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03107aam a2200409Ii 4500 001 413144E60CD411EEAAE9666853ECA4DB 003 SILO 005 20230617010022 008 230331s2022 sa b 000 1 eng d 020 $a 1485904862 020 $a 9781485904861 035 $a (OCoLC)1374313593 040 $a Z@L $b eng $e rda $c Z@L $d HUL $d NX@ $d OCLCF $d STF $d NUI $d SILO 050 4 $a PR6113.O885 $b A62 2022 100 1 $a Mottai, Shevlyn. $e author. 245 10 $a Across the Kala Pani / $c Shevlyn Mottai. 246 34 $a Across the Kala Pani : $b four indentured women cross the black water to the Colony of Natal 250 $a First edition. 264 1 $a Cape Town : $b Penguin Random House South Africa (Pty) Ltd, $c 2022. 300 $a [274] pages : $b maps ; $c 24 cm 520 $a "In 1909, four women board a ship in Madras to cross the Kala Pani, the 'black water', to Natal. Lutchmee, a young widow, has escaped her vengeful mother-in-law and self-immolation on her husband's funeral pyre. Vottie, from the Brahmin caste, is an educated girl whose abusive husband tries to hold on to his caste at all costs. Chinmah, heavily pregnant when she boards the ship, is married to an older man as part of an unpaid debt. Dazzling but shy Jyothi is single. On board the ship, the women will form friendships and alliances. They will help each other through trial and trauma, even after they arrive and are separated. Like many Indians desperate to escape unbearable conditions in their home country, these women are only too eager to believe what they've been told: that a better life awaits them in South Africa, where caste doesn't matter, food is plentiful, and liberty will be theirs after just five years. But the reality of life on the plantations reveals the truth about the crossing: that it is usually a one-way journey, rife with misery, and that the hardship doesn't end after the ship has dropped anchor in Durban harbour. The epic stories of these immigrants - the brave, the bold, the kind; the weak, the cruel, the cowardly - are woven into the fabric of South Africa's Indian population today. Shevlyn Mottai has drawn on her ancestors' history to highlight the bonds formed between women during adversity, and to celebrate their journeys of tragedy and triumph"--Back cover. 650 0 $a East Indians $z South Africa $v Fiction. 650 0 $a Indentured servants $v Fiction. 650 0 $a Women $v Fiction. 650 7 $a East Indians. $2 fast $0 (OCoLC)fst00901060 650 7 $a Emigration and immigration. $2 fast $0 (OCoLC)fst00908690 650 7 $a Indentured servants. $2 fast $0 (OCoLC)fst00968872 650 7 $a Women. $2 fast $0 (OCoLC)fst01176568 651 0 $a India $x Emigration and immigration $v Fiction. 651 7 $a India. $2 fast $0 (OCoLC)fst01210276 651 7 $a South Africa. $2 fast $0 (OCoLC)fst01204616 655 7 $a Fiction. $2 fast $0 (OCoLC)fst01423787 655 7 $a Historical fiction. $2 fast $0 (OCoLC)fst01726640 655 7 $a Historical fiction. $2 lcgft 941 $a 1 952 $l OVUX522 $d 20231117011227.0 956 $a http://locator.silo.lib.ia.us/search.cgi?index_0=id&term_0=413144E60CD411EEAAE9666853ECA4DBInitiate Another SILO Locator Search