FAMILY – Grandparents, parents and siblings
“I come from a very, very mixed family … My great grandmother was an Afrikaner Dutch woman …That’s my paternal side. My maternal side is also confused. We always assumed that it was only an Indian grandfather and a Malay grandmother. So, we grew up primarily as Malays because of the tradition from where our family came from and we spoke Afrikaans at home but we learned English.”
Achmat Dangor, interview by Karen Hurt, 2019
Victor Dlamini’s portrait of Achmat taken when Achmat visited Victor’s exhibition at Turbine Hall in 2015. Victor Dlamini
Mixed Heritage
While researching his family history, Achmat found out that one of his great-grandmothers had been enslaved and “brought to the Cape from Malaysia”. After she was freed, she went to live with her husband in District Six. Another great-grandmother was Dutch. In 2004, Achmat explained, “in the 1890s my great-grandmother, Katerina de Bruin, a Dutch woman, married my paternal great-grandfather, an Indian. Inevitably, she grew to become part of the coloured community, a true Maleiervrou. Also inevitably, there came a time when it was impossible for her to identify as a white person. They lived in the then Eastern Transvaal (now Mpumalanga), near the Swaziland border, in a little place called – of all things – Amsterdam. There they ran Dangor Wholesalers.”
The ‘Shift Up’ House
Years later Achmat’s parents Ebrahim (known as “Brimey”) and Juleigha (known as “Julie”) married at a young age. Brimey was an entrepreneur and shop-owner and Julie a seamstress and garment worker. The couple settled in Newclare where they resided with Brimey’s parents. On 11 February 1946 Brimey and Julie’s first child Mohammed was born. Achmat followed and was born on 2 October 1948. Over the next eighteen years the other seven Dangor children were born: Suleiman (“Sully”, 16 June 1949 – 22 July 2020); Abdullay (“Charlie”, 8 March 1952- 8 April 2000); Yasmin (“Jessie”, 19 September 1953 -17 July 2022); Moosa (12 July 1956); Igshaan (“Shaan”, 16 October 1958 – 4 October 2020); Abbas (27 April 1964); and Zane (8 May 1966). The Dangor siblings had an additional brother Ishmael (nick-named “Shadow”). He was not officially adopted but resided with the family from a young age until his forties when he passed away.
The siblings grew up under apartheid and as children, witnessed the full might of the state. Their neighbours were forced to move, and their father’s shop forced to close. Julie became the sole breadwinner. She was an incredibly caring and accommodating woman and opened the family home to those in need. Sometimes there were between 25 and 34 people living there. Their home became known as the ‘shift-up house’.
“[Ishmael] wasn’t formally adopted … he just became our brother. … Ishmael lived with us from the time in Newclare, from the time I was about six years old, ‘til he passed away in his forties. My brother Charlie met him at school and Charlie thought he was poorer than us and so Charlie brought him home and he stayed and never left. His nick-name was ‘Shadow’, because he was very dark …”
Abbas Dangor, Achmat’s younger brother
“Life was very difficult as kids and we didn’t even know that we were poor, because we were always helping other people in the process. My mother at one time, had 34 people in the house. Everybody that was homeless, she said ‘Come’…. They used to call my mother, ‘Shift up, shift up, move’” and the house was known as “shift-up”.
Mohammed Dangor, Achmat’s older brother
An activist family
Five of the nine siblings joined the liberation struggle at an early age. Mohammed, the eldest, was a key member of the African National Congress (ANC) and later South African Consul General to Saudi Arabia and Ambassador to Syria, Jordan and Libya; Achmat was a leader of the Black Consciousness Movement and banned by the apartheid state, Charlie died a member of the Azanian People’s Organisation; Shaan was a member of uMkhonto we Sizwe (the armed wing of the ANC) and Jessie was, at the time of her passing, Deputy Secretary General (and acting Secretary General) of the ANC. As a family and through their activism they stood in solidarity against apartheid.
Mohammed Dangor
(11 February 1943)
(11 February 1943)
Mohammed Dangor is a former advisor to the Minister of International Relations. Prior to that he was the Consul General to Saudi Arabia and South African Ambassador to Libya, Jordan and Syria.
Suleiman Dangor
(“Sully” 16 June 1949 – 22 July 2020)
(“Sully” 16 June 1949 – 22 July 2020)
Sully Dangor skilled in various odd jobs. In his younger years, according to his brother Abbas, he was a member of “The Molly McGuires” gang in Newclare.
Abdullay Dangor
(“Charlie”, 8 March 1952 – 8 April 2000)
(“Charlie”, 8 March 1952 – 8 April 2000)
Charlie Dangor was a digital aerial installation specialist and member of AZAPO.
Yasmin (‘Jessie’,
19 September 1953 -17 July 2022)
19 September 1953 -17 July 2022)
Jessie Duarte was the former ANC secretary-general and South Africa’s Ambassador to the Republic of Mozambique.
Moosa Dangor
(12 July 1956)
(12 July 1956)
Moosa Dangor has been involved in business most of his life occupying various positions as a buyer, manger and salesperson in retail.
Igshaan (‘Shaan’,
16 October 1958 – 4 October 2020)
16 October 1958 – 4 October 2020)
Igshaan Dangor served as the Chief Director: Finance in the office of the Chief of the South African National Defence Force (SANDF). He went into exile to join the ranks of Umkhonto we Sizwe (MK) in 1984 and returned from exile in 1990.
Abbas Dangor
(27 April 1964)
(27 April 1964)
Abbas Dangor is a technology management consultant. In the 1980s he, along with his younger brother, was detained for participating in the school boycotts.
Zane Dangor
(8 May 1966)
(8 May 1966)
Zane Dangor is currently the Director-General of the Department of International Relations and Co-Operation in South Africa. He was previously the Director General for the Department of Social Development.
“All these things [segregation and the Group Areas Act] had an impact on me and I think it is where for me and my brothers and my sister… is where the radicalisation began because we were so angry at what we saw as the apartheid government taking away things from us that was part of our habitat, part of our nature, and forcing on us all kinds of other things. It was just the segregation that forced the removal of people and the segregation of people.”
Achmat Dangor, interview by Karen Hurt, 2019
“Growing up in our lives, we were impacted by apartheid in very many ways and I think that turned us into what we were. We were impacted by separate schooling, by race classification, by a working-class mother, who was a garment worker.”
Mohammed Dangor, Achmat’s older brother
Our brother
Each sibling developed a unique relationship with Achmat but as a unit they were all close. Zane Dangor explains “We’re a big family, so there were times when we were really close and there’s times when you’re all doing your own thing, which is life. But when we got together it was really always in a warm and in solidarity and engaging with each other about important issues of life, but always, always I think looking at Achmat for inspiration and engagement.”
At the Nelson Mandela Foundation’s memorial for Achmat in 2020, Jessie Duarte spoke on behalf of the Dangor siblings: “Our brother was the most beautiful person we knew, inside and out. He had a way of making us laugh, despite great adversity in our lives. We were poor. We had no luxury, we had no holidays, but our holiday was as a family and our holiday was talking to each other.”
“We were on the same trajectory. I was more active in formal organisations [political organisations], he was more active in service organisations [NGOs]. We didn’t talk to each other about what we were doing…Whenever he had a problem I would assist him. Similarly, he would come and assist me. We’d come together at the end of Ramadan and birthday parties … but whenever there was a crisis, or something happened, we would stand together and help each other and each other’s kids.”
Mohammed Dangor, Achmat’s older brother
“We had a very vibrant home. Debates were on all the time. We never ever had a dinner without a debate and it was always Achmat’s voice that came through strongly and of course our elder brother Mohammed …My best memories of Achmat are when we sat around a fireplace at night. You know, often, all of us would sit around the fireplace and talk about things and discuss our situation. He was a very humble person, that’s how I remember Achmat, a very, very, humble person.”
Moosa Dangor, Achmat’s younger brother
“Achmat had a huge influence on me. I was kind of always proud of his achievements. Whatever he said, I listened carefully and then when he came and lived with me, that made us a little bit closer, but still the age gap. I do remember him calling me up one night and said, ‘You need to stop working so hard’, because just after his divorce, he said ‘Your family is more important than work.’ Achmat shaped my religious thinking as well.”
Abbas Dangor, Achmat’s younger brother
“Achmat was always well dressed, he was always well-spoken, he was always the gentleman in the house and in the community, in a space where there were not too many gentlemen … Achmat had a shaping approach to my life in terms of the ideas, the reading, the approach to writing and thinking and being, you know, on intellectual pursuits, but he also had a disciplining effect in a very good way, things that I won’t forget. He became a role model for me from a very young age.”
Zane Dangor, Achmat’s youngest brother
