Johannesburg, Sep 27 (PTI) Valliamma Munusamy, a Tamil girl who marched alongside Mahatma Gandhi as South African Indians protested discriminatory laws which would have required them to carry permits, has been honoured on the centenary of her death at the age of 16.
A bust of Munuswamy was unveiled recently on South Africa’s public holiday Heritage Day after the third edition of awards made annually in her name on the day by the Tamil Federation of Gauteng to women who had made huge sacrifices in the fight against apartheid.
Munuswamy was 16 when she joined struggle stalwart Mahatma Gandhi in 1913. She was also sentenced to three months imprisonment with hard labour for this.
Flanked by two columns, the bust, unveiled in Lenasia, south of Johannesburg, tells her story in the liberation struggle.
The young leader died at the age of 16 after contracting illnesses during imprisonment because of her marches with Gandhi against discriminatory laws in the then Transvaal province.
Valliamma, as she had remained popularly known for decades, has served as an inspiration for decades to women and youth freedom fighters, especially in the Tamil community that she came from.
Gandhi wrote about her determination from the age of 11 to mobilise women and youth in the campaign to oppose the planned discriminatory laws.
There have been memorials erected in Chennai in India and in Malaysia in Valliamma’s honour, South Africa ? the naming of the hall in a popular community organisation facility in Lenasia by the Johannesburg Institute of Social Services.
The bust was a dream of Tamil Federation of Gauteng (TFG) President Nadas Pillay for several years.
“I must compliment my fellow executives on the TFG who shared my dream and worked so hard to ensure the success of the project, together with the support of South African Tamil Federation President Karthi Moothsamy and past office-bearers of the TFG,” Pillay said.
Sathia Pillay, founder President of the TFG, related how Tamil leaders had located Valliamma’s unmarked grave in a cemetery in Johannesburg following a long search after democracy arrived in South Africa. An annual memorial service is now hosted there by TFG on Youth Day, June 16, every year.
This year’s recipients were country’s first democratically -elected President Nelson Mandela’s ex-wife Winnie Madikizela Mandela, former Speaker of Parliament Frene Ginwala, former cabinet minister Barbara Hogan, Human Rights activist and lawyer Navaneetham Pillay and Sophie de Bruyn, the last surviving leader of the 1956 protest march on the Union Buildings.
