By Nikita Chiniah
Author and journalist, Zainul Aberdeen Dawood is excited to launch his second book on the Indian bus industry. The launch will be held at the Durban International Book Fair (DIBF) on 1 August.
The book titled, ‘Phoenix buses- Social space and pride of a community 1976 to 2021’journeys over 300 pages. The topics covered are bus drivers, conductors, bus ranks, rank managers, mechanics, bus depots, bus body builders and the bus companies. The book is dedicated to those who shared their social life on the buses and those who played a pivotal role in the bus services since 1919, in Durban.
Dawood is a history buff who has already uncovered the history of Durban’s private bus industry in the book titled, ‘Indian Buses, the History, the Memories, the Personalities.’ He has been working in the media industry for close to ten years as a journalist.
He has a keen interest in photography and research on Durban’s local history. He spent part of his childhood traveling on the buses as a passenger. This evoked certain emotions in a young boy. He worked for Mayville Coach Lines in the Cato Manor area between 1996 and 2004 as a conductor and then inspector. During his tenure, he gained valuable knowledge of the bus services in Durban.
Dawood said that it is a story of the buses that made their way through the narrow roads of Phoenix and snaked to Durban as entry and exit into an incredible social history.
“While ostensibly a history of buses in Phoenix, this book is much more than that. This is a study of the growth of this Indian township north of Durban during the height of apartheid madness, it is a narrative of the struggle of residents to establish new lives in a new setting, the struggles over transport, the struggles among bus owners over routes and much more. Its cast of characters is wide and runs through bus owners, bus drivers, bus ranks, the managers that kept the ranks ticking, the mechanics that kept the buses running, and those who built the buses and repaired the bodies and windscreens,” he said.
In a fascinating section, he covers the stories of the signwriters who painted such names as Thundercat, Rambo, The Outsider, Sweet 16, Wanted Man, German Attacker, Italian Playboy, Hunting for Love, Mad Max, and Demolition Man.
Dawood said that as much as the book deals with the Phoenix buses rising from the ashes and dust that the Group Areas Act left in its wake, it also deals with its collapse.
“At the core of the book are photographs that draw you in and force you to relive old ways, reimagine a time when buses began love affairs, friendships and even antagonisms that could turn violent. Clearly I have my own life-love affair with buses and this childhood fantasy comes to life in these pages. Like a Phoenix bus conductor, I collected the tickets of stories and like any good bus driver, I steered us into the wheels of Phoenix history,” he added.
Dawood said that the follow up book will be about Chatsworth and how the bus services originated. He urges the community to contribute to the historical process by submitting information and pictures of Chatsworth buses and also include the memories they shared on these buses.
He said: “The Chatsworth bus service paved the way for Phoenix bus services and I feel that Chatsworth was also a trial and error phase in the bus industry. Sadly due to an oppressive government legislature the bus services in Phoenix suffered the same fate as Chatsworth where they were prevented from applying for additional motor carrier certificates.”
