Identity area
Type of entity
Family
Authorized form of name
Gool
Parallel form(s) of name
Standardized form(s) of name according to other rules
Other form(s) of name
Identifiers for corporate bodies
Description area
Dates of existence
History
Goolam and Halima Gool and the Nagdee family
Originally known as the Halima and Goolam Gool Papers, this collection has been considerably augmented thanks to a further donation by Dr Selim Gool. The original material has been combined with the additional documents to form a collection known as the Gool family papers. It should be noted that the second donation includes diaries and correspondence created by Halima Gool’s mother and siblings, the Nagdee family of Johannesburg.
The following basic information about Goolam and Halima Gool and the Nagdee family has been gathered from these records and from Selim Gools’s drafts of a proposed family history (Breaking chains: a modern family’s odyssey to freedom, by Selim Gool. Unpublished typescript, 2004. Cape Town. University of Cape Town African Studies Library - ref: BA 929.2 GOOL).
Ahmed Nagdee (1887 – c.1965), born in India, settled in Johannesburg. In 1913 he married Fatima Dollie (1896 – c.mid-1950s), who had been born and raised in Cape Town. The Nagdees had nine children:
Ayesha (c. 1914 – c. 1968) - married Moosa Dinath.
Halima/Lima (1916 – 1992) married Goolam Gool (1905 – 1962): both were radical political activists. Their children were Shirin (1943 – 1998) and Selim ( born 1948).
Amina - married Suliman (Sol) Desai on 14 May 1943.
Khadija / Gadija/ Dia (born c.1922) She attended Livingstone High School in Cape Town, living in the home of her uncle, S Dollie. She matriculated at the age of 15, and studied medicine at Witwatersrand University, graduating in 1945. After practising medicine in Johannesburg for a short period, she moved to England. Married Linn?, had at least one child, a daughter; and later lived in various parts of England, including Cambridge, Wakefield, Leeds.
Suliman/Solly (born 8 August 1926).
Rookhia /Ruby/Rookie (born 1928) - married Errol Vawda and moved to Durban.
Mahmood /Bhaai/ Bye (died 2003) - attended Aligarh Muslim College in India, where he subsequently lived for several years, and married a cousin, Amina. They later settled in South Africa.
Jane/Zane (born 1932) completed a Master’s degree in Psychology at UCT, moved to the UK, but later returned to Cape Town.
Fazli (1935 - 2004).
Ahmed Nagdee had acquired several small houses and shops in Johannesburg and Pretoria, which were rented to tenants. It was illegal for Indian immigrants in the Transvaal to own property, so the properties were registered in Fatima’s name. The Nagdee family business (apparently called A and F properties) was clearly precarious and controversial. Money was a perennial problem in the home: there are references to small family loans and summonses for unpaid bills. The relationship between the Nagdee parents was bitter and combative, friction being caused by various factors including Ahmed’s apparent meanness, and disagreements about the properties. It seems that Ahmed and Fatima had separated by the early 1950s, when she returned to Cape Town with her youngest children who completed their secondary schooling there.
In her diaries (1938 – 1945) Fatima complained bitterly about the meagre support provided by her husband, usually referred to as the Old Man or O.M. The three eldest daughters left school early, presumably because of financial constraints; certainly the practice of careful budgeting and making the best use of frugal means seems to have become part of their way of life, and their letters contain frequent references to their family finances. The three sisters appear to have continued with informal and part-time study: Halima, possibly in collaboration with her sisters, studied and took an active interest in social and political issues, and contributed controversial letters to Indian Views, under the pseudonym “A Muslim girl”. Amina studied secretarial subjects and later worked in an office, a move strongly opposed by her father. In their correspondence the elder daughters commented on their parents’ relationship, and the social and economic pressure on a wife to remain in an unhappy marriage for the financial security of herself and her children.
The Gool and Nagdee families were linked through Halima’s marriage to Goolam Gool. The Gools’ letters give some insight into their relationship which appears to have developed from their shared political beliefs, but it eventually ended in divorce. Halima and her two children, Shirin and Selim, moved temporarily to Johannesburg and then returned to Cape Town where Halima lived until her death in 1992.
Originally known as the Halima and Goolam Gool Papers, this collection has been considerably augmented thanks to a further donation by Dr Selim Gool. The original material has been combined with the additional documents to form a collection known as the Gool family papers. It should be noted that the second donation includes diaries and correspondence created by Halima Gool’s mother and siblings, the Nagdee family of Johannesburg.
The following basic information about Goolam and Halima Gool and the Nagdee family has been gathered from these records and from Selim Gools’s drafts of a proposed family history (Breaking chains: a modern family’s odyssey to freedom, by Selim Gool. Unpublished typescript, 2004. Cape Town. University of Cape Town African Studies Library - ref: BA 929.2 GOOL).
Ahmed Nagdee (1887 – c.1965), born in India, settled in Johannesburg. In 1913 he married Fatima Dollie (1896 – c.mid-1950s), who had been born and raised in Cape Town. The Nagdees had nine children:
Ayesha (c. 1914 – c. 1968) - married Moosa Dinath.
Halima/Lima (1916 – 1992) married Goolam Gool (1905 – 1962): both were radical political activists. Their children were Shirin (1943 – 1998) and Selim ( born 1948).
Amina - married Suliman (Sol) Desai on 14 May 1943.
Khadija / Gadija/ Dia (born c.1922) She attended Livingstone High School in Cape Town, living in the home of her uncle, S Dollie. She matriculated at the age of 15, and studied medicine at Witwatersrand University, graduating in 1945. After practising medicine in Johannesburg for a short period, she moved to England. Married Linn?, had at least one child, a daughter; and later lived in various parts of England, including Cambridge, Wakefield, Leeds.
Suliman/Solly (born 8 August 1926).
Rookhia /Ruby/Rookie (born 1928) - married Errol Vawda and moved to Durban.
Mahmood /Bhaai/ Bye (died 2003) - attended Aligarh Muslim College in India, where he subsequently lived for several years, and married a cousin, Amina. They later settled in South Africa.
Jane/Zane (born 1932) completed a Master’s degree in Psychology at UCT, moved to the UK, but later returned to Cape Town.
Fazli (1935 - 2004).
Ahmed Nagdee had acquired several small houses and shops in Johannesburg and Pretoria, which were rented to tenants. It was illegal for Indian immigrants in the Transvaal to own property, so the properties were registered in Fatima’s name. The Nagdee family business (apparently called A and F properties) was clearly precarious and controversial. Money was a perennial problem in the home: there are references to small family loans and summonses for unpaid bills. The relationship between the Nagdee parents was bitter and combative, friction being caused by various factors including Ahmed’s apparent meanness, and disagreements about the properties. It seems that Ahmed and Fatima had separated by the early 1950s, when she returned to Cape Town with her youngest children who completed their secondary schooling there.
In her diaries (1938 – 1945) Fatima complained bitterly about the meagre support provided by her husband, usually referred to as the Old Man or O.M. The three eldest daughters left school early, presumably because of financial constraints; certainly the practice of careful budgeting and making the best use of frugal means seems to have become part of their way of life, and their letters contain frequent references to their family finances. The three sisters appear to have continued with informal and part-time study: Halima, possibly in collaboration with her sisters, studied and took an active interest in social and political issues, and contributed controversial letters to Indian Views, under the pseudonym “A Muslim girl”. Amina studied secretarial subjects and later worked in an office, a move strongly opposed by her father. In their correspondence the elder daughters commented on their parents’ relationship, and the social and economic pressure on a wife to remain in an unhappy marriage for the financial security of herself and her children.
The Gool and Nagdee families were linked through Halima’s marriage to Goolam Gool. The Gools’ letters give some insight into their relationship which appears to have developed from their shared political beliefs, but it eventually ended in divorce. Halima and her two children, Shirin and Selim, moved temporarily to Johannesburg and then returned to Cape Town where Halima lived until her death in 1992.