PIONEER JACK NAID00 FAMILY HISTORY OF RIVERSIDE, OFF MUNN ROAD, IN OTTAWA
THE NAIDOO FAMILY OF THE FORMER TIN TOWN IN OTTAWA WHO LIVED NEAR THE RIVER
(First generation indentured parents - Mr Seethyah and Mrs Seethamma Naidoo)
Two second generation descendants of indentured labourers who lived with their large family near the river in the Tin Town area of Ottawa became successful experts in the sugar industry and ended their careers working at the Mount Edgecombe Experiment Station.
(Ruthnam, aka as George, with wife Lilly)
They are brothers, Akloo “Tip
Top” Naidoo and Ruthnam George Naidoo, who rose up the ladder in the sugar
industry despite the tough conditions under which they grew up in their early
lives. Tip Top and George, who each
worked at the Mount Edgecombe Experiment Station for more than 35 years, earned
the respect of their seniors and their employer because of their commitment and
dedication to their work as laboratory assistants.
Tip Top and George became
popular in their part of Tin Town because they organised “rummy and thunee”
card games every weekend at their home near the river.
Their parents, Seethyah Naidoo and
mother Seethamma, moved down from the Dalton Sugar Estate in the 1940s with six
children. Their parents worked as sugar cane labourers along with their grand-parents
who had come down from south India as indentured labourers in the late 1890s.
Their grand-parents worked as
indentured labourers for 10 years before being employed as ordinary labourers.
Tip Top and George’s parents
married when they were teens and their first six children were born at the
Dalton Sugar Estate. Life for them, their children and their fellow sugar cane
labourers was tough and difficult.
They then decided in the 1940s
to move to Ottawa and settled in the house in the Tin Town area. Their six
children in order of births were Jackson, Dhanabaigium (aka Amoy), Akloo (aka
Tip Top), Baby, Savithree and Ruthnam (aka George).
Their immediate neighbours were
the Harry and Tickya family; Ganas, Kandasamy, Nanda, and Angela Naidoo family;
Fishy who was a bachelor; Gita and family; and the Ganas Govender family.
Soon after they had settled
down, their fourth daughter and seventh child, Saroj, was born.
It was here in Tin Town,
Ottawa, that the Naidoos’ and their four teenage children – Jackson, Amoy, Tip
Top and Baby – started to work while George, Savithree and Saroj attended the
local Jhugroo primary school and the high schools in Verulam and Mount
Edgecombe.
I interacted with Taryn, who is
also known as Cookie, in order to obtain a full picture of the Naidoo family
members and their lives in Ottawa.
She says her father Jackson,
who was the eldest of the Naidoo siblings, worked at Bakers Limited in Durban
and later joined the Railways where he remained for many years as a loyal
employee. Like other residents of Ottawa, Jackson used to travel by train early
in the morning to work in Durban. His return trip was also by train to the
North Coast from the Central Durban Station, which was situated near the main
Post Office.
One of her mother, Lily Naidoo’s
recollections, was that her father kept himself busy during his retirement by
helping Ottawa’s famous chef, Narain, during his cooking contracts. Narain also used
to be the owner of the Café where Globe’s Shopping Centre is now situated.
Her mother, who was from a
famous Naidoo family in Umdloti Drift in Verulam, worked as a machinist at the
Flash Clothing Factory to supplement the family income and the demands of their
five children.
In addition to Taryn, the other
Jackson and Lily Naidoo children are Vanitha, Navi, Chitra and Deena (Ravi).
Lily Naidoo and her family moved to Mountview in 1979 where all her children
became teenagers and married. Lily, who has turned 89, now lives in the house
in Mountview all by herself after her children moved on to start their own
families.
Vanitha lives with her family
in Oaklands and according to Taryn, she still keeps in contact with her school
friends of Ottawa.
Navi lives with his family in
Newlands; Chitra, who is now retired, lives in Rose Acre in Alberton in
Johannesburg and Deena lives with his family in Cape Town.
According to Taryn, her uncle,
Akloo, who was number three in the Naidoo family after her father, Jackson, and
her aunty, Amoy, was famously known as Tip Top after working as an assistant
tailor for the Tip Top Tailors company in Stanger. He had left school after
standard six in order to support the family.
He thereafter worked at Doringkop
Sugar Mill as an administrator. After his stint at the mill, Tip Top joined the
South African Sugar Association as a laboratory assistant in Mount Edgecombe.
When he married his wife,
Pushpa, from Mount Edgecombe, Tip Top moved from Ottawa and stayed in a house
at the Experiment Station.
Their son, Vishnu, and
daughters, Shasheila (Vimla) and Persha were born in Ottawa.
Tip Top moved to Phoenix after
his retirement.
Both Tip Top and his wife are now late. Tip Top passed away in February 2021 at the age of 85 after his wife, Pushpa, passed away two years earlier at the age of 79 in March 2019.
Her second uncle, Ruthnam, who
is also known as George, joined the South African Sugar Association at the
Mount Edgecombe Experiment Station. He also stayed in a house near Tip Top
after he married Lilly, who used to be his neighbour in Ottawa's Tin Town. Lilly is the sister
of Ganas, Kanda and Nanda who are now all late.
George and Lilly have emigrated
to Australia after their only daughter, Michelle, passed away a few years ago.
They are living with their son, Melvin, and his wife.
Taryn’s eldest aunty, Amoy, who
is now 91 years-old, worked for the Parthab farmer family, near the new Jhugroo
Primary School.
In the early days – pre1960s -
Indian-origin women working as maids for white families was a norm. This was
mainly evident on sugar estates and in the former white suburbs in and around
Durban.
And Indian-origin women working
as maids for Indian-origin families was not such a regular feature.
But in Munn Road in the Tin
Town area of Ottawa there was a young lady who entered the field in the 1960s
and ended up working for the Parthab farmer family as a maid for more than 35
years.
That young lady was Ms Amoy Naidoo, who lived with her parents, three brothers and
four sisters in the wood and iron house near the Ottawa river.
In the early days in the 1950s,
1960s, 1970s and 1980s, Amoy used to be seen walking from her home to Mr Parthab’s house, which was situated near the new Jhugroo primary
school. And on her way home after work she used to engage on a regular basis
with the Freddy (aka Dubla) Subramoney’s children, especially Ambiga.
Amoy and her brothers and
sisters all became very close to their immediate neighbours and those who lived
nearby on Munn Road.
Over the years she became part
and parcel of the Parthab family and it was no wonder that when she turned 90, a
year ago, Parthab’s son, Prem, visited her at her home in Durban North. She
lives with her sisters Savithree and Saroj.
(The youngest sister, Saroj, with Amoy, husband David and daugter, Thashleen.)
Taryn’s second eldest aunty,
Baby, also worked at Flash Clothing in her early days. After her marriage to
Ganes of Mount Edgecombe, Baby moved to Phoenix and started her new life.
Baby’s husband is now late and
she stays with her daughter Selina in Phoenix.
Taryn’s third aunty, Savithree,
worked at Rindel Attorneys in Verulam for many years. She stayed in Lotusville
in Verulam for some time before moving to stay with her eldest sister, Amoy,
and youngest sister, Saroj, in Durban North.
Taryn recalls some fond
memories of the days in Ottawa with the help of her mother, Lily Naidoo, and
other members of the Naidoo family.
LISTENING TO SPORTS
COMMENTARIES ON RADIO ON SATURDAY AFTERNOONS WHILE SHOOTING DOWN MILK STOUTS
WAS VERY POPULAR
Playing rummy and thunee card
games was a common feature at their first home on top of the river bank. These
games, hosted by Tip Top and George, attracted their neighbours who took part
in the card competitions with loud voices and the downing of Milk Stouts, which
was the popular beer at that time.
Tip Top and George, according
to Taryn, also loved soccer, fishing and wild game hunting.
“Listening to sports
commentaries on radio on Saturday afternoons while shooting down milk stouts
was very popular.
“This became a weekly ritual on Saturday afternoons with friends and families
coming over to the house. They would sit under the big shady Selingaberry tree,
with the radio hanging from a branch and the arial repositioned continuously to
pick up the BEST reception.”
Taryn describes these and other events as “priceless memories”.
“Another memory that is very
clear is that of Paul Jhugroo visiting our home with a receipt book on the
first Sunday of every month to collect the R8 rental.
“We also recall that my mother,
Lily Naidoo, was the 1st female in the family to get her drivers’ licence and who
used my father’s car to drive families to Luxmi Theatre in Verulam to watch the
10 pm feature movies. She ran a shuttle service as my father did not drive
because he did not have a drivers’ licence.
“The family also recalls that
Mr Boodhun, who was a second-hand goods salesman, became a household name and
the family members purchased goods from him. My siblings and I got our first, second-hand
bicycle that was passed down the line until it was taken to pieces.
“Up to this day mum has a full
set of dinnerware bought way back then from Mr Boodhun.
“Another famous Bag Salesman
was FISHY, our neighbour, who lived all on his own and pulled out many
interesting wares. He was highly irritated by kids who often troubled him with
questions.”
Another “priceless memory” was of Lily Naidoo buying a packet of
Rothmans 20 cigarettes every week from Narain’s Cafe for the mother of Channan
and Churran, the twins, who lived next door to Flash Clothing. Lily did this as
her Seva to Mrs Munn.
THE VOLUME WENT HIGHER AS SHOTS INCREASED
The playing of loud music was also another memory that rings in the
“priceless moments” of the Naidoo family.
“Johnnia and his dad, who lived opposite Uncle Harry’s house would keep the
community entertained by some great nachania music, especially over the
weekends.
“The volume went higher as the shots increased.”
·
The Naidoo family also recalled
that the “aunty” who was the chief cook at the old school also lived on the
famous Munn Road. She was the mother of Narain, Moscle and Angela Naicker.
·
“The family remembers that
during heavy rains the river nearby used to overflow and during these times attracted
the local boys, including the Naidoos, to fish for Barbels and all kinds of
fish.”
The Jackson Naidoo family used
to purchase their groceries from Hoosens’ shop in Central Ottawa on credit.
This was done on trust with the Naidoos’ settling their accounts at the end of
each month.
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“Mum recalls that every Sunday
morning she would prepare a ‘breakfast special’. This was a stack of mealie meal
roti and sheep head curry. This was prepared for my dad and a very special guest,
Uncle Dubla, who lived nearby.
“My mother enjoyed cooking the
meal as my dad and Uncle Dubla savoured every bit of the meal.
“Everyone who lived and worked
in and around Flash Clothing became highly spiritual with the recital of the
Aarthi - Om Jay Jagadish Hare, which was played over loudspeakers at the start
and end of every work day. This instilled singing confidence when attending
weekly Satsangs, Ramayna or Geetha week at our school.”
The extended Naidoo family has
now reached more than 100 descendants over four generations. The younger
descendants have made great progress. Some have started their own businesses
while others have qualified as pilots and accountants. Some family members have also migrated to Australia. Ends – subrygovender@gmail.com
Dec 28 2022/March 12 2024
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