Mohan0182 at 14:15, 15 July 2023

2023-07-15T14:15:40Z

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{{Short description|Anti-apartheid activist (1918–1973)}}
{{Use dmy dates}}

{{Infobox person
| name = Amina Pahad
| honorific_suffix = {{post-nominals|country=ZAR|OLS}}
| birth_name = Amina Tilley
| birth_date = July 1918
| birth_place = [[Klerksdorp]], [[Transvaal Province|Transvaal]]<br />[[Union of South Africa]]
| death_date = {{death date|1973|05|26|df=yes}} (aged 54)
| death_place = [[Bombay, India]]
| party = [[Transvaal Indian Congress]]
| spouse = Goolam Hoosain Pahad
| children = 5, including [[Essop Pahad|Essop]] and [[Aziz Pahad|Aziz]]
}}

'''Amina Pahad''' [[Order of Luthuli|<small>OLS</small>]] ({{Nee|Tilley}}; July 1918 – 26 May 1973) was a South African [[anti-apartheid activist]]. A member of the [[Transvaal Indian Congress]], she rose to prominence for her role in [[Passive Resistance|passive resistance]] against the [[Asiatic Land Tenure and Indian Representation Act, 1946|Asiatic Land Tenure and Indian Representation Act]] of 1946. She was also known as the matriarch of the Pahad family's politically active home in [[Johannesburg]].

== Early life and Orient House ==
Pahad was born in July 1918 in [[Klerksdorp]] in the former [[Transvaal (province)|Transvaal]].<ref name=":0">{{Cite web |title=Amina Pahad (1918 – 1973) |url=https://www.thepresidency.gov.za/national-orders/recipient/amina-pahad-1918-1973 |access-date=2023-07-14 |website=The Presidency}}</ref> She became politically active as a teenager, attracted to [[Mahatma Gandhi]]'s ''[[satyagraha]]'' campaigns,<ref name=":0" /> and she married Goolam Hoosain Pahad, an activist of the [[Transvaal Indian Congress]] (TIC). In 1945, the Pahads and their five young sons – Ismail, [[Essop Pahad|Essop]], [[Aziz Pahad|Aziz]], Nassim, and Zunaid – moved to [[Johannesburg]], where they kept a two-bedroom flat at Orient House on Becker Street in [[Ferreirastown]].<ref name=":2">{{Cite book |last=Pahad |first=Aziz |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=BgZbDwAAQBAJ&newbks=0&hl=en |title=Insurgent Diplomat – Civil Talks or Civil War? |publisher=Penguin Random House South Africa |isbn=978-0-14-353134-0 |language=en |author-link=Aziz Pahad}}</ref>

Orient House was near several political landmarks, including the [[Magistrate's court (South Africa)|magistrate's court]]; [[Chancellor House (building)|Chancellor House]], which housed [[Nelson Mandela]] and [[Oliver Tambo]]'s law offices; and the offices of two prominent [[Internal resistance to apartheid|anti-apartheid organisations]], the TIC and the [[African National Congress]].<ref name=":2" /> The flat thus became a hub for social and political gatherings, with meals prepared by Pahad frequently attended by anti-apartheid activists.<ref name=":0" /><ref name=":1">{{Cite book |last=Vahed |first=Goolam H. |url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/858966865 |title=Muslim portraits: the anti-apartheid struggle |others= |isbn=1-874945-25-X |location=Durban, South Africa |pages=292-3 |chapter=Amina Pahad (1918–1973) |oclc=858966865}}</ref><ref name=":3">{{Cite book |last=Hiralal |first=Kalpana |url=https://books.google.co.za/books?id=-CmgEAAAQBAJ&dq=amina+pahad&source=gbs_navlinks_s |title='Sisters in the Struggle': Women of Indian Origin in South Africa's Liberation Struggle 1900–1994 |publisher=Taylor & Francis |isbn=978-1-000-83814-5 |language=en |chapter=Amina Pahad}}</ref> [[Ben Turok]], for example, calling Pahad "the best [[curry]] cook in the [anti-apartheid] movement", later recalled lunching at the flat to evade state-imposed [[List of people subject to banning orders under apartheid|banning orders]].<ref>{{Cite book |last=Turok |first=Ben |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-QVzAAAAMAAJ&newbks=0 |title=Nothing But the Truth: Behind the ANC's Struggle Politics |publisher=Jonathan Ball |isbn=978-1-86842-176-3 |pages=87 |language=en |author-link=Ben Turok}}</ref>

Though fluent in [[Gujarati language|Gujarati]] and [[Hindi]], Pahad initially spoke little English, but she was renowned for her hospitality; according to one of her sons, she insisted on offering refreshments to the [[Security Branch (South Africa)|Security Branch]] officers who frequently arrived at the flat for a raid or interrogation.<ref name=":2" /> [[Ahmed Kathrada]] frequently described Pahad as his "second mother",<ref name=":4">{{Cite book |last=Kathrada |first=Ahmad M. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=32nPvAEACAAJ&newbks=0&hl=en |title=Memoirs |publisher=Zebra Press |isbn=978-1-86872-918-0 |language=en |author-link=Ahmed Kathrada}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Kathrada |first=Ahmed |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=3Oq9DwAAQBAJ&newbks=0&hl=en |title=uMama: Recollections of South African Mothers and Grandmothers |publisher=African Sun Media |isbn=978-1-928314-33-2 |pages=63 |language=en |chapter=Unsung heroes and heroines |author-link=Ahmed Kathrada}}</ref> and [[Walter Sisulu]] described Orient House as "a home away from home".<ref name=":5">{{Cite book |last=Sisulu |first=Elinor |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=O2Jxes0JT0MC&newbks=0&hl=en |title=Walter & Albertina Sisulu: In Our Lifetime |publisher=New Africa Books |isbn=978-0-86486-639-4 |pages=110 |language=en |author-link=Elinor Sisulu}}</ref>

== Passive resistance ==
Pahad was a member of the organising committee for the [[Passive Resistance|passive resistance]] campaign against the [[Asiatic Land Tenure and Indian Representation Act, 1946|Asiatic Land Tenure and Indian Representation Act]], waged by the [[South African Indian Congress]] from 1946 to 1948.<ref name=":3" /> The campaign opened in June 1946 on a [[White South Africans|white]]-reserved plot of land in [[Durban]]; Pahad was among the first tranche of TIC volunteers, primarily women, who [[Occupation (protest)|occupied]] the plot illegally.<ref name=":0" /><ref>{{Cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=52MKAQAAIAAJ&newbks=0&hl=en |title=The African Communist |publisher=South African Communist Party |pages=100 |language=en}}</ref> On 17 June, she was injured when the resistance site was attacked by white youths, and she was later arrested and imprisoned for a month, but upon her release she returned to the site for re-arrest.<ref name=":3" /> According to Kathrada, Pahad explained after her second arrest, "perhaps only partly in jest, that she did not want her husband to know the humiliation and ordeal of going to jail, and would rather volunteer in his place."<ref name=":4" />
{{Quote box
| quote = I often visited the home of Amina Pahad for lunch, and then, suddenly, this charming woman put aside her apron and went to jail for her beliefs. If I had once questioned the willingness of the Indian community to protest against oppression, I no longer could.
| source = – [[Nelson Mandela]] on Pahad's passive resistance activities<ref name=":6" />
| align = right
| width = 23%
}}
Both Walter Sisulu and Nelson Mandela said that Pahad's involvement in passive resistance helped shape their later perceptions of [[Indian South Africans|Indians]],'''<ref name=":6">{{Cite book |last=Mandela |first=Nelson |title=Long Walk To Freedom |title-link=Long Walk to Freedom |publisher=Little, Brown Book Group |isbn=978-1-4055-3074-3 |language=en |author-link=Nelson Mandela}}</ref>''' overturning what Sisulu's biographer, [[Elinor Sisulu]], described as the presumption that Indian women were "[[Conservatism|conservative]] and unwilling to involve themselves in public life".<ref name=":5" /> She also volunteered for arrest during the 1952 [[Defiance Campaign]], though she was by then suffering from [[rheumatism]], and she took part in the 1956 [[Women's March (South Africa)|Women's March]] on the [[Union Buildings]].<ref name=":0" /><ref name=":1" /> During the 1950s, she was among a small group of women – also including [[Fatima Meer]] and [[Zainab Asvat]] – who sought to establish a dedicated political association for Indian women; they ultimately joined the non-racial [[Federation of South African Women]].<ref>{{Cite book |last=Hassim |first=Shireen |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=9aTsUA-9qXMC&newbks=0&hl=en |title=Women's Organizations and Democracy in South Africa: Contesting Authority |publisher=University of Wisconsin Press |isbn=978-0-299-21383-1 |pages=24-5 |language=en}}</ref>

== Later life and death ==
In the 1960s, Pahad and her husband moved to England to follow two of her sons, activists Aziz and Essop, who had been banned by the apartheid government.<ref name=":3" /> Their flat in [[London]] became host to a new generation of activists, including Essop's friend [[Thabo Mbeki]].<ref name=":3" /> Pahad and her husband later left London for [[Bombay, India]],<ref>{{Cite web |title=Anti-apartheid activist dies |url=https://www.news24.com/news24/anti-apartheid-activist-dies-20011115 |access-date=2023-07-14 |website=News24 |language=en-US}}</ref> where Pahad died in a car accident on 26 May 1973.<ref name=":0" />

In April 2006,<ref>{{Cite news |title=Mbeki salutes South African stars |work=IOL |url=https://www.iol.co.za/news/south-africa/mbeki-salutes-south-african-stars-274883 |access-date=14 July 2023}}</ref> Mbeki, who was by then the second post-apartheid [[President of South Africa]], awarded Pahad the [[Order of Luthuli]] in silver for her "Excellent contribution to the struggle for democracy, equality and justice in South Africa."''<ref name=":0" />''

== References ==
{{Reflist}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Pahad, Amina}}

[[Category:1918 births]]
[[Category:1973 deaths]]
[[Category:People from Klerksdorp]]
[[Category:South African people of Indian descent]]
[[Category:South African Indian Congress politicians]]
[[Category:South African women activists]]
[[Category:Anti-apartheid activists]]
[[Category:Muslim South African anti-apartheid activists]]
[[Category:South African expatriates in India]]
[[Category:Members of the Order of Luthuli]]

Amina Pahad - Revision history

Mohan0182 at 14:15, 15 July 2023