ADMIN'S NOTE: Pls trim the earlier message before replying and reposting to Goanet.
mas...@udsm.ac.tz Regarding Freds request about Goans in other countries & Response from Eugene Correia and Mervyn: We are dealing in a somewhat grey area ..... but our guesstimates could be wild if we are not in position to judge a bit more accurately. The fact of the matter is that Iringa had a number of important Goan families including Iringa Fernandes and the Barros family etc. Had there been sisal estates, many banks etc the number of Goans would be considerably more.! There is no way to get accurate demographic data specifically on Goans in Tanzania. As a former advisor to the GoT and a member of the National Census Committee there are good reasons for this situation. Therefore, all I am going to do is to make a very educated guess based on several sources. There are about 23 Administrative Regions in Tanzania. The single largest concentration of Goans is in the City Region of Dar es Salaam. The figure of around 2000 is almost correct. The next largest concentration is no longer Tanga or Zanzibar but Arusha. There maybe about 30 or 40 families and some years ago when I was there for the St Xaviers I estimated that there were about a 100 Goans. Tanga and Morogoro and Mwanza probably have about 10 families. Kilimanjaro, Mtwara, Bukoba and Mbeya about 5 families each. Then if we lump Dodoma+Iringa+Kigoma,Lindi+Singida I would say at the most 10 families. In the whole of Rukwa region, and I have been working there for the last twenty years or more there was no trace of Goans....unless Ophelia or myself were there! The figure of 2500 is probably as close as we can get. I am still tentative because I am aware of Goans even in Dar,(which has really grown very large), that there are Goans coming from India who are here on contracts and who simply have had no time to mix. At the height of Goan presence in Tanzania, there were several families in every district of Tanzania .... Tanga, Moshi, Arusha, Mtwara, Mbeya had at least a dozen families and even Iringa reached there! The big question is what footprints did Goans leave in Tanzania ..... I have already approached some of you to participate in this exercise ....so do not be surprised if you get an invitation from me. Regards Adolfo