I have come across some books on Asians in Africa, such as The Ismail community
in Tanzania, etc. Like Neera Kapur-Drompson's book, From Jhelum to Tana, Karen
Isksen Leonard, a scholar I am familiar with, has written Locating Home:
India's Hyderabadis Abroad. She has talked to NRI Hyderabads, some of who
maintain that the "authentic" Hyderabadi culture has been better maintin in the
diasporan than in contemporary Hyderabad.
The second and third generation Hyderabadis, like most diasporic communities,
are more Indian-American or British-Indian.
To understand the Indians in Dar-es-Salaam from fiction, it would be necessary
to turn to Moyez Vassanji, the Canadian author of Ismaili origin.
I think his first novel, The Gunny Sack, has a Goan character.
Our own Peter Nazareth's In a Brown Mantle is another important source, though
fiction, it has characters based on actual people who lived in the Uganda
before the Asian expulsion. Even Nazareth's The General is Up should provides
fictional insights into Indian diaspora.
Two book, The Illusion of Home by Raji Narasimham (a collection of short
stories) and Portable Roots: A Saga of the Tamil Diaspora by Sivasnkari
(translated by Rekha Shetty, both books published by Promilla and Co) speaks of
how immigrants live in their adopted land. The former book is seen through the
eyes of women and the latter through the lifestyle of a family in the US.
As for calling Goans "Black Europeans", I think it was a misnomer. I don't
think if was a deliberate "put down" or racist remark. In fact, Mohammad Ali
Jinnah was said to be more English than the Englishmen as he could not even
trust Indians to have his clothes dry-cleaned and had them sent to England.
Wasn't Nehru obliquely called an "Englishman" before he came joined the Indian
freedom struggle and donned the cap (now called the Nehru cap) and the vest
(now called the Nehru vest).
Wasn't Dom Moraes called the "Brown Englishman" because he lived the English
lifestyle while in England? The moniker stuck to him while he was abroad, but
on his return to India one hardly called him that.
I have heard of many tales coming from Africa where upwardily mobile and, in
most cases, elite Goans behaved more like Englishmen when they mingled with
fellow Goans who did not hold high-powered jobs.
Whenever you met African Goans in Toronto during my early days there, I could
be invariably asked which part of Africa I came from. I knew another Bombayite
who was asked the same question at parties or social gathering and he would
reply by giving fake names of places and they would ask where the places where
and he was say somewhere in the hinterland of Tanzania or Uganda.
The situation in Toronto has changed now because of Goans coming directly from
India and the Middle East. However, the perception that African Goans carried a
chip on their shoulders remain.
Eugene Correia
Eugene
