Kesaveloo Goonam

Dr Goonmam

Kesaveloo Goonam, also known as Kesaveloo Goonaruthnum Naidoo (1906-1999) was a South African doctor and anti-apartheid activist.

Early life and education

Kesaveloo Goonaruthnum Naidoo was born in Durban. Her mother Thangatchee Naidoo was from Mauritius, and her father R. K. Naidoo was born in India. She was raised speaking Tamil at home, but also attended an English-speaking school. Her parents' social circles meant that she met Mohandas K. Gandhi, Annie Besant, Cissie Gool, and Monty Naicker and others as a girl. She went to medical school at the University of Edinburgh in 1928,[1] and returned with her degree to South Africa in 1936.[2]

Career

In Durban, she established a medical practice among black and Asian women, who came to know that "Dr. Goonam" would meet their needs, especially for reproductive healthcare, with understanding and discretion.[3]

She was also active with the Natal Indian Congress, and was elected as the body's vice president.[4] She was jailed for four months in 1946 for her leadership in the Indian Passive Resistance Campaign,[5] at her request: "I plead guilty and ask the court to impose the maximum sentence permitted by law," she declared in court. It was the first of seventeen jail terms she served.[3]

Her political activities continued, including hosting meetings of the Human Rights Welfare Committee in her medical offices;[6] and after 1961 she left South Africa for England, for her own safety. She traveled during her exile, to Australia, India, and Zimbabwe. She returned to South Africa in 1990, after Nelson Mandela was released from prison. She voted in the 1994 South African elections.[7] Also in 1994, she called for the disbanding of the Natal Indian Congress, saying "now is the time to go."[8]

She published her autobiography, Coolie Doctor, in 1991.[9]

Personal life

Kesaveloo Goonam died in 1999, aged 92 years.[10]

References

  1. ↑ "First South African Indian Lady Left for England to Study Medicine" Indian Opinion (9 March 1928): 1.
  2. ↑ "Dr. Goonam (Kesaveloo Goonaruthnum Naidoo)" South African History Online.
  3. 1 2 Devi Moodley Rajab, Women: South Africans of Indian Origin (Jacana Media 2011): 12-17. ISBN 9781431401048
  4. ↑ Shireen Hassim, Women's Organizations and Democracy in South Africa: Contesting Authority (University of Wisconsin Press 2006): 24-25. ISBN 9780299213831
  5. ↑ Neville Grimmet, "Dr. Goonam", eThekwini Online.
  6. ↑ Saleem Badat, The Forgotten People: Political Banishment under Apartheid (BRILL 2013): 269. ISBN 9789004247710
  7. ↑ Oral history interview with Vanitha Chetty, Voices of Resistance.
  8. ↑ "100 Years of Solidarity Now It's Time to Die" Mail & Guardian (2 September 1994).
  9. ↑ Kesaveloo Goonam, Coolie Doctor: An Autobiography (Madiba Publications 1991). ISBN 9780958316934
  10. ↑ Antoinette Burton, "The Pain of Racism in the Making of a 'Coolie Doctor'" Interventions 13(2)(2011): 212-235.

External links

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