My review of 2017

So yet another year has passed, and while the pace of life has slowed down a little there is much that has happened which I should like to record here.  Actually, I can repeat the second sentence of my review of last year more or less word for word thus: [a]lthough this blog has not been updated since the last entry of 24 February [yes as long as that], I have done a fair amount of writing elsewhere – reviews, papers, articles and other stuff – but for now let me start with  

Books 

1) `The Underground Railroad` by Colson Whitehead – ISBN 078-0-7088-9839-0 – h/b Fleet 2016 UK – © CW 2016 – 306 pp – hard hitting and starkly revelatory but imaginary tale of Cora, a slave on a cotton plantation in Georgia, who follows the eponymous escape lifeline for slaves fleeing their harsh and inhuman fate from the American south across hostile territory all the way to the north and Canada – the cruelties, the punishments, the degradation and the sheer inhumanity of their very existence – all this is so graphically described as to numb the reader`s sensibilities – the narrative however is not linear, nor is the railroad of the title which is a virtual construct of an escape route for fleeing slaves.

2) `Kind of Blue: A Political Memoir` by Ken Clarke – isbn 978-1-5098-3719-9 – Macmillan h/b – © KC 2016 – 498 pp –  an independent minded liberal Tory of the old one-nation school - a delightful read – written in characteristically easy-going off-the-cuff style with self-deprecating humour and unpretentious frankness – we get to know from the horse`s mouth, as it were, exactly how his political commitment and career absorbed his adult life, from his Cambridge days until more or less the present – he attended his first Conservative Party conference in 1962 – his easy-going nature shaped his politics – one thing of note: according to him David Cameron did not consult the cabinet about holding the EU referendum.  As he says (at p 477): "My sense of political ease within the Cameron government never fully survived the lurch into a referendum.  But there were other problems, too, including the declining level of collective responsibility with the government.  Little serious discussion was now taking place at the short Cabinet meetings, which were sometimes taken up with ministers making presentations on routine aspects of their departmental policy.  Actual decisions were being taken by the gang of four led by David Cameron and Nick Clegg."  He left the Cabinet in a reshuffle but on mutually good terms, successfully fought the 2015 election at a time when his wife was seriously ill, returned to Parliament for his final term - lots of glimpses into how government works in the 21^st century.   

 3) `Burmese Days` by George Orwell – original © 1934 G Orwell – this Penguin edition p/b reprinted 2009 with a new Introduction under isbn  978-0-141-18537-8 – 300 pp – Orwell`s cynical portrayal of the shenanigans of the colonial Brits in Burma then part of the Indian Empire in the 1930s – the interactions between the Brits and the native characters Dr Veraswami and U Po Kyin, the sub-divisional magistrate at the remote station of Kyauktada, and indeed the broader physical setting of the novel are reminiscent of E M Forster`s `A Passage to India`- made enjoyable and pertinent reading during our Myanmar trip – had to buy this from a bookseller in Yangon on the first day of our arrival as I had left the book I had taken with me (`The Sympathizer` by Viet Thanh Nguyen) on the plane at Dubai on our transit stop there!  According to Orwell (at p 296) “Mandalay is rather a disagreeable town – it is dusty and intolerably hot, and it is said to have five main products all beginning with P, namely pagodas, pariahs, pigs, priests and prostitutes” – well that may have been then, but what we saw of Mandalay was impressive (pagodas and priests, yes, but also many environmentally attractive features). 

4) `An Impressive God: George Washington, His Slaves, and the Creation of America` by Henry Wiencek – isbn 0-374-17526-8 – pub: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, New York – © HW 2003 – 404 pp – this was my `study` book during the SE Asian cruise that followed our cultural tour of Myanmar – a fascinating biography by an accomplished academic and writer whose depth and breadth of research was evident all through the text and the detailed notes, references and index – GW owned slaves, defended slavery and saw to it that it was enshrined in the US Constitution, though in his will he set his slaves free, once his widow had died – the book`s graphic accounts of how slavery was so intimately intertwined with the lives and fortunes of the slave owners and how it gave rise to mixed race relationships within respectable families pointed to only part of the whole story – there is so much more in terms of factual detail – coming on top of my reading of the Underground Railway and other literature and films such as the ones mentioned below seen during this trip, the book made gripping reading. 

5) `The Afghan` by Frederick Forsyth – a Corgi p/b 9780552155045 – © FF 2006 – 462 pp – a spy thriller in the post 9/11 world – a good holiday read.

6) `Nutshell` by Ian McEwan – ISBN 9781911214335 – Jonathan Cape h/b – © IM 2016 – 199 pp – a 21 century McEwanish take on Hamlet – combining the poetry of a narrative by a foetus – from within the confines of its embryonic casing – who is witness to the unfolding drama of a conspiracy to the murder of its father by the mother and his uncle who is her paramour – unconventional but readable!

7) `The Pigeon Tunnel: Stories from My Life` by John le Carré – isbn 978-0-241-25755-5 - Viking h/b – © D Cornwell 2016 – 310 pp – a delightful and kaleidoscopic journey through the author`s personal and literary life – he is very forthright about the character of his father and his relationship with him, warts (and a lot of them) and all, and not much warm about his mother either, though he had lost touch with her for most of his childhood and only came to know her as a mature adult – he is also frank about his professional background and history – but all is told in an unassuming and disarming way.  I had booked to go to his appearance and presentation at the Royal Festival Hall on September 7 (at £75 for the ticket) but then decided that this book was a good enough substitute and so cancelled the booking.

8) `based on a true story` by Delphine de Vigan (translated from the French by George Miller) – isbn 978-1-4088-7880-4 – Eng lang © GM 2017 – bloomsbury h/b – 374 pp – a pretentious plot – fictional author chasing and being stalked by her own alter ego – the supposed mystery is wrapped up in a mass of introspective narrative – a timewaster – lesson learnt: be wary of reviewers` recommendations, most of which (like so much else) are targeted at people much younger than oneself and easily impressionable, as in this very case!

9) `Black Water` by Louise Doughty – isbn 978-0-571-27867-1 – Faber p/b – © LD 2016 – 360 pp – brilliant, gripping, mystery about the travails and trajectory of `Nicolaas De Herder, born (during WWII) on the island of Sulawesi in the Dutch East Indies, to a white Dutch mother and an Indo officer in the Dutch Colonial Army` (p 154) who had undergone several changes of name but then been assigned (and so assumed) the simple name of John Harper by his superiors at the `Institute` (a coded description really of a cryptic intelligence organisation based in the Netherlands) when he graduated from their training course to become a field operative.  He gets posted to Indonesia in the mid-1960s, where he could `pass` as a native if needed be but otherwise remained a westerner, and lives through the 1965 coup that brought Sukarno to power.  He gets caught up in the bloody purge of communists that followed.  The plot thickens and we are taken through both his past and present in a complicated series of flashbacks and agonising detail about his personal and familial life through to 1998 when, after an absence of more than 30 years, he is sent back to Indonesia to confront that year`s sequel to the 1965 revolution and when his professional undoing that follows. Throughout, he is referred to as plain Harper - a really great piece of literature, by an established author. 

{Note: reading this made me look up the case of Perez v Sharp, where the Supreme Court of California decided, in 1948, that the state`s ban on interracial marriages violated the 14<sup>th</sup> Amendment of the US Constitution.  Andrea Perez (a Mexican American woman) and Sylvester Davis (an African American man) met while working in the defense industry in Los Angeles.<sup>[2]</sup> Under the state of California law, individuals of Mexican ancestry generally were classified as white because of their Spanish heritage.  This was germane to Harper`s story – and see further down under Special Note for more on the case, which has relevance to the film `Loving` noted below under Films etc.}

10) `William Wilberforce: The Life of the Great Anti-Slave Trade Campaigner` by William Hague– isbn 13 978-0-00-722885-0 – HarperPress h/b – © WH 2007 – 515 + Notes Bibliography Index = 582 pp – a fascinating, gripping, comprehensive biography, narrated in the same easy-going style that we associate with Hague as an effective and persuasive speaker and communicator – WW born … in the family home on the High Street (in Hull) on 24 August 1759 (p 4); in May 1780, not yet twenty-one, began canvassing in expectation of an election the next year – June 1780: the Gordon Riots … election followed … got elected and on 31 October 1780 … took his seat on the backbenches (p 36) … died Monday 29 July 1833 … The Abolition of Slavery Bill was passed in August 1833; thus was his life-long campaign accomplished at his death, after nearly 50 years of struggle - the first breakthrough having been in the form of the Slave Trade Abolition 1807 Act.  

11) `The Mile End Murder: The Case Conan Doyle Couldn`t Solve` by Sinclair McKay – isbn 978-1-78131643-6 (Autumn Press h/b) © 2017 Quarto Publishing – 312 pp – fascinating reconstruction of the trial of James Mullins for the murder of Mrs Mary Emsley, a wealthy widow aged 70 at her house in Grove Road in London`s East End one August day in 1860, with the aid of the extensive coverage of the case in The Times and other papers and related literature.  We get a huge insight into the make-up of the population, local culture and history of the period.  Very soon after the case was concluded, doubts were raised about the conviction of Mullins, and forty years later Conan Doyle wrote about it with his own take  on the subject in `The Debatable Case of Mrs Emsley`.  The Times`s archives can be searched to verify the many references to its reports from August to November of 1860 – key words: The Stepney Murder, eg report of the proceedings of the preliminary hearing at the Thames Police Court on 26 Sep 1860 in the following day`s paper, and of Mullins`s execution on 19 Nov 1860 in the following day`s paper. This true life setting was indeed Dickensian/Victorian – my favourite period of literary history.   

12) `Home Fire` by Kamila Shamshie – isbn 978-1-4088-8677-9 (hb) – Bloomsbury –© KS 2017 – 260 pp – on contemporary  theme of British Muslim youth radicalisation in response to the spread of Islamophobia – a clever plot involving a wealthy Muslim Brit (how he acquired his millions is not exactly clear), a child of immigrant parents brought up in Bradford in humble circumstances and in a traditional religious/cultural household who makes it good in politics to become Home Secretary, along the way marrying an American heiress from New England – somewhat incredible this – his son, a posh boy with a public school/Oxbridge background who first meets a young postgraduate woman student, a Muslim like himself from England, in Amherst though their romance never materialises – back in England gets entangled with her sister and a complicated scenario emerges – I got the book and had it autographed by the author at her Tara Arts appearance in September (see below) during which she talked about her deep underlying concern about the effect of citizenship deprivation laws aimed at jihadist Muslim Britons.  

13) `The Fall Guy` by James Lasdun – isbn 9781910702833 – Jonathan Cape h/b – © JL 2017 – 266 pp – a clever 21^st century mystery set in the upper crust milieu of upstate New York – too much pretentious detail about the cooking ability of the central character who meets his comeuppance in a thrilling denouement – light reading during the extended Xmas season. 

(Note: am currently reading (1) `Emigrants: Why the English Sailed to the New World` by James Evans and (2) A Legacy of Spies by John le Carre - more about them next year!).

(Special note about the significance of the case of Perez v Sharp extracted from Wikipedia:

By its decision in this case, the California Supreme Court became the first court of the 20th century to hold that a state anti-miscegenation law violates the US Constitution.^[6] It preceded Loving v. Virginia, the case in which the United States Supreme Court invalidated all such state statutes, by 19 years, and antedated the civil rights milestones such as Brown v. Board of Education from which Loving benefited. Indeed, in Loving, Chief Justice Warren cited Perez in footnote 5, and at least one scholar has discussed the extent to which Perez influenced his opinion.^[7]

Perez was much of the basis for the California Supreme Court's 2008 decision In re Marriage Cases (2008) 43 Cal. 4th 757, which declared that the California law restricting marriage to be between a man and a woman to be unconstitutional [in effect allowing same-sex marriages, RS].

Films, Plays, Concerts etc

1) Sun 22 Jan – Odeon Epsom - `Lion` (Dir: Garth Davis – Aus – 2016 – Dev Patel, Nicole Kidman, Sunny Pawar) R & K – Brilliant - 9/10

2) Thu 02 Feb – Odeon Epsom – NT LIVE: `Amadeus` - Lucian Msamati as Salieri in P Shaffer`s play + Southbank Sinfonia - 9/10 

3) Tue 07 Feb – ICA - `A Stitch of Life` (Dir: Yukiko Mishima – 2015 - Japanese with Eng Sub) elegant, endearing, slow-paced – but then  it seemed to lose momentum with an inconclusive ending –  part of the UK wide Japanese Foundation Touring Film programme – 7/10

4) Tue 14 Feb – Curzon, W`don - `Denial` (dir: Mick Jackson; Screenplay: David Hare; starring Rachel Weisz, Tom Wilkinson + others (based on Deborah Lipstadt`s History on Trial: My Day in Court with a Holocaust Denier) absolutely superb; impressive background and legal scenes; the drama of the court sequences was gripping; well-acted throughout with a perfect re-enactment of the case  -  9/10    

5) Sun 19 Feb – Odeon Epsom - `Hidden Figures` (Dir: Theo Melfi; starring Taraji P Henson, Octavia Spencer, Janelle Monáe, Kevin Costner) absolutely brilliant – hidden history of the crucial role of black female mathematicians in the US space programme of the 1950/60s revealed in an unsensational manner with no overt sentimentality – superbly acted by all -  9/10    

6) During our various flights to and from Singapore and Yangon, saw the following in-flight movies:

    `Fences` (2016 - dir: Denzel Washington – starring DW and Viola Davis) - 7/10

     `The Salesman` (2016 – dir: Asghar Farhadi – starring Shahab Hosseini and  

                                Taraneh Alidoosti (Persian with English subtitles) - 7/10

    `Loving` (2016 – dir: Jeff Nichols – starring Joel Edgerton, Ruth Negga) – 8/10

    `The Birth of a Nation` (2016 – dir: Nate Parker – starring Nate Parker as Nat Turner – 8/10

    `Queen of Katwe` (2016 - dir: Mira Nair – starring David Oyelowo, Lupita Nyong`o) – 7/10

(Normally I do not list such movies or those seen on tv or dvd, but these were all marked on my list for viewing in the cinema during these months and the opportunity to see them in-flight was most welcome – I wrote about Loving in detail in my AwaaZ column in issue 1/2017).

7) Fri 21 Apr – ICA - `I Am Not Your Negro` (dir: Raoul Peck, France/USA 2016, 93 mins) – a powerful documentary on the life, literature and activism of James Baldwin with historical footage of his appearances/interviews/interactions etc – 8/10

8) Fri 05 May – NFT2 - `Crosscurrent` (dir: Yang Chao, China 2016, 116 mins, Mandarin with English subtitles), a cinematic voyage down the Yangtze River, with reflections of the captain of a barge on his life and loves – atmospheric – 7/10

9) Thu 11 May – Odeon Epsom – NT Live : `Obsession` (dir: Ivo van Hove; starring Jude Law, Halina Reijn etc) – superbly acted and with impressive stagecraft but towards the end the play seemed to lose its marbles, as it were -  6/10 

10) Fri 19 May – RFH – Ravi Shankar`s Sukanya The Opera (RPO, Royal Opera, Curve, large cast) – simply superb - 9/10 

11) Wed 31 May – Chestnut Grove Academy SW12 - `Bedroom Farce` by Alan Ayckborn (A Southside Players` presentation, dir: Julie  Weston; well acted by Kanan Barot as Delia) - 6/10 

12) Sat 2 Jun – RFH – Grand Opera Gala (The Great Choruses) Philharmonia Orchestra – cond Stefan Beviar - 5/10

13) Fri 04 Aug - ICA - `Railway Sleepers` - dir. Sompot Chidgasornpongse, Thailand 2017 -  a fascinating documentary about a real time train journey from the north to the south of Thailand – we learn the history of the railway in Thailand going back to 1893 when the line in question was inaugurated – more importantly we see the train in motion as it speeds through its route, with real life footage of the passengers and all that goes around them through different stages of the journey – young and old, men women and children, how they interact, what they do, the condition of the carriages, the seating and eating and sleeping and basically everything that people do on board, with passing shots of the stops along the way and glimpses of the country the train traverses and the stations and their immediate vicinity it passes through (reminded me of the train journey from Chang Mai to Singapore that we had done in 2009) - 7/10 

14) Thu 07 Sep - NFT2 - `Hotel Salvation` - dir. Shubhashish Bhutiani, India 2016 – (cast: Adil Hussain, Lalit Behl, Palomi Ghosh, Geetanjali Kulkarni); The Guardian reviewer described it as “This beautifully rendered Indian arthouse film (that) enacts a subtle family comedy-drama”, but it is much more than that.  It is a deeply philosophical exploration of an ageing parent`s journey towards death that he wants to be in control of.  The social setting is a nuclear family of his son Rajiv, daughter-in-law Lata, and their mischievously delightful daughter Sunita, all of whom are greatly fond of him and reluctantly let him go to Varanasi to await his final departure from this earth.  The acting and the direction are simply superb.  Bhutiani is an incredible 26 year old, who had already won an award in New York for his short film Kush in 2013, and now has won a Unesco award from the Venice Film Festival for this movie and no doubt in line for many more - 9/10    

                                                                                                                               

15) Fri 06 Oct – NFT2 (LFF) - `Razzia` - dir. Nabil Ayouch – France 2017 – subtitles – Moroccan setting – 4 narrative streams – a dedicated young poetic teacher who is cruelly put down by the education authorities for teaching in the Berber dialect instead of Arabic, the official national language – he migrates to Casablanca – where fast forward to 2015 the rest of the action takes place – repeated references to Casablanca the movie classic - 5/10

16) Mon 09 Oct - Haymarket (LFF) `Lucky` - dir: John Carrol Lynch – USA 2017 - `Harry Dean Stanton is Lucky` - so he is – and his last performance too!  Absolutely brilliant – superb performance by Stanton as Lucky who is defiantly coming to terms with his age and the relentless march towards death - 9/10

17) Thu 12 Oct – Embankment  (LFF) `Sweet Country` - dir: Warwick Thornton – Aus 2017 – a stark Aussie Western – with the aboriginals as the `Indians` or, more appropriately, like the negro slaves of the American wild west at the receiving end of every kind of raw racism and brutality that was possible – we see the scenes of violence against them with increasing horror – leaves one cold  9/10

(LFF = London Film Festival – this year was able to see only three films; one I had to forgo, despite having pre-booked, to attend Raila Odinga`s disappointing talk at Chatham House – see below!).

18) Thu 02 Nov – RFH Concert (Philharmonia Orch – cond: Karl-Heniz Steffens; Esther Yoo violin – Beethoven Overture Egmont; Tchaikovsky Violin Concerto; Brahms Symphony No 4 - 8/10  
                                                                                                                 

19) Thu 16 Nov – Odeon Epsom – NTLive screening of `Follies` - excellent musical – thoroughly enjoyable – 8/10

20) Fri 24 Nov – NFT2 - `Body Double` (Dir: Brian De Palma) – USA 1984 – Craig Wasson; Melanie Griffith -  historical, thought would see it again after so many years! - 7/10

21) Sun 26 Nov – Odeon Epsom - `Murder on the Orient Express` - (Dir: Kenneth Branagh – himself + other celebs- USA 2017 – 5/10

22) Thu 21 Dec -  ICA - `Prince of Nothingwood` - (Dir:  Sonial Kronlund) – the eponymous Prince is Salim Shaheen)  -  this 85 minute documentary is about Afghanistan`s film industry personified in Shaheen`s prodigious output of over 100 films produced in the most inhospitable environment (social, political, physical) of the country where everything is stacked against the art – the absence of women in the public view is only one, though important, element of that - the French producer/director follows Shaheen and his team as they persevere through all kinds of odds and obstacles – the shining star is the charismatic Shaheen, whose frank description of film-making in Afghanistan as `nothingwood`, relative to Hollywood and Bollywood, is both damning and satirical – all in all most enlightening and yet it leaves one with pessimism about the fate of Aghanistan where modernity and enlightenment will remain beyond reach for a long time - and yet one has to admire the likes of Shaheen and his team for their bravery and persistence - 8/10                          

Lectures, Talks, Events etc

1) Thu 02 Feb - RSA - `The Age of Anger` - Pankaj Mishra (ch: Anthony Painter) - good analysis; short on prognosis        
   

2) Thu 09 Feb - RSA - `On Corruption` (Laurence Cockroft & Anne-Christine Wegener + Matthew Taylor, ch)

3) Sun 09 Apr - Ickenham Village Hall – Gujarat Literary Academy event to mark 80^thBirthday of Vilas Dhanani

4) Sat 20 May - London Jaipur Lit Fest @ BL – attended 2 talks (The Dishonourable Company & Migrant Words)

5) Tue 04 July - RFH Talk - Naomi Klein: No Is Not Enough (ch: Jude Kelly) – ok. predictable, being on a book tour

6) Fri  15 Sep  -  RFH Talk – Orhan Pamuk – (ch: ?) – talks too much and too long without breaks – Good English

7) Thu 28 Sep -  Tara Arts – Kamila Shamshi in conversation with Razia Iqbal – Re: Home Fire - excellent   

8) Tue 10 Oct -   Emmanuel Centre SW1 – Salman Rushdie in conversation with Mark Lawson - excellent

9) Fri 13 Oct –   Chatham Hse - `Kenya`s Next Test: Democracy, Elections and the Rule of Law` - Raila Odinga

10) Mon 16 Oct - RFH : Man Booker Prize Readings – (ch: Gemma?) – good but didn`t stay on for the Q&A

Miscellany

This year again I have lost some dear friends, relations and acquaintances - and that is going to go on. As for foreign travel, we did a major trip to South East Asia - a wonderful tour of Myanmar, followed by a 12 day cruise from Singapore and back, up and down the coast of Vietnam, Cambodia, Thailand touching at ports we had visited before a couple of times, but lovely to visit again.  Another cruise is looming ahead, in the next four weeks, skirting the north west coast of Africa through the Canaries and Morocco down to Madeira and back up via Portugal, after which I have booked another exciting trip to the Far East - looking forward to that.

The most important development however is my book project - a collection of my selective writings. This has been keeping me busy and there is much work still remaining to be done but I am hoping to have it published by the end of 2018.   I know it is a bit premature to talk about it, but I have to give myself a deadline and an incentive to do that, for otherwise inertia will triumph.  As things are, I am definitely slowing down, even though it may appear otherwise from the above. I continue to write my regular columns on the AwaaZ magazine and to contribute to the IANL Journal, the A/O and other forums but I don`t think I can keep up the same level of activity and output for the coming years.  Well, we shall see.

Thank you and best wishes for 2018.

RAMNIK SHAH
(c) 2017

Surrey, England                                                       

                                                                                 

REVIEW OF `HOME BETWEEN CROSSINGS`

                                               
                                           Home Between Crossings by Sultan Somjee
                                                             ISBN 10: 1508586373
                                             CreateSpace, Charleston SC 29418 USA 
                                                   (c) Sultan Somjee 2016 - 629 pp
                                                                       ------------

The `Home` of the title is Kenya, a longish stop-gap in the even longer journey of the Ismaili Khoja community from its origins in India to East Africa and then from there across to Europe and America, during which it has transformed itself into a very modern social species.  In this sequel to Bead Bai (http://opinionmagazine.co.uk/details/1181/--Bead-Bai--ખોટા-મોતી-ના-સાચા-વેપારી--by-Sultan-Somjee), which was about the original migration and settlement (the first crossing), the focus is on the Devji family`s locally born off-spring.  Here, their story spans virtually the whole of the twentieth century, against the backdrop of the country`s immense political and other fundamental changes as they were taking shape.  It is a fascinating and absorbing narrative, told most imaginatively and with great flair and fluency by an accomplished author.

The book is a work of fiction, but one that is best described as creative fiction, founded on historical fact and grounded in family and folk lore. And so we again meet Sakina, born in Nairobi`s Indian Bazaar in 1922 on the day Harry Thuku was arrested by the colonial government for leading an anti-pass protest, and are drawn into her life as it unfolds in bits and pieces, some familiar to readers of Bead Bai.

Njugu Lane, the Merali Bus Stop on River Road, the Kenya Broadcasting Station`s Hindustani Service, the overflowing flooded Nairobi River - the signposting of these long-forgotten names and places certainly resonates with this reviewer, who lived through most of the period in question as a second generation Indo-Kenyan. These early references morph into other later landmarks as Nairobi developed while at the same time Sakina`s family grew and her community`s tentacles spread further.

Woven through the book`s complex structure of her family`s trajectory is a veritable history lesson, of its Ismaili and Indian cultural heritage and of the making of Kenya as a nation out of its colonial past.  The chapter headings are grouped in sixteen parts, and under each of which we get a measure of what they contain. In Part Two: The Keeper of Stories, for instance, we have `My photo album` and `What love? What India?` where, while looking at some of the pictures, Zera Bai exclaims: “I wish my Rhemu would take me to the Taj Mahal for a picture.  I want to see India. Kacch and Gujarat”.  On this our narrator ruminates:

What Kacch? What Gujarat? What India?  … distant pictures … not even mine.  Vicarious pictures that stir my heart yet I have not been there.  Pictures like some witch`s crafted tales imagined from an ancient land.  Nor are they tales in my father`s head.  Hazy, frightful tales in Dadabapa`s malaria nightmares. Dark pictures in memory`s pulses of the orphaned child in him.  They live in pain of yearning, sighs of loss, and far away words of an immigrant. Words like dhow, Bombay, Saurashtra, Haripur, raj, Kala Pani, des, avatar and Taj Mahal.  They come from the motherland of Indian Khoja recalled in dying memories two generations gone by.  Yet the emotions live in the mist-like nostalgia.  Now the ancient is resurrected, made new and modern.  Beauty portrayed in love photos before the Taj Mahal, and in the cinema, the hideout of Indians of Africa to bond with the origins in half-hearted thoughts.

This neatly encapsulates the pre-history of the first migration, but Somjee gives us much more in terms of the detail, the minutiae of relationships and interactions and of the  emotions and practicalities involved in everyday living, such as in Part Three, under `Freda and Kamau`: 

I hear Kabir`s whispered voice from the washroom teasing Freda, calling her Farida, lovingly mimicking Ma who could not remember the name of our house help even after constant right name lessons from him.  During the day, I see how sixteen year old Freda, the Kamba girl from the Catholic Mission of Nairowua, plays with my children.  How happy they are when she sings to them while [giving] them a bath and then Looking at Freda, passing barefoot on the powdery red earth, I would often think of Hawa, our maidservant in Nairobi when I was little.  How she used to take me around Jugu Bazaar, sometimes on her back in a kanga wrap, sometimes, I walked by her side with her little finger hooked into my big finger

So reminiscent of one`s own childhood!  In Part Four (Land is a broken string of beads), there are close-ups on a fast changing Nairobi: how it `grew bigger and bigger with increasing railway and road traffic`, stone buildings replacing wooden ones, `as was the trend in the new elegantly planned capital of British East African Empire`, `Nairobi`s classic Victorian and Edwardian architecture, brought to perfection by fine Indian masonry in sand and grey granite stone`: `Law courts, railway headquarters, financial houses, the city hall, cathedrals, the European market and the post office … on garden avenues.` And then there was `the imposing Khoja Mosque, the jamat khana, the heart of Satpanth Khoja life where Government Road, Victoria Street and the India Bazaar come together … the hub of Indian commerce and fashion`.

But the tri-partite racial hierarchy was an embedded reality, with `cinemas, play houses and international hotels plainly marked EUROPEANS ONLY at the entrances [while] Oriental temples, mosques, with tall minarets [and] Churches with bell towers stand in assigned denominational spaces for Roman Catholics and Anglicans [and the] Europeans only live on high ridges, the browns in-between like at the malarious swampland of Ngara and not-to-be-seen blacks in the new stone built kiosk type housing estates on the dry barren plains at outskirts of Shauri Moyo, Kariobangi and Mbotela`.

Then in `Who are they, the Mau Mau?` and `Man called Kenyatta, Father of the Nation`:

Every day we listen to the radio and want to know more about the Mau Mau, the barbaric gang that is terrorizing the country.  It is not because we just want to understand that we ask each other … but because the tone of the newsman on the radio puts so much alarm in us that we seek comfort speaking out our nervousness to each other. 

While their menfolk talk of and parrot the negative things they hear the Europeans say about Kenyatta, the Khoja women react with cries of `kisirani` and `Misfortune coming`.  Sakina is conflicted: `Where do I belong?  Whose side am I on? A brown person, not white, not black.  Not a man`, either.   `Something is changing in Kenya` indeed. And `When elephants fight` (in Part Five) `Africa is Black and White  Brown is invisible`!

She recalls how the partition of India caused a rift between the Hindus and Muslims of Kenya, during which her own community became conflicted and became the butt of mockery as `Khoja Khoja centi moja` - reduced to being only one cent`s worth!  But she always remained steadfast in her reverential regard for Gandhi, even to the point of arguing with Haiderali her husband about Gandhi`s fight against the British.

 

Somjee quotes the African saying `Tembo wavili wapiganapo burusha fumbi`, translated into English as `When two elephants fight they raise dust`, with its Gujarati equivalent as જયારે બે હાથી લટે તયારે કીડી કચરાય whose English translation is given as `When two elephants fight ants get trampled`.  The correct Gujarati version however should surely read as જયારે બે હાથી લડે તયારે કીળી કચરાય? (Incidentally, in the Gujarati/English lullaby at page 29, the second line should really be પાટલે બેસીને નાય, the third line પાટલો ખસી જાય and the fourth  be હીરો મારો પળે હસી).

But as for `On whose side shall we be?  White or Black to escape the fate of ants?` the author is all seeing and objective.  He is meticulous and fair in his overview and deeper analysis of the dynamics of African nationalism. He remembers the part played by such stalwarts as Ambu Bhai and Makhan Singh, Isher Dass and Jaswant Singh, and `printer scholar Vidyarthi and grunting journalist Ahmed` in the struggle for Kenya`s independence. 

And yet of course there is suspicion, fear and hate all around them.  These are tricky times.  Independence is on the horizon.  Kenyatta is all sweetness and welcoming.  The chapter `Cowboys and Indians` begins with `True democracy has no colour.  It does not choose between black and white …`, says he on the radio.  He urges his Kikuyu menfolk not to drink if they want to increase their population and preaches `equal pay for equal work for all`!

But it is not all politics that is driving the Devji family. Sakina`s inner musings are a constant reminder of much else that was going on in their lives.  The children`s education, livelihood and marriage prospects occupy the elders as much as daily business and domestic concerns.    On the cultural front, Gujarati gives way to English: `Look forward.  Get educated`, but Sakina wonders

… if English would be better than Gujarati for our sacred texts … what I know is that Gujarati gives Vedanta a memory … Satpanth the wisdom I need to live through these times of changes when African voices and violence put fear in the heart [and most] of all, Gujarati gives ginan the melody … (t)he language that has preserved Saheb for six hundred years in the hearts of the Satpanthis? 

And the unmentionables also get an airing: for example, Riziki, Shamshu`s `kept` Swahili  woman in Mombasa with whom he has a son, Issa, and the resulting social complications are explored in `Of Cross Eyed and Sheep Headed Khojas of Mombasa`!      

But change comes and the mood turns ugly. Part Ten is devoted to the `Era of Great Propaganda Betrayal of Hate and Humiliation`, with the `Tyranny of Nationalism` as its centrepiece.  It took many shapes and turns.

In Kenya, interestingly, integration was reasoned as possible only through blood mixing.  But that was one sided … marriages of Asian girls to African men … the trump card of male dominated African nationalism that primarily targeted robbing the Asians of their marriages.

 `Asian two-facedness` became the mantra of political discourse, fuelling popular anger and resentment, most vocally expressed by Kenyatta himself at his public rallies, denouncing the Asians as `thieves, looters and whores` – blood sucking bedbugs!  So it was hardly surprising to be called `You Indian … Paper Citizens`, with threats of Africanisation and worse.  The Asians developed strategies of survival, as do all minorities everywhere. Some of them worked, while others were denounced as mere `window dressing`.  There was the notorious case of the young son of a petrol station owner who after personally filling up a minister`s Mercedes Benz to the full politely asked him for payment, the reaction to which was a slap on the face and a volley of insults (“You Asian exploiter!  Mhindi.  Out of Kenya, you Asian whore.  And leave this petrol station to me”!) as the MP drover off without paying, leaving him to nurse his cheek and feeling utterly humiliated before all his staff and others who witnessed the incident.  This was something that most of Nairobi`s Asians got to hear of on the grapevine within days and caused the Khojas talk of migration to Canada.

In Canada, you can keep your culture and religion.  You do not have to [intermarry] with the white people or the Aboriginals.  Saheb [the Aga Khan] is a friend of the Prime Minister and visits Canada.  They both like multiculuralism.

Kenyatta`s time passes, but not before the Asian emigration fever reaches `Exodus` proportions.  He is succeeded by Moi.  A more favourable climate in terms of business partnerships and economic expansion ensues and fosters a sense of complacency until an attempted coup brings back violent outbursts against the Asians seen by the Kikuyu elite previously powerful as his cronies and so there is renewed pressure to leave. For Sakina too, Canada beckons and, after getting immigration clearance and completing all the formalities, the book ends as she contemplates her departure from the land of her birth, on the second crossing to her new home.   

These are only some of the highlights of narrative.  There is a great deal more packed into it in graphic detail, weaving a complex web of relationships, interactions and historical happenings as they impacted upon the lives of the characters and their community at the centre of the tale. Home Between Crossings however is more than just a family saga in the classic tradition of, say, The House of the Spirits (Isabel Allende), One Hundred Years of Solitude  (Gabriel García Márquez) or The Immigrants (Howard Fast).  It is also an epic, albeit a fictional, account of a people`s passage across the oceans through time and space – that of the Khojas.  But although it presents their perspective – and Somjee writes as an Ismaili insider - it is also representative of other Asians in Kenya (and East Africa generally) during the time-scale in question. The people in the other communities could relate to everything that happened to the Devji family because they too went through parallel experiences at all levels and in more or less the same way. 

Above all, Home Between Crossings is not just a work of fiction, it is a personification of Kenya`s history of the twentieth century.  Somjee has undoubtedly used his first-hand lived experience to chart every significant turning point in the march of the country from colony to republic.   Together with Bead Bai, he has created a literary masterpiece that will also serve as a historical record of our time, of particular interest to those of us in the diaspora who share his Kenyan background, and one that will benefit future generations of scholars as well.  I was privileged to read the manuscript online and must say the published version is an impressive document.

RAMNIK SHAH
(c) 2017

Surrey, England