Jesus Is Indian: And Other Stories

by Agnes Sam

Could an Indian woman love an African man? How would Indians have described the crossing from India to Africa? The Indian community in South Africa has been largely ignored by writers and historians. In these stories, Agnes Sam has given vivid and imaginative life to the "hidden history." She explores the Indians' struggle with vastly differing cultures -- African, Indians, and European -- frequently focusing on the experience of women, who also must contend with a male-dominated society. Agnes Sam's South African childhood and her Indian past provide the inspiration for this collection of bright, vibrant, humorous, and compassionate short stories.

Genres: Africa

134 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1991

About the author

Agnes Sam was born in 1942, the great-granddaughter of indentured labourers from India who were shipped to South Africa in the nineteenth century. She was brought up in Port Elizabeth, and had a Catholic education. She attended university at Roma, Lesotho and Zimbabwe and taught science in Zambia. In 1973 she was exiled from South Africa and came to England, where she studied English Literature at the University of York. She revisited South Africa twenty years later, in 1993, to attend South Africa's first conference on democracy and academic freedom, held at Fort Hare university. A number of her stories have been published in periodicals and anthologies, and she has has two plays broadcast on BBC Radio 4. She now lives in York.

(from http://www.heinemann.com/authors/508....)

Reviews

[Jen Sainty · Rating 3 out of 5]

Agnes Sam notes right at the start of Jesus is Indian that the book is a direct result of the fact that the Indian community in South Africa has been largely ignored by writers and historians. This collection of short stories brings to life the experiences of Indian South Africans, especially centering women's and girls' lives across different ages and situations. There's a girl pushing back against religious authority in a colonial school (the namesake story of the book), women navigating patriarchal family expectations and exile, among others.

As an Afro-Caribbean woman with Guyanese ancestry, including the melting pot of Indian indentured roots, Indigenous elements, and African heritage, what stayed with me most is how throughout the book Agnes Sam does a very good job of documenting the unnecessary tensions, hatred, misunderstandings, and racism between the Indian community and Black community. Although in the book it is Black South Africans, the heartbreaking scenes of Indian brothers beating their sister just for talking to a Black man, and another story involving the pain of two friends, one Black woman in love with an Indian man, and her Indian friend forced into an arranged marriage with him, it's interesting to me how these are the same echos of the Indo- and Afro-Guyanese and Trinidadain frictions I've grown up aware of in the Caribbean.

There aren't many reviews online for this book (I've looked), but in searching I came across an Interview of Agnes Sam where she talks about the inspiration for the book being her finding a release document for one of her ancestors from indentured labor, and how similar indentured labor in reality, via deceptive recruitment, brutal conditions, long contracts with little freedom, was so close to slavery. That same system brought many Indians to the Caribbean, to Guyana and Trinidad, and so there is connection for me, in that history.

Very good writing, the stories are layered and show the complexity of human relationships; the stories also tend to linger with you.

(For context, here's the YouTube interview where Agnes Sam discusses Jesus is Indian: https://youtu.be/PBo4-fIO_64?si=lM5my...)

[Rachel Laing · Rating 4 out of 5]

I appreciated the introduction as much as any of the short stories in this collection. I had simply no idea that Indian citizens were tricked, enslaved, and indentured with incredibly difficult and discriminatory laws for decades in South Africa. The author's own grandfather was told that his parents were dead and taken at age 9 from India to South Africa where he worked as an indentured servant and was not released until age 62. What? What?! Shocking.

The short stories varied in holding my interest and relating to the protagonists. The strong thread of feminism and the blending of cultures--African, Indian, and British--along with religion was really interesting.

My favorite passage was the one the title relates back to. A child, Angelina, is harassed by her teacher, a nun, to stop using Hindu names in her writing, especially her use of "hama" instead of "mother" as well as her mom's given Hindu name. Angelina, worried for her mother's salvation, brings it to her attention in this exchange:
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"Hama, why you didn't get a Christian name when Father baptised you?"
(Hama say if she's a Christian and her name is Kamatchee then Kamatchee is a Christian name.)
(Honestly! This Hama got an answer for everything. Maybe she should go to Sister's school. She will learn better than me.)
"But Hama, Sister say you won't go to heaven. Because you got a Hindu name."
Hama laugh. Hama holds her head up high and makes it wobble about. She say, "What that sister know? Hey? Don't Jesus wear a dhoti like Ghandi? Don't Hama talk to Jesus in our language? Don't Jesus answer all Hama's prayers?...You so clever, what you think that means? Hey? You electric light children and you don't know? Jesus is Indian. You go to school and tell the Sister."
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And then Angelina does. My favorite part of the book.