Into That Heaven of Freedom

In this book, the author, a second-generation South African, captures the history of his extended family, beginning 1894, when Jivan Keshavjee arrived as a ?passenger? Indian and established his family in Marabastad, a settlement close to Pretoria, to which they were relegated by the racist legislation of the country. The author describes the early political struggles of Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi against the backdrop of life in Marabastad and other racially demarcated enclaves, where many of the Indian leaders of the struggle against apartheid were born and formed. In the 1950s, members of his family emigrated to Kenya where they witnessed the Mau Mau insurrection that ultimately led to Kenya's independence. His story captures the subsequent ?wind of change? in Africa, and how the Asian minority had to grapple with new challenges such as the Ugandan expulsion in 1972. His own struggle to reassert his human dignity is described with a tinge of humour and irony as he embarks on his search to find a homeland, which he does in Canada. With 30 pages of historical photographs, a family tree, and a facsimile of Mahatma Gandhi's letter to Velshi Keshavjee in 1939, this unique account is not only a multigenerational family history but also a history of the Indians of Africa over a hundred years.