Despite the geographic and cultural distance of their roots, Mohandas Gandhi and Hermann Kallenbach enjoyed a close and intense friendship in South Africa for ten years after their paths first crossed in 1904. “Soulmates”, they lived together for much of this time in Orchards, Mountain View and at the farm and community they created south of Johannesburg, Tolstoy farm, near Lawley.

Kallenbach made a unique contribution to the Johannesburg townscape – in a series of religious, commercial and residential buildings, and as a township developer in the north-eastern suburbs. But it is the decade where he and Gandhi shared a friendship and a political struggle in this City, between 1903 and 1914, was perhaps the most significant in his life.

Gandhi would develop the philosophy of Satyagraha that would one day sweep British colonial rule from the Indian subcontinent during this time. It was a philosophy that was developed and refined in deep philosophical debate about human values to which Kallenbach was central, and together they hammered out the tactics and organization of passive non-violent resistance, and applied these evolving methods to oppose the Transvaal government’s new law insisting on the registration of the Indian population. It was the start of an eight year battle for civil rights for Indians and human equality.

Join Professor Katherine Munro in exploring their friendship and enduring legacy in Johannesburg in this fascinating illustrated lecture.

Email Eira to book - mail@joburgheritage.org.za

Time: 14h00

Park: Northwards, 21 Rockridge Road, Parktown

Cost : R90.00 for members and R150.00 for non-members 

Duration: Approximately 2 hours

Maximum number: 60

Main image: Statue of Gandhi and Kallenbach in Rusne - Martynas Ambrazas