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Gandhi Comic Launched
Most South Africans have a minimal
knowledge of the role that Gandhi played in the struggle and
the kinds of activities that he engaged in during his
period. The Gandhi Committee, Johannesburg opted to develop
a comic that depicts Gandhi’s South African period and
introduces the readers to the tradition of resistance
evident in our own struggle against apartheid in this
country. The primary aim of the comic is to reach out to
youngsters and introduce them to the historical figures of
the South African landscape. Gandhi’s South African period
shaped and influenced him as he then took on the British
Empire until India gained its independence in 1947. The 20
page colour comic offers a glimpse of Gandhi and provides
readers with an opportunity to understand the history of
both Gandhi and a vital period in South Africa. The comic
has been researched by the Gandhi committee and produced by
Strika Entertainment. Comics will be made available to
schools and organizations for distribution within
communities.
Mahatma Gandhi arrived in South Africa as a young lawyer
and spent 21 years in this country developing his philosophy
of non-violence. Arriving in this country as a 24 year old
Indian lawyer, one of his first encounters involved being
ordered off a train and spending the night in a waiting room
in Pietermaritzburg. This was the start of a 21 year period
that saw Gandhi using the law, the media, community action
and the force of non-violence strategies to deal with the
injustices of the political environment in this country.
On January 28, 1948, two days before he
was assassinated, he told a prayer meeting in New Delhi: "I
have myself lived in South Africa for twenty years and I can
therefore say that it is my country." It is this period
that the comic chronicles in a blend of fiction and fact.
On the 18th October 2004 the
comic was launched at the Gandhi Peace Lecture at
Constitutional Hill. The event was co-hosted
by the Constitutional Court, the Indian Consulate,
Johannesburg and the Gandhi Committee. Ferial Haffejee, former editor of the Mail and Guardian delivered the Gandhi
Peace Lecture. |
