Ottawa Pioneer Residents

        (Driving School pioneer, Mr Freddy Govender, and his wife, Athima.)                               THE RICH HISTORY OF A PIONEER FAMILY WHO HAVE THEIR ROOTS TO INDENTURED LABOURERS WHO WORKED AT THE OTTAWA SUGAR ESTATE By Subry Govender   One of the pioneer Ottawa families, who made a significant contribution to the promotion of Indian culture, also became well-known in the village because of their driving school business. The business, known as “Freddie’s Driving School”, was owned and operated by Mr Freddie Govender, who lived with his large family of wife, Athima, and nine children in a house right opposite the old North Coast main road in the Uplands area of the village. Mr Govender ran the driving school in the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s at a time when driving school operators were few and far between. Mr Govender and his wife moved to Ottawa in the early 1940s from the Ottawa Sugar Estate. Both of them were born in the Ottawa estate to parents who were indentured