Hi Frederick, I hear you, but do not understand your contention that those Goans in Africa who supported social justice should be celebrated instead of those who supported the colonial regime with their dedicated service.
The Goans in Africa were for the most part politically neutral. Most of them were employed in the colonial service and British run commerce. They were there for a living and any indulgence in anti British or anti Portuguese politics would have been inimical to their interests. This is not what would have served their families well, or their objective of going to Africa for a better future. Since they worked for the Brits, they served them to the best of their ability, above and beyond. If they honored the British system, it is because as in Indian Army terminology, the colonial government was their maa-baap, their father and their mother. In turn they were looked after well despite the exceptions made because of race. Race was a curse of the times and just as Francis Xavier cannot be blamed for the Inquisition, we cannot look at the English with totally jaundiced eyes, ignoring the good they did to Goan lives. There were the independently employed Goans - lawyers, doctors and the like. Some of them took up the social justice cause for Africans. All praise to them and their courage. It took guts to do what they did, but their family well-being was not totally at stake. They suffered persecution to the extent that English fairness allowed, but when they were done with it they could mostly resume a normal life. Their professions allowed this. What did a support of social justice prove to be in the Africa Goan context? Where are most of those Africa Goans today if not in England, Europe, Canada, USA and Australia. Where would they have preferred to be? If you have to ask, they would have loved to still be a part of their Kenya, Uganda and Tanazania homes and lives they built from scratch. Is this because they refused to give up their Indian, British and Portuguese passports for those of their homeland? I think not. Talk to the Goans who opted for Kenyan, Ugandan and Tanzanian passports and see if that helped them. In fact the very African nationalist Goan names you mentioned left the populations they had given their lives to support in nationalistic fervor and went to invest their futures in their colonizers' countries. The papers they got from Britain and Portugal were worth the guarantees written on them. Their African passports were not worth the ink they were printed with. So no, let us not differentiate between the Goan who served Britain well or the Goan who fought the African cause. To me they are all heroes - and not only because they were just Goans. Roland Francis Toronto. 2012/1/12 Frederick FN Noronha फ्रेड्रिक नोरोन्या *فريدريك نورونيا < [email protected]> > On 12 January 2012 19:09, Vivian A. DSouza <[email protected]> wrote: > > > Nice to hear that so many Goans were recognized for their sterling > > services to the Colonial Government in East Africa. > > > Viv and others on this thread: > > Isn't this a contradiction in terms? In a post-colonial era, what does it > mean to be have offered "sterling services to the Colonial Government" in > East Africa or anywhere else for that matter? > > I'd rather celebrate the achievements of the handful of Goans who > worshipped at the altar of social justice, and took the huge risk kof > supported the underdog... and the Black African cause... when the wind was > blowing in the other direction. Pio Gama Pinto. Fritz DeSouza. Aquino > Braganca. Or even the Assagaonkar, Armande de Souza in the Ceylon of > another era [http://groups.yahoo.com/group/goanet-news-backup/message/2428 > ] > Among others, I guess. > > --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Protect Goa's natural beauty Support Goa's first Tiger Reserve Sign the petition at: http://www.goanet.org/petition/petition.php ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
