“It was surreal”: Kerishnie Naiker recalls nearly flying to New York on 9/11

Former Miss SA Kerishnie Naiker recalls nearly flying to New York on 9/11, after watching the tragedy unfold at Durban Airport when flights were cancelled.

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Phoenix Settlement:

Mohandas Karamchand (Mahatma) Gandhi came out to South Africa in 1893. He was in Durban to attend to some legal matters on behalf of local businessman and experienced for himself the racial unfairness of the period.

Once his legal business was concluded, Gandhi was extolled by the local Indian community and urged to remain in Durban and to fight for the rights of Indian people.

Gandhi, finding his purpose then in South Africa, travelled back to Indian and fetched his family, returning to Durban where news of his arrival had reached white ears leading to a great deal of anger within the white community.

Gandhi purchased some land outside the city of Durban and established his Phoenix settlement where he embarked on a lifetime of fighting for the rights of Indians in South Africa. He went on to establish the first Indian newspaper that resulted in the government having to soften it’s stance towards the Indian cause somewhat.

Today Phoenix settlement still survives in the township of KwaMashu. Gandhi’s original home was destroyed during the race riots of the 1970’s but has since been restored. Nearby is the house that his children grew up in and the building which housed the Indian Opinion still stands today.