HISTORY/MIGRATION: IT BEGAN WITH AN EMPTY BRASS BOX IN A RUINED TIVIM HOME
Cliff Pereira (45) and was born in Mombasa, the Kenyan port city that once
attracted a lot of migrants from Goa. I'm second-generation Kenyan-born but
fourth generation of Goan to have come to East Africa. My schooling was in
the East African highlands, then on to secondary school in London, and to
university in Northern Ireland. Later, I did a BA in Humanities -- basically
in Geography and Asian Studies, he says, with his reading like a typical
story of Goan migration.
Pereira worked in the Middle East (Oman and Saudi Arabia, in the oil
industry) as a geophysicist. Then, he spent nine years in tourism,
specialising in Japanese tourism to Europe, the Middle East and Africa, as a
tour-planner. For awhile, he was in-charge of the information systems in Japan
for that entire region. He also had his own company in home-care.
But it is studying the history of Goans -- and migration in particular --
that is a passion. Luckily, says he, it pays too.
The Goans, says he, played a very important in church development in East
Africa. There, some of the first doctors -- including the first woman doctor
-- was a Goan. This was true both under the British period, and also under
the sultans of Zanzibar.
There are also other unusual facts from history: for example, the Ugandan
national costume is called a Gomezi, named, says Cliff Pereira, after a Goan
tailor called Gomes. Goan tailors were quite important in the early
development of East Africa. Goans were also important in the introduction of
cricket and generally in the development of sports in East Africa, he
believes.
Pereira gives us some interesting nuggets that speaks not just for his work,
but also places in context the unusual character of Goan migration
worldwide, a fact which officialdom in Goa is apparently still to quite come
to terms with. Excerpts from an interview with FREDERICK NORONHA during a
recent visit to Goa by Pereira:
FN: How did you get interested in this field?
Basically by some stories from my grandmother, when she was alive, about the
family history and her father, who she said was a 'shippie'. I didn't really
know what a 'shippie' (as Goan migrants working on board the ship are
called) was then because it's not a standard English term. She had some
stories about his death, which turned out not be true.
On one of my last visits to her in Goa, in the mid-nineties, to Cunchelim
(Bardez), she then told me a bit more about the stories about him -- that he
was in a war, and so on. But she didn't say who's Navy he served in, or
which war, or anything of that sort.
I then went to what was left of his house, which is in Tivim. It was just a
ruined house (in a part of outmigration-oriented Goa where ruined houses
that tell the story of emigration are still visible). In the house, I found
a brass box. According to my mother, my grandmother used to keep her
jewellery in this box. Unfortunately the box was empty (laughs).
But the box had a cover which was embossed, which basically had 1914-1915
war reference on the bottom. It had names of the 'British Empire' and
Serbia, and France and some other places in it.
Incidentally, at the same time, I was working in the travel industry and
used to go to a lot of museums and galleries in Britain to promote visitors
mainly from the Far East. At the National Army Museum in London, I noticed
one of these boxes there, and noticed another one at the Imperial War
Museum, also in London...
FN: So what did the boxes turn out to be?
These boxes turned out to be a gift from Queen Mary, during the First World
War, to soldiers and sailors mainly in the British Empire forces. From that
point I actually started digging out my grandfather's records, which were
subsequently provided to me by the British ministry of defence.
FN: Since then you've covered a lot of ground in this field. What you rate
as your most interesting or useful finds in terms Goans understanding their
roots?
I think the most interesting project that I've worked on to date is the
project that I did with the National Maritime Museum in London. This project
basically deals with 400 years of Goan history in connection with British
history...
FN: You mean Goans were there since so long back?
Yes, it seems so. More so, because most of the research was first-hand --
it's not from books or secondary sources. It's from original archival
material in Britain.
It involved looking at shipping-records of the East India Company, for
example, as well as later records of the merchant shipping companies, like
the PO and also the BISNC (British Indian Steam Navigation Company). It
also involved looking at Census records in Britain from way back in the 19th
century. And some earlier records of Asians who were baptised as adults in
the London area.
FN: What was the earliest visible Goan presence or connection?
The earliest presence was in the early 18th century, in terms of the
