On the couch with: Duncan du Bois (Bluff ward councilor and author of Labourer or Settler)

SS: You recently completed the book, Labourer or Settler, which is based upon research done for your MA degree. What inspired you to expand this concept into a book?
DdB: Only researchers generally read theses so with the 150 anniversary of the arrival of Indians in 2010 and the centenary of the ending of indentured labour in July 2011, I decided it was not only opportune but also highly topical to update and expand the research contained in my original thesis and rewrite it all under a new title. At least now there are hundreds of people who would never have read the thesis but who have now read Labourer or Settler.

SS: Could you briefly explain what topics the book touches upon?
DdB: The focus is on white settler's need for Indian indentured labour and how that mutated into an antipathy to the labourers obtaining settler status when their contracts ended. So it is not about the individual experiences of Indians. But in that, the Indian presence came to be colony-wide and in that they played many roles. Their socio-economic impact on colonial Natal was considerable.

SS: When did you first start writing the book?
DdB: In January 2010. The first chapter of the background to the Indians first coming to Natal was almost a direct lift from my thesis. But beyond that I had to do a great deal of catch-up reading and research, most of which I did at Killie Campbell library.

SS: Did you encounter any obstacles or setbacks while writing the book? Was there anything that proved to be particularly challenging?
DdB: Nothing in particular. I bought several new publications to augment my own private collection. But they had to be read and digested and the relevant aspects incorporated into the new text I was generating. I also needed to lessen the focus on John Robinson who is central to the original thesis. So there are twice as many chapters in the book than there were in the thesis. But that was also to facilitate the distribution of the information flow.

SS: Will you be releasing any other books in the near future?
DdB: At the moment I am researching and writing a PhD thesis entitled ‘Sugar and Settlers: the colonisation of the Natal South Coast 1850-1910.’ So, when that’s done I intend to convert it into a book.

SS: What books have influenced your life?
DdB: If I could rephrase the question to what authors have influenced my outlook, the answers are British historian Paul Johnson, English novelist Anne Bronte and her only successfully published work, The Tenant of Wildfell Hall and of course, William Shakespeare.

SS: You worked in the field of education for over 10 years. How have your experiences in these years come to influence you and the things you are doing now?
DdB: I was in high school for 34 years. The progressive dismantling of what was once a sound education system and the imposition of Curriculum 2005, which is totally unsuitable for conditions here, certainly were responsible for my decision to take early retirement. I also long ago came to realise that I preferred writing and research to teaching.

SS: I stand corrected but you retired in 2010 and are currently enrolled as a part-time student in the Department of Historical studies at UKZN where you are engaged in research towards a doctoral degree? What made you decide to pursue this?
DdB: Not long after I had commenced writing and researching Labourer or Settler I had a lightbulb moment. The topic I am researching for the PhD came to me out of thin air. There is no single history of the South Coast during the colonial period and since I have always had a fondness for that part of our province, I approached the head of UKZN History Department with the idea that has been formally accepted.

SS: You have been a lifelong Bluff resident. What have been some profound changes you have witnessed in the area?
DdB: Obviously there has been a huge demographic change in the past 20 years. The Bluff has become a city within a city. This is evident from the traffic in and out of the three big shopping centres. It’s actually becoming overcrowded. The fondness of some of the property owners for acres of concrete in place of the Bluff’s once rustic, leafy nature is sad.

SS: What have been some of your fondest memories growing up in the Bluff?
DdB: Surfing the various breaks from Ansteys down to Cave Rock in the late 1960s and early 1970s with my peers sadly, some of whom, like Jeff Pearce, have passed on.


Just for fun:
Getting into the festive season…
SS: Are you big on Christmas?
DdB: Yes, in the sense of observing all the traditions, church service, gifts, decorations, tree, carols, formal lunch which would include turkey and a brandy-soaked Christmas plum pudding.

SS: What is your favourite Christmas carol?
DdB: Oh, Come All Ye Faithful

SS: Are you one to set out New Year resolutions?
DdB: No.