Created in 2012 for the National Heritage Foundation’s Long Walk to Freedom project, this life-size bronze figure commemorates Hadji Ojer Alley. Hadji Ojer Ally1853 - 1922First Chairperson of the Coloured People’s Association, First President of the Hamidia Islamic Society, Pioneer of the Congress Movement
The enterprising Ally set up a distillery brewing cold drinks in Cape Town. He opened a second plant in Kimberley, and later ran a fruit and vegetable wholesalers in Johannesburg.
Ally first became involved in politics while in Kimberley. He moved easily between the Indian, Coloured and African communities and in 1893 helped establish the Coloured People's Association (CPA), a political organization for the advancement of blacks, promoting unity of all races. He became its first chairman. The CPA was the precursor to the African Political Organization, which counted Ally amongst its founding fathers when it was established in 1902.
He took an active part in the affairs of the Muslim Community and in 1906 founded the Hamidia Islamic Society, primarily a Muslim merchant's organization that followed the passive resistance tactics of the Natal Indian Congress, in the Transvaal.