As far as Ikbal Jannif knew, his great-grandfather came to Fiji as an indentured labourer. He passed away on August 4, 2021 after a short illness, and this week we look at his story of his family’s arrival in Fiji, his early life, and his adolescent years.
In the book, Memories of Fiji and Beyond, written by the late Mr Jannif and 12 of his classmates at Marist Brothers’ High School from 1959 to 1965, he said records of his great grandfather’s arrival in Fiji were sketchy but, from all accounts, he came to Fiji as an indentured labourer and was assigned to a plantation on Taveuni.
“He had come from the hill tribes of Northwest India, now part of Afghanistan,” he said.
“We were told that when he first approached the British recruiting station to register to come to Fiji, he was refused on the basis that Afghanis were troublemakers.”
A quick trip to another recruiting station and under a new name, age, fibbing about where he was from, he secured his passage to Fiji. Somehow in the late 1890’s the family ended up in Levuka.
“We do know that my grandparents had a house on Mission Hill, where nine of their 10 children were born.
“Grandad had a passion for cooking, and became the head chef, or was it the only chef, at the Royal Hotel which is still operating today.”
The family had a small vegetable garden his father and uncle Hannif Akbar would sell fresh vegetables to the European families to supplement his grandfather’s income.
They went to school at the Marist Convent School until one of their uncles, a Mr N A Khan, invited his uncle Hannif to move to Suva.
The move to Suva
Mr Khan was a photographer with Fredrick William Caine, owner of the then Caine’s Studios. “Uncle Hannif moved to Suva in 1918 and started work with FW Caine and Co, my father followed in 1920.
“He was 12 years old at the time and had only four years of formal education.”
Mohammed Jannif Akbar, Ikbal Jannif’s father, arrived in Suva with two shillings and 10 pence in his pocket – a mere 28 cents in today’s money. He joined his uncle and brother at the photo studio, sweeping the floor and footpath, and wiping the front windows.
This begun the relationship of the Caines and Jannif families. Initially his name was Mohammed Jannif Akbar, and he was nicknamed Pang, which Mr Caine changed to Ben. “My father liked this new name, and officially changed his name to Ben Mohammed Jannif.
“When my father’s uncle left FW Caine and Co to start his own photo studio, his nephews refused to go with him.
“They stayed with Mr Caine, and later became his partners.”
Some years after Mr Caine’s death on Makogai Island, Mrs Caine and Mohammed Hannif sold their shares to Ben Jannif and he became the sole owner of Caines Studios by the mid 1950’s.
The name Caines Jannif was registered in 1964.
Growing up Ikbal Jannif was born on December 5, 1944. The family had a threebedroom house on Extension St, with a large kitchen and dinning area joined to the house, with a long veranda that doubled as a dinning room when the extended family members gathered.
“Mum and dad, my mum’s cousin, the six Jannif children, two cousins, my dad’s youngest brother, a son of my dad’s friends from Labasa who was attending Marist High School, and a son of one of my dad’s iTaukei friends from a village in Tailevu, all lived in this house.
“With 14 people, there was no such thing as private space.”
They did not have electricity until 1957 they shared a telephone with their neighbours under the party line system – where two families share a phone number and the number of rings when the phone rang indicated which family the call was for. Cooking for the troops was the job of their aunty Saira.
“Chopping and drying firewood, and keeping the kitchen supplied, feeding the chooks and the ducks, raking the lawn were left to the younger males, while the older guys kept the yard clean.”
On top of her kitchen duties, their aunty Saira – who was also a primary school teacher – ensured the children knew their alphabet and numbers before they started school.
Education
“Thank you Ben, he’s ours now, we’ll take care of him,” or something to the extent is what Brother Bertrand said to Ben Jannif when he walked a young Ikbal Jannif to the gates of St Columba’s School on the first Monday of February 1951.
In the eight years he spent at St Columba’s, he was taught by some of the best teachers in the country – Master Shiri Ram Cheddi, Master Joeli Kotoisuva, Br Grinion Joseph and Master Ali Hussein.
“They all had their individual ways of making learning interesting and fun. “Spelling, reading out loud, mental arithmetic, learning the times table up to 20 times, and drawing all seemed to be pointless then, but turned out to be very handy in later life.”
Other than his studies he joined the St Johns Ambulance Brigade Cadets under Br Bertrand – learning to give artificial respiration, to apply a sling, and marching drills under Sergeant Major Leone Lesi.
“Being on duty at sporting fixtures and attending to on-field injuries when the referee blew his whistle twice were great experiences.
“The taunts from the spectators with calls of ‘aspro, aspro’ when we ran onto the field did not deter us.”
Marist Brothers High School
“Unlike other schools, MBHS started its first term on the Thursday before other schools started.
“The Thursday and Friday were spent sorting out classrooms, school houses, text books and stationery, and generally preparing for proper classes to begin when the bell rang on Monday.”
He wanted to be a doctor, and was placed in the science form, and the following Monday at precisely 8.30am, a young Marist Brother walked into the classroom.
“He pulled up the sleeves of his black robe revealing the hairiest arms I had seen, and in beautiful cursive writing, put his name on the blackboard, Brother Eugene entered my life.”
He took English, Algebra and Geometry as part of Maths, Arithmetic, Chemistry, Physics, Latin and French – although he described himself as a lost cause in the last two. When he entered the third form in 1959, Br Cassian was the principal, but they did not particularly warm to each other.
1960 saw the return of Br Lambert as principal and he seemed to like this “new guy”.
Also in 1960, Elizabeth Neville joined the school as an English teacher and this caused quite a stir.
“She was the first lady teacher to be appointed at the school, and what a great teacher she was. “When the Fiji Junior results were released, the class had achieved 98 per cent pass.”
In the fifth form in 1961 – usually the best of the high school years because by then everyone in some way knows everyone and there are no external exams – the class clowns came to the fore. “Br Peter and Br Clarent were the main targets.” They were referred to as “OP” and “the mad scientist”.
“Both were easily influenced by a certain fellow from Flagstaff to go off point and talk about everything and anything other than the subject matter.”
He remembered most of the diversion being credited to Saitani, the “mystical, mysterious lady who had the boys from Toorak and Flagstaff – and a few others – totally mesmerised”.
He was the secretary of Augustine House under Captain Bill Narruhn. The following year in the sixth form he became the vice-captain of Augustine House under Captain Robert Southey.
“We went on to win the Bentley Shield as Athetic Champions for the first time.”
The teaching staff kept the class heavily occupied with weekly tests, lots of homework and revision for the Senior Cambridge Exams at the end of the year.
Teachers availed themselves after official school hours and on Saturday morning some Brothers would offer guidance in classrooms.
“The class did well and many obtained A grade passes.”
He left MBHS in December 1962 and went to New Zealand for further studies in 1963.
• Join us next week as we look further into the story of Ikbal Jannif and his years in the Land of the Long White Cloud.
Related article:
Point of Origin | Preserving history through photography (Part 1)
