Hi Cornel n Mervyn ! Thanx very much on your input on the caste issue in East Africa- particularly between brahmins and non-brahmins at dances. I am certain that you have greatly broadened the "horizons'" of many people not familiar with this unfortunate stigma among Goan Catholics. Many are not familiar with the other side of the "coin"- if not both sides of the "coin".
However, speaking of parents as "minders", one goan girl in Tanzania was not so fortunate. Attending the Barclays Bank dance alone in her capacity as an employee in the early sixties, she made a big "mistake" by agreeing to dance with a fellow employee who was her schoolmate- but of a much lower caste. As you can imagine, the word "spread like wildfire" to her parents.The father not only gave her a "telling off" , but also gave her a beating and warned her that she should never again dance with a boy of a lower caste. She was in her mid-twenties. Like all dances organized by the Goan Institute and later the renamed Dar es Salaam Institure, the Barclays Bank dances and the annual Scouts dances were very popular events - attracting goans and many non-goans - very fond of dancing. With the nationalisation of Banks in February 1967 and the emigration of goans to Canada, Britain and and else-where, the landscape changed leaving goans to be content with Institute events. And 45 years after the British left Tanganyika (now Tanzania Mainland), and 45 years after the Portuguese were driven out of "Mother Goa" by Indian troops, the "long" and "sharp pointed" head of Indian casteism still exists in Tanzania. A family friend is having problems convincing his father to consent to his proposed marriage to a charming young girl. The girl's only "sin" is that she happens to be a daughter of a tailor. He delayed his marriage by a year, but his father won't "budge". He has since decided to go ahead and get married without his father's consent. rgds. 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 [email protected] http://lists.goanet.org/listinfo.cgi/goanet-goanet.org
