When Uhuru (freedom) was born
at Nation House, Nairobi!
THIS is a tribute to Gerry Loughran, Jack Beverley, Trevor Grundy, Tom Clarke, Brian Marsden, Alan Armstrong, Mike Chester, John Gardner, Jim Glencross, Henry Gathigira, Philip Ochieng, Andrew Torchia, Joe Kadhi, Boaz Omori, Hilary Ng’weno, Bill Harris, Mike Parry and anyone else who might have helped me become the journalist that I did.
Apologies if my short-term memory loss has left anyone out. This piece is not an attack on the Europeans who chose their separatist way of life.
APARTHEID in the form of separate
development was introduced in Kenya and other parts of East Africa by the
British colonial government. Asians, Indigenous Kenyans, and migrant
communities like the Seychellois and Mauritians did not know it as a colour bar
or apartheid but a colonial way of life. Goans were quicker than other
communities to mimic (to a degree) the European way of socialising especially
the club life, sports, dancing etc. Most non-whites grew up thinking it was all
right for some whites to scream, shout, and physically sexually abuse the
“lower classes”. There were rare exceptions, of course. It is possible that few
Asians were victims of abuse by the whites because these two migrant races did
not mix or socialise. Nonetheless, there was a little strategic mixing: at
work, in the civil service, major corporations, city and municipal councils and
in the districts and provinces where the whites were the bosses and the Asians
were the “workers”. There was a minor bid to Europeanise Asian school children
when the Department of Education decreed that parents were not allowed to speak
to their children in their native languages because Asian children were having
a very hard time mastering the English language. After all, translating Hindi,
Punjabi, Gujarati or similar into English was just mayhem. In the case of the
Goans, English was all well and good but Goan children quickly lost their
mother tongue: Konkani, which many regret to this day.
PS: One of the few places that was
free of apartheid was the Sombrero Night Club in Nairobi which was frequented
by British soldiers and prostitutes of various nationalities.
I recall this ugly face of Kenya as a
tribute to Gerry Loughran who passed away recently and who will be remembered
as one of the most loved journalists to have worked at Nation House. He was the
most decent of men.
THE MOSTLY British journalists who
left their London Fleet Street jobs to become the pioneers of the Nation group
of newspapers were more than reporters, sub-editors, editors, proofreaders and
photographers. They proved they lived by the Nation’s motto “The Truth Shall
Make you Free”. They were among the first to smash racial barriers, bring human
dignity where none existed, respect for fellow humans where none existed, and celebrate
a new Kenya, an independent Kenya. Uhuru really first happened in 1960 in the editorial offices of the Nation Group.
Freedom was born there. Gerry Loughran who
passed away recently was among a group of pioneer journalists who achieved the
changes.
BY CYPRIAN FERNANDES
Who was among the first locals to be
employed by the Nation
THE British colonialists introduced
apartheid-like separate development in Kenya and no one seemed to care a hoot.
In Nairobi, Europeans lived in their designated suburbs, went to their
whites-only schools, opened their bowls or urinated in the whites (or
Europeans) only toilets. They wined and drank in whites-only restaurants, golf
clubs and other sports clubs and some in some Catholic churches sat in the
front pews reserved for “whites only”. Anglican churches were “whites only” to
a large degree. In the offices, the white man was the boss and the rest of us
were their humble servants. Asians were happy to do their own thing in their
own style in their own designated areas. It was the same for the “First Nations
peoples” of Kenya, except they knew one day the white men and all his kith and
kin would be forced to leave the country. In the meantime, separate development
reigned supremely.
That is until 1960 when the political
winds of change were howling throughout Africa and the promise of independence
was gaining momentum with each day. Kwame Nkrumah had already become the first
African to dance with the Queen at Ghana’s Independence Day celebrations.
The first hint of a multiracial Kenya
came with the birth of the Sunday Nation, Taifa Leo and the Daily Nation.
Suddenly, a newsroom full of Asians, Africans, Europeans and other
nationalities was beginning a new kind of life, free from the colour bar,
mutual respect was the new order of the day and we were slightly gobsmacked to
see for ourselves that not all white people were purebred racists.
Michael Curtis, the managing
director, set the benchmark for staff inter-relations. He was kind and
courteous to everyone. He was also the driving force behind the Nation House
newspapers’ drive towards majority rule. No one had to be told twice, everyone
celebrated that initiative.
We all worked together, drank
together (at the Sans Chique and the Starlight Club) at together at various
restaurants and did things that were denied us during the decades of racial
segregation. Suddenly the coffee “boy” was no longer a boy, Bwana Peter and
Bwana Karo were not just drivers … we were all part of a team and each demanded
equal respect. We, the locally employed journalists never really achieved equal
pay. Overseas journalists were on special rates even though the Kenya Union of
journalists fought hard to win parity. Still, it was thank heaven for small
mercies. Yes, the foreign journalists were stupefied when they heard a grown
man was the family “houseboy”. A chap called David Levine once asked Gerry
Loughran about the man who was working in the house he staying in: “How can I
call him the houseboy? He is old enough to be my grandfather!”
On the other hand, the new arrivals
were hated by the local whites, they were treated as pariahs. Gerry Loughran
wrote in his book “How long will you be staying?” “What we new arrivals did not expect was the
hostility which greeted us from most of the white establishment and from some
of our media competitors – not the slaves at the typewriters, but their bosses,
irritated by the challenge to their comfortable lives and the long domination
of the market. “They considered us a bunch of ignorant parvenus,” John Bierman
(Founding Editor of the Nation) recalled. The only English daily in the country
and thus our great competitor was the long-established broadsheet the East
African Standard. When its managing director, Charles Thetford, met his new
opposite number from the Nation he advised him: “Don’t bother to unpack
your bags.” His fuming opponent, Frank Patrick retorted: “I will make you
regret that remark.” Patrick said this
encounter was the motivating factor throughout his career at the Nation.
Various Nation employees who came
into contact with colonialist white folk were abused in no uncertain terms.
Gerry Loughran often spoke about the time during the national independence
talks in London a senior Nation executive sought an interview with the Governor
of Kenya, Sir Patrick Renison, at his apartment. When he introduced himself at
the door as “Hayes from the Nation”, the Governor’s daughter inquired “Do you know what we call your paper
in Government House? We call it the Daily Filthy”
The Aga Khan who founded the Nation
group did not escape racism. However, it was implied rather than explicit. The
Ismaili community followers of the Aga Khan were also the victims of hostility,
especially the businessmen. The Nation’s
sales reps were given a very hard time.
According to Gerry Loughran: “Jack
Rathbone owner of the Sunday Post let loose a barrage of vitriol when
the Aga Khan sought to acquire his newspaper. Buying and developing an existing
newspaper would clearly be a more economical option than acquiring a building,
plant and staff from scratch and the ailing Sunday Post was an obvious
target. But when Michael Curtis put the proposition to Rathbone, then in his
70s, he was rudely rebuffed. “Mr. Curtis,” said Rathbone, in a strong Yorkshire
accent, “it repugnant, utterly repoognant, for us to sell this great newspaper
of hours to … an Asian!” The Aga Khan might hobnob with England’s Queen Mother
at Epsom Races, but he would never get his hands on Kenya’s whiter-than-white Sunday
Post.”
Needless to say, the Sunday Nation
killed the Post only a few years later.
While our English imports were
opening our eyes to a new kind of freedom, Kenyans at Nation House were showing
off their own journalistic talents, creativity and style. Three men stood out
in the early days of the Nation and Taifa Leo. The late George Mbuggus was a
live-wire editor and took the Swahili paper to new heights almost with every
edition. The late Boaz Omori was the first African editor-in-chief of both
English newspapers. I am particularly biased because he gave me the chance to
break into foreign news and travel the world. Hilary N’gweno was probably the
greatest editor of his day. He was the man who convinced both the Daily and
Sunday Nation to stop “thinking white”, and “writing white” and to start
meeting the needs of the Kenyan people. From the very first day, all three
newspapers had supported Kenyan independence but Kenya’s newspaper needs were
slightly different from Fleet Street. Ng’weno asked the Nation executives to
learn what was important to the majority of Kenyans and create a Kenyan product
and not a Fleet Street lookalike.
The crunch came with the Congo
uprising (in Michael Curtis’ own words), the murder of Patrice Lumumba and the
landing of Belgian troops. Belgian refugees poured into Nairobi. The Western
newsagencies were preoccupied (like their readers) with the fate of the Belgian
and American missionaries. Ng’weno tactfully but firmly reminded his staff that
the death of many thousands of fellow Africans – whether in civil strife or at
the hands of the hated mercenaries – was at least as an important consideration
in terms of news priorities for an African newspaper with a majority of African
readers. It was the day when a Kenyan newspaper became an African newspaper.
For a 16-year-old with only primary
education becoming a journalist was beyond my wildest dreams and whoever, or
whatever, I am today, I owe it to every man, woman and youth who worked at the
Nation from 1960 to 1978. Tom Clarke, Peter Moss, Brian Marsden, Trevor Grundy,
Gerard Loughran, Jack Beverly, Joe Rodrigues, Mike Parry, Peter Moss, Tom
Clark, John Eames, John Fairhall, Neil Graham, Bill Harris, Mike Harris, Aidan
Flannery, John McHaffie, Neil Graham, Graham Rees, Tony Hall, Brian McDermott, Peter
Darling, Brian Tetley, Allen Armstrong, John Bierman (who believed in me and
gave me the job off-the-streets), Harry Sambo, George Mbuggus, John Tidey, Bob
Muthusi, Philip Ochieng, Boaz Omori, Joram Amadi, Joe Kadhi, John Blandy, Colin
Church, Tony Dunn, Mike Chester (who was wrongly deported), John De Villiers, Jim
Glencross, John Gardner, Sammy Githegi (who died very young and was a brilliant
journalist), Francis Raymond, and thousands more whose names escape in the
twilight of my life.
Thanks to all the white journalists
who treated everyone in the newsroom and the adjoining offices as human beings,
my days at Nation House will always remain the happiest of my life. These
memories are made even more beautiful by all the Kenya journalists who played a
great part in my development as a journalist. We, Asians and Africans, had been
conditioned to keep the white folks at bay, never venturing into their
restaurants, sports fields, or churches, speaking to them, challenging a point
of view or forcing the point that we are all equal and should be treated so.
From that very first day at Nation House in 1960, I was born free even though
Uhuru was three years away. I have a long list of people I remember in my
prayers. Rest in peace my rafiki.
The 12th of December 1963
put an end to all abuse and hostility. Asians and Europeans who felt there was
no place for them in an independent Kenya or that they could not bring
themselves to live in an independent Kenya were getting out of the country as
quickly as possible. The Europeans who remained in Kenya including those
Europeans who would continue to visit the country understood clearly the
government would not tolerate racism.
The only thing the locals were not
able to achieve was salary parity with the overseas employees.
The first white couple who had my
wife and me to dinner was Mike (late) and Val Parry. Others were the Americans
Andrew and (late) Kitty Torchia, Alan (late) and Olive Armstrong, and a host of
others around the country, Tom and Rosalind Clarke … whose names I forget. One
of my friends was Guy Spencer, a sports reporter with the East African
Standard. Robbie Armstrong of the Starlight Club, but then he was everybody’s
host, a friend of the Nation journos though. I often had tea with Sir Humphrey
Slade when I was a Parliamentary reporter. Enjoyed a good chat and a glass or
two of this and that with Jack Block.
As far as the Asians go (particularly the Goans) they were not impacted very much by the colour bar. In the final analysis in my life at least, the books were balanced because after leaving Kenya I have much to thank the British Government for.
Sadly there was one human being who chose to be the unacceptable face of good journalism and resulted in the departure of two journalists.
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