Born: 3 August 1926, South Africa
Died: 2 February 2024
Country most active: South Africa
Also known as: NA

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

Zuleikha Mayat: South African author and activist who led a life of courage, compassion and integrity

Saleem Badat, University of the Free State

Few Indian South African women have achieved wider public recognition than author, human rights and cultural activist Zuleikha Mayat, who passed away on 2 February 2024. An honorary doctorate from the University of KwaZulu-Natal was just one of many awards bestowed on her during a life that spanned almost 98 years.

Mayat was a remarkable pioneer, evocative writer, public speaker, civic worker, human rights champion and philanthropist. She was a staunch supporter of Palestinian freedom and an end to Israeli apartheid and genocide.

I am a scholar of social justice issues in South Africa and have known Mayat for 49 years, through my friendship with her children. I assisted her with her last book, and recently penned an e-book about her incredible life.

She embodied principled, faith-based, socially committed, inspired leadership based on special talents and indomitable resilience, and upheld the dignity of all with whom she associated. In an interview in 2019 she said that she hoped to be remembered as “someone who interacted with everyone, no matter who they were, without prejudice”.

Early life

She was born on 3 August 1926 in Potchefstroom in South Africa’s North West province, the third-generation child of Indian-South African shopkeepers of Gujarati origins. In a country marked by racial divides even before the advent of apartheid in 1948, she learnt from her grandfather – as she later wrote – that intermingling across social divides and boundaries was important, as was “learning the languages and folkways” of other social groups.

Her father was generous to poor people and drummed into her, she later reflected, that “others have a share in our incomes”. For her “the Bounty of God is not just for a select few but must be shared” so that all “can benefit”.

The young Mayat read voraciously but racialism stifled her formal education. After grade 6 at the Potchefstroom Indian Government School there was no secondary school for Indians. Segregation (1910-1948), the precursor to apartheid, which legally entrenched racial classification and enforced segregation in all walks of life, meant separate schools for different “races” and the schools for whites would not enrol her.

Patriarchy also played a role. She was one of seven siblings; boys, like her three brothers, continued secondary education in other towns or cities “but sending daughters away was almost unheard of”. And, so, her ambition to become a doctor was thwarted.

At age 14, as described in her 1996 book A Treasure Trove of Memories: A Reflection on the Experiences of the Peoples of Potchefstroom, she discovered that she “had a gift as a writer, an intellectual orientation, and a capacity for expressing strong views”. A correspondence course boosted the “English in which (she) would come to write” prolifically. Later, she achieved a certificate in journalism.

A letter to the editor

1944 was a turning point. An 18-year-old Mayat posted a letter signed “Miss Zuleikha Bismillah of Potchefstroom” to the newspaper Indian Views, which was published in Gujarati and English. The editor was M.I. Meer, father of human rights activist and scholar Fatima Meer. He published the letter, in which she “argued for higher levels of education for girls” in a “style that revealed not only a principled passion concerning this matter but also her sharp wit”.

In 1954, aged 28, she invited friends to her small apartment in the coastal South African city of Durban. After supper, the Women’s Cultural Group was founded. It sought to mobilise women for social change.

Fatima and her husband Ismail Meer roped Mayat and her husband Mohammed into their revolutionary activities. While hiding from the apartheid authorities, activist and future president Nelson Mandela slept at the Mayat home a few times.

In 1961, she edited the famous Indian Delights, a recipe book, which flew off the bookshelves “like hot samosas at a buffet”. Several new editions have been published and it remains one of the best selling books in South Africa today.

Between 1956 and 1963 Mayat contributed a weekly column to Indian Views. Her column, Fahmida’s World, brought what academics Goolam Vahed and Thembisa Waetjen have described as her “signature liveliness and humour, as well as a sharp moral eye, to bear on various topics”.

In her columns, she criticised social hierarchies, “ethnic and class prejudices” and racist and inhuman conduct, and commented on “the ethical triumphs and breaches of daily life”.

Mayat was involved in numerous institutions and organisations. These included the McCord Zulu Hospital, Shifa hospital, Black Women’s Convention, South African Institute of Race Relations, the Natal Indian Blind Society, and schools, old age homes and mosques.

And, throughout her life, she wrote.

A life of writing

In 1966 she compiled Quranic Lights, a book of prayers. Nanima’s Chest appeared in 1981 to promote the appreciation of traditional Indian textiles and clothing.

A Treasure Trove of Memories: A Reflection on the Experiences of the Peoples of Potchefstroom (1996) recounts growing up and life in her home town. South African scholar Betty Govinden called the book “an important contribution to autobiographical fiction in this country”.

History: Muslims of Gujarat was published in 2008, the result of “inner urges” that compelled her to probe into her family’s distant past.

A year later came Dear Ahmedbhai, Dear Zuleikhabehn: The Letters of Zuleikha Mayat and Ahmed Kathrada 1979-1989, based on 75 letters exchanged between herself and anti-apartheid giant Ahmed Kathrada that covered culture, politics and religion.

Then in 2015 she published Journeys of Binte Batuti, a travel memoir. And at age 95 Mayat published The Odyssey of Crossing Oceans, an enthralling and expansive narrative by a consummate storyteller, which embodied some of her philosophy of life.

Justice and peace for all

Post-1994, when democratic elections were held for the first time in South Africa, Mayat continued her fight for equity and social justice. She spoke out and marched against local and global injustices.

She was acutely aware that for many the world was an inhospitable place. She sought, like Nelson Mandela, “justice for all”, “peace for all” and “work, bread, water and salt for all” – for people to be “freed to fulfil themselves”.

Saleem Badat, Research Professor, UFS History Department, University of the Free State

The following, “Zuleikha Mayat,” is republished from South African History Online in line with the SAHO Copyright, Disclaimer & Privacy policy.

Zuleikha Mayat was born in 1926 in Potchefstroom, Transvaal (now North West Province). Her father, Mohamed Bismilla, was a prominent business person who first came to South Africa from India at the age of five with his stepmother. Her mother, Amina, was also from India. Growing up, Mayat and her siblings’ lives revolved around their parent’s shop, which was very popular within the community. Later, Mayat would attribute her caring nature to her father, who generously never turned away a customer even if they were short of cash.

Mayat completed her primary level education at the local Potchefstroom Indian Government School but could not progress as there was no school available in the area that could accommodate her due to the segregationist apartheid laws (the only available school was for White learners). Her brothers encouraged her to obtain her matric via correspondence, which she did, passing with an exemption from the Joint Matriculation Board in 1945. Unable to study medicine like her brother Nasim, Mayat was forced to abandon her dream of becoming a doctor but completed short courses in journalism instead.

Nasim went to study medicine at the University of the Witwatersrand Medical School in Johannesburg, Transvaal (now Gauteng) and would bring his friends and fellow students home during the holidays. One of these friends was Mohamed Mayat, whom Mayat married in 1947. They moved to Durban, Natal (now KwaZulu-Natal), shortly afterwards and lived with Mohamed’s parents. This family unit would eventually be broken, however, by the Group Areas Act of the 1960s. The couple bought a home in Clare Estate, Durban, where they became neighbours of celebrated photographer, Ranjith Kally.

It was in Durban that Mayat would make her mark in various fields of activism. Both she and her husband were progressive, open-minded people and got involved in various political and social activities. She began writing in the women’s column – Fahmida’s World – of the weekly Gujarati/English newspaper, Indian Views, which Moosa Meer, father of Professor Fatima Meer, was the editor.

In 1954, Mayat became a founding member of the Women’s Cultural Group (WCG), a forward-thinking women’s organisation that sought to bring about social change. The women met up regularly to discuss ways to empower women. This was a remarkable development in a society that was still very conservative when it came to involving women in the public sphere.

Although the majority of members were Muslim women, membership was open to women across all religious, racial, and class boundaries. Consequently, the group soon became multicultural, comprising of women from all walks of life – Black, White, Christian, Hindu, Jewish, and so on (however, in more recent years, it is only comprised of Muslim women).

Mayat, who started writing at the age of fourteen, authored a small cookbook as a way for the WCG to raise funds. That cookbook was the iconic, Indian Delights, first published in 1961. This was not an easy feat, however, as the women struggled to raise funds for the first edition. When they approached a publisher by the name of Mr Ramsamy, he agreed that they could pay him over six months but the book was so well- received – flying off the bookshelves – that they managed to settle their debt in three months.

Since its first edition, the book has enjoyed sales in South Africa as well as internationally. Having sold more than 500 000 copies, it remains one of the best-selling books of any genre in South Africa.

In addition to the first edition, a subsequent fourteen editions have been published. The group uses funds generated from book sales for a range of charitable causes. These include providing bursaries to disadvantaged tertiary students from all races and religions annually (the WCG was the first non-profit organisation to issue interest-free loans to students at tertiary institutions), running soup kitchens for the poor, providing sandwiches to school children every week, providing blankets for the poor during winter seasons, hosting educational lectures and cultural events like poetry recitals, as well as developing programmes that upgrade the skills (like sewing programmes) of disadvantaged women in particular. Their bursary programme has played an instrumental role in helping countless students complete their education in a country where access to quality education can be challenging for many.

Mayat has authored several other books, including Quranic Lights (1966-2012), Nanima’s Chest (1981), A Treasure Trove of Memories (1996), her semi-autobiography, History of Muslims of Gujarat (2008), and the historical fiction, The Odyssey of Crossing Oceans (2021). She has also written Urdu poetry under the pen name, Fehmida. While Indian Delights is undoubtedly her most defining work, Mayat prefers to be acknowledged for her other books which share her worldwide travels and religion.

Although WCG did not involve itself in politics during its early years, Mayat did in her personal capacity. She worked with the Black Sash and along with her husband, often interacted with and housed anti-apartheid activists who were on the run from the authorities.

The couple was very close friends with Prince Mangosuthu Buthelezi and his now late wife, Irene (who on many occasions stayed over at their home), as well as with Ismail Meer and his wife Fatima. When the Meers were under security police surveillance and needed safe houses for apartheid activists, the Mayats offered their home and as a result, Nelson Mandela took shelter in their home a couple of times. Mahomed Mayat would pick him up and drop him off in the morning at a nearby garage. Thus, they attracted the attention of the authorities who ransacked their house a few times. On one occasion, their home was raided in the wee hours when Moosa ‘Mosie’ Moolla escaped from prison in 1963. Fortunately, they were the only ones at home.

Due to apartheid, her husband could not specialise and so they decided to move to London, England, for a year, leaving their three young children with her sisters-in-law. While her husband specialised in obstetrics and gynaecology, Mayat completed courses in journalism and Islamic Studies at the University of London.

Another result of apartheid was that both Mayat and her husband were denied the right to own passports but were begrudgingly allowed to leave the country to attend medical conferences. The couple frequently took advantage of this and travelled widely, visiting countries like Russia and Japan. Their travels culminated in a book titled, Journeys of Binte Batuti (2015).

In 1968, Mohamed teamed up with two other doctors (Dr Motala and Dr Khan) to open the Shifa Hospital in Durban, which provided quality medical services to Blacks. The hospital employed professionals of all races and paid them equally. During its early days, Mayat supervised the food, laundry, and other housekeeping.

In March 1979, Mayat, along with her husband, niece, and sister, Bibi, were involved in a car accident when a drunk driver drove into them. Mayat and her niece survived, but her husband and sister did not. When the ambulance drove her husband (who was dying from loss of blood) to the nearest hospital, he was denied treatment because of his race as it was a Whites-only hospital. The hospital staff directed them to a hospital reserved for Black people but because it was much farther away, he did not survive the journey.

The tragic loss of her husband and sister did not deter her from continuing with her public and community work. If anything, this event seemed to spur her on even more as she plunged herself deeper into her work and extended her activities. As such, Mayat has been involved with countless organisations like the then-Natal Indian Blind and Deaf Society, the orphanage Darul Yatama Wal Masakeen, and the Institute of Race Relations (IRR) over the years.

During the University of Durban-Westville (UDW – now known as the University of KwaZulu-Natal – UKZN) student boycott, Mayat and Fatima Meer were on the parents’ committee. Together with Betty Shabazz (Malcolm X’s wife), who visited the Mayat’s home, they took food to the detained students.

The death of her husband further brought her into contact with Ahmed Kathrada, who was at that time serving his prison sentence on Robben Island. Upon hearing the news of the passing of his friend, Kathrada penned a letter of condolence to Mayat’s brother, Abdul Haq, a former flat-mate of Kathrada. Mayat’s brother lived in Canada so her mother asked her to respond, thus sparking the beginning of a decade long correspondence between Mayat and Kathrada, during which seventy-five letters were exchanged between the two.

The letters, which focused on culture, politics, as well as religion, were published as a book in 2009 called Dear Ahmedbhai, Dear Zuleikhabehn: The letters of Zuleikha Mayat and Ahmed Kathrada 1979-1989. This book has enjoyed international recognition and highlighted some of the effects and injustices of apartheid from a day-to-day perspective.

The advent of democracy and old age has not made Mayat slow down. She continues to fight for social justice and the rights of the disadvantaged. For example, she has been actively involved in Palestinian protests with people like Ela Gandhi, granddaughter of Mahatma Gandhi, and Paddy Kearney (now late) and continues to be a central figure within the WCG.

In 2012, Mayat was awarded an Honorary Doctorate in Sociology by UKZN. She was also honoured in 2019 with a Lifetime Achievement Award during a function hosted by the Iqraa Trust in celebration of her life’s work – just one of the numerous accolades she has received from organisations over the years.

As an award-winning author, a social activist, and a founding member of WCG who has earned respect in both her country of birth and internationally, Mayat has played an essential role in creating public awareness about various social issues from education and culture to religion. She has spearheaded many projects aimed at offering a helping hand to the disadvantaged, uplifting those who needed it and empowering women in a society in which they are often subjected to multiple forms of oppression because of their race, gender, and class.