For the sons and daughters of indenture, the nostalgia of the Clairwood community from its beginnings circa 1880, will always be regarded as the symbol of our collective triumph over multidimensional deprivation and oppression.
Yet Clairwood was so much more than just a swamp near Durban Bay where our former plantation-labourers -now-ex-indentured forefathers could settle to re-establish their own identities and reimagine their communities. Central to this identity, was the Clairwood Shree Siva Soobramoniar temple (CSSST) or “Sirdar Road temple” as it was fondly known. In many ways, the establishment of this icon of our faith, completed our sense of belonging.
If you did not receive your Tamil school lesson there, then you sought divine blessings, invoked a trance, carried kavady, attended a prayer service or simply enjoyed the prasadam. It is undeniable that those hallowed temple grounds gave our people an escape beyond their lived
realities.
The Late Mr. Bill Govender and his lifelong friends, like so many before them, recognized the inherent value and contribution of the CSSST beyond merely a place of worship – they viewed this temple as a root which wreathes the lives of the generational descendants of indentured
labourers in this new South African society.
The family of the Late Mr Bill Govender salutes all the Trustees, officials, patrons, individuals, and families who have selflessly continued to support the CSSST over the generations, ensuring a living legacy for us to uphold as a symbol of our pride and resilience.
Anbe Sivam, Sivame Anbu.
In loving memory of the Late Mr. Loganathan Munsamy Govender (Bill), loved and cherished by his family, relatives and peers
