freinds, we know about slave forts in the west coast of africa. millions of africans were weighed and sold to the portugese by the local chieftains. they were later shipmented to americas and auctioned. the slavery wasbetween 1450-1850. the peak was in between 1600-1800. 20 million slave africans were traded of the americas. the slavery was abolished by britain by 1850s.
then started the indentured labour. this is milder form of slavery. the slaves were mostly from south india. though they were free to leave the work they had no option to escape as they were trnsported to guyanas, fiji, africa, malaya and ceylone.
the transit point was rameswaram. the mandapam camp it is called. it is modelled in the form of slave forts of west coast africa. it is estimated some 5-10 lakh south-indians were traded off this way.
today the durban tamils numbering about 5-6 lakhs are prosperous. the durban deputy mayor is loganathan nayudoo and the south african communication minister is radhakrishna roy padayachee.
durban tamils now show more interest in retracing their origins culture and language.