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* G * O * A * N * E * T **** C * L * A * S * S * I * F * I * E * D * S *
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Two new showrooms/office spaces, double height (135 sq m each with bath)
for lease in upscale Campal/Miramar beach area, Panaji, Goa.
Contact: goaengineer...@aol.com
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Hi Valmiki n Mervyn
Irene - the wife of the British Governor- Hunt- was one of four daughters of
Christie DeSouza - the proud owner
of the largest muscal store in Dar es Salaam,Tanzania- Souza Junior Dias.
One of the daughters - Eva worked at The Store , whilst another Nina taught me
at St. Joseph's Convent
and the youngest - Marie Therese - was my classmate. Unfortunately, Eva and
Nina died at a very
young age - literaly years apart.
Christie started the store with a Mombasa businessman - Felix Dias who was also
the Portuguese
Vice-Consul at the Kenyan seaport. A sister store was in operation in MomBasa.
(Literally all Portuguese
Consuls and Vice-Consuls in Kenya, Uganda , the then Tanganyika and Zanzibar
were goans).
The Store's main competitor - Assanand & Sons "fizzled" out in the early
seventies following restrictions
imposed by the Tanzanian government in importing gramophone records (then),
tapes and musical
instruments- Giving Souza Junior the sole monopoly.
Christie together with A.P.C. Lobo- the uncle of Ambassador Placido DeSouza,
Viv DSouza and several other
goans rendered great services to the Goan community. I believe, Christie was
the only Tanzanian
goan to be decorated by the Portuguese with the Order of Henry The Navigator
All other goans in East Africa - my late father - Boaventura included- received
British decorations
for their services to the colonial government- in the insignia of the MBE
(Member of the
British Empire)
The only exception was the Kenyan pioneer and founder of the monthly "Goan
Voice" newspaper-
Dr. A.C, Desouza who was invested with the CBE (Commander of the British
Empire). Dr. DeSouza
had a British passport, and many people attribute the decoration to this
effect; for some goans
felt that they could only get the higher awards like the CBE and OBE if they
were British nationals.
The Goan Voice was the first goan newspaper to be published outside Goa, and
the great Eddie
Fernandes - also originally from Kenya - continues to run it electronically in
color in England.
It was gratifying to note that when my dad was decorated in the late fifties,
the info was published
in the government gazzette together with the name of another goan from
north-west Tanzania
in a town called Musoma- 40 miles from Butiama village - the birthplace of
Tanzania's first
President- Julius Nyerere. The goan was a DeSilva and by sheer coincidence, his
sons and
my brother and myself lived as boarders with the same goan family in Dar
EsSalaam.
Thanks.
Tony Barros.
Union Twnshp, New Jersey
USA
