Slave families get back land
2004-09-19 16:50
Durban - South Africa on Saturday handed back land to descendents of slaves brought from Zanzibar, ending their decades-old struggle to return to an area from which their families had been evicted during the apartheid era.
Members of the 5 000-strong community received a 5ha plot of land in Durban, where their ancestors had settled at the end of the 19th century.
"This is one of the greatest days.
"I feel today that the wrongs of the last 46 years have been righted today ," said Abey Canthitoo, a spokesperson for the Zanzibari Development Trust.
The community's history in South Africa dates back to 1873 after a British ship intercepted a vessel carrying about 450 people who had been kidnapped from the Zanzibar island off the Tanzanian coast by Arab slave traders.
The slaves were brought to Durban and interned as indentured labour, before being freed two years later.
After the apartheid government introduced the Group Areas Act, their descendants were forcibly moved in 1961 to areas set aside for Indian and coloured people.
'Lost tribe'
"The government didn't know how to classify us," said Canthitoo.
"We were called the lost tribe, then Bantu, then coloured and finally were we classified as Asians," Canthitoo said.
The Zanzibaris, as they are now known, plan to build 250 middle-income housing units, an office park and a cultural centre on the land.
"This is one of the happiest days of my life," said an emotional 83-year-old Mwasheha Abdul.
She remembers vividly being hauled away from her home with her husband and four children.
"That was one of the darkest days. Its been a long struggle, at times we almost lost hope but we kept on," Abdul said.
She plans to move back to the area "to raise my great-grandchildren."
KwaZulu-Natal land claims commissioner, Thabi Shange, handed over the title deeds.
"In all the urban claims were dealing with, people want money instead of land.
"This one is different and fulfilling because the Zanzibaris want a permanent asset that is visible enough that they can show to their children," Shange said.
"This land will not be encumbered, it cannot be sold or mortgaged so that it will held in perpetuity for their children, she said.
Cultural status
For the Zanzibaris, one of South Africa's smallest minority groups, the land award also serves as recognition of their cultural status.
Most still understand Makua "an ancient Tanzanian language" and are staunch Moslems.
"In the early days, we weren't well received in the Indian and coloured areas because they didn't understand us," said Canthitoo.
"But we have managed to keep our culture alive.
"We still speak our mother tongue, Makua, and we teach it to our children," he said.