The Letters of Sushila Gandhi: From Press Worker to Managing Trustee of Phoenix Settlement in South Africa, 1927 to 1977

Abstract

An epistolarium of over 80 letters written by a first-generation Gujarati migrant woman to South Africa provides the basis for the construction of her biography. The personal register of the letters written to family and friends allows her to shape this biography and for her voice to be heard though filtered through the process of translation and selection. The letters are read for expressions of labour performativity, the meaning of work and its challenges, her political astuteness and for the intersections with her other roles such as that of wife and mother for there was a seamlessness across these. Her growth as a letter writer over five decades is mirrored by her maturation in all spheres of her life. Through her transnational life, there is the opportunity to consider what role movement to Africa had in this development. The space of Phoenix Settlement, a farm started by Mohandas Gandhi, plays a central role in her transformation, growth and relations with men.