Books on the British Empire Site

[Mervyn Maciel]

Although not in the same league as some of the more distinguished

authors/writers on this Forum, I am pleased to see that my two

books, along with Braz Menezes's book have now included on

the British Empire site, along with a PDF version of my second

book, "From Mtoto to Mzee".

   Here are the relevant links for anyone interested:

Mervyn Maciel

http://www.britishempire.co.uk/library/library.htm

And also from the book review page itself: 

http://www.britishempire.co.uk/library/mtototomzee.htm

You can also go to it directly at: 

http://www.britishempire.co.uk/library/mtototomzee.pdf

[ANITA PINTO]

Congratulations Mervyn!  

This is a great honour for the Goa Bookclub and for Goans

--
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "The Goa Book Club" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to goa-book-club+unsubscribe@googlegroups.com.
For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.

--

Regards

Anita Pinto

Mapusa, Goa
Tel:7757043227

"If you do what you love, you'll never work a day in your life"
 

[FM N]

Congratulations, Mervyn!

Fatima

On 11 August 2016 at 06:58, ANITA PINTO <anitapi...@gmail.com> wrote:

Congratulations Mervyn!  

This is a great honour for the Goa Bookclub and for Goans

[Mervyn Maciel]

Thanks, Fatima.

I hope the many e-mails and phone calls I've been receiving don't

give me a 'Big Head'.

Regards.

Mervyn

[augusto pinto]

Dear Mervyn,

I always say that the Goan was the backbone of the British Empire. Thank God that at long last the muzungus seem to be acknowledging this fact.

Congratulations.

Augusto

[Mervyn Maciel]

Thanks Augusto.

I feel humbled over all the fuss!

Kind regards.

Mervyn

On Thu, Aug 11, 2016 at 3:36 PM, augusto pinto <pint...@gmail.com> wrote:

Dear Mervyn,

I always say that the Goan was the backbone of the British Empire. Thank God that at long last the muzungus seem to be acknowledging this fact.

Congratulations.

Augusto

[Braz MENEZES]

I agree with you Augusto. It was the Goan civil servants like Mervyn, that formed the core of the Administration. The rest followed. 

Mr Luscombe offers an explanation of how this happened in one of the paragraphs of his review of BTC:

"The Goan community found an unlikely niche within the British Empire despite being from a Portuguese colony dating back some four centuries and having undergone a completely different imperial experience to most people from the Indian sub-continent. The Portuguese Empire had been around longer than the British one and its colonies stretched back towards Africa and on to Europe via Mozambique, Angola and Brazil amongst other colonies. Many Goans had also embraced Catholicism over these intervening centuries - although as this book makes clear in a defiantly Goan manner. The combination of Christianity, a industrious work ethic and strong familial and commercial links across the Portuguese Empire meant that Goans were more at ease than most Indians in crossing the Indian ocean in search of new opportunities whilst still keeping fierce links to their land of their birth and their distinctive Goan culture. This book clearly explains that cultural diaspora effect. For instance, it explains why Lando's father crosses to Africa en route to Mozambique in 1928 but also why he stops off in British administered Kenya - whose administrative efficiency immediately strikes him favourably compared to the Portuguese one he is familiar with. It explains how the network of Goans in British Kenya helped newcomers to find positions, accommodation and helped them settle in to their new home. It also explains how the British authorities soon found these Goans indispensible in so many levels of middle management from banks to government to the railways to commerce to pretty much every facet of the economy. The sympatico arrangement largely suited both sides whilst still presenting difficulties and issues as the book makes clear."

http://britishempire.co.uk/library/beyondthecape.htm

Braz 

---

From: pint...@gmail.com
Date: Thu, 11 Aug 2016 20:06:01 +0530
Subject: Re: [GOABOOKCLUB] Books on the British Empire Site
To: goa-bo...@googlegroups.com

To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to goa-book-clu...@googlegroups.com.

[Frederick FN Noronha * फ्रेड्रिक नोरोन्या * فريدريك نورونيا‎]

On 11 August 2016 at 22:28, Braz MENEZES <bmen...@sympatico.ca> wrote:

I agree with you Augusto. It was the Goan civil servants like Mervyn, that formed the core of the Administration. The rest followed. 

Which time period are we referring to here? FN
--

_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/
_/
_/  Frederick Noronha | http://about.me/noronhafrederick | http://goa1556.in
_/  P +91-832-2409490 M 9822122436 Twitter @fn Facebook: fredericknoronha
_/  Goa,1556 CC shared audio content https://archive.org/details/goa1556
_/
_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/

[augusto pinto]

On Thu, Aug 11, 2016 at 10:33 PM, Frederick FN Noronha * फ्रेड्रिक नोरोन्या * فريدريك نورونيا <frederic...@gmail.com> wrote:

On 11 August 2016 at 22:28, Braz MENEZES <bmen...@sympatico.ca> wrote:

I agree with you Augusto. It was the Goan civil servants like Mervyn, that formed the core of the Administration. The rest followed. 

Which time period are we referring to here? FN

Dear Friedrich

Obviously you have have a time-line referring to the Goans in East Africa for otherwise you would not have asked the question that you do at this point.

Do you nimd letting us know what you are referring to? Everyone acknowledges that you are very wise. So why don't you be more transparent?

Augusto

--

_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/
_/
_/  Frederick Noronha | http://about.me/noronhafrederick | http://goa1556.in
_/  P +91-832-2409490 M 9822122436 Twitter @fn Facebook: fredericknoronha
_/  Goa,1556 CC shared audio content https://archive.org/details/goa1556
_/
_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/

--

[Braz MENEZES]

In the recent colonial period following the Berlin Conference (1880s) scramble when the European powers were under pressure to develop the lands allocated to them. 

Braz 

---

From: frederic...@gmail.com
Date: Thu, 11 Aug 2016 22:33:07 +0530

Subject: Re: [GOABOOKCLUB] Books on the British Empire Site
To: goa-bo...@googlegroups.com

[Braz MENEZES]

There is another book by Goan author Maria Lynch, also already on the British Empire UK site:

http://www.britishempire.co.uk/library/beneaththeafricansun.htm

It offers a very important contribution to the overall history of the Goans in East Africa, and gives voice to a segment that were more discriminated by the Goans, than the British rulers.

Braz 

---

From: pint...@gmail.com
Date: Thu, 11 Aug 2016 20:06:01 +0530

Subject: Re: [GOABOOKCLUB] Books on the British Empire Site
To: goa-bo...@googlegroups.com

To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to goa-book-clu...@googlegroups.com.

[Frederick FN Noronha * फ्रेड्रिक नोरोन्या * فريدريك نورونيا‎]

On 11 August 2016 at 22:55, augusto pinto <pint...@gmail.com> wrote:

Obviously you have have a time-line referring to the Goans in East Africa for otherwise you would not have asked the question that you do at this point.

Do you nimd letting us know what you are referring to? Everyone acknowledges that you are very wise. So why don't you be more transparent?

Thank you for attempting to flatter me, but nobody can accuse me of wisdom. Not even remotely, or accidentally. My self-claimed talent is of being a creative cut-and-paste artiste (apart from being an ethical spammer).

From what the writers on the topic (Dr Teresa Albuquerque, Frenz, Selma, and, fictionally, Braz Menezes) seem to suggest, the following it the timeline that settled in my mind. I could have entirely misunderstood it, or be vastly wrong, which is why I'm seeking a clarification here.

[Since we are discussing British colonialism here, I'm overlooking the Spaniards and their invasion of the Canary Islands in 1402, the Portuguese capture of Ceuta in Morocco in 1415 some 95 years before Goa, and the Papal Bull Dum Diversas which allowed the enslavement of 'pagans' &c):

1795:  Britain invades the Cape region (present South Africa)

1798:  French invasion of Egypt

1878:  Anglo-Portuguese Treaty, targeting liquor, salt, etc. Causing

           large-scale immiseration of the Goan population, specially coastal.

1884:  Berlin Conference involving UK, France, Germany. Right of conquest.

           Scramble for Africa.

1887:  St Joseph's Arpora set up, first English school in Goa. Braz's

           fiction is also based here though he portrays them as Jesuit.

           This religious Order had not yet returned to Goa, but fiction offers

           that license, of course.

1880s: First record of Goans prospering in Africa??? Mainly in business??

1910    Portuguese Republican Revolution disrupts earlier colonial trends.

            Its anti-clericalism and anti-religious trends catch on among the 

            Goan Catholic intellectual too.

1910   and thereabouts: More early English schools set up in Parra. Saligao.

           Note the location in Bardez. Any reasons why?

1920s: Trickle turns into a flood. Goans take up jobs in the EA bureaucracy.

            (Since when has the bureaucracy in Africa been an option?) 

            Catholic Goans, due to outmigration, conversion of Nav Hindu Gavadas

            &c turn into a minority in Goa as a whole, probably around 1925.

1930s: Early book (in Portuguese on Goan migration), by Antonio de Noronha

            (grandfather of Pelegrino da Costa, an octogenarian music teacher

            still living in Campal, formerly a univ prof in a distant area in N. Brazil).

1960s  An early book on migration by JB Pinto of Socorro/Saligao, 

            great-grandfather of Shirley Gonsalves, GBCer.

1980s Stella Mascarenhas-Keyes' study set in Moira, which she calls 

           Amora, for the purpose of her academic study...........

It's quite possible that some of these dates/interpretation might be incorrect or inaccurate. But when Augusto avers that the "Goan was the backbone of the British Empire", and we accept this as a given, I'm keen to understand which period we are referring to.

It would appear that flourishing in business is quite another thing from playing a crucial role in the bureaucracy. If we consider the latter alone, which decades are we talking about? Braz's "the recent colonial period following the Berlin Conference (1880s) scramble" seems a bit like taking a LMG (light machine gun) and scattering around our bullets in all directions.

Excuse my inelegant comparison, but this is an answer which has long evaded me. In terms of the Goans playing a key role in the bureaucracy alone of colonial British East Africa, which years are we talking about? 1920s to 1960s? Likewise, how long did the business heyday last? Which are the other sectors they could be seen as playing the role of a "backbone" in?

FN

-- 

[Mervyn Maciel]

Never intended  my earlier posting to lead to so much

Matata on GBC!

  Anyway, here as an aside is an extract from a book written

in 1951, by a former Colonial British District Commissioner(D.C)

Speaking of the Goans he had this to say....

"These men of ancient and honourable name from the old

Portuguese port of Goa, south of Bombay, are recruited in

scores into Government service and by commercial firms in 

East Africa. You find them in the towns and in the out-districts,

wherever there is a Government station, and many a descendant

of the old sea-dogs of Portugal has taken charge of the district

while the D.C.  was ill or away on leave. As a class, the Goans of

East Africa are exemplary citizens, law abiding, industrious,

self-respecting, ardent Catholics. After four hundred years, they

guard jealously their European culture, their religion, their music,

their good name and manners.Certainly, none of the great explorers

or Viceroys of Portugal thought that one of the special contributions

of the city of Goa to the world would be these excellent servants of

the British Empire in Africa - the Fernandeses, Da Gamas, Albuquerques,

Pintos, Da Sousas and a dozen more".

Mzee Mervyn

To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to goa-book-club+unsubscribe@googlegroups.com.

For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.

--

You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "The Goa Book Club" group.

To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to goa-book-club+unsubscribe@googlegroups.com.

[Braz MENEZES]

Thank you Mervyn. Frederick's question I believe is valid, in respect of the Goans in the Civil Service, as hitherto it does appear that Goans were heavily involved in business. There were some, as Selma has written about.

 But by far the presence of Goans was initially in the pseudo Government entities like the Railways, the civil service, and the number of British commercial banks.

Perhaps this article (also on the British Empire site) by Rosendo Abreo, who you will know well, and who I remember as one of the founder members of the Goan Gymkhana (1936) of my Dad's generation, will add more substance to the one liners so far on this topic.

http://www.britishempire.co.uk/article/goancontributiontocivilservice.htm

regards

Braz 

---

From: mervynels.w...@gmail.com
Date: Fri, 12 Aug 2016 09:33:36 +0100

To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to goa-book-clu...@googlegroups.com.

[Mervyn Maciel]

Thanks for that Braz.

I had read Rosendo Abreo's aerticle sometime ago on our

House Journal(The Overseas Pensioner).

I remember the man well too.

thanks all the same.

Regards.

Mervyn

On Fri, Aug 12, 2016 at 4:08 PM, Braz MENEZES <bmen...@sympatico.ca> wrote:

Thank you Mervyn. Frederick's question I believe is valid, in respect of the Goans in the Civil Service, as hitherto it does appear that Goans were heavily involved in business. There were some, as Selma has written about.

 But by far the presence of Goans was initially in the pseudo Government entities like the Railways, the civil service, and the number of British commercial banks.

Perhaps this article (also on the British Empire site) by Rosendo Abreo, who you will know well, and who I remember as one of the founder members of the Goan Gymkhana (1936) of my Dad's generation, will add more substance to the one liners so far on this topic.

http://www.britishempire.co.uk/article/goancontributiontocivilservice.htm

regards

Braz 

---

From: mervynels.watuwashamba@gmail.com