11/09/2026
HERITAGE FOOD OF INDENTURED INDIANS FROM THE SEA TO THE PLANTATION.
Selvan Naidoo and Kiru Naidoo
The Surgeon Superintendent’s journal of the sea voyage of the SS Umzinto, transporting 483 indentured workers to Natal in 1903, makes for interesting reading. Of particular interest to us is understanding the cultural heritage of food and how we arrived at this culture, 166 years after the first indentured workers arrived in Durban.
The SS Umzinto left Madras port on 11 December 1903, arriving at Durban at 6.15 pm on 31 December 1903. During the twenty-day journey, children were fed breakfast at 7.30 am, adults at 9 am, with supper between 4 and 5 pm. There was no lunch.
On the first day of the journey, the Surgeon Superintendent wrote that he boarded the ship the previous afternoon, with his luggage, and inspected all parts of the ship with the Chief Officer, the Captain being ashore. The ship was very clean, and everything appeared to be in order, including the dispensary. He inspected what he referred to as the ‘coolie’ stores, evaluating the quality and quantity of food items, according to samples, and found that all were correct, with the qualities being ‘all of the best standard’ in his assessment.
The next morning the Superintendent reported that the weather was fine and clear, with smooth sea conditions; the temperature during the day was considerably warmer, until rain at 3 p.m. cooled things down. The children were served gruel, a watery rice-based porridge, with milk being served at 7.30 a.m. At 9 a.m., the morning meal consisted of biscuits, choorah (Powa or flattened rice flakes) with sugar. The evening meal of cooked rice and curry was served at 4.15 p.m
The following days, the same routine followed, with the meals consisting of gruel and milk served to children at 7 a.m. and 3 p.m. Adult passengers were served morning tea with biscuits, choorah and sugar at 9 a.m., and in the evening, a meal of mutton curry and rice, served at 4.50 pm.
On other days, the morning meal was made up of cooked rice and pepper water ( rasam) and dhall at 9 a.m. The afternoon meal for that day was a vegetarian choice of cooked rice dhall and potato curry that was served at 4.15 p.m.
On the 15th Day, the weather was reported as rainy and dull in the morning, with the emigrants kept below the deck until their morning meal was served to them at 9.16 a.m. They were served cooked rice, dhall, mash, tamarind chutney, and pepper water at 9 a.m. The evening meal at 4.15 p.m. was the usual offering of rice, dhall, and pumpkin.
By the 19th Day on the 29th December 1903, the weather was reported as dull, with strong winds from the north, but moderated towards noon. Children were fed with gruel at 7 a.m., and at 9 a.m. the cooked meal of rice & vegetable curry was served to adults. At 4.30 pm a cooked meal of rice, potatoes and mutton was served out. By the next morning, the ship had sighted Durban at 6.15 p.m.
In reading the Surgeon Superintendent’s journal, we get to analyse the ship journeys on board the 384 ships that brought 152 184 indentured workers from 1860 to 1911 into colonial South Africa. For the journey of the SS Umzinto in 1903, we begin to understand how indentured workers were fed and the type of meals they were served.
After indentured workers arrived, they were assigned to various plantations across colonial Natal. Here they were given dhall, rice, and salted, dried fish as the agreed rations that were agreed upon in the contracts they signed. Many plantation owners substituted rations with cheaper ingredients that were foreign to workers. Mielie meal was substituted for rice and more than often, food rations were withheld for the slightest infringements, leveraging power for increased labour production. Learning to adapt to a foreign land, these labourers learned how to incorporate African food ingredients like maize meal and amadumbe to make their meals palatable. For them, little was enough for a feast.
Immediately after the beastly exercise of quarantine, indentured workers were shepherded to plantations very often fifty to a hundred miles away. The terrain and vegetation were different from that which they encountered in either the Southern or Northern parts of India.
Their basic meals came in the form of rations that included dhall and rice or mielie meal. Rations sometimes arrived late or not at all, forcing people to forage in the forest, picking all varieties of herbs, fruit, and tubers. The tasty yam called amadumbe was boiled, roasted, or curried. Similarly, green bananas became fritters or grated as a curry. Mangoes could be curried either sweet, sour, or pickled. Gem squashes found form as a deceptive substitute for meat or fish, especially when soured with tamarind or green mangoes
Rice, which is a staple throughout Asia, was in short supply. Indians made amends. Mealies were pounded into fine grains. When slow-boiled, it looked very much like rice, with mielie rice, Khitchdi being a firm favourite, even amongst present-day descendants of indentured ancestry. Sometimes turmeric or tamarind was added to vary the flavour. With meat either being very expensive or entirely out of reach, salted and dried fish added to a tomato chutney became a routine accompaniment to the mealie rice. In fact, that simple meal has become so sought-after that one can find it on the menu of prime eating establishments like the Britannia Hotel in Durban. A coarser ground mealie grain called samp was an established part of Zulu cuisine. Indians spiced up samp with chilies and other condiments. Curried samp, nowadays frequently cooked with beans or meat, is a prized dish.
The grinding implements are also very similar to the Zulu and Indian methods. In Tamil, the “ammikal” is a flat granite stone that is accompanied by a rolling pin-type stone. The “worral” is a standing receptacle in stone, wood, or metal, the contents of which are pounded by a pole-like tool. Variations of the same are found in any traditional Zulu household.
One dish that has the same name in both the Tamil and Zulu languages is ‘phutu’. Its pronunciation may vary slightly, but in cooking method and taste, it is the same dish. It is commonly eaten with a soured milk called ‘amasi’ in Zulu, which is hardly different from the curd in Indian cooking. The curd has a cooling effect on the stomach, with the probiotics aiding digestion. The common ground in cooking traditions is potentially a fascinating area of inquiry that demonstrates that there is more that unites South Africans than divides them.
In celebration of the rich heritage of Indenture Indians, the 1860 Heritage Centre will host the Heritage Food Festival on 12 September 2026.
Selvan Naidoo and Kiru Naidoo are co-authors with Paul David and Ranjith Choonilall of The Indian Africans, published by Micromega, available at www.madeindurban.co.za.
