MUNSAMY RAMAN PIONEER FAMILY HISTORY OF SCHOOL ROAD, OTTAWA

 

(Munsamy Raman)                                           (Govindamma)

 

FROM THE SUGAR CANE FIELDS OF OTTAWA ESTATE TO COMMUNITY, SOCIAL, CULTURAL AND SPORTING INVOLVEMENT IN OTTAWA VILLAGE

 

By Subry Govender

 

During the 1960s and 1970s a group of brothers, who lived with their large family at the far end of School Road in Ottawa, became well-known for their involvement in the social, cultural, musical, religious and sporting activities of the village.

The brothers – Boya Munien, Mike Subramoney, Gengan, Muthen (Kidd), and Parasraman (Parsu) – lived in a wood and iron house together with their two sisters, parents, and other members of the extended family. The sisters were Muniamma and Dhanbagium.

(The Munsamy siblings - from L to R standing - Muthen, Gengan, sister Dhanbagium, Mike Subramoney, and Parasraman)

The Munsamy brothers were active not only in cultural and religious programmes but also became popular as supporters and participants in the football teams representing Ottawa.

They were like most of the young men growing up in Ottawa.

The youngest brother, Prasu, in fact became a regular in the Young Ottawa and Ottawa United football teams and was selected to represent the Verulam Football Association in inter-district tournaments. At one point he was also called upon by the Verulam Suburbs Football Club, managed and owned by Mr Balu Parekh, and other professional clubs to attempt a career in the professional field.

(Parsu - standing 5th from left - with some of the well-known young Ottawa football players and officials in the early 1970s) 

The Munsamy brothers and sisters were all born in the Ottawa Sugar Estate where their father, Munsamy Raman, worked as a Blacksmith for all his working life and where their mother, Govindamma, worked in the sugar cane fields as an ordinary labourer and later at the Ottawa Polo Ground.

Both their father and mother were also born at the Ottawa Sugar Estate where their grand-parents had settled after working as indentured labourers sometime in the 1880s. Their father had two other brothers and one sister.

Their maternal grand-father, who also came from a village in Tamil Nadu in South India, worked as a rail-road repairman at the Ottawa Sugar Estate.

According to Muthen Munsamy, (also known as Kidd), who I spoke to about his family’s history,  their father moved out of Ottawa Sugar Estate in the early 1950s and settled in School Road, Ottawa, after purchasing a piece of land for three hundred and thirty pounds. They first built a wood and iron home and later converted this into a brick building.

(Dhanbagium, brothers - Mike and Boya - mother Govindamma and their aunty who lived with them in the house in School Road.)

Here in Ottawa, Muthen, Parasaraman, Dhanbagium and Gengan attended both the old and new primary schools. Their other elder family siblings worked in clothing factories and on the railways.

Their father, who was a devoted cultural exponent, continued with his involvement in the six-foot dance programmes at the Ottawa Sugar Estate. He used to join other cultural enthusiasts by taking part in the annual six-foot dance festival at the sugar estate.

(Parasaraman, elder sister Muniamma, Kidd Muthen and Dhanbagium)

Munsamy and his family members also used to attend the annual Mount Edgecombe festival (Thirna) during the Easter holiday period. The family members, together with other residents from Ottawa, used to walk on the old Main Road to Mount Edgecombe where they thoroughly enjoyed the cultural and traditional dance shows and the food. One of the shows they attended was the famous Tommy Chetty’s “Wall of Death” motor cycle show. 

(Kidd with local friends - George -R- and Dilly)

 

“It was because of the influence of my father that all of us took a keen interest in cultural activities in Ottawa and also in the Yoga programmes spearheaded by the religious leader, Sew, in Maharaj Road,” said Kidd Muthen.

“We also came under the influence of the principal of the new primary school, Mr Krishna Maharaj, who encouraged the school pupils to learn to read the Bhagwad Gita.

“Because Ottawa was a small village, nearly all the families lived very close lives and participated in each other’s social, cultural and religious festivals.

“It was a life that we will never forget because we all respected one another and helped one another during hard times. Our neighbours were all treated like members of one family. This type of community life is now very rare.”

     (Kidd Muthen helping family members at a Kavady ceremony at Riet River a few years ago.)

There was one tragedy that affected their family very seriously.

Sometime in the 1960s, a number of young people in Ottawa organised a trip to the Umdloti beach on a very hot day. They all travelled in one huge truck to an area separating Umdloti and La Mercy.

While the young men were swimming in the river, Mossel Naicker, who used to live with his family in Munn Road, got into difficulties and drowned.

Parasaraman, who was sitting and watching the boys in the water, jumped in, in an attempt to save Mossel. But Mossel was caught in the deep water and drowned.

When this information reached Ottawa, Kidd’s father’s sister, who was staying with them, suffered a heart attack and died after thinking that Prasu was the person who had drowned.

“The whole of Ottawa was shocked by the death of my aunty and this became an incident that lived with us for decades,” said Kidd Muthen.

Most of the Munsamy brothers and sisters started to move out of the Maharaj Road house after starting work and tying the knot.

(Kidd and Leela with family members at their wedding)

Boya, the eldest brother, married a girl from Ottawa Estate and settled in Maharaj Road; Gengan, who worked as a shop assistant at Cassillal and Company shop in Verulam, moved to Mountview in Verulam; Muniamma married Poobal, who was known as Shorts, settled in a property at the far end of Maharaj Road; Muthen married a local girl, Leela, and settled in Riet River; Prasu first moved to Asherville in Durban and then later settled in Phoenix; and Dhanabagium married and settled in Redcliffe in Verulam.

The second eldest, Mike, continued to stay at the Maharaj Road House with his family and a few extended family members.

Kid Muthen worked as a shop assistant in the early 1960s in Bond Street in Durban. He, thereafter, worked at Game in West Street and then joined Checkers on the beachfront. He worked here for 25 years until his retirement in the mid-2000.

According to Kidd Muthen, the extended Munsamy family now comprises more than 200 descendants, spread over five generations. Most of the descendants live in Ottawa, Verulam and Durban.

Most of Kidd Muthen’s brothers and sisters have now moved to the world beyond with Prasu, who stayed in Phoenix, passing on during the Covid pandemic. The close-knit family began to pass on after their dad, Munsamy, died on February 6 1963. The youngest sister, Dhanabagium, passed on in 2023. Ends – subrygovender@gmail.com March 6 2024