Hi Fred & Cornel
That was amazing , Fred to have the info extracted from goacom.com. I had
the impression that you had compiled it.
Unfortunately, many historical events have not been documented, and
we have to rely on the recollections of the older folks - as most
of the these happening occured before the East African countries got
their independence.
For instance, Many people may be surprised to note that at one point in time
in the fifties at the town of Morogoro- the closest town to the capital- they
had four doctors - all of whom were goans. This is a
town which had about 15 to 20 goan families.
In the early sixties, during a certain short period, all the four hotels owned
by the East African Railways in Iringa, Mbeya, Dodoma and Tabora were managed
by goans. (It must be borne in mind that the Railway's
catering dept was "flooded" with goans- mainly from AVC).
And one year, just after the Second World War, only four out
of 400 who sat for a Civil Service exam , passed the exam. There were
three goans- including my dad and a south Indian.
The high rate of failure was attributed to a written Swahili test which most of
them "flunked". Failure to pass these tests deprived
them of promotions. Almost all those who took the tests were Indians and
goans.
Like Cornel, I immensely enjoyed the postings by Roland- for in a nutshell
he expounded on certain issues which people who were not brought up
in Bombay , were not aware of.
And Cornel, you were absolutely right, the musician was Salim Abdallah who
after some brief training in Britain returned to Kenya to be a succesful
singer, pianist and businessman. He changed his name to Sal Davis as he was a
mentor of Sammy Davis , Jnr. -the late Black American singer, tap dancer and
actor.
He had a very good band at his nite -club - mainly Afro-Arabs from Dar
and Mombasa. Some later broke away and formed a popular band called the
"Ashantis"- playing at several African capitals.
I caught up with them in Addis Ababa in 1975 when I was attending the
first anniverasry of the overthrow of Emperor Haile Selassie. At the
special party for overseas guests, I sang "Malaika" with the Group.
and in 1974 ,I interviewed Sal when he came down to Dar to perform at
the Simba Grill - at that time the only nite club in Dar. Mona Miller- of
"Malaika" fame also performed the same year at the Grill.
And don't forget the "Malaika" Nite Club which opened in the early seventies
and the ever-popular "1900" where you were treated for free breakfast if you
stayed on till 5 a.m.. I lost touch with the Nairobi nite club life after I
moved to the U.S. in the eighties.
rgds.
Tony Barros.
Union, New Jersey.
U . S . A .
