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A reader of the blog left this priceless evidence of the appreciation of the Goan community in Kenya: A million thanks whoever you are: Editorial in CATHOLIC MIRROR (Nairobi, Kenya), March, 1968 .Page Four. GOAN CATHOLICS The spotlight in recent weeks, has been turned full on the exodus of many Asians from Kenya. Among those who have departed are a number of Goan families from Nairobi and other centres in the country. Their departure must necessarily remind us of the extraordinary contributions the Goans of Kenya have made to the Catholic Church and Catholic life in this country. They came here bringing with them a tradition of Catholic worship and family life, which stretched back more than four centuries to the great apostle of their homeland, St Francis Xavier. In their own country – an area surrounded by non-Christian communities – they had developed that Christian tradition. It centred on a great devotion to the central act of worship of the Church, the Sacrifice of the Ma...

Perhaps this quote from Pascal Mercier's Night train to Lisbon why we sometimes miss a place we have been to: We leave something of ourselves behind when we leave a place. We stay there even though we go away. And there are things in us that we find again only by going back there. We travel to our souls when we go to a place that covered a stretch of our lives, not matter how brief it may have been. Someone once told me that our souls belong to Goa, our hearts to the countries of our adoption and our collective memory to the earth mother of our birth.

Goans history: facts, East African figures and more! Community, Memory and Migration In a globalising world The Goan experience c. 1890-1980 Oxford University Press 2014 Margret Frenz   On the face of it, it would appear to the seasoned Kenyan Goan that Margret Frenz, in her new tome, has little or nothing to offer about their saga in Africa. While the focus is on East African Goans, Kenyan Goans take the larger share of the book.   If you have a really good read of this book, it will surprise you pleasantly, only if you have an orgasm of the mind reading reams and reams of soulless statistics. There is a tiny saving grace: the early history of travel from Goa to Zanzibar sparks a tiny bit of interest but is of little or no relevance to the young, uninitiated reader. Younger East African Goans do not have this aspect of their early history on easy recall. I have always found it hard to find credibility with the so called profe...

From left: Tony Colaco with the statute of St Francis Xavier, Colaco with the birthday girl,97-year-old Maria Beatrice Nazareth, Fr Vincy D'Costa, Bishop Peter Comensoli, acolyte and Fr Jose Phillips of the Greystanes parish. Sydney celebrates St Francis Xavier’s feast . The annual St Francis Xavier’s Feast Day celebrations   in Sydney, Australia, never fails to teleport the small Goan community to a Goa that lives in the realms of memory past, or legend, that may have been romanticised by the tyranny of distance and the ages of time and the fact that Australia is perched fairly close to the very bottom of the world, not too far from Antarctica.   But Goa, is very close in most folks’ hearts. This year was no different and certainly better attended than sometimes in the past. Fortunately for us in NSW, Australia, we are caste, class, position, language-neutral in diaspora, mainly due to the demands of the environments Goans live in.   Kon...

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http://www.kisii.com/abagusii-history/430-bibi-masikiniq-a-goan-pioneer If anyone has any photos would appreciate them via skipfer@live.com.au

http://kwekudee-tripdownmemorylane.blogspot.co.uk/2013_11_01_archive.html Click on the blue lettering for the full story! TRIP DOWN MEMORY LANE: November 2013 Celebrating our African historical personalities,discoveries, achievements and eras as proud people with rich culture, traditions and enlightenment spanning many years. kwekudee-tripdownmemorylane.blogspot.com | By kwekudee With thanks to the authors.

With Thanks to Coastweek Oscar De’ Mello - A Former International Goalkeeper he played along with  Elijah Lidonde, Joe Kadenge, Stephen Ochieng, Isack Lugonzo (who later became the mayor OF Nairobi ) and Alfred Okoth Oscar was a family friend. My brother Johnny hero-worshipped to the point of following his goal-keeping style. I worked for a year at Oxo with him. He was something of a big brother. . CONTRIBUTED BY CORRESPONDENT WILLIAM FARIA IN DUBAI Coastweek -- Oscar De’ Mello, Kenya’s former International football Goalkeeper and a man with immense sense of humour, is no more. The grand old man died last Thursday, aged 79 at a Nairobi hospital after a short illness. In mid 1940s to late 60’s, Oscar was the only non-African Goalkeeper to have played for Kenya and Tanganyika. A month before he passed away, he had the opportunity to give his soccer experience to guest writer WILLIAM FARIA . Oscar, a Kenyan of Goan-Portuguese descent, devel...