ABSTRACT
When South Africans speak of “Asians” they mean Indians, though the “Colored” category also includes other Asian strains and the handful of Chinese who live in South Africa. The first group of Indians to arrive were shipped by the British from India to South Africa in the 1860s as indentured laborers, to work in the sugarcane fields of Natal, one of South Africa’s four provinces (Meer 1980). The Indians’ arrival in South Africa was the result of a triangular pact among the governments of Natal (South Africa), India, and Great Britain, the British government being in control of the other two at that time (Pachai 1971). The shipments went on until 1911.
