Two Malayalee men — Billy Nair and Paul Joseph — stood shoulder to shoulder with Nelson Mandela in South Africa’s long battle against apartheid. Both played vital roles in the African National Congress (ANC), enduring imprisonment, exile, and persecution in the fight for freedom.
For decades, they were simply known as Indians of South African origin. But a new book by Cochin-based writer G. Shaheed, published by Mathrubhumi, has revealed their little-known ancestral roots in Kerala. Billy Nair’s family hailed from Kundalassery village in Palakkad district, while Paul Joseph’s family traced its origins to Vazhakulam in Ernakulam district.
With Nelson Mandela — Billy Nair (left, in wheelchair) and Paul Joseph (right). (Photo: Supplied)
Billy Nair, born in Durban in 1929, was drawn into activism from a young age. He organised dock workers and sugar plantation labourers into unions and soon earned the wrath of the apartheid regime. Arrests, police assaults, and torture became part of his life. In the 1950s, he worked closely with Nelson Mandela, then a young lawyer in Johannesburg, and became one of the most fearless organisers in the ANC.
In 1962, Mandela, Billy Nair, Ahmed Kathrada, Mac Maharaj and others were arrested in the infamous Rivonia trial. Convicted in 1964, they were sent to the notorious Robben Island prison, where Mandela spent 27 years and Billy Nair more than two decades. Despite years of brutal confinement, Billy never lost his spirit. When South Africa held its first democratic elections in 1994, Billy was elected a Member of Parliament, serving alongside Mandela. In 2007, he was honoured with the Pravasi Bharatiya Samman. He passed away in 2008.
Paul Joseph, born the same year in Johannesburg, also inherited the courage of his Malayalee migrant family. His mother, Annamma, had migrated from Vazhakulam village in Ernakulam in 1890 as a teenager, joining relatives in Johannesburg. Paul became active in student politics, joined the ANC youth wing, and faced repeated police harassment, assaults and imprisonment.
After the ANC was banned in 1960, Paul continued underground work but the pressure grew unbearable. In 1965, he fled South Africa with the help of ANC colleagues, first to Botswana and Zambia, before finally settling in Mill Hill, London. His wife and mother later joined him, and Paul continued to campaign from exile. Today, at the age of 96, he lives quietly in London, a living link between Kerala and the struggle for Mandela’s South Africa.
The discovery of their Kerala ancestry came almost by chance. During a visit to the Robben Island museum, a visitor from Kerala, Sudhakar, noticed Billy Nair’s name on the prisoner records and suspected a Malayalee connection because of the surname “Nair.” This led to years of research. The breakthrough came when Billy’s elder sister, Kalyani Nair, then living in Germany, confirmed their father Krishnan Nair’s origins in Kundalassery, Palakkad. Paul Joseph’s family history, too, was traced back to Vazhakulam, Ernakulam.
With the help of Philip Abraham, Editor of Kerala Link, Paul Joseph was finally located in London in 2022, reconnecting him to his ancestral homeland.
G. Shaheed – Author
Shaheed’s book, widely acclaimed in Kerala, shines a long-overdue spotlight on these two Malayalee freedom fighters. With their stories, Kundalassery and Vazhakulam villages are now recognized for their connection to South Africa’s liberation, demonstrating Kerala’s quiet but powerful role in a global struggle for justice, placing two obscure villages from God’s Own Country on the map of world history.
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