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  The mysterious Jayson D'Gomes Another yarn ... believe it or not! J AYSON D’GOMES was that rare breed of young men who are made for success. He was a child prodigy, a quick learner, success was going to be his destiny in whatever field of life he chose to excel. At a very young age, his sports teacher/coach recognised him as a potential who could wear the national colours in hockey, cricket, soccer and athletics. He was also a dab hand at table tennis. However, it was school, later high school and university that grabbed most of his attention. Yet as he headed towards a BA (biology) degree in Medicine, he did not completely ignore his leisure requirements. He wore the colours of Kenya with great pride, especially in local hockey internationals, if he was that way inclined. He never had the time for the Olympics, the World Championships or overseas tours. He just could not spare the time from his education. Jayson was born in Nairobi in the 1940s, went to one of the Goan schools...

THE STORY OF TWO ELEPHANT FEET By Mervyn Maciel Marsabit was noted for marauding elephants during my time there in the early 1950s, and it was not uncommon to see a herd of elephants outside one’s Government quarters, especially at night. Quite often, as one relaxed indoors in the late evenings, listening to music from the old-fashion rather bulky portable battery-operated radio, one would hear the crash of breaking branches as the elephants feasted happily and noisily on the pepper trees outside our houses. For the locals, they were more of a pest as they raided their shambas, trampling over their crops and destroying what little home-grown food they’d hoped to harvest. It was therefore not uncommon for the Administration to call on the Game department for help from time to time. On this particular occasion, the individual who arrived to do the culling was none other than Terence, the brother of George Adamson ( Bwana Game  fame) and brother-in-law of Joy (of  Born Free ...

  This piece by my friend John Kamau is worth another read The place of Goans in building the foundation of modern Kenya is actually downplayed.   A deeply religious group, the Goans in Nairobi had also built the Holy Family Basilica and St Theresa in Eastleigh and are actually credited as the bedrock of Catholic faith in the city. The Goans arrived in Nairobi, via Zanzibar and Mombasa, from the Portuguese colony of Goa – today the smallest State of India – at the time when the Kenya-Uganda railway was being laid. In its heyday 114-year-old, Goan Institute was the bastion of Kenyan politics, culture, sports and much more. The last time I was there was a few years back as they prepared their 100-year celebrations and I met a fine man, Vincent Azavedo, by then the chairman of the club, who showed me around.  It is a small compound for a minority community with a rich background. Often, they get forgotten.   OLD CABINETS   I found that the old cabinets ...

  Marriage by application FRANCISCUS (Franky) Antao was a civil servant in the British Colonial Civil Service. He was actually one of the hundreds of clerks in the Secretariat. Many, many years ago he had been seconded to the Permanent Secretary for Recruitment, Local and Overseas, Johnson William. Franky was William’s clerk with a key responsibility. JW, as he liked to be called, was a typical British foreign colonial from the old country. Mos t of all he did not like to spend too much time in the office. He was skilled enough to gather around him a team of mainly Goans and other Indians who made sure that the department was run as a pretty tight ship. He on the other hand was happiest at the Muthaiga Golf Club, on the course, naturally or lunching in one of the finest dining rooms in the country. The MGC also had a much-loved bar. With that came a reputation that no decent Catholic would have found sinful. However, meeting the sex-hunger needs of the wives of farmers and civi...

  John Nazareth: return to Uganda, 20 years after the nightmare JULY 1993. MEMORIES OF A REUNION WITH COUNTRY AND FRIENDS By John Nazareth 15 July 1993 : The day is here at last. I cannot believe I am going back to the land of my birth after 20 years. It was August 1973 when I left to do postgraduate study in London, having taken a leave-of-absence from the Ministry of Finance and Planning, never realizing that it would be so long before I'd be back. For my wife Cynthia, it has been even longer; she left in July 1972 on a holiday (she was just my girlfriend then) and was not allowed to return. We are anxiously looking forward to not only seeing familiar places, but to meeting many friends whom we just did not expect to not see for so long. We bring along our son Paul (17) and daughter Rachel (13) to show them their Ugandan heritage. Strangely, even though I could not come to Uganda all these years, Uganda came to me. Through a chance meeting (thanks to my brother Peter) with Claude...