Hi Roland , Mervyn Maciel , Joe Lobo, Vivian n Mervyn Lobo !
Many East African goans- notably Civil Servants- received the British
decoration of the MBE; however, (and I
stand to be corrected ), the only goan to receive higher than the MBE was the
well known Kenyan goan
proneer - Dr. DeSouza as he held a British passport. (Dr. DeSouza ,who started
the monthly Goan Voice
newspaper which London-based Eddie Fernandes transformed into an electronic
website, was decorated
with the insignia of the CBE- Commander of the British Empire).
Most goans were Portuguese passport holders and Dr. DeSouza was probably one
of the few who had a
British passport. Many goans- mainly in Britian have went on to receive the OBE
- Officer of the British Expire.
(I do not know which is higher - the CBE or the OBE).
As you rightly pointed out, the British used a very high bar and standard to
gauge your qualifications for
being an award recipient My dad was the first non-white Britisher to be
appointed a sub-accountant
of the Revenue Office in my home town- Iringa in 1952- nine years before
independence.
But the icing on the cake was when my dad as Town Treasurer placed Iringa
-top in the country with a
near flawless accounts balance sheet barely two years after he took office. He
was also a great football
(soccer in the US) player and his main buddies included British civil
servants. He played center forward
for the Non-African Stars against the local black players who were not only
muscular and huge, but
also very rough in their play. (Some of the black player played for the
national team).
The British also gave credit to extra-mural activities, and my father's
founding of the small Goan Community
Club and being its first President gave additional impetus. As you can imagine
, he was recommended by the
Provincial Ciommissioner, Mr Walden after the initial reference from ths
District Commissioner. (Walden's son -
thru a local african woman and my good friend- Brigadier John Walden - aka
"Black Mamba"-masterminded
the famous Tanzanian army onslaught of Ugandan troops that led to the ouster
of Idi Amin in November 1978.
I was very lucky not be called up as I did my National Service army training).
And in passing, my dad before moving to Bombay - played football in Goa for
the Assolna - Velim- Cucolim team
in the inter-village tournaments, and one of his fellow players was a Romeo
Fernandes who later moved to Kenya and
became one of the country's top sportsmen in addition to being eight times
President of the Nairobi
Goan Institute.
Rather than name my oldest brother - a New York city retired Senior
Administrative judge- after a world famous
football player of his times. my parents named him Romeo after Romeo Fernandes.
Back to the nitty-gritty, the process of granting the award was very cumbersome
if not bureaucratic. When the award was
first made, the recipient had to agree to accept it. My dad was away in Goa on
six months vacation. And after
he accepted it following his return, it had to go to the Portuguse Foreign
Ministry for further endorsement..
It later had to be gazzetted in the government gazzette which came out every
Friday. By sheer coincidence,
when the news did come out, another goan by the name of D'Silva from Musoma in
north-east Tanzania
was also awarded the MBE. (Musoma - a port on Lake Victoria near Kenya- is the
where Tanzania's first President
- Julius Nyerere came from and he was born in the Butiama village).
And also by another coincidence, the oldet son of Mr . D'Silva was staying with
me and my older brother at a
boarding house in Dar es Salaam . And so we had to give the other guys a small
"treat".
Next was the receiving of the award. In addition to my mum, my dad was to be
accompanied by three sponsors-
two of whom had to be previous recipients of the MBE. They were Orphin Dias -
the father of Augusta Rodrigues
(Los Angeles) and Anton Almeida - the father of the well known sportsmen -
Fenelon, Gangy and Alves - all in Toronto
together with my mom's cousin.
Then came the presentation oif the inisgnia by the Governor, Sir Richard
Turnbull at the State House in Dar es Salaam.
However, we were surprised to note that Mr D'Silva did not receive his
decoration from the Governor, but instead from
the Provincial Commissioner. Unfortunaletly, these are the only goan recipients
that I can remember.
The Portuguese government also gave the Order of Henry the Navigator award to
Christie DeSouza- the owner of the
Souza Junior Dias musical store which he formed with the Mombasa-based
Portuguese Vice-Consul, Felix Dias.
(All the last Portuguse Consuls in Dar es Salaam, (Tanganyika), Nairobi
(Kenya), Kampala (Uganda), and
Vice-Consuls in Mombasa and Zanzibar were goans).
Christie had four daughters and one of them - Irene was married to a former
Governor of Hong Kong by the name of Hunt.
Two of them died very young and the youngest was my classmate. I do not
believe any other goans were decorated by the
Portuguese or for that matter - any other country besides goans from Zanzibar.
Roland, you also struck two very distinctive "chords". Do we have sufficient
data to produce enough documented information.
I really do not know. As for me, a lot of the info is from the Top of my
head":, and hence I am not surprised to be
corrected. That's why, I clearly state- I stand to be corrected.
I am not certain about the goans from the former Portuguese colonies in Africa-
mainly Mozambique and Angola. As you
stated, their info is probably documented in Portuguese and circulated in
their Portuguese websites. There were'nt many
goans in the other colonies- Sao Tome, Principe, Guinea Bissau and the Cape
Verde Islands.
I sincerely hope I did not bore you with all this info.
Thanx
Tony Barros.
New Jersey,USA
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