The Goan Clubs – East Africa
Hi Adolfo I do not recall ever saying I was or that Thornton Heath, Surrey was a bastion of Knowledge and Culture of the Goans. Neither did I ever say Selma was either. If you enjoy reading her work and gaining knowledge from it, you are most welcome to continue doing so, it is a free world! With the present lockdown in Goa, I am sure you have plenty of time on your hands for such reading. As said by Vivian and I agree, the clubs in East Africa were a “home away from home”, I certainly spent many a happy time there and it was a place I returned to for evening and weekend entertainment. In England the Pub is the Englishman’s front room where you meet there is no worry about clearing up or cooking as you do at home when expecting visitors. The Goan Club was similar we always went home. My teenage nostalgia of motor racing is now shared by petrol heads at formula one racing with the sound of vehicles like mosquitoes going eee eee wiz and big money changing hands in racing circuts around the world including India. With over forty years of Honorary community work in our community I have met Ms Stella Mascarenhas–Keyes and enjoyed her work also the Late Joe Mendes from Moira who used to market a boys home in Quepem. I stumbled across the kudd system by accident in Dhobitalao Bombay in the late 1970 while looking for the Goan Club there. These run down Goan village shelters in buildings needing attention was an education, each village ran a chapel where our people contributed towards food and lodgings while in transit to the wider world of employment and opportunities the life in these kudds was brought to life by director Bardroys Barettos film with English Sub titles Nachom –ia Kompasar which brought a tear to my eye. The carnival in Goa just before Lent has a display of floats entered by most villages displaying their best. I recall an excellent entry by Quepem displaying in detail farming methods on a floodlit float. Having worked the fields in Goa(Shethan) this was appreciated. Hidden away amongst the lush green lawns, purple bougainvillea plants and mango tree in the Pilar Seminary Complex is a museum, the exhibits in display cabinets are barely visible as its glass coverings are caked in dust and need specialist cleaning. The exhibits house the Heritage of Govapury beautifully illustrated in a book by Fr Cosme Jose Costa ISBN 8 -903898-6-6. Artefacts start from the Stone Age and may give an insight into our culture and traditions. Sorpotel you may be aware is a Peasant dish from Portugal and is our King dish, what does that make us? Adolfo could be a prominent name as in Hitler, could a middle name be Fidel as in Castro I ask due to the changing landscape of our names and surnames. You will find of interest what Father Victor Farrao says in the article from Times of India on our surnames and how we acquired them. Click below: https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/goa/Digging-deep-into-surname-stories/articleshow/51963333.cms I hope that the above will be of assistance in seeking what is Goan Culture. Please be safe in these troubled times. Melvyn Fernandes Thornton Heath, Surrey England 8 April 2020
