A Kenyan “Giver’s” trove of memory
Bwana Karani and From Mtoto to Mzee
By Mervyn Maciel
A review by Cyprian Fernandes
At the heart of Lois Lowry’s superb futuristic children’s
novel are two central characters: the Receiver and the Giver. They have lived
in a community where there is no war, suffering, colour, sex, music or love.
There is no greed, gluttony or any of the seven deadly sins. This is the
ultimate sanitised society. One boy is nominated every few generations or so to
receive the community’s collective memory from the aging Giver who know just
about everything there is to know about all the wars, genocide, crimes
including murder, everything that wrong and everything that right about a world
that virtually destroyed the planet. The Giver is the sole archive, the memory
banks, and he has instant recall.
My friend Tony Reg D’Souza, a former teacher among other
things, is somewhat of a “giver”, in the sense that his memory of Goan history
in East Africa, especially, Kenya is admirable. Given his years, his instant
recall is the stuff of wonderment. In the absence of any formally written
history, individual memory, factional books by people like Peter Nazareth(In
Brown Mantle, etc) and Braz Menezes (Matata triology), J M Nazareth’s own biographical work (Brown
Man Black Country), Maciel’s contributions and historical records of Kenya by
other authors serve as important documents that capture the story of the
important Goan community in East Africa.
Mervyn Maciel, once Her Majesty’s civil servant in
colonial Kenya and the author of two books: Bwana
Karani about his experiences as a civil servant and his more recent
contribution, From Mtoto to Mzee, one
Goan’s journey from childhood to the realm of elders in the community. Bwana Karani quite rightly won accolades
in a niche market: the Goan community, former Kenyan civil servants and the curiosity
few who were enchanted by the Swahili title of the book.
His second book, however, will lack the wider readership
his entrée attracted mainly because it is a personal anthology, akin to the
words that are often painted on the canvas of family trees. None the less, it is a
commendable effort from someone who is akin to a “Giver” in the colonial and
Kenyan context. It is always very rewarding to hear him talk about his
experiences as a clerk in Kenya’s Northern Frontier District ( Kapenguria,Lodwar,
Lokitung, Isiolo,and Marsabit, ) at a time when white and brown skins in the area were often
rarer than the elusively shy bongo (antelope) in the Kenyan forests. The NFD
was inhabited by Somalis, Boran, Rendile, Gabbra and a few other tribes.
However, Somalia, to this day, maintains that the area was “stolen” by the
British colonialists, and a constant state of war (including several incidents
of genocide) has continued to ravage the area.
The NFD is semi desert, hot and sometimes drier than the
Sahara but it is rich in local folklore, music, anthropological history, the
rugged beauty of earth and people that as fierce as they are gentle, tormented
and sometimes at peace with themselves amid the fighting. I met him for lunch
in London (July 2015) for the first time and his mind and memory are sharper
than the point of a needle.
I knew his late brother Wilfred (we supped many a Tusker
lager) in Kenya who was quite a brilliant advertising man/journalist and his CV would
include meetings with some of the most important politicians of the day,
including Kenya’s first president, Jomo Kenyatta.
Come, join Mervyn’s safari as he takes you through the
many roads that made up his life: from early childhood, schooling in and life
in India and Goa to beginning a new life in Kenya. He will take you sightseeing
in some of the most splendid towns in northern Kenya. He will let you peep into
his bachelor days, falling in love and marriage, the tragedy of losing a child
(and, much later, his brother Wilfred), life in the White Highlands (reserved
for white farmers) of Kenya, a rude awakening in Zanzibar, farewelling Kenya
with tears in the Maciel hearts, living in a manyatta (homestead) in Sutton UK.
Mervyn Maciel is indeed a very talented man and a
raconteur who tells a good story every time he writes or speaks. Enjoy the
safari.
The book is available from:
Bwana Karani is now out of print but available only at Amazon.
Mervyn Maciel
"Manyatta"
219 Collingwood Road
Sutton, Surrey,
SM 1 2LX (U.K.)
Price £10 (incl. postage within UK. £8 if collected)
Overseas: £8 + postage approx £6
And in Canada
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