Bombay masala, shweshwe and Art Deco in the Grey Street Casbah

On a recent trip to Durban, I took in a walking tour of the historic Grey Street, now called Dr Yusuf Dadoo Street.

The area had been a big feature of my childhood. When we went to Durban from the dour Orange Free State on our annual holiday, my father would always include a trip to the vibrant “Indian market” to buy his favourite spices and the “mother-in-law’s tongue” curry powder that gave his curries their oomph. I tracked some of it down at the Fairprice Supermarket, where it is now called Bombay masala, which is, I suppose more PC. 

But back to the beginning. The tour was run by Durban Walking Tours and we met our guide, Ruth Hagen, at the 1860 Heritage Centre, a museum dedicated to the indentured labourers who were brought from India to Natal between 1860 and 1911 to work in the sugar plantations that were crucial to the development of the sugar industry in the province.

A small museum in an erstwhile school, opened in 1913, it is tricky to find but well worth visiting. Among the exhibits is the Story of Indenture and the history of the three giants of SA history: Nelson Mandela, Mohandas Gandhi, later the Mahatma, and Albert Luthuli. There is also an exhibit on the Natal Indian Congress.

Some of the workers who arrived from India by ship were the same families that, in time, became well-known traders and merchants in Grey Street.

The long meandering road was named after Sir George Grey, the British governor of the Cape Colony and high commissioner for SA from 1854-61. The complex around Grey Street, known as the Grey Street Casbah, is a significant site in Durban’s history due to its association with Indian businesses and cultural institutions.

Here is a place to see grand and aesthetically pleasing architectural features from a bygone era. Grey Street has a particular Indian architecture that features pavements with sturdy colonnades and narrow lanes that lead to courtyards behind facades. The design has, according to www.sahistory.org.za, “the fondness shown for the flamboyant and curvilinear architecture of the 1920s and 1930s”. 

According to Property 360, by the 1950s the various streets comprising the Grey Street Casbah each had their own function: the eastern part of Victoria Street held the theatre, while the western part comprised the markets and grocery stores. Grey Street was the clothing zone and Queen Street was filled with barbers on one side and hardware and timber shops on the other. Pine Street housed the tailors and Prince Edward Street the sari shops and jewellers. Outlets selling sweetmeats and other Indian cuisine were scattered throughout the neighbourhood.

In an article published by IOL, the property company further makes the point that, historically, Grey Street can be compared to Sophiatown in Johannesburg and District Six in Cape Town, “with the crucial difference being that the area was not destroyed during the apartheid era and provides a glimpse of another time in SA’s development”.

We began our tour at the top of the street, where Hagen pointed out the Thokoza women’s hostel located in a bright purple building, reportedly the oldest women’s hostel in SA. It was started in 1925 and officially houses about 1 ,000 women, many of them informal traders.

After that we hit the shops, with their riotous display of brightly coloured clothing, fresh produce, spices and fabrics, including shweshwe. The shweshwe purveyor to watch for is apparently the Kwa Mtapuna Stolo for “tribal wear, haberdashery, fancy dress fabrics and stockists of original shweshwe”. Their brand carries the three cats logo and as we wandered around the store, which is simply bursting with wares, we were mesmerised by the quality and variety on sale on the shelves. The designs are intricate and so beautiful you would be tempted to buy metres and metres if you weren’t catching a plane home the next day. 

There are also the traditional Indian sari shops with their array of vivid fabrics on display. Some of the other Indian shops clearly hark from a bygone era, selling items such as second-hand appliances and sewing machine parts.

Some of the workers who arrived from India by ship were the same families that, in time, became well-known traders and merchants in Grey Street.

A highlight was the Fairprice Supermarket, again a smallish shop packed to the ceiling with goods. Any spice you could think of is on offer in big bags and on the counter, where Abdul Jabar is in attendance. With a twinkle in his eye he said he started working in the shop as a youngster and when I asked for “mother-in-law’s tongue”, he pointed me to the piquant, red-brown Bombay masala. I promptly bought a few small bags for friends and family. We all stocked up on spices and many of our group also bought freshly squeezed sugar-cane juice and the other juices on offer at the exit, where there is an old-fashioned juicing machine. 

As we made our way through the pavements packed with displays of brightly coloured dresses, fresh vegetables in crates and other goods, Hagen pointed out some fine examples of Indian-inspired Art Deco-style architecture, such as Emperor Court.

Nearby is the Juma Masjid, or the Grey Street Mosque, the first of its kind to be built in Durban. We entered its cool interior and placed our shoes on the racks provided. A guide came to meet us to show us around the mosque, which is considered to be the oldest mosque in the southern hemisphere and can accommodate about 6,000 worshippers for Friday prayers.

A cool circular pool of water is at the entrance, making this a veritable oasis from the hot, busy pavements. Then we were taken to the meeting room, where our guide gave us a talk on Islam and the mosque, which was started as far back as 1881, when the site was purchased.    

The first of the two minarets was constructed in 1904 and the second the following year. In their day, they were the highest structures in the city.

Bridal shops

Back into bright sunshine on the bustling street, we were directed to an area that houses the street’s bridal shops. We wandered through the myriad small side arcades that are well-stocked with voluminous white dresses and grooms’ dark suits as well as traditional isiZulu outfits. This is also the place to find lobola shops stocking anything from big pots to small token gifts. 

From there we passed the Shah Jehan Cinema, which at the height of its popularity could seat 2,000 people. The building has since been converted into flats. 

Along the way we made stops to buy the fresh produce on offer at stalls all along the route. Then it was time for an early lunch at Surat Vegetarian Delights in the Krishna Centre. The owners gave us a warm welcome and showed us to long benches and tables, promptly producing snacks and taking soft drink orders. It’s a modest and understated eatery but the vegetable curry with poppadoms was excellent, especially considering it was included in the walking tour price of R320.  

The lunch made a sociable ending to the outing, enabling us to properly meet the people on the tour. At least half were tourists from overseas who said they had found this aspect of SA history and culture fascinating.