Children of Sugarcane

Shanti, a bright teenager stifled by life in rural India and facing an arranged marriage, dreams that South Africa is an opportunity to start afresh. The Colony of Natal is where Shanti believes she can escape the poverty, caste, and the traumatic fate of young girls in her village. Months later, after a harrowing sea voyage, she arrives in Natal and realises life there is full of hardship and labour.