Folks, 1) I guess Goanet easily shows the generation gaps of its contributors.
2) I did not witness colonialism and my generation has no baggage from it. 3) As with all Goanet discussions, this E. Africa one has all the potential to dwell in pre-1961 and spin in the same spot. 4) When I was growing up in E. Africa, Goans were Vice-Presidents, MP's, Attorney General, Judges, Ministers, Ambassadors. Heads of Parastatels, Advisers to the President, Colonels, etc. etc. In other words, there was no limit on how high a Goan could go. 5) Kenya had to resort to violence in its struggle for independence and ever since, its politics have been violent. Politicians there understand the power of the barrel and do not hesitate to use it. Even in the last elections, rival tribes were killing each other in order to hang on to or grab power. There is a price to pay for getting into politics and more so in Africa. 6) There are people here who have made up their minds that the Goans in E. Africa were lackeys. Strangely enough, that claim comes mainly from those who did not spend a single day in E. Africa. I estimate that in British E. Africa, ten or at the very most, twenty percent of Goans worked for the civil service. The vast majority of Goans worked in the private sector like the banks and education. 7) Society in E. Africa was structured, by design, on racial grounds. There were separate residential areas for pinks, browns and blacks. Social and sports clubs had admission policies based on religion and race. The first thing that the independent govt did was to bar social clubs from having race or religious restrictions. In this regard, they were far more progressive than even the USA at the time, where racial discrimination was still the law. 8) Corruption is always two sided. It thrives when the govt does not prosecute those who receive/demand bribes. You get mired in it when the most corrupt are the honorable members of parliament and leaders of Govt. This is the situation in Goa and E. Africa today. Perhaps what we really should be discussing is why Goans are leaving both places. Mervyn2221 ----- Original Message ----- From: manuel tavares <[email protected]> To: [email protected] Cc: Sent: Sunday, July 15, 2012 10:07:28 PM Subject: [Goanet] Portuguese-ruled East Africa -- another view Venantius and Roland have given us fairly reasoned accounts of Goans in the Colonial era in Africa mainly East Africa (Both Portuguese and British). It would be pertinent to mention that Goans were respected and liked, more, by the African than other Members of the Indian communities. Perhaps being subjects of a cruel and intolerant Portuguese ruler, made us more sympathetic to African aspirations. It is therefore not lost that people like the Late Pio De Gama Pinto was a stalwart in fighting for African Aspiration. And the African response to his contribution was to assassinate him. This is what one gets in return. There are other Goans as well who sacrificed and contributed to the emancipation and eventual independence of Africa like J.M. Nazareth, and 'Gandhi' Pereira and many others. To say that the African was ungrateful for such stellar contributions would be an understatement. Many Goans employed Africans as servants and most treated them well paying them at least the Minimum Wage (Kanuni ya sirikali). Other Indian communities almost always tried to circumvent the minimum wage and treated the African poorly. This treatment came at a price to Goans who could not be distinguished from other Indians due to the similar colour of our skins. We were therefore labeled with all the rest as 'Muindi' (Indian). Therefore when retribution came, we lost mainly due to skin colour similarities. Having worked in the civil service in Africa, and dealing with many Africans of various tribes, I can truly say that we treated the African fairly and administered our duties to the best of our ability. To say we were lackeys is far from the truth as we sometimes had to look danger in the eye and do the right thing as true human beings. To say that Goans were fair, one has only to see why the corruption in Africa is so rampant. It is the Indian who introduced it there and perpetuated its existence. Goan people who worked disbursing amounts to Africans in remote areas were honest and god fearing. Some Indians doing the same jobs often cheated the illiterate African and some of them even took bribes to perform tasks such as replacements of lost ID's (Kipande) etc. May be others have opinions on this and I leave it up to them. Manuel ( Eddie) Tavares
