[Goanet] East Africa's Black Europeans
Thanks Merwyn Lobo for your response, Kilima njaro means shining mountain which is situated close to the border between Tanzania and Kenya. It is snow capped though it is quite close to the equator. It is highest mountain in Africa , 19340 feet above the sea level. When I saw it for the first time in 1960 from Moshi town I was in a state of shock and awe for there it was a huge block of ice hanging high up in the skies in all its majestic splendour. It is a sight that cannot be erased from my memory Here is another version. Mount Kilimanjaro till the second half of the nineteen century was part of the British Kenya colony Sometime during this period coronation of Kaiser ( emperor ) Frederick III of Germany took place. Apparently Queen Victoria asked her courtiers to bring a map of Kenya and drew a line around Mount Kilimanjaro and presented this area to Kaiser Frederick III as a coronation gift.. The reason :::Frederick III was married to Queen Victoria' s eldest daughter called Princess Royal Victoria. Thus Mount Kilimanjaro became part of the German colony of Tanganyika. Another E.African sight during colonial days that is deeply etched in my memory is Dar es Salaam's narrow entrance to the harbour. It was simply fascinating to watch huge mauve coloured Union Castle passenger liners sail in and out of the entrance which on one of its side was a public beach. Antonio
Re: [Goanet] East Africa's Black Europeans
Antonio Menezes wrote: > The then British East Africa comprised of (1) Kenya Colony & Protectorate ( > i.e. Coast Province of Kenya which I believe was obtained by the British > from the Sultanate of Zanzibar) (2) Uganda (3) Tanganyika ( a former German > colony that came into British posession at the end of the First World Was > in 1917 as a war reparation) and (4) the islands of Zanzibar and Pemba > which were ruled by the sultans of Omani origin Antonio, For the record, Tanganyika was given to the British as part of their victory over the Germans after World War I. Mt. Kilimanjaro, the highest in Africa, was then given by the British to the Germans as part of some English Kings dowry. Or vice-versa. Luckily, for Tanganyika, since we were a UN "trust territory' we were able to achieve independence relatively easily. The Kenyans, being a "colony' had more problems. One of these days, I will get around to writing about the Goans in Tanganyika who went from being Portuguese to Tanganyikans to Indians in a period of two weeks. Tanganyika got its independence on 9th December, 1961. Two weeks later, the Indians marched into Goa. Mervyn3.0 __ Looking for the perfect gift? Give the gift of Flickr! http://www.flickr.com/gift/
[Goanet] East Africa's Black Europeans
The then British East Africa comprised of (1) Kenya Colony & Protectorate ( i.e. Coast Province of Kenya which I believe was obtained by the British from the Sultanate of Zanzibar) (2) Uganda (3) Tanganyika ( a former German colony that came into British posession at the end of the First World Was in 1917 as a war reparation) and (4) the islands of Zanzibar and Pemba which were ruled by the sultans of Omani origin People of the Indian origin who had settled down in East Africa were mostly Gujaratis ( Hindus, Jains and Shia Muslims like Bohris, Ismailis and Itnasheris ) Punjabis ( Hindus, Sikhs and Sunni Muslims ) and a few thousand Goan catholics. Prior to 1947, I am not sure what kind of British Passports were held by Gujaratis and Punjabis ( there were no Indian passports before 1947) but Goans had Portuguese passports. Some Goans in East Africa did blindly follow the traditions of Mestizo (Portuguese by half) community and proudly started calling themselves Portuguese, an expression that might have led Robert Gregory to describe brown skinned Goans as Black Europeans. Children of Gujratis, Punjabis and Goans who were born in East Africa claimed British Passports i.e. "Citizen of the United Kingdom and Colonies "" if they were born in Kenya (Nairobi, Nakuru, Kisumu and Eldoret ) and all others including those who were born in Kenya' Coast Province ( Mombasa and Malindi) Uganda and Tanzania were given British passports with the status of ""British Portected Person "". It was these British passports that in the end facilitated their settlement in the United Kingdom, Canada and the United States. A note to Merwyn & Elsie Maciel :: Vivian D'Souza is quite right he was born in a European hospital in Dar es Salaam. In this connection please refer to Merwyn Lobo and Antonio Menezes' posts on "European Citizenship" dated 03 June and 06 June 2008 respectively
Re: [Goanet] East Africa's Black Europeans
Dear Tony, I have a faint feeling that you could apply the experiential and aesthetic tropes in your text to conceive a phenomenal poem. venantius > From: Tony Barros <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > Subject: [Goanet] East Africa's Black Europeans > > East Africa's "Black Europeans" > > Hi Selma et al ! > > During my 37 years in Tanzania, East Africa, which included 14 years > (ten fulltime and four part-time) as a journalist, I never heard of goans > being "labelled" Black Europeans let alone "Brown Europeans". > > Am I surprised ?. No, with all the "garbage" and "venom" being "spewed" > by several writers and psuedo writers- Robert Gregory notwithstanding- some > of them even having the audacity of being very knowledgeable about goans. > May be, some of us are responsible for this anomaly. > >
Re: [Goanet] East Africa's Black Europeans
I have come across some books on Asians in Africa, such as The Ismail community in Tanzania, etc. Like Neera Kapur-Drompson's book, From Jhelum to Tana, Karen Isksen Leonard, a scholar I am familiar with, has written Locating Home: India's Hyderabadis Abroad. She has talked to NRI Hyderabads, some of who maintain that the "authentic" Hyderabadi culture has been better maintin in the diasporan than in contemporary Hyderabad. The second and third generation Hyderabadis, like most diasporic communities, are more Indian-American or British-Indian. To understand the Indians in Dar-es-Salaam from fiction, it would be necessary to turn to Moyez Vassanji, the Canadian author of Ismaili origin. I think his first novel, The Gunny Sack, has a Goan character. Our own Peter Nazareth's In a Brown Mantle is another important source, though fiction, it has characters based on actual people who lived in the Uganda before the Asian expulsion. Even Nazareth's The General is Up should provides fictional insights into Indian diaspora. Two book, The Illusion of Home by Raji Narasimham (a collection of short stories) and Portable Roots: A Saga of the Tamil Diaspora by Sivasnkari (translated by Rekha Shetty, both books published by Promilla and Co) speaks of how immigrants live in their adopted land. The former book is seen through the eyes of women and the latter through the lifestyle of a family in the US. As for calling Goans "Black Europeans", I think it was a misnomer. I don't think if was a deliberate "put down" or racist remark. In fact, Mohammad Ali Jinnah was said to be more English than the Englishmen as he could not even trust Indians to have his clothes dry-cleaned and had them sent to England. Wasn't Nehru obliquely called an "Englishman" before he came joined the Indian freedom struggle and donned the cap (now called the Nehru cap) and the vest (now called the Nehru vest). Wasn't Dom Moraes called the "Brown Englishman" because he lived the English lifestyle while in England? The moniker stuck to him while he was abroad, but on his return to India one hardly called him that. I have heard of many tales coming from Africa where upwardily mobile and, in most cases, elite Goans behaved more like Englishmen when they mingled with fellow Goans who did not hold high-powered jobs. Whenever you met African Goans in Toronto during my early days there, I could be invariably asked which part of Africa I came from. I knew another Bombayite who was asked the same question at parties or social gathering and he would reply by giving fake names of places and they would ask where the places where and he was say somewhere in the hinterland of Tanzania or Uganda. The situation in Toronto has changed now because of Goans coming directly from India and the Middle East. However, the perception that African Goans carried a chip on their shoulders remain. Eugene Correia Eugene
Re: [Goanet] East Africa's Black Europeans
--- On Wed, 10/1/08, Tony Barros <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > Or may be, Robert Gregory was inspired by the late author > from the the > French Carribbean island of Martinique- Franz Fanon whose > book - "Black > Faces White Masks" gave greater insights into how > coloreds "aped" European culture. (Fanon is also > the author of "Wretched of the Earth"). You be the > judge. --- Dear Friends, Goans and countrymen :-)) Let us not get angry at Robert G. Gregory. The man is a historian and only recording history as it has been told to him. For a list of books, he has written about Asians and Africans, click here. http://www.bookfinder.com/author/robert-g-gregory/ It could just be that he has erred here, or it could just be that the British were calling us, Black Europeans unbeknownest to us. Shame on them. But then, why are we surprised? This is a quote from a 1872, Daily News, newspaper from England. Headline - Darkies from the deep There are full-blooded negroes from Gambia and half-caste Portuguese from Goa. In a book published by Rev Gavin Duffy, called Let's Go, apparently he referred to Goans in Kenya as "mongrels". The G.O.A at the time protested. So, yes, the British have called us a lot of nasty things. They still call us nasty things. Latter-day nastiness includes, pakis, corner-shop owners, factory workers, darkies, etc. But let us in turn also acknowledge that we have called a lot of people nasty things, like ghanttis, boduss, reggins. The last one used by Goans for Africans. In sum, we are all the same. Human beings have an innate desire to look down on someone or the other. Best, selma
[Goanet] East Africa's Black Europeans
East Africa's "Black Europeans" Hi Selma et al ! During my 37 years in Tanzania, East Africa, which included 14 years (ten fulltime and four part-time) as a journalist, I never heard of goans being "labelled" Black Europeans let alone "Brown Europeans". Am I surprised ?. No, with all the "garbage" and "venom" being "spewed" by several writers and psuedo writers- Robert Gregory notwithstanding- some of them even having the audacity of being very knowledgeable about goans. May be, some of us are responsible for this anomaly. Whilst many africans may have been called "Black Europeans", one person who comes to everybody's mind is Kenya's first Attorney-General- Charles Njonjo. Njonjo- who was considered to be more British than the British- had always vowed that he would never travel in an aircraft piloted by africans; whilst he felt that no Dry Cleaning Service in Kenya could properly clean his clothes - including his pin-stripe suits. As a result, he used to send all his dry cleaning to England. He also felt black women were inferior and married an English missionary. But getting back to Selma's posting, there are certain issues that have to be taken into perspective - lest we get "side-tracked". Goans in Tanzania unlike Uganda were not keen cricket players. They were more into field hockey, Football (soccer in the US) and the racket games. It could have occured in Uganda,but we have had no postings from any former Uganda-based goan. Non-whites - mainly Indians- were not permitted to join the All-White clubs in any of the four nations of Tanganyika, Kenya, Uganda and Zanzibar - before independence from England in the early sixties. I do not understand the contact with their European bosses - let alone the wives- unless the whites were members of certain goan clubs.We were even barred from entering certain hotels and nite-spots -exclusively for whites. Very few goans were married to whites; if any, they were married to mestizos and later just before and after independence, students who went to study abroad- mainly Britain. However, as Vivian stated, we were very westernised in our dress, spoke English very well compared to the Indians and very adaptable in working with any group -including the English. Does this warrant people of Robert Gregory's caliber to call us "Black Europeans". But the British gave us the unique facility of using their hospitals and nursing homes. These included the Ocean Road Hospital and the Queensway Nursing Home in Dar es Salaam which later converted to the ever popular Oyster Bay Hotel.. I do not know whether it could be attributed to our Portuguese nationality;(for most goans- including those who came directly from Goa- had Portuguese nationality before December 19, 1961) ;But, I am certain and this was confirmed to me by my parents. All patients could only eat food given by the hospital. This included ham,bacon and sausages for breakfast and beef for lunch and dinner. This rigid condition, it seemed, deterred many non-christian Indians from checking in at the European hospitals as they were generally called. I do not know what facilities they used as there were few besides private doctors with no major equipment. Some of these Indians did not want to use other alternatives and circumvented the system by "giving in"; i.e. Hindus eating beef and muslims having pork. A case in point was the government hospital where I was born in the southern Tanzanian town of Iringa. Eleven days before I was born , a Khoja Ismaili muslim woman delivered a set of twins- both girls. The woman was discharged before my mother was admitted to the hospital; on her first day, all the female workers would continuously tell my mum that the muslim lady ate pork during her entire stay in the hospital. (Fiften years later, after "switching" schools from St. Joseph's Dar to the Aga Khan School in Iringa, I caught up with the twins- surprised to note that they were five classes below me in school). Most of the musicians in bands were goans, and besides the whites and the blacks confined to their areas, the only other people attending dances and public social events were goans. ( Other Indian groups - started socializing openly after independence). Could this be an excuse for another labelling ?. Or may be, Robert Gregory was inspired by the late author from the the French Carribbean island of Martinique- Franz Fanon whose book - "Black Faces White Masks" gave greater insights into how coloreds "aped" European culture. (Fanon is also the author of "Wretched of the Earth"). You be the judge. Thanks. Tony Barros. Union, New Jersey. Union.
