How my first booknearly never saw thelight of day!

[Mervyn Maciel]

Looking for  something to do during these cold dark days of winter,I

began going through some of the articles I'd written and would like to share

the appended note with you all.

  My apologies if any of you find this boring.!

Mervyn Maciel

 

How my BWANA KARANI nearly never happened &

 

 

 

an acknowledgement of Sir Richard Turnbull’s patience

and critical guidance during this literary journey-by Mervyn Maciel

 

 

I first wrote to Sir Richard about my “dream” of publishing my memoirs on

4^th December, 1978 – a day after I’d met him and Lady Turnbull at Westminster

Cathedral in London where they were Guests of Honour of the Goan community

at our annual celebration of the feast of our patron Saint Francis Xavier. In my

letter, I had also asked if he would agree to contribute the Foreword.

 

While expressing his willingness to do so in a hand-written letter from his

Henley-on-Thames home on 6^th December, a comment (reproduced below)

his response rather discouraged me, and led to the whole idea being shelved for

some five years. Here is the comment:

“don’t forget that writing is demandingly hard work

and that it takes up a lot of time. As the great

Doctor Johnson said, “you have to set yourself

doggedly to it”

 

Despite this initial setback, the urge to write would not go away, and five years

later, in October 1983, having typed some 75 pages in draft form, I again wrote

and asked if he would be prepared to look through the rough draft.

Once again, his hand-written reply on 22^nd October, this time from Jedburgh, said:

“I shall be happy to look at your draft, and have no doubt

that you have made a great success of it. It is a fascinating story

that you have to tell, and it will bring back to me any number

of half-forgotten faces and scenes.”

 

The draft was accordingly despatched on 24^th November 1983, and in his type-written

reply of 2^nd January 1984, this is what he had to say:

“I hope that you will not find what I am about to say in this letter to be too ferocious. If you do, please remember that I have read the typescript as the preliminary sketch

of a book that you hope to have published. Had it been just a draft of a diary-with-comments that you proposed to have cyclostyled with the idea of sending copies to your friends, I should have been very much more gentle in my approach”

Here are some of his comments from that letter:

“Presentation to you of “fatted sheep” by various headmen, p.47,55,57 &72.

You may have to tone these incidents down a bit if you are aiming at

a wide publication for, as I expect you know, any stick is good enough to beat the

Colonialist regime with; and there is a danger of your being accused of using your

official position to “extort” these gifts”

 

On my proposal to donate part of my Royalties to help Marsabit tribesmen, this is what he said in his letter of 12^th January 1984:

My advice is first get your royalties, then reimburse yourself from them for

what you have spent; then find out how much Income Tax the Inland Revenue people will be taking off you; after that, you will be able to consider what can realistically be done with any cash that remains.”

 

In a further letter dated 27^th October 1984, he says:

“I have finished working through the typescript of the draft you sent me of “Bwana Karani”, and I am sorry to have to tell you that I have formed the opinion that a great deal of revision will be needed before it can be regarded as suitable for submission to a publisher.”

This 3-page type-written letter lists various points, among these, the following:

“Americanisms: p.16. I know that this is a personal idiosyncrasy of mine, but I regard Americanisms, such as the expression “there sure is” as a barbarism. A more graceful way of putting it would be, “there is surely”

p.17. You should replace “I guess” with “I imagine”

p.27 & 28. “You should beware of being too critical of your colleagues, lest you hurt

their feelings unnecessarily”. (this is regarding some comments I made on some of my

Goan colleagues, which personally, I didn’t think offensive!).Concludes the same letter with these words: “With apologies for what I know must be a disappointing letter. I fear the outcome of all this is going to be a good deal of more work for you; but the author’s lot has never been anything but an arduous one.”

 

In a further letter of 11^th November 1984, he writes:

Thank you for your letter of 3^rd November, and my congratulations on your generous acceptance of what must have seemed to you somewhat pernickety criticisms. We now seem to be entering the last lap of this interesting but arduous course.”

In a further hand-written letter dated 23^rd March 1985, following Lady Turnbull’s illness,

He wrote:”For our part, we have had one of the most worrying couple of months I can remember. My wife has been quite seriously ill and in and out of hospital with some obscure complaint that required fairly prolonged treatment……etc.

I have been devoting myself to household management and to invalid cookery”

 

Several letters followed, and in a hand-written letter dated 25^th June 1985, he

Commented, inter alia, on my use of the words “gunned down”. Here is

what he had to say:” I don’t much care for the expression “gunned down”

in relation to David Dabasso. It is not in accordance with your usual dignified style. Would not “assassinated” be more suitable?”

 

More letters followed, and as we were nearing the end of this work, he had this to say in his hand-written letter of 2^nd July 1985, after he’d sent me the draft Foreword. “ p.5. I note that the passage on this page is a repetition of the last para on page 4, so, remembering how sternly I criticised you for repeating yourself, I have cut out the page 5 bit” then adds:

“I shall feel quite lost without “Bwana Karani” and speculation about the Foreword to occupy my spare time.”

And in his hand-written letter of 25.10.85, this is what he wrote:

“Congratulations on the finished product. I had the pleasure of seeing in fine print the pages over which you have been working with such patience and determination for the past three or four years. Merlin Books have made a really workmanlike job of the book – good clear print, well set out with all the skill of the experienced craftsman; the photographs neatly reproduced, and the whole, a volume which you and the publishers can be justifiably proud of. And how happy and relieved you must be to realize that the long task is over. All the same, its completion will leave a gap in your life which will need a great deal of filling. My apologies at not being able to get to the launching party. I so much hope that the Kenya High Commissioner will rise to the occasion. The Goan Association will, I am sure, come to your aid and do you proud with the music and oratory which so happily distinguishes the Goan community. Best wishes for a splendid launching.”

 

 

Note: Some 20+ letters were exchanged during this time, not to mention

several telephone calls.

 

 

When I mentioned this to Peter Fullerton, Secretary of the Kenya

Administration Club (UK)-Peter is a former District Commissioner

and diplomat) – this is what he had to say:

 

“Dear Mervyn,

 

I’m so glad you weren’t deterred by Dick Turnbull; but the story

Of how you nearly were would be worth telling – Peter”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Jeanne Hromnik]

This is fascinating -- and worth publishing in the right magazine or online beyond GBC!

A great post colonial tale.

Congratulations on not allowing yourself to be deterred by that old curmudgeon. I hope you didn't follow all of his advice.

Xxj

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[Mervyn Maciel]

Dear Jenny 

Am glad you appreciate the message I put across regarding my first book which would never have seen the light of day but for my determination not to be put off by discouraging comments from others. I was determined to tell my story if only to encourage others  within my community to do the same.

Looking back, I find we have lost a valuable slice of our past presence in East Africa by colleagues not recording of their working lives in Africa.

I’m not for a moment suggesting that such work needed to be published in book form, but rather that individuals with rich experiences in Africa, would have left even notes of their varied careers with their families.

Researchers and historians are all the poorer now without such interesting stories.

Best wishes.

Mervyn Maciel 

Sent from my iPhone

On 6 Feb 2023, at 18:57, Jeanne Hromnik <jeanne...@gmail.com> wrote:



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[Jeanne Hromnik]

Dear Mervyn

I have been re-reading Bwana Karani on my phone at night, when I can't fall asleep. And how wonderful is that!

I wish there were a map I could follow (perhaps there's one in the printed version) but I know the names of the places so well: Lodwar, Nanyuki, Kitale, Marsabit. I have actually stopped or passed through Marsabit on a landrover trek from Nairobi to Addis. And we picked up some tribesmen on the way! 

I wrote an article about the journey, which was published in the Ethiopian Herald, and forever lost thereafter.

How good it is that there is a record such as yours of those times and places.

Best wishes

Jeanne (Jenny)

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[Mervyn Maciel]

Dear Jenny,

I was de;lighted to see that you were re-reading Bwana Karani

at night - hope it disturb your sleep!

  The book should have come out seven years earlier, but for the

initial unhelpful comments from Sir Richard Turnbull.

  I regret not including more detail like maps etc,  but at the

time, I was in a very stressful job and had to do most of my 

writing late at night or in the early morning hours.

Glad you remember so many places like Marsabit which remains

my favourite posting. As you may know, I've donated all my royalties

to the Marsabit Catholic Mission who continue to do a lot for the

local people. I am in regular touch with them too.

  As I am shortly to enter my 94th year, I feel I might have initially over estimated the response from my own

East Africa Goan community in the UK, but had felt that with quite a

sizeable East African Goan population here then, and with the book

costing the equivalent of a tot of scotch, I would  easily dispose of the 1000

copies I'd had printed. How wrong I was!  Most of my support came

from my former colonial friends and their families - one retired

senior diplomat commenting, "I enjoyed your book so much

that I've ordered 3 more copies for my grandchildren". The

book was a financial disaster, but I'd never set out to make money

out of it but more to share my experiences and encourage my

Goan colleagues to also come  up with their unique stories.

  I'm pleased to say that interest in the book grew latterly with 

researchers and others contacting me even from America.

 I was recently humbled when I found out that at the event

in Bombay in November last year, commemorating the 80th

anniversary of the sinking of the S.S. TILAWA(a  ship that claimed

the lives, among others, of my entire family during World War II, )the

Deputy British High Commissioner in Bombay, concluded his speech

by reading a poem I'd written when I was a 14-year old schoolboy!

This thrilled me no end!

  My second book has over a hundred photographs.

Thanks again for  your interest.

Best wishes.

Mervyn

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