Billy Nair and Paul Joseph. They may sound like ordinary Malayali names, but their tales are extraordinary. These two South African nationals with Kerala links had fought against Apartheid alongside Nelson Mandela. A recent book has shed light on their roots in Kundalassery and Vazhakulam — two villages far away from each other.
Billy, son of Krishnan Nair from Kundalassery in Palakkad, and Paul, son of Annamma from Vazhakulam in Idukki, were two Malayalis among the 21 Indian anti-Apartheid activists accused in the infamous Treason Trial of 1956. Krishnan and Annamma were migrant workers who had settled there.
Their sons were part of the uprising against racial discrimination that prevailed in South Africa. Billy spent 20 years in the notorious Robben Island Prison, just two cells away from Mandela’s. Paul, meanwhile, was in and out of jail for several years.
Until recently, details of their Malayali connection remained hidden. Until journalist and writer G Shaheed embarked on a mission to unspool these tales. Thus was born the book Mandelayodoppam Poradiya Randu Malayalikal (Two Malayalis Who Fought Alongside Mandela).
It all started when one of Shaheed’s friends visited the Robben Island Prison, which is now a popular museum. “He noticed the name Billy Nair in front of a cell near Mandela’s. On enquiring, museum officials told him Billy was a popular figure in the country,” says Shaheed.
“Billy was a revolutionary trade unionist and two-time MP. There were not many details about his Indian connection, though. This friend of mine, Sudhakar, discussed this discovery with me when he returned to India.”
Shaheed’s search for Billy’s story began there, about six years ago. During his research, he stumbled upon Paul’s heroics. And the scale of search expanded. He reached out to many, from South African peace activist and former politician Ela Gandhi (Mahatma Gandhi’s granddaughter) and several Indian ambassadors to lawyers and journalists.
“It was a journalist and writer working from London who helped me track down Paul. It took him years to find him. I was able to talk to Paul via phone and was able to gather many details about his mother, his political fight, and his escape to London,” Shaheed says.
“Paul was a rebel without a pause. So he was constantly targeted by the police.” As life became hard, his wife Adelaide, who had roots in Pondicherry, fled to East Germany and later London. Later, with the help of Amnesty International, Paul too joined her.
“Mandela used to write to them from prison, and even visited them in their London home after his term as president,” says Shaheed.
Through Paul, who was 92 at the time, Shaheed found out that his mother Annamma hailed from Vazhakulam. She was married to Veerswamy, an immigrant from Visakhapatnam. Shaheed recalls that tracking down her “African veedu” in Vazhakulam was a struggle.
Meanwhile, the search for Billy’s origin revealed that he was a trade unionist from Durban, who was elected to the African National Congress executive committee in 1991 and served as an MP for two terms. Notably, Billy was awarded the Pravasi Bharatiya Samman and the Gandhi Development Trust’s Satyagraha Award in 2007. Yet, his Kerala connection remained obscure.
It was Ela who helped. “She tracked down Billy’s sister Kalyani Nair, who was in Germany, and shared her email with me,” Shaheed smiles. “She was in her nineties and had trouble with keying in her replies. Thankfully, her grandson played the messenger.”
Billy’s father, Krishnan, and his wife Parvathy, a Tamil immigrant in South Africa, had six children. “Eldest was Kalyani, and then came Billy and their siblings. He was married to Elsie Goldstone, a fellow trade unionist. Billy passed away in 2008. Kalyani didn’t know much about her father’s past in Kerala, except the village’s name.”
In 2024, Shaheed’s search bore fruit as he sat down to write the extraordinary journeys of Billy and Paul. “It took Kerala so long to recognise these revolutionaries. It’s extraordinary when the dots join together to form that complete picture,” he smiles.