My African story

Sharing the journey of two worlds

A JOURNEY started 162 years ago under African skies to what we enjoy today, from indenture to slave to freedom.

The tales are harsh of my people and their blood still runs on our land, but their joy of culture and tradition allows their hearts to forever remain with us.

We have thrived, risen above all odds and excelled as children born from indenture. The Indian Ocean has brought with it the echoes of scripture and chanting to our shores; apart from everything else that we have imbibed, the most valuable that Bharat (the name of India in ancient time) has given us is the quality of humility, patience, love and forgiveness.

VERUSHKA Pather, seated, and models wearing Khanya Designs. | Facebook

Today 162 years later, a child who has been blessed to share the journey of two worlds – her ancestral land of India and born as a child of Africa – has a deep passion to share the weave of our land with the world.

This is our progression. We have evolved and as we celebrate the traditions of our foremothers, we still carry Kavady, we fire walk, and we prepare timeless foods such as idli, sambar, dosa and paniyaram. This is who we are.

But we have also imbibed the culture of the land we were born from, with the trials and tribulations it comes with. This has created the unique make-up of our beings, a unique personality that has the best of both worlds has

allowed us to become powerful creators – making ground-breaking inventions and thought provoking conversations at many levels.

And 162 years later, adorned with all the best of our ancestors, we have a voice as an Indian African. We are a generation of influencers.

ONE of the Khanya Designs. | Supplied

We have the collaboration of cultures. This is the pride of our people. The Indian African is the unique part of our nation bringing two worlds together.

Khanya Designs has created the first African sari with the vision to bring about collaboration using personalised Indo-African creations as a medium to experience social cohesion. eShweshwe is the original heritage weave of our country, telling tales of our land, our history, culture and the soul of our people. Along with exclusive African beading and the finest of Indian silk and cotton, Khanya Designs is a competitive global brand taking Africa to the world. Wearing a Khanya garment gives one a sense of pride, belonging, the sharing of history and you make a statement that you have arrived without saying a word.

Welcome to the African Renaissance.

VERUSHKA PATHER

Pather is a Bharathanatyam artist, fashion designer and owner of Khanya Designs

Crossing By Dr Betty Govinden

Tumbling from the great ghats in India, To the holding places in Port Natal, Ushered in by the capricious tide;

Crossing the kala pani, Children of the rain and storm, Buffeted by waves;

Stitching fragments of self, Patched together In the waters of the voyage;

Finding anchors in the wind, Fated to be vagabonds of identity Their histories sinewed to their bones;

Tilling in coolie canefields, Learning the language and lore Of foreign shores;

Toiling for tea for empire, Castaways, Stonebodies in compounds;

Preserving the ancient hearth, With ladoos and rasgoolas – The remembrance of things past;

Lighting the family God-lamp, With suppliant hands, Watched by the stars;

Working with new kith and kin, For freedom to sprout on parched ground;

Mingling blood and water, To forge a new people, A new heaven and a new earth;

Heaving the sheaves of yesterday: This Harvest of Memory – New Beatitudes for our time and place…

Govinden is a writer and literary critic