Progress...

I've posted some pics from our last few days here. On Sunday we had a lovely dinner at my Uncle Cyril's and Auntie Kogi's house. Auntie Kogi made some lovely food, including pickled fish and lamb biryani. I borrowed some of Uncle Cyril's prize pictures of my grandfather Naidoo, and my great grandfather Naidoo (Marayan Naidoo, pictured here on the left, with his wife from the Cape, Minimal Cecilia). The day before we made a trip to my grandmother and grandfather Naidoo's grave. We visited a number of different sites, and I shot a bunch of video, including Resistance Park in Durban.

Yesterday we visited the documentary center over at the Westville campus. We came across an interesting family tree for the Gabriel family, which we think was done by my Auntie Maureen Gabriel. We'll have a chance to discuss this with her tomorrow. There was precious little on Vincent Lawrence. He's the main reason we are here. He served with Gandhi in the Volunteer Indian Ambulance Corps during the Anglo-Boer War, and helped keep the Natal Indian Congress going while Gandhi was off in the Transvaal. We also have a picture that we think includes Vincent Lawrence bidding farewell to Gandhi, before Gandhi's return to India. See below.



Today Mum and I did our first interview with Dr. Goolam Vahed. Previously, we had done a lot of informal interviews. Anyway, it felt good to make this start. Dr. Vahed has also been looking at Christian Indians in South Africa for a chapter in his new book. He had a bunch of information on the Gabriel Family that I still need to go through...

Tomorrow we are scheduled to see Ila Gandhi, Mahatma Gandhi's grand daughter. And in the afternoon we'll see my mum's Auntie Franci. We'll have lunch, and a chance to interview Auntie Franci and Maureen, on the Gabriel side of the family.