Durban - Eight years after being conceptualised, a new museum in Durban, celebrating the life and work of peace icon Mahatma Gandhi, will open to the public soon.
POST was given a sneak preview of what’s inside the nondescript building, situated at 95 Dr Goonam (Prince Edward) Street.
At the site, owned by Gandhi in 1897, public meetings organised by the Natal Indian Congress were held to plan the fight discrimination against Indians in South Africa.
However, when Gandhi left Durban in 1914, he gave ownership of the premises to the Natal Indian Congress, which continued to use it for meetings and other important work.
In 1964, the Congress had plans to construct a new building, but due to the Group Areas Act this was not possible. In the 1980s the site was used as a car park until the Mahatma Gandhi Memorial Trust stepped in with the intention of creating a permanent museum.
The design, which focuses on a simple and educative structure, portrays the teachings of Gandhi.
Many artefacts from his Phoenix Settlement, where he lived and worked, are on display at the museum.
The original Settlement buildings were damaged during the 1985 riots.
According to a spokesperson for the museum, many of the artefacts on display are original and have not been tampered with.
“We have a broken spinning wheel on display and we wanted to piece it together but Aunty Ela (Trust chairperson Ela Gandhi) decided against it because she wanted the public to view the artefacts as they were since 1985,” he said.
Gandhi declined to comment until the museum’s official opening.
According to the Indian consulate in Durban, the inauguration was being planned for tomorrow by the visiting Indian Minister of State for External Affairs, VK Singh.
“All the time people walk past and look in and even ask me when it is opening, and if I could open the gate for them. They also ask me what it looks like on the inside,” said a museum guard. “I expect there will be a lot of people coming in once this site is open to the public.”