottawa and neighbouring areas. They are the descendants of Ramcharan, who arrived in the early 1900s at the age of 23 from the village of Jugraj in the district of Faizabad in the north Indian state of Uttar Pradesh. He arrived at the then Port of Durban in the former Natal Colony on the ship called Ukkuzi XXX1X. He was recruited by the owners of the Ottawa Sugar Estate where he completed his first five-year in

  (Mrs Hawa Bibi Latiff, wife of Mr Abdul Latiff, with her sons from left: Cassim, Amod (Bhabi), Ismail, Yunus (Mahomed) and Goolam) A FAMILY THAT NOT ONLY BECAME AN INTEGRAL PART OF THE COMMUNITY BUT ALSO PROVIDED HUMANITARIAN ASSISTANCE TO RESIDENTS OF THE VILLAGE AND THE OTTAWA SUGAR ESTATE By Subry Govender (Mr Abdul Latiff during a visit to Amsterdam with his wife, Hawa Bibi, in the 1970s/1980s) For more than 70 years since the early 1900s at least one shop-keeper family became an integral part of the lives of residents of Ottawa and the neighbouring sugar estates because of their willingness to provide goods to needy families on credit. That family was none other than Mr Abdul Latiff and his wife, Hawa Bibi, and eight children who were owners of the Ottawa Trading Store situated in the area known as Central.   Mr Latiff, known to be a disciplinarian to both his children and residents, showed his humanitarian side when he used to allow many residents to purchase goods at his

  "INDENTURED FATHER" - NARAYANAN GOVENDER - WAS FROM A LITTLE VILLAGE IN WHAT WAS THEN KNOWN AS THE MADRAS PRESIDENCY IN INDIA    (Dillinger Govender, his wife and two sons)      By Subry Govender   In the 1950s and 1960s while most of the people of our little village of Ottawa were still trying to stabilise their lives, one large family at the far end of Maharaj Road that caught our attention was the Dillinger Govender family. Dillinger was the calling name of Soobramoney Govender, who was the eldest son of an indentured labourer, Narayanan Govender. Narayanan Govender toiled at the Mount Edgecombe Sugar Estate and the Ottawa Sugar Estate after he arrived in the late 1800s with some friends from Tamil Nadu in India. Narayanan Govender settled in Ottawa in the early 1900s after he married a local woman, Nagamma,  despite having a wife and two children in the district of “Poluar Jilla” in Tamil Nadu.  (Nagamma was the mother of Dilinger and his 10 brothers and sis