In South Africa

In April, 1893 Mohandas Gandhi sailed for the African continent. Seth Abdullah’s men had come to get him on the ship. The ship was so crowded that there was difficulty even in getting foot hold what to speak of First Class ticket.
They suggested that Mohandas leave on next day by another ship. But Mohandas Gandhi was not ready to postpone his travel. He wanted to get away from India. So, he met captain of the ship who turned out to be a gentlemen. He very sympathetically offered to adjust him in his own cabin.
The ship was to stop at several ports before its destination, Natal.
After thirteen days travel the ship reached Lamu.
Meanwhile, Mohandas Gandhi and the captain had become good friends. The captain was a bad chess player. He had been looking for someone worse chess player than himself. He found it in Mohandas Gandhi who could not tell the difference between a pawn and the king.
It made a famous pair. After Lamu, and Mombasa the ship anchored at Zanzibar for eight days. Mohandas used to go to the town with the captain and other friends. One day, a pimp took captain to the redlight area. Mohandas got dragged along and pushed into a cubby hole of a black prostitute.
He stood there cowering in a corner while the prostitute gave him a funny look. Mohandas could not do anything except exude brotherhood. In the similar mood he withdrew.
He thought it was his third victory against carnal temptation.
In the end of May, the ship reached Natal via Mozambique.
Natal is the state in which the Durban port city in situated.
Diabolic Durban
Durban gave Mohandas Gandhi hair raising experience of his life which changed the course of the history of several colonial Empires and scores of countries.
At the port, Seth Abdullah himself had come to receive Mohandas Gandhi. He welcomed the Barrister warmly. Seth was a rich merchant but it soon became apparent that he was not a respected figure because he was an Indian. Indians were treated as lowly creatures.

There were several other white families who had come to receive their guests. They were looking at Mohandas curiously as if they were telling him that a black-brown man was not fit to wear whiteman’s dress. He was wearing a suit and turban on his head. The whites treated blacks and browns of India as their slaves.
There were two prominent upper classes of people, Whites and Arabs. Brown Indians were in pathetic state of disunity. Sometime they tried to seek refuge of Whites being their colonial slaves and other times they pleaded for the acceptance of Arabs being the fellow Asians. But mostly both the groups shooed them away.

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