From Durban to Bombay

Ebrahim Essa’s satirical memoir tackles questions of identity and belonging from the vantage point of a first-generation South African Indian living in Durban at the beginning of apartheid, and in Bombay, shortly after India’s independence.

- LAURA JONES

EB Koybie: A memoir of shenanigans between Durban and Bombay by Ebrahim Essa chronicles a quirky childhood growing up in the 1950s in an Indian township on the outskirts of Durban. Here, he bunks school to watch Hindi films, irons his brother’s clothes in exchange for reading his collection of banned imported comic books, and tries to outrun gangsters in the Grey Street Casbah. Just as he begins to win at life, apartheid education prompts his father to send him to India to study. He spends 21 days onboard the SS Karanja nervously snacking on Lemon Creams before reaching Bombay. But studying in India is not all that it’s made out to be. It’s far worse. He battles jaundice, long-drop toilets and electricity cuts during the 1965 India-Pakistan war. In this memoir, Ebrahim uses his rich narrative to document a fascinating period in the South African Indian community.

WHY DID YOU WRITE THIS BOOK?

I was a school teacher on the verge of retirement when I decided to write my memoirs. I had no idea what I was trying to do by writing this book. I guess I wanted to tell the story of what it was like to grow up during the 1950s and 1960s. I didn’t want it to be boring, but personal and so I decided that it would be a memoir that remembers the past by poking fun at everyone I encountered growing up.