Truth's great warrior no more!
A lot of hearts in Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania anyone all around the world are broken by the news that the greatest journalistic warrior passed away last week in Nairobi. She was the granddaughter of Alibhai Mulla Jeevanjee, without doubt, the greatest fight for equal rights in colonial Kenya. Zarina fought for equal rights in Kenya every moment of her life. She was also the author of many brilliant books. She was the editor of Awaaz magazine. Its success will always remain a living tribute to Zarina.
She was small in stature but was blessed with a big heart, the courage of a giant and the will to help anyone in need. She dared to take on and challenge any foe, especially in the pursuit of human rights and equality. She was a warrior. She wielded a mighty pen and a mightier belief in her self.
Zarina Patel is a writer, artist, human rights and race relations activist, environmentalist and campaigner for social justice. She is a leading authority on Kenyan South Asian history, and editor of the journal Awaaz, which focuses on South Asian history and culture in the national context. The book chronicles Zarina's multi-dimensional life. Although she was born and raised in an upper-middle-class family, she rejected opulence and sought personal liberty and fullfillment by identifying with multi-ethnic and multi-racial groups that were struggling for human rights and freedom from exploitation and domination in Kenya. Additionally, her multi-dimensional life bears witness to the harsh realities that women in African and Asian communities face: the lack of independence in choosing whom to marry, whether to have children and adherence to a particular religion, to name a few. Her dissent liberated her from the shackles of patriarchal Asian society but also drew her to Kenyans of similar character and thinking. Zarina's biography echoes the lives of many women around the world playing a multitude of roles - as wives, mothers and professional women - who have struggled and have had to give up part of their dreams to succeed in each of these roles. (George Gona).
By Zarina Patel: 1 August 1982, the failed military coup staged by the Kenyan Air Force became the harbinger of a sharp downturn in the already rather smudged scenario of Kenya’s fledgling democracy. The Moi-KANU dictatorship instituted a de facto single-party rule and made it virtually impossible for any protest or demand to be voiced, written or alluded to.
I was a member of an underground cell whose goal was the return of multi-partyism and an ideological shift in the future. Art and culture were one of the avenues that comrades identified as a tool for politicising and mobilising Kenyans and progressive artists in Nairobi and elsewhere took up the challenge. Politically it was also a relatively ‘safe’ medium unlikely to draw the attention of the Special Branch.
I painted mainly in oils and my first painting had a feminist topic – The Oppression and Liberation of Women. I then moved on to ‘recording’ actual events in our country’s history which depicted the resistance against injustice mounted by patriotic Kenyans and visionary leaders. All these paintings capture the resistance of the people. This required reading and research and was a collective effort though the actual artwork was mine.
The paintings were matched with lengthy captions which explained the historical circumstances of the event and were exhibited in church halls and school premises in Mombasa where I resided.
Zarina Patel is a Kenyan South Asian woman, who not only struggled against the oppression faced by fellow women, but who was also involved in other movements, above and underground, which fought against injustice. She has worked with people from different walks of life; across cultures, gender, generation, religion and region, ethnicities and races.
Zarina’s artwork demonstrates the possibility of carrying out political work and speaking out even under difficult circumstances.
Zarina has not led the stereotypical life of a South Asian woman. She has followed in the footsteps of Makhan Singh, the father of trade unionism in Kenya; Manilal Desai who worked closely with Harry Thuku in the anti-colonial struggles and her grandfather, Alibhai Mulla Jeevanjee, who bestowed Jeevanjee Gardens to Nairobians. She has authored the biographies of all three personalities as well as the work of South Asian journalists in The In Between World of Kenya’s Media.
She is the Managing Editor of AwaaZ magazine which started with recording the lives of East African heroes of South Asian descent and now focuses on minority and diversity issues. AwaaZ is now in its eighteenth year of publication and has the SAMOSA Festival as its cultural arm.
Although she was born and raised in an upper middle class family, she rejected opulence and sought personal liberty and fulfillment by identifying with multi-ethnic and multi-racial groups that were struggling for human rights and freedom from exploitation and domination. She not only liberated herself from the shackles of patriarchal Asian society but also interacted with Kenyans of similar character and thinking.
Zarina’s fight for women, her struggles against a corrupt Bohra priesthood, fruitful efforts to save Jeevanjee Gardens from land grabbers to working with the organization Kikuyus for Change and the Kenyan Constitution Review process and being one of the founder members of the Kenya Asian Forum – are a few illustrations of her diverse contributions to post-independence Kenya.
She understood the connection between freedom of creative expression and the struggles for democratic space and the concomitant benefits of conscientising the public of the prevailing social, political, cultural, global, and economic circumstances.
(Every time you think about Kenya journalism, video, TV, print media, you will think of Zarina Patel, freedom's true warrior).
By her very close friend and companion in the battle for human rights:
Pheroze Nowrojee
Last week we lost an invaluable Kenyan.
Zarina Patel died. It is a major loss.
Zarina’s many-faceted achievements were a
major neural network in the cultural body in our nation, with similar close
connections with today’s progressive political figures and movements.
Zarina’s
commitment to public discourse took her from advocacy to action for change. In
the slough of the Moi years, Zarina was active in politics. She was a member of
the Social Democratic Party (SDP). And then an official.
She
rejected the grotesque politics of the Moi years and worked for the alternative
of institutional policies and public life built on social justice. She was
present in the alliances of the opposition parties and speaking in public
meetings.
She was
writing all the time, with particular interest in women’s rights and
progressive figures in Kenya’s past. Apart from her continuous writing as Chief
Editor of Awaaz magazine, Zarina is the author of three major
books and biographies of the key Asian figures in modern Kenyan history. Her
first was the biography of A.M. Jeevanjee, who broke the monopoly of the White
settlers in respect of representation in the Legislative Council. In 1906,
Jeevanjee was appointed a Member of the Legislative Council (LegCo). The book
is titled Challenge to Colonialism.
Her next
major book Unquiet was her biography of Makhan Singh, the
founder with Fred Kubai of the trade union movement in Kenya, and an implacable
opponent of settler colonialism and British imperialism. Makhan Singh pushed
for freedom in 1950 calling for, and organising for, the immediate independence
of all four East African colonies. For his pains, Makhan Singh was put in
detention and not released till 11 years later in 1961. Our university students
of our past have much to gain from this study of Kenyan history. Zarina’s deep
research in international archives and the whole-hearted cooperation of the
family of Makhan Singh make this an invaluable part of the literature of our
history. That Zarina found Makhan Singh’s politics enjoyable was a bonus in the
writing of the book.
This was
followed by her major study on M.A. Desai, The Stormy Petrel. M.A.
Desai, (who died in 1926), after whom Desai Road in Nairobi City is named, was
one of all Kenya’s greatest politicians. Again, Zarina’s research led her to
archives and collections in Kenya, India and Britain. Desai was a journalist,
writer, politician, printer, and publisher, active with Harry Thuku, both
politically and in the publishing of newspapers.
Zarina
found herself once again reflected in her book on another person. Not for
nothing has it been said, ‘Every biography is an autobiography.’
Zarina’s
books covered major periods of our past: the years 1906 onwards during the
shaping of the early politics in the colonial period; the period 1918 to 1923
when the Kenya Indians blocked the surge for self-rule by the White settlers on
the model of South Africa, and the Devonshire Declaration of 1923 established
the paramountcy of African interests; and the period 1950 and the advent
of Uhuru. Zarina was at home working in all of these periods. No
understanding of those periods of Kenyan history is complete without reference
to her studies.
It was not
only the past that she reveled in. The SAMOSA Cultural Festival which she and
Zahid Rajan established and held annually, celebrated music, dance, theatre and
all the performance arts.
A most
important achievement has been Awaaz magazine. This has been, and is,
a journal of events, achievements, reflections and records. The editors’ intent
has never been communal glorification but is an admirable addition to the
history of Kenya and its international spillovers.
The
magazine’s achievement is not only the fascinating coverage, with the audience
offering to the unknown while gathering more thought on the known. Its greater
importance is the constancy of its aims and its intellectual stamina. In that
it reflects the same qualities in Zarina and Zahid.
Zarina did
not let illness halt her many work goals or her participation outside. Nor even
to slow her down. Her determination was unflagging. She would be present
at events put up by Awaaz or at the regular lunches with old friends,
engaging fully in the planning of new events, and of course in the
disagreements on political stands.
Zarina’s
passing is a major loss to Kenya and East Africa. RIP.
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