Hi Cornel, Mervyn n Rene ! After Tanganyika ( now Tanzania Mainland) got its independence from Britain, the new government decided that organizations and institutions should not use ethnic names.
Hence, the Dar es Salaam-based Goan Community Organization which catered to the broad welfare of goans in Tanganyika, changed its name to Saint Xavier's Society. Likewise, the name of the Goan School also in Dar es Salaam was also changed to Saint Xavier's School. The same rule applied to Zanzibar after it merged with Tangantika on April 26,1964 to form Tanzania. Hence, I believe the existence of a Saint Xavier's Society on the clove island. and Cornel, not to be mistaken with the Saint Francis Xavier's Tailors Society which was formed after tailors and all other goans who had studied below Grade (Standard) 10, were barred from joining goan clubs in the major cities and towns in East Africa. These included shoemakers, auto (motor) mechanics and fisherwomen. It had a two-pronged approach for as I have stated in my previous postings on this website, it was also aimed at the local africans- very few of whom (mainly christians from Christian High (Secondary) school) studied beyond Grade ten. However, many goans who served on these clubs' committees will give you a different version . They state that the club barred them and their kids- mainly sons as they spoke crude konkani, used a lot of profanity -(curse language) and stirred trouble and fights during social events. And the tailors celebrated the feast of Saint Francis of Xavier with a great dance "splash" on the feast day- December 3. Strangely enough, some of these very committee members used to attend the functions. This also goes to state why goan clubs in East Africa never celebrated the feast. As for the Goan Gymkhana Club in Nairobi, membership was restricted to the "cream" de "creme"- the "Touchables" Brahmins. And after membership was opened following Kenya's December 1963 independence, subtle forms of prejudice by brahmins continued to prevail. As also stated in my previous postings on the same subject, it was very apparent at dances when brahmin girls would refuse to dance with non-brahmin boys, and brahmin boys would not dance with non-brahmin girls- even though they studied with them from Grade 1 thru to Grade 12. Tony Barros. Union, New Jersey. U . S . A . __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around http://mail.yahoo.com _______________________________________________ Goanet mailing list Goanet@lists.goanet.org http://lists.goanet.org/listinfo.cgi/goanet-goanet.org
