Former East African Goans, particularly those from Zanzibar will find the chapters on Zanzibar in Selma Carvalho’s latest book on British Goans from East Africa most interesting.
She has spared no effort in carrying out this in-depth research into the Goan presence in Zanzibar going back to the early 19th century. One cannot help but admire the immense contribution Goans made to the development of Zanzibar. These early pioneers were highly regarded not only by successive Sultans, but also the British and Germans, and while they may have seemed “numerically inconsequential” at the time, they and the many that followed them have been well and truly immortalised in Selma’s timely and well researched work which historians will find of immense value. Mervyn Maciel
