DOCSLIB.ORG

Peter Kimani. Dance of the Jakaranda

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Peter Kimani. Dance of the Jakaranda Peter Kimani. Dance of the Jakaranda. The MIT Faculty has made this article openly available. Please share how this access benefits you. Your story matters. Citation Aiyar, Sana. "Peter Kimani. Dance of the Jakaranda." American Historical Review 125, 3 (June 2019): 342. © 2019 Oxford University Press As Published https://doi.org/10.1093/ahr/rhz283 Publisher Oxford University Press (OUP) Version Original manuscript Citable link https://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/130291 Terms of Use Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike Detailed Terms http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/ Africanizing Kenya’s Indian History1 In July 2017, Uhuru Kenyatta approved the constitutional inclusion of Kenya’s South Asian citizens as the nation’s 44th tribe.2 This came on the eve of a tightly fought general election between Uhuru and Raila Odinga, both of whom lay a familial claim to the nation. Raila’s father, Oginga Odinga, briefly served as Vice President to Uhuru’s father, Jomo Kenyatta, Kenya’s first President, before becoming his most ardent and vocal critic. As “fathers of the nation” Odinga and Kenyatta were bitterly divided over the shape their nation would take, as the former posed a Leftist challenge to the government. Kenyatta deflected this opposition with populist politics that positioned Kenya’s Indian middle class as a colonial hangover that did not belong in the nation. In 1967 he deported large numbers of Indians and legislated Indian shopkeepers out of the country. Fifty years later, in stark contrast to his father’s disavowal, Uhuru’s presidential proclamation acknowledged “the Kenyan Asians’ contribution to Kenya” that had “roots at the dawn of our Nation”.3 Just five months before this announcement, Peter Kimani published Dance of Jakaranda in which he not only revisits this contested period of history, but positions its central character, a Punjabi Muslim migrant, Babu Salim, as the father of the Kenyan nation. Kimani is the first African novelist to use historical fiction to claim Indian diasporic history and political belonging as one that is unquestionably Kenyan. After a brief summary of the plot, this essay discusses the three historiographical concerns Kimani takes up in making this assertion: state-building and resistance, narratives and archives, and intimacy and identity. Dance of Jakaranda unfolds over four sections: House of Music, House of Silence, House of Light, and House of Darkness. The novel opens in June 1963 in the House of Music – the Jakaranda hotel in Nakuru – that was built in 1902 in by a colonial soldier-turned-administrator, Ian Edward McDonald. Rajan, Babu’s grandson, and his band play to an African and Indian audience at the recently deracialized hotel. Crooning in Swahili with his 1 I am very grateful to Kenda Mutongi and Leah Mirakhor their insightful comments on this essay, and the many conversations we have had about history, writing, and literature. 2 Many have criticized this move as opportunistic and divisive. See http://www.the-star.co.ke/news/2017/06/05/asians-dont- seek-to-be-44th-tribe_c1571938 3 Daily Nation, 22 July 2017 bandmates, including a close Kikuyu friend, Era, Rajan represents a utopian vision of the young nation that gained independence in December 1963. Rajan’s social circle includes Era, unnamed Indian and African women he sleeps with, and Gathenji, the butcher at the hotel. A lust-fueled encounter with a mysterious woman sends the besotted Rajan on a journey that leads him to Mariam. Together they discover the messy entanglement of their shared history that is rooted and routed through the East African railways that was built by McDonald. House of Silence dives into this thick history, as indentured labor, including Babu, arrived from India to build the railway line. The railway functions as a metaphor for Kenya’s colonization, as it facilitated the occupation of the territories and peoples living between Lake Victoria and the Indian Ocean, and laid the foundations of a racially divided and segregated colony. For the people over whose lands the line ran and whose hands were forced to produce crops for the colonial market, this “Iron snake” threatened to swallow them up. Kimani highlights the intimate ways in which colonization was experienced by individual men and women. These included Babu, Nyundo, a Kikuyu drummer employed by the railways, elders of local communities, and Seneiya, the daughter of a Maasai chief. Each of them was silenced by the colonial state, assisted by Christian missionary, Reverend Turnball. But they resisted and this resistance is explored in the House of Light. For example, after multiple run-ins with McDonald and Turnball, Babu, who is suspected of impregnating Seneiya, quits the railways. Having witnessed the silencing of Kenya’s people and Babu’s challenges to McDonald, Nyundo also leaves government employ. In so doing, both not only sever their relationship with the colonial state but together move to overturn it. Wandering across the lands of Rift Valley, the occupation of which he had been complicit in as a railway engineer, Babu becomes the first settler in Nakuru township, establishing a hugely successful business enterprise with Fatima, his wife. He channels his wealth to fund anticolonial resistance in Kenya, including the Kiama kia Rukungu (party of the dust) which is a direct invocation of the Land and Freedom Army, known as the Mau Mau. Nyundo joins this armed struggle. While light is shone on resistance, and the British withdraw, the nation enters the House of Darkness as Bwana Mkubwa (Big Man, a reference to Jomo Kenyatta) becomes president.4 At the same time, Kimani uses a posthumous confession in which Turnball reveals himself to be the father of Seneiya’s child to remind us of the complicated legacy of colonial destruction that did not simply disappear with decolonization. The Kiama kia Rukungu had fought for the return of their ancestral lands that the Europeans had stolen. Big Man had no intension of doing this. Instead he uses an opportunity presented by an arson attack on Jakaranda to outlaw them. Moreover, his government deployed colonial-era legalities and nationalist discourse to define belonging and citizenship racially to exclude Indians, not Europeans, from the nation. At the novel’s end, a failed attempt to deport Babu’s grandson catapults Rajan into a popular national hero, but not for long. Rajan is assassinated on the eve of general elections to prevent him from running for office before he had declared any intention of doing so. Through McDonald, Turnball and Bwana Mkubwa, Kimani examines how the cycle of power, violence, and resistance was inextricably linked with projects of state-building, both colonial and national, in Kenya. The tensions of empire are evident in every scene where McDonald misinterprets and misunderstands the actions of local elders and his railway employees, reading into their every word the seeds of “rebellion” that he counters with violence. Kimani exposes the nervous condition of state-builders that triggers violence, making state power so absolute and destructive. Despite this silencing, the force and scale of the state’s violence serves to mobilize further resistance. Kimani highlights the illegitimacy of the state by turning our gaze to this resistance. Significantly, he pulls back the veil not only from the colonial state but also Kenyatta’s to expose the fraudulence of statesmen who claim to represent the people. McDonald’s firepower, used to ruthlessly raze villages and shoot down rebels, was transferred to Big Man’s police and army to coerce Kenyans into public displays of loyalty and dispose of any challengers. Rajan’s assassination is a direct invocation of Pio Gama Pinto, a Goan 4 This is an obvious literary allusion to Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness, but Kimani argues that the heart of darkness of colonialism continues into the post-colonial state. politician and Oginga Odinga’s close ally, who was gunned down in broad daylight in 1965, a murder allegedly directed by Kenyatta himself.5 Big Man’s ultimate betrayal of his people is signaled by his anointment of McDonald as the father of the nation, whitewashing the violence he unleashed on the people of Kenya. This is juxtaposed in Dance of Jakaranda, to Gathenji and Nyundo’s selection of Babu Salim as the father of the nation. In a climatic confrontation with McDonald, Nyundo reveals that Kenyans owned their freedom to Babu, pronouncing that “when the history of this country is written, a chapter will be devoted to him.”6 But Indian fathers did not fit into Kenyatta’s nationalist discourse based on racialized majoritarianism espoused by his serikali ya Mwafrika (the black man’s government). Critical of this erasure, Kimani locates the people’s archive in the realm of subaltern oral traditions. While the protagonists in the novel are European and Indian, the main narrative voices belong to the Kikuyu storytellers, Nyundo and Gathenji. Through them, Kimani “reclaims people’s histories.”7 In her influential work, Gayatri Spivak has pointed to the limits of historians’ endeavors to recover such subaltern voices. She cautions against the propensity of scholarship to raise specters of hallowed signifiers that impose, from above, a wholeness to elusive archival voices.8 The genre of historical fiction allows Kimani to address this critique. Deliberately eschewing positivist accuracy, Nyundo and Gathenji’s stories are replete with rumor, contradiction, and possibilities since, “neither the victim nor the villain is willing to tell what truly happened”.9 It is by virtue of this incompleteness, Kimani argues, that fragmentary subaltern narratives destabilize racial and gendered identity. The colonial project was premised on the racial segregation of white, black, and brown subjects in Kenya, a separation that was never complete in practice.
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Kenya in Crisis
    KENYA IN CRISIS Africa Report N°137 – 21 February 2008 TABLE OF CONTENTS EXECUTIVE SUMMARY AND RECOMMENDATIONS................................................. i I. INTRODUCTION .......................................................................................................... 1 II. THE ELECTION CRISIS ............................................................................................. 2 A. A TIGHT AND TENSE RACE ...................................................................................................2 1. Coalition building ......................................................................................................3 2. The issues...................................................................................................................4 B. THE RIGGING OF THE PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION ....................................................................6 III. THE SECURITY CRISIS.............................................................................................. 9 A. PROTEST AND REPRESSION....................................................................................................9 B. ESCALATION IN THE RIFT VALLEY ......................................................................................10 1. The rise of Kalenjin warriors in the North Rift .......................................................11 2. The return of Mungiki..............................................................................................13 3. Coast Province: the next theatre of violence?..........................................................15
    [Show full text]
  • Report of the Truth, Justice and Reconciliation Commission
    REPORT OF THE TRUTH, JUSTICE AND RECONCILIATION COMMISSION The Government should immediately carry out counselling services, especially to those who lost their entire families to avoid mental breakdown. It is not too late to counsel the victims because they have not undergone any counselling at all. The community also seeks an apology from the Government, the reason being that the Government was supposed to protect its citizens yet it allowed its security forces to violently attack them and, therefore, perpetrated gross violation of their rights. Anybody who has been My recommendation to this Government is that it should involved in the killing address the question of equality in this country. We do of Kenyans, no matter not want to feel as if we do not belong to this country. We what position he holds, demand to be treated the same just like any other Kenyan in should not be given any any part of this country. We demand for equal treatment. responsibility. Volume IV KENYA REPORT OF THE TRUTH, JUSTICE AND RECONCILIATION COMMISSION Volume IV © Truth, Justice and Reconciliation Commission, 2013 This publication is available as a pdf on the website of the Truth, Justice and Reconciliation Commission (and upon its dissolution, on the website of its successor in law). It may be copied and distributed, in its entirety, as long as it is attributed to the Truth, Justice and Reconciliation Commission and used for noncommercial educational or public policy purposes. Photographs may not be used separately from the publication. Published by Truth Justice and Reconciliation Commission (TJRC), Kenya ISBN: 978-9966-1730-3-4 Design & Layout by Noel Creative Media Limited, Nairobi, Kenya His Excellency President of the Republic of Kenya Nairobi 3 May 2013 LETTER OF TRANSMITTAL By Gazette Notice No.
    [Show full text]
  • 1843 KMS Kenya Past and Present Issue 43
    Kenya Past and Present Issue 43 Kenya Past and Present Editor Peta Meyer Editorial Board Marla Stone Patricia Jentz Kathy Vaughan Kenya Past and Present is a publication of the Kenya Museum Society, a not-for-profit organisation founded in 1971 to support and raise funds for the National Museums of Kenya. Correspondence should be addressed to: Kenya Museum Society, PO Box 40658, Nairobi 00100, Kenya. Email: [email protected] Website: www.KenyaMuseumSociety.org Statements of fact and opinion appearing in Kenya Past and Present are made on the responsibility of the author alone and do not imply the endorsement of the editor or publishers. Reproduction of the contents is permitted with acknowledgement given to its source. We encourage the contribution of articles, which may be sent to the editor at [email protected]. No category exists for subscription to Kenya Past and Present; it is a benefit of membership in the Kenya Museum Society. Available back issues are for sale at the Society’s offices in the Nairobi National Museum. Any organisation wishing to exchange journals should write to the Resource Centre Manager, National Museums of Kenya, PO Box 40658, Nairobi 00100, Kenya, or send an email to [email protected] Designed by Tara Consultants Ltd ©Kenya Museum Society Nairobi, April 2016 Kenya Past and Present Issue 43, 2016 Contents KMS highlights 2015 ..................................................................................... 3 Patricia Jentz To conserve Kenya’s natural and cultural heritage ........................................ 9 Marla Stone Museum highlights 2015 ............................................................................. 11 Juliana Jebet and Hellen Njagi Beauty and the bead: Ostrich eggshell beads through prehistory .................................................. 17 Angela W.
    [Show full text]
  • Mozambican Revolution, No. 16
    Mozambican Revolution, No. 16 http://www.aluka.org/action/showMetadata?doi=10.5555/AL.SFF.DOCUMENT.numr196503 Use of the Aluka digital library is subject to Aluka’s Terms and Conditions, available at http://www.aluka.org/page/about/termsConditions.jsp. By using Aluka, you agree that you have read and will abide by the Terms and Conditions. Among other things, the Terms and Conditions provide that the content in the Aluka digital library is only for personal, non-commercial use by authorized users of Aluka in connection with research, scholarship, and education. The content in the Aluka digital library is subject to copyright, with the exception of certain governmental works and very old materials that may be in the public domain under applicable law. Permission must be sought from Aluka and/or the applicable copyright holder in connection with any duplication or distribution of these materials where required by applicable law. Aluka is a not-for-profit initiative dedicated to creating and preserving a digital archive of materials about and from the developing world. For more information about Aluka, please see http://www.aluka.org Mozambican Revolution, No. 16 Alternative title Mozambique Revolution Author/Creator Mozambique Liberation Front - FRELIMO Contributor Department of Information [FRELIMO] Publisher Mozambique Liberation Front - FRELIMO Date 1965-03 Resource type Magazines (Periodicals) Language English Subject Coverage (spatial) Mozambique Coverage (temporal) 1965 Source Northwestern University Library, L967.905 M939 Rights By kind permission of the Mozambique Liberation Front (FRELIMO). Description Editorial; South-African soldiers in the Portuguese army; Communiques; Repressions in Mozambique; Pio Gama Pinto was murdered; FRELIMO’s delegation to the UN; The I.C.C.J.
    [Show full text]
  • Kenya 'Samaj': Indian Merchants, Community Life, and Urban Society
    KENYA ‘SAMAJ’: INDIAN MERCHANTS, COMMUNITY LIFE, AND URBAN SOCIETY IN COLONIAL EAST AFRICA, C. 1890-1980 By Misha A. Mintz-Roth A dissertation submitted to Johns Hopkins University in conformity with the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Baltimore, Maryland May 2019 ABSTRACT Much scholarship about Indian populations in East Africa examines their histories through categories of race and class. Immigrant groups, according to these narratives, are often seen as agents of the British Empire or as a minority racial diaspora that experienced marginalization during the colonial and post-independence periods. This dissertation takes a different approach. Examining Indians as interconnected yet separate vocational populations, it argues that Indian immigrants played a central role in making Kenya’s colonial economy, urban society, and post- independence political order. Indian merchants—the focus of this dissertation—assumed positions of economic, social, and political prominence in Kenya, building up household wealth by situating themselves between African agrarian societies, the territory’s urban markets, and the colonial state. Despite the rise of anti-Indian sentiment during the colonial period and after independence, Indian merchants cultivated linkages to new political leaders and activated longer-standing communal connections to re-assimilate into Kenya’s post-independence environment. Community networks, I argue, not race or nation, became the primary mode of belonging among Indian merchants in twentieth century Kenya, as they migrated, settled, and accumulated wealth, among other goals. This dissertation examines a diversity of historical sources, including traders’ diaries, merchants’ memoirs, court records, commercial contracts, newspapers, and records from the Kenya and India National Archives.
    [Show full text]
  • Jaramogi Oginga Odinga: the Man Kenya Can Never Forget,Once Upon a Dome,Handshake Manenos!,Handcheque Part II,Tinga!,Three Wise
    Jaramogi Oginga Odinga: The Man Kenya Can Never Forget By Dauti Kahura and Bethuel Oduo If Thomas Joseph (TJ) Mboya was the young man that Kenya wanted to forget, Jaramogi Oginga Odinga is the grand old man who Kenya can never forget. Jaramogi and Tom Mboya were both were nationalists of great distinction from the Luo community who as seasoned politicians posed a threat to the founding president Jomo Kenyatta’s autocratic national designs. Tom Mboya died young, by an assassin’s bullet, on July 5, 1969. Jaramogi died an old man, a mzee, at the age of 82 years on January 20, 1994, after having been tormented by both Kenyatta and Daniel arap Moi regimes effectively from 1969 after his fall out with Kenyatta and through the 80s and 90s during iron-fisted Moi’s reign. Jaramogi Oginga Odinga death anniversary on January 20th, twenty-five years since his passing, was marked quietly in a manner that diminishes his immense contribution to the Kenyan national project. If Thomas Joseph (TJ) Mboya was the young man that Kenya wanted to forget, Jaramogi Oginga Odinga is the grand old man who Kenya can never forget No history book on Kenya would be complete without his mention. Jaramogi was the vice president of the nationalist party Kanu when Kenya African Union (Kau) merged with Kenya Independent Movement to form Kanu on May 14, 1960. He was later to become the country’s first Vice President, after Kanu won the 1963 general elections under Kenyatta. When his friend Pio Gama Pinto was killed in 1965, Jaramogi knew he was a targeted man because of his ideological position.
    [Show full text]
  • TJRC Report (Newspaper Supplement)
    Seattle University School of Law Seattle University School of Law Digital Commons The Truth, Justice and Reconciliation I. Core TJRC Related Documents Commission of Kenya 5-26-2013 Final Report - TJRC Report (Newspaper Supplement) Truth, Justice, and Reconciliation Commission Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.law.seattleu.edu/tjrc-core Recommended Citation Truth, Justice, and Reconciliation Commission, "Final Report - TJRC Report (Newspaper Supplement)" (2013). I. Core TJRC Related Documents. 1. https://digitalcommons.law.seattleu.edu/tjrc-core/1 This Report is brought to you for free and open access by the The Truth, Justice and Reconciliation Commission of Kenya at Seattle University School of Law Digital Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in I. Core TJRC Related Documents by an authorized administrator of Seattle University School of Law Digital Commons. For more information, please contact [email protected]. May 26, 2013 / Standard ON SUNDAY ADVERTISER’S ANNOUNCEMENT / Page XX TRUTH, JUSTICE AND RECONCILIATION COMMISSION Promoting Peace, Justice, National Unity, Dignity, Healing and Reconciliation Among The People of Kenya REPORT OF THE TRUTH, JUSTICE AND RECONCILIATION COMMISSION ABRIDGED VERSION INTRODUCTION Research and investigations: taking exercise and public hearings to accommodate persons with the Commission established an Investigation Department whih disabilities. The experiences of PWDs are reflected across the The Truth, Justice and Reconciliation Commission (TJRC or the was responsible for identifying and interviewing witnesses whose various Chapters of this Volume. Commission) was established in the wake of the tragic events of individual stories would contribute to the historical narrative the 2007/2008 Post-Election Violence (PEV). of gross violations of human rights in the country.
    [Show full text]
  • Kenyatta and Odinga: the Harbingers of Ethnic Nationalism in Kenya by Dr
    Global Journal of HUMAN-SOCIAL SCIENCE: D History Archaeology & Anthropology Volume 14 Issue 3 Version 1.0 Year 2014 Type: Double Blind Peer Reviewed International Research Journal Publisher: Global Journals Inc. (USA) Online ISSN: 2249-460x & Print ISSN: 0975-587X Kenyatta and Odinga: The Harbingers of Ethnic Nationalism in Kenya By Dr. Paul Abiero Opondo Moi University, Kenya Abstract- The paper traces the political problems that Kenya currently faces particularly the country’s inability to construct a united national consciousness, historical relationships that unfolded between the country’s foremost founders, Jomo Kenyatta and Oginga Odinga and the consequences of their political differences and subsequent-fallout in the 1960s. The fall-out saw Kenyatta increasingly consolidating power around himself and a group of loyalists from the Kikuyu community while Odinga who was conceptualized as the symbolic representative of the Luo community was confined to the wilderness of politics. This paper while applying the primordial and essentialist conceptual framework recognizes the determinant role that the two leaders played in establishing the foundations for post-independent Kenya. This is especially true with respect to the negative consequences that their differing perspectives on Kenyan politics bequeathed the country, especially where the evolution of negative ethnicity is concerned. As a result of their discordant political voices in the political arena, there were cases of corruption, the killing of innocent Kenyans in Kisumu in 1969, political assassinations of T J Mboya, Pio Gama Pinto and J M Kariuki among others as this paper argues. GJHSS-D Classification : FOR Code: 160699 KenyattaandOdingaTheHarbingersofEthnicNationalisminKenya Strictly as per the compliance and regulations of: © 2014.
    [Show full text]
  • Pio Gama Pinto: Some Facts About the Life of a Great Leader and a Patriotic Journalist
    Pio Gama Pinto: some facts about the life of a great leader and a patriotic journalist by Shiraz Durrani (1984) !1 Gama Pinto: some facts about the life of a great leader and a patriotic journalist1 by Shiraz Durrani (1984) Introduction This short tribute was compiled from existing literature in May 1984 at the invitation of the Editors of Sauti ya Kamukunji, a publication of the University of Nairobi Students Union. This article was part of a series written to bring people’s history and culture to the attention of Kenyan youth. It is being reproduced without change in response to requests from a number of people. The series of articles2 was produced in view of the fact that the history of prominent anti- imperialist activists such as Kimaathi and Pio Gama Pinto was not being taught to a generation born after political independence. Historians who carried out research on Mau Mau were jailed or sent into exile. Research in social sciences has suffered from interference from the state which suppressed any views that contradicted the “official” position. Indeed, President Moi even ordered “an immediate stop to the Mau Mau debate”.3 In addition, the real contribution of progressive South Asian Kenyans to the liberation of Kenya has also not been fully recorded. It is time for Kenyan historian and activists to begin to collect oral and written material before it is lost. There is an urgent need to form a 1 This is a reproduction of an article first published in 1984. Two versions of the article were published: • Pio Gama Pinto: Some Facts About the Life of a Great Leader and a Patriotic Journalist.
    [Show full text]
  • Restructuring the Kenyan State Restructuring the Kenyan State
    Constitution Working Paper Series No. 1 Restructuring the Kenyan State Restructuring the Kenyan State Restructuring the Kenyan State Joshua M. Kivuva SID Constitution Working Paper No. 1 ii Restructuring the Kenyan State Restructuring the Kenyan State Constitution Working Paper Series No.1 Published by: Society for International Development (SID) Regional Office for East & Southern Africa Britak Centre, First Floor Ragati/Mara Road P.O. Box 2404-00100 Nairobi, Kenya Tel. +254 20 273 7991 Fax + 254 20 273 7992 www.sidint.net © Society for International Development (SID) ISBN No: 978-9966-029-02-7 Printed by: The Regal Press Kenya Ltd. P.O. Box 46166 Nairobi, Kenya Design & Layout: Sunburst Communications Ltd. P.O. Box 43193-00100 Nairobi, Kenya Email: [email protected] SID Constitution Working Paper No. 1 Restructuring the Kenyan State iii Abstract Since the repeal of Section 2(A) and the return of multiparty politics in Kenya in 1991, Kenyans have, for over 20 years, been trying to redesign and restructure their government. Despite the rejection of the Wako Draft, the quest by Kenyans for a new constitution did not stop. The 2007 post election violence not only convinced Kenyans of the inevitability of a new constitution but also showed the urgency of it. Persistent efforts for a new constitution have resulted in the 2010 Constitution of Kenya, which has not only significantly restructured the government and redesigned how the people relate to it, but has also established new systems of governance. This paper examines two things: first, the extent to which the governing institutions have been redesigned and restructured; and second, the extent to which the redesigned and restructured institutions have addressed Kenyans’ pressing social political and economic problems.
    [Show full text]
  • International Webcast of 'Law and Literature And
    University of Mumbai Indian Diaspora Centre DEPARTMENT OF LAW Interdisciplinary and International Lecture Series on ‘Law, Literature and Diaspora’ CoHaB Indian Diaspora Centre (CoHaB IDC), the Department of Law University of Mumbai and The WW University of Muenster, Germany Invite you to An International Webcast on “Law and Literature and the Indian Diaspora in Colonial Africa” by Pheroze Nowrojee Senior Counsel, High Court of Kenya and Author Speakers Welcome: Professor Nilufer E. Bharucha, Director CoHaB IDC, University of Mumbai Address by the Chief Guest: Professor Ravindra Kulkarni, Pro-Vice Chancellor, University of Mumbai (TBC) Chair: Commodore Srikant B. Kesnur, Director, Maritime Warfare Centre and OIC Naval History Project Law, Literature and Diaspora, Lecture 2: Pheroze Nowrojee Valedictory Remarks: Professor Klaus Stierstorfer, Chair British Studies & Vice Dean of Philology, Spokesperson Collaborative Law and Literature Research Centre, WW University of Muenster Concluding Remarks by Co-Host: Professor Rajeshri Varhadi, Head, Department of Law, University of Mumbai Vote of Thanks: Ms. Kirti Risbud, Research Associate, CoHaB IDC, University of Mumbai Date: 20 August 2020 Time: 3:00 PM to 5.00 PM IST Pheroze Nowrojee born in Nairobi, is a leading human rights lawyer, poet and writer, who over many decades has been an influential part of the political and social movements for constitutional and social change in Kenya. He is Senior Counsel and advocate in the High Courts of Kenya, Tanzania, and Zanzibar. Nowrojee was awarded the International Bar Association’s Bernard Simons Memorial Award for the Advancement of Human Rights and the prestigious Bharatiya Pravasi Samman Award by India, among many other honours, in a distinguished career.
    [Show full text]
  • Global India Dialogue Series
    Global India Dialogue Series “THE INDIAN DIASPORA IN AFRICA: EVOLUTION OF POLICY AND CHALLENGES TO REALISATION” Lecture discussion by: Professor Ian Taylor St. Andrews University, Scotland Organised by: Organisation for Diaspora Initiatives (ODI) 5-Dakshinapuram, Jawaharlal Nehru University New Delhi- 110067 (www.odi.in) Supported by: 1 | Global India Dialogue Series EDITOR’S MESSAGE The economic rise of India in 21st Century led it to its proactive engagement of the world in economic, diplomatic, and Diasporic areas. The advent of Narendra Modi Government in India added special emphasis on the engagement of Indian Diaspora across the world. Many other countries like China, Brazil, Mexico, and Poland had launched similar aggressive Diaspora engagement policies. Thus, Diaspora has emerged as one of the prime movers of India’s foreign policy. It has become important for not only India but for other countries as well to engage their Diaspora to promote bilateral relations. Given huge presence of Indian Diaspora globally, it is crucial to understand the relative importance of Indian Diaspora in foreign policies. Africa is one region, where India and China are trying to engage and leverage their Diaspora presence to augment their bilateral relations with the region and both countries are using their competitive strength to increase their influence in the region, which is engagement of civil society and benign Diasporas. Prof. Ian Taylor, who is one of the world’s leading researchers on China’s engagement with Africa, is researching the comparative importance of Diaspora in engagement of India in Africa. His lecture was on Indian Diaspora and Diaspora policy of India from non Indian, non Diaspora perspective.
    [Show full text]