Ottawa Pioneer Residents

     (Mr Ismail "Malee" Sayed - second from right -  with fellow residents of Ottawa involved in the building of the new Jhugroo Primary School) BY SUBRY GOVENDER (Mrs Momien Sayed with two of her daughters)   “Life for us in the early days in Ottawa was enjoyable, safe, friendly and we celebrated the company of our neighbours and friends. This kind of life we will never enjoy again.” This is how 67-year-old Rookaya Bibi Ismail, known as Zubee, described her life and that of her parents, three sisters and four brothers when I talked to her at the family home at the corner of Munn and School Roads in December 2022. Her parents, Ismail Sayed, also known as Malee, and Momien Bibi Sayed, moved to the property in the early 1940s when they were a newly-married couple. They first stayed in a two-room wood and iron house situated about 50 metres from the present house. Mr Sayed married his wife, Momien Bibi Hassan, who was from the Mount Edgecombe Sugar Esta...

  (Aboo Padvattan - second from right wearing hat - seen here with his father,  Doorsamy Padvattan,  mother, and brothers and sisters)  ABOO WAS PART OF THE PADVATTAN DOORSAMY FAMILY OF OTTAWA ESTATE WHOSE GRAND-PARENTS HAD COME DOWN TO THE FORMER NATAL COLONY FROM TAMIL NADU IN SOUTH INDIA TO TOIL AS INDENTURED LABOURERS     (Aboo and his wife, Sindha, in their younger days)                                                            By Subry Govender   One of the young men who emerged from the local sugar estate to become a top-class footballer for Ottawa in the late 1960s and 1970s and 1980s was none other than Aboo Thirumalai Padvattan. Aboo, as he was popularly known, dominated the sport in the junior and senior levels and represented the village as a member of the Ottawa F C and the Ottawa United Foo...

         (Mr Gamson Munn as a member of the Ottawa Diwali Hamper Group handing out food                 hampers to the under-privileged) (THE INFORMATION AND PHOTOS FOR THIS ARTICLE WAS PROVIDED BY JAI MUNN, ONE OF THE SONS OF THE GAMSON MUNN FAMILY) By Subry Govender One of the well-known residents of the Ottawa/Mount Vernon district was Mr Gamson Munn, who passed away at his home in Riverview Road at the age of 86 in 2021. Gamson belonged to the famous Jhugroo clan who donated the land where the Jhugroo Primary School is situated in the area known as Tin Town in Ottawa. (Mr Gamson Munn (seated extreme right) as a member of the Jhugroo Primary School Trust) Born in the Riet River village in 1932,   Gamson was the son of Munn and Sanjaria. He had four brothers – Ramnanan, Kowlesar, Puran and Komal and three sisters. His grandfather was Mr Jhugroo, who was the family ancestor who arrived in the former Port N...

  (Mr Baijnath Singh and his wife, Poolmathie) BORN AND BRED IN OTTAWA, BAIJNATH SINGH WORKED AT THE LOCAL OTTAWA SUGAR ESTATE FOR MORE THAN 55 YEARS.   (Mr Baijnath Singh (standing extreme left) visiting the former Lourenzo Marques (now Maputo) with friends in the 1970s. In the centre, seated is Mr January Naidoo of Verulam and friends.)                     (BY SUBRY GOVENDER) (This article was made possible through the information and photos supplied by Sunjith Singh - the eldest son of Mr Baijnath Singh.)       A second-generation descendant of indentured labourers, who was born and lived all his life in the Ottawa village, has left a legacy of not only hard work and self-reliance but also a commitment to spiritual development. Mr Baijnath Singh, who was born in 1922 in a property below the old railway line, worked at the Ottawa Sugar Estate for more than 55 years and was a member and senior official...