One of a small minority of non-white pupils in a mainly white school

 

"One of a small minority of non-white pupils

 in a mainly white school".

Part II Rose M. D’Sa’s 

Going Juu

A tale of three cultures

www.lexxion.eu/rosedsa-going-juu

(Order your free copy at the above link subject to payment of shipping charges,)

 

 

By CYPRIAN FERNANDES

TO MOST non-whites, the Loreto Convent School in Valley Road, Nairobi, was non-existent. It was a “whites-only” school. As a very young reporter, I often wondered how the Catholic Church could condone such racism. I was told: “Don’t open that can of worms if you want to keep your job.” I learnt later that the Catholic Church’s hierarchy toed the colonial government line in all things and did what they were told. I never got to write that story, I moved on to dirtier and more damaging politics. However, there was no doubt that the Catholic convent school was arguably the best girls’ school in Nairobi. There was another LC Msongari in the Nairobi suburb of Lavington, a boarding school and where the whites-only bar had been smashed a long time before.

Rose’s late father Alex Henry D’Sa (Leo to his friends) (who passed away much too soon at the young age of 53) was a visionary and like most fathers he wanted his daughter to have the best, especially in education. In his own mind, he had planned out Rose’s education. He only wanted the very best for her so she could, at least in education, reach the summits of excellence and achieve the best results possible. I don’t think Dad had any particular plan for me but he favoured medicine; professional tennis was not an idea he espoused particularly

On her first day at LCVR (Loreto Convent), Rose got a sort of promotion; she was promoted to the next higher class after she was impressed in a comprehension test. It would seem, even as a child, Rose was tough: (In sport) “It is fair to say even as a child, I took no prisoners.” That is only a tiny glimpse into her resolve and determination. Moreover, she was well aware that every single child was “white”. But that did not bother her so much, it was the strangeness of the school that lifted her eyelids a bit.

She was well aware of the racial divide. It was all new to her. Even more strange was that she was given elocution lessons … in words, learning to speak like an English-born person. After spending hours listening to cassette tapes, she confesses that sounds like someone from Surrey. However, whatever the temporary negatives, her English accent held her in good stead. Her Indian looks and her English accent confused a lot of people, not least those that were interviewing her for this or that.

Her father showed great foresight in sending her to LCVR because it laid the foundation for personal confidence and success. It helped that Rose was usually top of her class, the only non-white in a mainly non-white school. She was a popular choice among the students for Head Girl but did not get it even though she was better qualified than most, but she acknowledges that her robust personality and not her ethnicity may have been a factor.

Rose still remembers with affection many of her schoolmates: Gurjot Singh, Maria Georgiadis (I think her father was a solicitor), Barbara Swarzenski, Jennifer Osborne, Catherine Spawls, Mother Carmel O’Reilly and others, all helpfully referenced in the Index of her book.

LCVR certainly equipped her to approach the future with confidence. She enjoyed sports at school, she also knew doing her homework properly would give her a competitive edge over the others. She was “both ruthless and dedicated in the pursuit of academic success”. Some said she was a born learner.

LCVR and her first tennis coach there, Anne Greenwell, also set Rose on a path towards a career in Tennis.  The school had four tarmac courts and lots of enthusiasts. One afternoon she watched her friends, June Carvalho and Ann Hopkins warming up. Rose noticed they were unable to hit the ball into the vacant spaces near the tramlines and instead they just “knocked it around.” She writes: “I invited myself on to their court to show them how to do it properly! They were amused when they found out I could not even hit the ball. I was fascinated and  quickly became hooked.” And a future tennis star was “born”.