Old customs die hard in a back country. Nowhere in Natal are the traditions of ancient India observed more strictly than on the backwoods Moonsammy banana farm near Sea Cow Lake. In nearby Durban, where many of South Africa's 365,000 Indians rub shoulders with the West, young Indian girls are often permitted to dance and date but Farmer Moonsammy kept his wife and five daughters always in the bondage of purdah, the second-rate status of women in the land of his ancestors. The five girls, ranging in age from 26 to 14, worked hard all day in their father's fields,...
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