How Bwana Karani, the book, nearly never happened

 

How my BWANA KARANI nearly never happened

 

By Mervyn Maciel

 

An acknowledgement of Sir Richard Turnbull’s patience

and critical guidance during this literary journey-by Mervyn Maciel

 

 

I first wrote to Sir Richard about my “dream” of publishing my memoirs on 4^th December 1978 – a day after I’d met him and Lady Turnbull at Westminster Cathedral in London where they were Guests of Honour of the Goan community at our annual celebration of the feast of our patron Saint Francis Xavier. In my letter, I had also asked if he would agree to contribute to the Foreword.

 

While expressing his willingness to do so in a hand-written letter from his Henley-on-Thames home on 6^th December, a comment (reproduced below) he included rather discouraged me, and led to the whole idea being shelved for some five years. Here is the comment: “don’t forget that writing is demandingly hard work and that it takes up a lot of time. As the great Doctor Johnson said, “you have to set yourself doggedly to it”

 

Despite this initial setback, the urge to write would not go away, and five years later, in October 1983, having typed some 75 pages in draft form, I again wrote and asked if he would be prepared to look through the rough draft.

 

Once again, his hand-written reply on 22^nd October, this time from Jedburgh, said: “I shall be happy to look at your draft, and have no doubt that you have made a great success of it. It is a fascinating story that you have to tell, and it will bring back to me any number of half-forgotten faces and scenes.”

 

The draft was accordingly despatched on 24^th November 1983, and in his type-written reply of 2^nd January 1984, this is what he had to say: “I hope that you will not find what I am about to say in this letter is too ferocious. If you do, please remember that I have read the typescript as the preliminary sketch of a book that you hope to have published. Had it been just a draft of a diary-with-comments that you proposed to have cyclostyled with the idea of sending copies to your friends, I should have been very much more gentle in my approach”

 

Here are some of his comments from that letter:

“Presentation to you of “fatted sheep” by various headmen, p.47,55,57 &72.

You may have to tone these incidents down a bit if you are aiming at

a wide publication for, as I expect you know, any stick is good enough to beat the

The colonialist regime with; and there is a danger of your being accused of using your

official position to “extort” these gifts”

 

On my proposal to donate part of my Royalties to help Marsabit tribesmen, this is what he said in his letter of 12^th January 1984:

My advice is first to get your royalties, then reimburse yourself from them for

what you have spent; then find out how much Income Tax the Inland Revenue people will be taking off you; after that, you will be able to consider what can realistically be done with any cash that remains.”

 

In a further letter dated 27^th October 1984, he says:

“I have finished working through the typescript of the draft you sent me of “Bwana Karani”, and I am sorry to have to tell you that I have formed the opinion that a great deal of revision will be needed before it can be regarded as suitable for submission to a publisher.”

 

This 3-page type-written letter lists various points, among these, the following:

“Americanisms: p.16. I know that this is a personal idiosyncrasy of mine, but I regard Americanisms, such as the expression “there sure is” as barbarism. A more graceful way of putting it would be, “there is surely”

p.17. You should replace “I guess” with “I imagine”

p.27 & 28. “You should beware of being too critical of your colleagues, lest you hurt

their feelings unnecessarily”. (this is regarding some comments I made on some of my

Goan colleagues, which personally, I didn’t think offensive!).

 

Concludes the same letter with these words: “With apologies for what I know must be a disappointing letter. I fear the outcome of all this is going to be a good deal of more work for you, but the author’s lot has never been anything but an arduous one.”

 

In a further letter of 11^th November 1984, he writes:

Thank you for your letter of 3^rd November, and my congratulations on your generous acceptance of what must have seemed to you somewhat pernickety criticisms. We now seem to be entering the last lap of this interesting but arduous course.”

 

In a further hand-written letter dated 23^rd March 1985, following Lady Turnbull’s illness,

He wrote: “For our part, we have had one of the most worrying couple of months I can remember. My wife has been quite seriously ill and in and out of the hospital with some obscure complaint that required fairly prolonged treatment……etc.  I have been devoting myself to household management and to invalid cookery”

 

Several letters followed, and in a hand-written letter dated 25^th June 1985, he commented, inter alia, on my use of the words “gunned down”. Here is what he had to say: I don’t much care for the expression “gunned down, in relation to David Dabasso. It is not in accordance with your usual dignified style. Would not “assassinated” be more suitable?”

 

More letters followed, and as we were nearing the end of this work, he had this to say in his hand-written letter of 2^nd July 1985, after he’d sent me the draft Foreword. “ p.5. I note that the passage on this page is a repetition of the last para on page 4, so, remembering how sternly I criticised you for repeating yourself, I have cut out the page 5 bit” then adds: “I shall feel quite lost without “Bwana Karani” and speculation about the Foreword to occupy my spare time.”

 

And in his hand-written letter of 25.10.85, this is what he wrote:

“Congratulations on the finished product. I had the pleasure of seeing in the fine print the pages over which you have been working with such patience and determination for the past three or four years. Merlin Books have made a really workmanlike job of the book – good clear print, well set out with all the skill of the experienced craftsman; the photographs neatly reproduced, and the whole, a volume which you and the publishers can be justifiably proud of. And how happy and relieved you must be to realize that the long task is over. All the same, its completion will leave a gap in your life which will need a great deal of filling. My apologies at not being able to get to the launching party. I so much hope that the Kenya High Commissioner will rise to the occasion. The Goan Association will, I am sure, come to your aid and do you proud with the music and oratory which so happily distinguishes the Goan community. Best wishes for a splendid launching.”

 

 

Note: Some 20+ letters were exchanged during this time, not to mention several telephone calls.

 

 

When I mentioned this to Peter Fullerton, Secretary of Kenya

Administration Club (UK)-Peter is a former District Commissioner

and diplomat) – this is what he had to say:

 

“Dear Mervyn,

 I’m so glad you weren’t deterred by Dick Turnbull; but the story

Of how you nearly were would be worth telling – Peter.”

 

Bwana Karani was the first of its kind, documenting life in the colonial civil service but more specifically in the harsh weather of the desert like the Northern Frontier District.