BOOK REVIEW:
Courtesy of Goan Voice UK

'A Girl From Zanzibar' by Roger King is the story of Marcella D'Souza -- a naive, ambitious and beautiful young illegal immigrant.

The book was published on 15 Nov., 2002. $14.95, 320 pages. ISBN: 1885586604.

Excerpts:

Entertaining novel about postcolonial migrants trying to survive in Margaret Thatcher's Britain.

Marcella's life, as she looks back on it, is a case in point. Born from the ruins of three major empires -- the Portuguese, the Arab, the British -- she is, as a friend puts it, a ''Goan Indian Portugese Arab African of Catholic Moslem parentage.'' ''You're from everywhere,'' this friend (an earnest British aid worker who serves as the novel's deus ex machina) tells her. She corrects him: ''I'm from nowhere.''

Arguing with her forceful Aunt Stella, a pillar of the local Goan community. Aunt Stella, a Dickensian eccentric for sure, insists that Goans are ''really Europeans in disguise.'' ''We have European names, some of us have European blood. We've been European for 400 years. We eat beef. We drink alcohol. We ballroom dance. We're European.''

Naughty Marcella disagrees: ''Just because our ancestors were the first to jump into bed with the Portuguese when they arrived in India, doesn't make us European.''

PATRICIA ROZARIO IN TORONTO

What God must sound like, through a composer's filter at St. Michael's Cathedral [Toronto], assembled masses indulged a standing-room audience to a feast of new music.

British (Goan) soprano Patricia Rozario repeatedly soared and shone. Toronto Star 20 Nov.

SERAPHINO ANTAO HONOURED
(From Goan Voice -UK)

Kenya will honour more than 400 athletes during their 50th Anniversary celebrations on December 7 officials announced yesterday. Seraphino Antao who has since migrated to Britain will also be feted. Antao won the 100 and 200 yards at the 1962 Perth Commonwealth Games. From The East African Standard 21 Nov.

http://www.gbrathletics.com/ic/cg.htm
100 yards GOLD 1962 Seraphino Antao KEN 9.50 secs.
A new generation of athletes has since succeeded Kenya's pioneer athletic giants Maiyoro, Seraphino Antao, Arere Anentia and Silas Boit, among others.

FROM: CANADA AT THE MILLENNIUM - A TRANSCULTURAL SOCIETY

http://collections.ic.gc.ca/heirloom_series/volume7/countries/goa.html

Goa
THE POPULATION of modern Canada includes immigrants with Indo-Portuguese history and culture. Goan settlement in Canada is relatively recent, the founding generation of Canadian pioneers coming in the 1960s from several parts of South Asia and East Africa.....

Founded in Toronto in 1970, the Goan Overseas Association (GOA) now stands at the head of the ethno-community's cultural and social life in the Greater Toronto Area. Each year, the Association organizes and orchestrates a full calendar of events including horseback riding, field hockey tournaments, track and field events, soccer matches, ballroom dances, symposia, and musical productions. Moreover, Goans in Montreal, Winnipeg, Calgary, and Vancouver can participate in the life of similar Goan organizations that together form a loose confederation.

WHITE OUTSIDE, BROWN INSIDE: LIFE AND TIMES IN COLONIAL KENYA

Mervyn Maciel sees himself as a Kenyan-born Goan. This septuagenarian loved the African bush, and had a "particular fascination" for the tribes. Some years back he penned 'Bwana Karani' (Merlin, UK, 1985), a personal narrative of two decades in East Africa. The title literally translates to 'Mister Clerk', the humble capacity in which he started his working career in Kenya.

Fred Noronha interviews Mervyn Maciel.
For complete interview see http://www.goacom.com/news/news2002/nov/msg00060.html