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Hi Benny,
Memoirs of a Goan civil servant in the provincial administration in outlying areas,
such as the D.C.'s office, Northern Frontier District. Fascinating and
nostalgic portrait of Kenya in colonial days.
The things they said about BWANA
KARANI……….
Many were the Reviews and personal letters received following
the publication of
Mervyn Maciel’s East African memoirs in 1985. From
these, and following requests from family and friends, the author has selected
a random ‘snapshot’ which he describes as “Words money cannot buy” and
now shares these with you…..
From Personal Letters:
1. From Sir Richard Turnbull, Acting Governor of Kenya,
latterly first Governor-General of independent Tanganyika, then High
Commissioner, Aden, who contributed the Foreword to the book:
“Congratulations on the finished product. I had the
pleasure of seeing in fair print, the
pages over which you have been working with such patience and determination. It
is a volume which you can be justifiably proud of. I too am proud to have been
associated with the work and cemented such a valuable friendship.”
2. From Mr Benjamin Kipkulel, Kenya High Commissioner in
London:
“I am so glad my two Cultural Attaches represented me
well at the book launch which
sadly I could not attend. I have had the opportunity of browsing through your
book and find it most fascinating.
3. From Mr. Christopher Denton, Private Secretary to the
Governor of Kenya:
“I enjoyed your book immensely. It certainly fills an important
gap in the bibliography of Kenya,
and I hope it will be regarded as the major achievement it deserves to be”.
4. From Sir Geoffrey Ellerton, Clerk to the Kenya
Legislative Council
“Your book, I am sure, has given a wider pleasure than even you
imagined, and I hope that will give you a deep satisfaction. I enjoyed it so
much and am now ordering copies for my grandchildren.”
5. From Mr. Colin Campbell, former District Commissioner,
Kenya and latterly Administrator of the Falkland Islands:
“I am enjoying your book enormously. One thing in it struck me
forcibly – how fortunate the Goans in Kenya were to have such a close knit,
hospitable and supportive community.”
6. From Mr. Noel Hardy, former D.C. Kenya:
“Once again, many thanks for all the pleasure your book has
given me; a powerful reminder, if one was needed, of the dedication and loyalty
we received from you and your Goan colleagues – the backbone of the Provincial
Administration.”
7. From Mr. ‘Bob’ Otter, former D.C. Kenya:
“Congratulations on your book. It certainly was a most
enjoyable trip down memory lane.”
8. From Mr. George Grimmett, former D.C. Kenya:
“Thank you so much for all the pleasure your book has given. I
enjoyed it immensely as it brought back so many memories on almost every page.”
9. From Mr. Denis Lakin, former D.C. Kenya:
“I was a member of the Provincial Administration during your
time, but unfortunately we never met. My many happy memories include many of
that devoted band of “Bwana Karanis” who served the then Government so
faithfully and so well. My delay in writing doesn’t conceal my admiration for
your book, and the effort that went into its making.”
10. From Sir John Cumber, former D.C., Kenya, latterly,
Director ‘Save the Children Fund’:
“I might have missed a gem had I not heard of your book.
Printed nostalgia at that price sounds a real bargain tome.”
11. From Mr. Hugh Walker, former D.C. Kenya:
“I was first introduced to your book by Chris Minter, whom I
think you know. I am so glad you wrote the book for posterity, as without the
Goan community (the salt of the earth), the Provincial Administration would
never have achieved the standards it did.”
12. From Mr. Roland Hill, last D.C. of Lusaka, Zambia:
“As an Africanist myself, I wanted to tell you how significant
your book has been in the history of British Colonial Africa and a wonderful
record for posterity.”
13. From Mrs. Kay Wild, wife of former D.C. “Windy” Wild:
“Bwana Karani has arrived and how I loved the book. The way you
have written is, to my mind, excellent, as a complete stranger to the N.F.D.
(Northern Frontier District), and life in Kenya, can’t help but get the feel of
the country.”
14. From Professor Paul Baxter, Dept. of Social
Anthropology, University of Manchester, and formerly Anthropologist in Northern
Kenya:
“I ordered a copy of Bwana Karani for our library, and have
just finished reading it. My enjoyment nudged me out of my sloth to respond and
tell you how much I liked it.”
15. From Mrs. Margaret Sutherland (nee Finch) former
D.C.’s Secretary, Kenya:
“I wish I had ordered Bwana Karani” through you. Elspeth Huxley
and I keep up a vague sort of correspondence, and she mentioned your book and
said how good it was.”
16. From Dr. Pascal Imperato Distinguished Service
Professor, Brooklyn, New York, and himself the author of several books on
Africana:
“Your story is a truly fascinating one that will be of great
historical interest to future generations. I think you are far too modest
though.”
17. From Mrs. Elspeth Huxley, best known chronicler of
Colonial Kenya and author of over 40 books:
“What an exciting surprise. It’s a beautiful book and I look
forward enormously to reading it properly after a preliminary skim through. I
know I shall enjoy every page, seeing I know so many of the people and places
you describe.”(An extract from Huxley’s excellent Review appears later in these
pages.
18. From Dr. Bill Barton, former Medical Officer of
Health, Kenya, later Director of Medical Services, Zanzibar:
“Your book truly opened my eyes to the inner workings of the
D.C.’s offices. I had always known of the great respect in which you, Goans,
were held by the Administration, but was ignorant of the racial discrimination
that operated in such issues as
travel, housing and hospital privileges.”
19. From Mr. Joe da Cunha, a former colleague in the
Administration:
“Have so far only read half the book well done, I like it. You
have recorded us in history.”
20.From Mrs. Jane D’Souza,
daughter of former Administration colleague:
“Your book gave me tremendous pleasure. Reading through, I
built up images of the one time realties of my life in Kenya. Thanks again for
the many hours of reading pleasure. It is a book I will definitely read again.”
21. From Mr. Ben Antao, Journalist, Teacher & Author,
Canada:
“I found your book an interesting read. Thanks to you, I am now
made aware that life in East Africa was not all milk and honey.”
Extracts from Press & Other Reviews:
1.From Dr. David Killingray of Goldsmith College, University of
London, writing in the journal of the Royal African Society:
“This memoir of life in Kenya in the fifties is based on
what must be carefully kept diaries. It records daily boma life as
appeared through the eyes of a sensitive, enterprising and active Goan,
who was eager to expose himself to all that life could offer, rough or smooth.
The author’s open nature is apparent in the style and narrative itself. The
book hardly contains a harsh word, though a few people he mentions probably
deserved them.”
2.From veteran British author of “The Flame Trees of Thika”
fame, Elspeth Huxley:
“Informally and pleasingly written, Mervyn Maciel’s book
chronicles a slice of Kenya’s
history from an unfamiliar angle, and puts on record the part played by the Goan
community whose integrity and industry underpinned so much of the development
of their adopted land. He loved his job, got on famously with almost everyone,
from Boran cattle herds to British Provincial Commissioners, had a happy
marriage and was a happy man- a nice change in this so often troubled and
acrimonious world.”
3.From well-known Kenya author, Cynthia Salvadori,
writing in the journal of the
Kenya Institute of Management:
“We each see the world through our eyes, but
one of the greatest values of published memoirs is that it enables us to get
glimpses through other people’s eyes. Mervyn Maciel’s Bwana Karani is a
real eye-opener. It is the only personal account that has ever been
published by any member of the Asian community in Kenya. We have
innumerable records of life in the early days by Europeans in Kenya. The
immense success of the film version of Isak Dinesan’s partial autobiography, ‘Out
of Africa’ had provoked a resurgence of criticism that
accounts of life in colonial Kenya are all one-sided, from the European’s view
point. That the view is unbalanced is the fault of the non-Europeans, and I am
deeply and personally grateful to Mervyn Maciel, for his is the only work of
its kind to be published by a member of any Asian community in Kenya. His
style is totally unpretentious, and appreciation of the wilderness sincere. His
Goan colleagues should be delighted that their existence has been so well
recorded for posterity, and what shines through the ordinary prose and
mundane preoccupations is Maciel’s profound liking and appreciation of other
people. Through his book, we, non-Goans are made aware of the amazing Goan
network that spread all over Kenya, a network through which flowed the very
life blood of the colonial administration.”
4.From the Sunday Nation,
Nairobi:
“Mervyn Maciel’s ‘Bwana Karani’ is a winner. Not only
will students of history find it a useful manuscript, but those working in the
so-called hardship areas will get some consolation in reading this first hand
account of a dedicated worker who served in those areas with an ailing child.”
5. From the Nairobi Weekly Review:
“Bwana Karani is an excellent personal memoir of Mervyn
Maciel’s life and times in Kenya. His style is captivating, exciting in some
situations and full of detail. Even diaries could not be as detailed in
specifics as his book is. It is a Roots of sorts, and what a journey it
is! His love and warmth of the people –African people cannot be
mistaken.”
6.From the Sutton & District Guardian:
“Mr. Maciel should be congratulated on his fluent and
digestible style. His book reads almost like a newsletter home”
7.From the Sutton Herald:
“Full of nostalgic memories of Kenya during the colonial era,
his book carries a Foreword by Sir Richard Turnbull, first Governor-General of
Tanganyika.”
8. From the North Devon Journal:
“Snakes invading the office, a narrow escape from an angry
buffalo, a murder plot, are all in a day’s work for a government official in
darkest Kenya. It is a tale of life very different from that in Britain in the
40s, 50s and 60s, and chronicles in great detail a career in a now-past
colonial era and paints an absorbing picture of life in the remoter parts of
Kenya where wild animals roamed.”
8.From The Examiner, Bombay.
“This is one man’s story
of life in the African bush. He writes in a quiet, somewhat slow relaxed and
homely style, recalling with great detail the many aspects and events of his
stay in Africa.”
9. From Goa Today (Lambert Mascarenhas):
“This is another self expression by a Goan settled abroad, a
memorabilia laced with nostalgia and saudade of the life and times lived
by the author in Kenya, not Nairobi or Mombasa which offered many amenities and
divertimento, and where, after a day’s work, the Goan, his wife and
children converged on the Institutes or Clubs to spend a pleasant evening, but
the Kenya of the wild Northern Frontier districts”
10. From Alvaro Collaco, former Senior Civil
Servant, Uganda Government “Your book proved such compulsive reading, that I
have only just put it down after reading it from cover to cover.
Congratulations.”
11. From Roland D’Souza, former member Provincial Administration, Kenya:
“I admire your courage and the time and effort you have put
into this book. I am really proud of you.”
12. From Francisco da Costa in San Francisco: “You
have done us (Goans) proud, and made an excellent job of the book”
Note: Bwana Karani now features in
the International Africa bibliography edited by Dr. Hector Blackhurst. The
Colonial Office archives and the Pitt Rivers Museum in Oxford have also
acquired copies. A copy has also been donated to the Kenya National Archives
and the British Empire & Commonwealth Museum in Bristol.
Although the book is now out of print, copies are still
available through some of the
Specialist bookshops in the U.K. and also through AMAZON via the internet.
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