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Showing posts from December, 2016

Thank you Goans, thank you world!

I apologise for the seemingly interminable stories and pictures about my book ... yes, I know it seemed to go on and on. Equally, I would like to thank the many, many people who responded. My only excuse is that for a first-time author it only happens once in a lifetime (the first time). So far, Yesterday in Paradise has taken on a life of its own thanks to the folks in Goa, India, Canada, USA, UK, and various parts of the world. I am humbled and grateful that so many of you have, and continue to, read my little effort. I could not have done it without you especially ... Braz Menezes (Matata trilogy), Mervyn Maciel (Bwana Karani and From Mzee to Mtoto), Sultan Somjee (Bead Bai and the recently released Home Between Crossings), Frederick Rico Noronha (publish and the unofficial patron saint of Goan literature), Vivek Menezes (the Goa contact, co-curator of the highly successful Goa Arts and Literary Festival, journalist and many other talents), Vijay Badhwar (who continues to push m...
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Goans, the utter radicals in Kenya Times of India

Utter radicals: Kenya's Goa connection Vivek Menezes | TNN | Dec 21, 2016, 09.29 AM IST Goans dominated in the colonial administration of British-ruled Kenya, Uganda, and German Tanganyika. The story of Goan migrants to East Africa is among the most astounding episodes in Indian diaspora history. A tiny percentage of migrants from the subcontinent (themselves never more than five percent of the overall population), pathbreakers from the Konkan, played an outsized role in colonial expansion, and then the anti-colonial push for independence. Aquino de Braganza was a crucial ideologue and negotiator for Mozambique's freedom fighters. A G Gomes invented the 'gomesi', now national dress in Uganda. But most incredible is the record and legacy of Goans in Kenya. 'Yesterday in Paradise' by Cyprian Fernandes is an elegiac but no-holds-barred chronicle of when "Goans dominated in the colonial administration of British-ruled Kenya , Uganda, and German T...
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Review of Sultan Somjee's first classic Bead Bai

Highlight, right click and open link https://l.facebook.com/l.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fsimerg.com%2Fessays-and-letters%2Fbook-review-sultan-somjees-bead-bai-lays-bare-the-ismaili-khoja-clan-of-early-nairobi%2F&h=XAQE4Wryy The second in the trilogy has just been published and is available on Amazon and Createspace: https://www.createspace.com/5331930
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Cyprian Fernandes: Maureen and Nev: celebrating art and literature, and life in Goa.

IN the early 1970s, the Goan community was shocked by a horrific motor car accident that claimed three young lives: young lovers Avena D'Sa and Derryck D'Mello and Shafu Butt (?). They were all vibrant members of the Railway Goan Institute. As an investigative reporter I had come to handle death as just as another part of the job, nothing personal. On this occasion, however, I fell apart. I loved these three kids. We did so much together: with his sister Maureen (pictured) they were a part of everything we did together, the hugely successful anniversary variety show (everything, the scenery, the music ...) the picnics, the fishing trips, and all of the things young folk do. I was slightly older and they looked up to most of us seniors. I could not handle it at all. Until the funeral, I locked myself up in my bedroom and was lost in a void of my own making. At the funeral, I could not condole with Derryck's wonderful mum and dad or put a consoling arm around Maureen...
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