The tall tales of Bwana Louie -- REVIEW BY: Frederick Noronha fredericknoro...@gmail.com -- We would sit for long hours at the Cafe Prakash near Panjim's Azad Maidan -- now sadly going through a rough patch, and not as noisy as it once was -- discussing issues. Mostly me listening and the author narrating. One could just provoke Luis with a short question, and expect to be regaled with a long series of detailed anecdotes. Some whispered in soft, almost conspiratorial tones, so much so that you were not sure whether you had just heard right!
Luis de Assis Correia is a Goan in his eighties. Like many of that generation, particularly those who had a tryst with the world of migration and diaspora, he has indeed had a colourful past. Ironically enough, our discussions were often about his earlier books relating to the writing of Francisco Luis Gomes, or Goan history going back 10,000 years. The logical question would be: why not a book on the writer's own life? A suggestion or two was all that was needed. In between bouts of health challenges and spending his winters in Benaulim, the London-based Correia has actually come out with a hard-bound memoir. *Winds of Change Across Africa 1958-1969* strikes one as a bit of an understatement for a title. It suggests the book merely describes political change in those tumultuous times. Which it does; but it is much more, in fact. Two examples make this point. One day, Correia casually placed a photograph on the tea-stained table. At first glance, it made no sense. It had a few young African Blacks, and, as one then saw, some Asians. One young man in the picture seemed to be staring, almost fascinated, at the young woman. Turns out that this was the Goan Reita Faria, India's first ever Miss World, on her visit to Africa. If you search hard enough, you could probably find this photo in cyberspace today. The next photo he shared has an even more intriguing story. One can see a long row of young Africans, clad in ill-fitting suits, some holding large envelopes. The travel agency in the background suggests they're about the embark on some long voyage. Correia then went on to explain his role in arranging tickets for this group going as students to the United States, one of whom actually included the father of US President Obama! The envelopes were their x-rays, which they had to undergo some three days before travel, to ensure they were not carriers of tuberculosis while going to the Land of the Free and of Opportunity! In this book, Correia interweaves his own personal story with that of Africa's. A writer bringing himself or herself too much into the story can often act as a failing and detract from the story. But here, one sincerely feels that Correia could have done more to personalise the story, to bring out his own experiences, and to give a hint to the reader back in Goa about the often hidden role played by the Goan diaspora even in the so-called Dark (and, should one say, still despised) continent. Correia, like quite a few other Goans, started off life in the world of travel. After an education at Xavier's Bombay -- an institution which has built so much skills and talent in the Goan community -- he worked for awhile at Air India, and then shifted to Africa. His story of landing at dawn in Africa, and how it fulfilled a 'prediction', gets us off to an interesting start. And he writes (p xi), "Within less than three months after my arrival in Nairobi, I was invited by [Kenyan nationalist leader who spearheaded the negotiations for independence] Tom Mboya to handle his own travel arrangements and also those of the African Elected Members for the Lancaster House Conference." By some coincidence, at this very time work is underway on the political memoirs of another Goan who actually attended one of those crucial conference -- blame it for setting postcolonial Africa onto the wrong road, if you wish -- JM Nazareth, who traces his roots to Moira. Winds of... is itself dedicated to Tom Mboya and Pio Gama Pinto, the mostly forgotten rare Goan who took the side of the Black nationalist cause, and post-Independence, and paid with his life for his pro-people, radical politics. In Part I of this book, we accompany Correia from Bombay (which he left in June 1958, p 3) to Kenya, Tanganyika and Zanzibar. One gets a hint of what it meant in those times, as someone from colonial Portuguese-ruled Goa, to work in post-Independence India. Correia's tryst with the media (through community newspapers) is interesting, as is his bird's eye view of Africa's politicians. For any Goan expat from Africa, or even just a student of history and politics, his photos are not to be missed. This only underlines the reality that we should never underrate the treasures we have in our own backyards and our photo albums. These tell a story of another day, and another place. Or history. Correia's involvement with air travel gives him an air-bridge to the (then still growing into being the) high and mighty, the makers of history in Africa. His narration and memory of those times adds the useful personal insights. Interestingly, Correia has a way of running into the news and the making of history, even when if has to do with offering design services, encounter Filipino colleagues, or take part in a 'familiarisation tour' of Cairo. Correia has quite some pages on Pio Gama Pinto (1927-1965). But, being someone who knew him so closely, one would have expected even more personal insights. Did the author get overawed by reputation of the man killed in his 30s, to tell what he was really like? In his pages, we also encounter the part-Goan Guirim-linked Joseph Zuzarte Murumbi (1911-1990), Kenya's second Vice President for a brief year-and-half in the mid 1960s. For Goans with a Mozambique link, Correia's take on the poet, revolutionary and statesman Marcelino dos Santos (b. 1929) might be of interest. Half way through, we encounter the Mutesa II, the exiled Kabaka ("king" may be an inprecise term) of the Kingdom of Buganda, who died of "alcohol poisoning" in his London flat. His story takes us to Kawshirkor (what's that, someone younger might ask today?), Biafra (again, how many remember this?), and Equatorial safaris. Names like Janet Musgrave, Reita Faria, Barak Obama and others pepper this book. But Correia should not be mistaken for a name dropper; he lived through those times. If you saw the octogenarian shuffling past Hotel Arcadia in Panjim, you wouldn't even guess though. There are a whole lot of nuggets in this book. It should have taken a bit more time to mature; and the author might have gained from being even more outspoken about his own experiences. Two conclusions -- don't underrate your own personal story! And, everyone's understanding helps us to get a more rounded image of the past and how it affected our lives... or, if you want, how the tiny part of globe that is Goa helped to get entangled with distant realities and even shape history. Contact for Luis Assis Correa: visorey...@gmail.com -- Winds of Change Across Africa 1958-1969 Luis de Assis Correia Rs 395. 2014. ISBN 9789384298012 Broadway Publishing House. Rs 395. Pp 222+xviii