BUTCHER, BAKER, MINSTREL, HUNTER, FRONTIERSMAN Goan Transformations in East Africa
Selma Carvalho lescarval...@yahoo.com Some historical narratives are so neglected that they are like abandoned orphans, left on the footsteps of an old church. So committed are we, Goans, to examining our relationship with the Portuguese that our engagement with the British is one such neglected narrative in our recollection which now borders on historical amnesia. We forget that by the end of the nineteenth century, Portugal had all but been emasculated; the world was dominated by Britain and Goans residing outside of the Estado da India, pretty much belonged to Queen Victoria rather than King Carlos. The period between 1860 and 1920, is marked by movement, possibly the first large-scale movement of people across the globe by newer and faster modes of transport; cars, trains and steam-ships. It's a period of intense activity and new discoveries, not just technological new discoveries but new frontiers. The transformations which take place during this time, present to us an entirely different image of the Goan from the one that typifies him as compliant and compromising. Arriving on the shores of East Africa, first in Zanzibar where a thriving colony of 300 odd Goans have settled by the 1890s, and then in Mombasa and Nairobi in more robust numbers, we see a Goan who is in every respect the archetypcial frontiersman. Briefly unshackled from the constraints of colonialism, the mask of docility drops for just long enough for him to emerge as an intrepid entrepreneur, minstrel, hunter, the poor man's Asclepius and philanthropist. >From 1865 onwards, along Portuguese Street in Zanzibar which by then is the most crucial port in the Indian Ocean trade route, is a sprouting of Goan butcheries, bakeries and ship chandlers providing fresh meat, vegetables and flour to the ships docked nearby. This then, is the first glimpse we have of the Goan in East Africa, having emigrated either directly from the Indian subcontinent or from a neighbouring and clearly ailing Mozambique. Not for the first time, the Goans' lack of inhibition in handling meat, particularly beef and pork, sets him apart from other Asians, along with his rather peculiar ability to play the jovial host in the 'grog-shops' he runs. These bar-cum-provision stores become the focal point of British colonial life, where in the absence of clubs or other forms of entertainment, they gather in the darkened rooms, after sun down for a drink of whiskey and soda. The tiny, tin-shanty shops become large, airy retail stores, providing 'every description of goods used by Europeans.' And so, the Goan and the Briton are drawn together in an intimate dance of dependency, which deepens as the British push forward into the interior. Apart from his relationship with the Briton, the Goan also has a very central place in indigenous Zanzibar society. Quite rapidly he moves from a peripheral position into one of immense responsibility, and indeed authority, within the Sultan's palace. A succession of Goan doctors are appointed as palace physicians. Equally important are the Goan band-masters which lead the Sultan's military band and play every Wednesday afternoon at the Victorian Gardens and on Saturdays at the Mnazi Moja Club. These cultured, sophisticated men -- men with a facility in any number of European and Asian languages -- become cultural brokers, used as interpreters when European diplomats drop by, and described at least by one British diplomat, H.H. Johnston, as wily. The prosperity of a few established Goan businessmen makes them staunch supporters of the Catholic Church in Zanzibar, funding the new Catholic Cemetery, and supporting the building of the St. Joseph's Cathedral between 1896-1898. Zanzibar's turn of the century role in creating a modern society has been shabbily neglected. It was perhaps the last outpost of colonial Britain where inter-racial consultation and collaboration was thought to be the most beneficial and honourable form of governance, and it paved the way for new paradigms in race relations, based on modern concepts of equality. The emergence of Mombasa as a port would overshadow Zanzibar, and its eventual decline was predictable after Nairobi emerged as British East Africa's administrative headquarters. Nairobi, presented a counter to Zanzibar in re-directing Imperial power to an all-European hegemony. But before Nairobi emerged as a power-house in East Africa, it was a fumbling frontier town, the most convenient piece of flat ground available on which the British pitched a tent in 1899, to build a depot for the Uganda Railway paving a route from the interior to the port. The railway laid out a thoroughfare from the west side of the station and named it Victoria Street. Here grew a shambolic little town with corrugated dwellings, a spread of tents housing railway employees, an Indian bazaar strewn with rotting garbage and open sewers which ran past the unwatered streets. This was neither Britain nor even a bustling Indian city of the Raj, which could boast of tree-lined streets, officers' bungalows and nautch girls. This was an anarchic, frontier land peopled in pockets by tribesmen whose languages were yet to be discerned, infested with insects, pestilence, disease and death at every turn, with only a glimmer of hope of turning a profit, spurring on a few pioneering men relentlessly to make it their home. Among this band of pioneers were stellar Goans, who initially at least operate with a great degree of latitude in the new world where life is not governed as yet by rules and regulations but rather by the ability to live on the edge of danger, and survive. And it is in Nairobi that, for the first time, we see something totally unheard of; a reversal of race relations -- Europeans can be found in a subordinated relationship with Goans. Some of the wealthy Goan merchants employ Europeans to work for them. J.M. Campos had a European woman overseeing the production of his vinegar and lime drinks. The Nazareth Bros, that dynamic duo, are employing a European lady to oversee the ladies department of their newly opened store. They also have a European nurse at home tending to their children. The decade 1900-1910 is indeed a golden era for Goans in Nairobi. Goan merchants are hugely prosperous and their arterial spread makes them indispensable to the caravan trade from the interior. The townsfolk depend on them entirely for their luxury items from Europe and for the first-class dinning and bars, and wines & spirits stores they are running. Meanwhile, although there was no concerted plan initially to particularly recruit Goan clerks for the Uganda Railway, by 1905 they dominate the Uganda Railway administration. The sub-commissioner John Ainsworth's top three clerks are all Goan. It's not just townspeople that depend on them; the civic authorities look to them to make this shanty town more liveable. The Nazareth bros. fund electric installations and Dr Rosendo Ribeiro isn't just accepting chickens in lieu of payment from his poor customers, he is also invited by Ainsworth to be a member of the Nairobi Township Committee. Beyond the safe confines of offices and shops, Goans are relied on to provide protection. Austin Rangel heads a frontier-style Goan Volunteer Corps, an off-shoot of the East African Volunteer Reserve, which in times of urgent danger could be called upon to form a corps. His friend, Manuelino 'Sonny' de Silva leads hunting parties into the wild for well-heeled Europeans. Most Goans are registered rifle holders and not averse to carrying a pistol, although the weapons they carry are for protection from wild animals, and hunting small game. We see a Goan, as he might have been had he not been cowed down by the strictures of colonialism -- had he been treated as an equal partner. The pioneering years in Africa allow him that opportunity -- to be this derring-do adventurer and risk-taker. In just a few years, this egalitarian relationship would dissolve as the age-old hierarchies of Empire are recreated in British East Africa, and the Goan is once again compliant, but for a brief moment in history, he runs like a wild, untamed horse. -- A Railway Runs Through: Goans of British East Africa, 1865-1980 by Selma Carvalho will be released on 3 May, 2014. See http://www.britishgoanproject.com/research/