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Yusuf Cachalia
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Yusuf Mohamed Cachalia (15 January 1915 – 9 April 1995) was a South African anti-apartheid activist. He was the secretary of the South African Indian Congress, in which capacity he played a central role in organising the 1952 Defiance Campaign.
Key Information
Early life and education
[edit]Cachalia was born on 15 January 1915 in Johannesburg.[1] His father, A. M. (Ahmed Mohamed) Cachalia, was a politically active Indian: he was a close ally to Mohandas Gandhi and had served as president of the Transvaal British Indian Association.[2] Cachalia himself left South Africa between 1936 and 1941 to study Islamic philosophy in India.[1]
Activism and career
[edit]Upon his return to South Africa, Cachalia became an influential figure in the Transvaal Indian Congress (TIC) and South African Indian Congress (SAIC), ultimately serving as secretary of the SAIC.[1][3] He was known for his "eclectic" personal political philosophy, which combined orthodox Islamic thought with Gandhian philosophy and Marxism.[1][2] He was viewed as an ally of Yusuf Dadoo, who was credited with effecting a left-wing putsch in the Indian Congresses,[2] as well as an ally of Nelson Mandela.[4] Like Dadoo and Mandela, he was an advocate for closer cooperation between Indians and black Africans.
Cachalia represented the SAIC on the joint planning council that organised the non-racial 1952 Defiance Campaign,[1] and in December 1952 he was among the activists convicted for their role in planning the campaign.[2] The following year, he was issued with a strict banning order, which thereafter was renewed several times; between 1963 and 1973, he was not only banned but confined to effective house arrest in Fordsburg.[2][3] Despite his ban, he was a member of the committee that drafted the Freedom Charter in 1955.[1][3] His banning orders expired in 1977 and resumed his activism.[3]
He died at his home in Johannesburg on 9 April 1995,[3] less than a year after the end of apartheid.[2][5] Mandela, by then serving as President of South Africa, described his death as a "great personal blow".[6]
Personal life
[edit]Cachalia was Muslim.[1] Joe Matthews later said that he was known for being, with Mandela, one of "the two best-dressed chaps in the [anti-apartheid] movement".[4]
Cachalia had two sons and a daughter from two marriages.[3] His first wife was Bettie du Toit, a white Afrikaner.[2] In July 1955,[7] he remarried to Amina Asvat, the daughter of another Gandhi ally, Ebrahim Asvat.[8] In her 2013 memoirs, Asvat alleged that some of Cachalia's friends disapproved of their marriage, leading to rifts between Cachalia and his elder brother, Moulvi, and between Cachalia and Ahmed Kathrada.[7] Nonetheless, Asvat said that Cachalia was "a liberated husband. He always let me do exactly what I felt necessary."[1] Their two children are Coco, a media personality, and Ghaleb, a politician.[1]
References
[edit]- ^ a b c d e f g h i Vahed, Goolam H. (2012). Muslim portraits: the anti-apartheid struggle. Durban, South Africa. pp. 51–62. ISBN 978-1-874945-25-3. OCLC 858966865.
{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link) - ^ a b c d e f g "Yusuf Cachalia". South African History Online. 17 February 2011. Retrieved 24 June 2024.
- ^ a b c d e f "Obituary: Yusuf Cachalia". Mayibuye. 6 (2). 1 June 1995.
- ^ a b Smith, David James (6 December 2010). Young Mandela: The Revolutionary Years. Little, Brown. ISBN 978-0-316-12224-5.
- ^ "Editorial: Beyers Fischer and Cachalia". The Mail & Guardian. 12 May 1995. Retrieved 24 June 2024.
- ^ "Cachalia tribute". The Mail & Guardian. 12 May 1995. Retrieved 24 June 2024.
- ^ a b Cachalia, Amina (2013). When Hope and History Rhyme: An Autobiography. Picador Africa. ISBN 978-1-77010-318-4.
- ^ Women Marching Into the 21st Century: Wathint' Abafazi, Wathint' Imbokodo. HSRC Press. 2000. pp. 26–27. ISBN 978-0-7969-1966-3.
External links
[edit]- 1952 photograph of Cachalia during the Defiance Campaign, via Getty Images