![]() You are a what? What is a Parsi? With my limited knowledge, I then tried to narrate to them in a nutshell, our epic saga: how our ancestors came from ancient Iran and how were prosecuted by Muslim Arabs and how some of us were forced to convert and some of us were slaughtered and how some of us fled to India to find refuge from persecution. It was always difficult to explain who we are to friends who never heard of Parsees and looked at us quizically and were perplexed by our answers. Growing up in SA without the much needed exposure to our religion and culture and the absence of a wide Parsee community became problematic for us. I secretly wished my parents had named me with a globally recognisable name!? Was it concocted by the Parsees in India? I would love to know especially because I have always been asked about the origin and meaning of my unusual name. ![]() It doesn’t sound like a Persian name and seems to have a Gujerati ring to it. It would be very interesting if anybody could kindly explain its meaning to me. As for the name “Jaloo” – that too is unique here in SA. Well, my great grandfather-in-law – Mr Nadirshaw Cama saw it fit to anglicize his surname from “Cama” to “Camay” when he arrived here in SA in the 1900s hence the surname “Camay”. I have always been questioned about my married surname : Camay. They had two childern here in Johannesburg – my brother Sohrab and myself. Dad went back to Navsari India and got married to Khorshedbanu Nariman Kapadia. Suffice it to say that my grandfather Shapurjee Cavasjee Patel came to SA in the 1900s with his wife Ratanbai and two sons Shiavax -my elder Kakajee and Framroze my Dad and started a small business in Johannesburg. ![]() I will leave that to my brother – Dr Sohrab Shapurjee- who is an avid historian and can narrate the story if anybody is interested. I will not go into discussing the history of how the Parsees came to SA. It is almost as though we are living in a solitary vacuum. Alas over here, in SA we have absolutely nothing, no organisation, no functions no get-togethers, no Jashans, no Gambars, no Navroze or Pateti celebrations etc etc. Parsi Zarathustris and all their related brethren – all over the world have found some sort of a niche for themselves by belonging to a Zoroastrian Assocition or to affiliated religious and cultural organisation. I often fantasize of how different my life would have been today had my family emigrated to the UK back then. We therefore missed out on the golden opportunity to mingle with and stay amongst our community. My parents and a handful of others however decided to stay here as we did not have the finanacial means to settle abroad. Many Parsi families left SA back in the 1960s to settle overseas mostly in the UK. My name is Jaloo Camay and this is my story. I am one such lost member- seeking a glimpse of our people, our religion, our culture, our language, our humour, our drama, our flair like a thirsty traveller trying to find a mirage in a desert. We have become, in essence, members of a long lost lost tribe that is slowly just dwindling away. The passing away of the older generation coupled with the emigration of the younger generation resulted in minimising the Parsee population here in SA. I am able to count every memeber of the Parsi community here, on my fingertips. I have no knowledge of any Parsees living in Cape Town. However, in that dissolution, over the years, we have lost our identity and sense of belonging and have dwindled into a miniscule plus/minus 25 Parsees in the whole of SA! The majority of us are resident in Johannesburg and a handful live in Durban. How do I begin to describe the sense of desolation, isolation and solitude, and the lack of an identity that we as Parsi Zarathustis- are experiencing here in our beautiful country South Africa? Where do we belong amongst the multitude of religions and cultures we are surrounded with here in Sourh Africa? We tried very hard to blend in by dissolving like sugar in milk like our forefathers did when they took refuge in India.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |