UNFORGETTABLE CHARLES HAYES!

(
The last time I wrote about Charles Hayes I mentioned that someone had nicked “I’m Only The Editor” by his late wife Margaret Ann Hayes. Luckily I have managed to get a copy, and an autographed one too, so that I can pay much tribute to two men who were my teachers as I developed as a journalist.)

THE FIRST TIME I met Charles and Jean Hayes was a little while after they launched Andrew Crawford Productions in Jeevanjee Street  Nairobi. I was a teenager then and working for the Kenya Probation and Remand Homes Service, briefly as a juvenile probation and later as a statistical clerk in charge of producing the annual reports. Through this service, I got to know quite a few very important lawyers and lots of criminals, but I also got to know quite a lot of decent indigenous Kenyans, especially musicians. It was the musicians, especially the late Fadhili Williams (who is credited with recording the first version of Malaika in Kenya and who went on to become one of the pioneers of black Kenyan music). Through him, I got to know the Bata Shoe Shine Boys (top of the pops), Inspector Gideon and the Kenya Police Band (brilliant) and a host of others.

Charles was way ahead of his time. “Between broadcasting 30-second news spots for the BBC’s The World Today and reporting on Mau Mau activities which led most of East Africa listening. Charles was then the new Head of the African Services Department of Information  in Nairobi.” Before that he had held several posts in the civil service including one as a district officer.

“By then he was already an outstanding personality in the media and the literary scene and with a “golden  voice” Charles was frequently roped in to use his voice in radio advertising.”

When Voice of Kenya television was born, Charles Hayes was their first top catch. He ran his weekly 30-minute program, Talking Point which was often the talking point that evening and the next day because he attracted most of the outstanding personalities of the era. To say the least, he was brilliant on TV as he was in everything he seemed to do  in life.

The Equator Club was a very exclusive, high-class night spot. They hired the best musicians available, and even sometimes featured visiting headliners. I don’t think they had an official closing time. Most folks don’t know this, but the Nation newspaper, or at least the idea of it, was born there.

“Somehow the conversation took us to Nairobi’s Equator Club at three that morning, with the band still playing softly, Michael Curtis told Charles Hayes he would like to join  the Taifa (all Swahili newspaper) venture.

“He outlined the idea that in making Taifa into East Africa’s best Swahili, we could also expect to hive off an English language paper which he ( Michael Curtis) would edit. ‘Just translate some of those stories you’re printing and, in English, they would be winners,” Michael Curtis said. Curtis also laid down the dictum that we must write ourselves out of jobs and from the beginning we must train African editors to take over, say in 10 years.”

What Charles did not know at the time was that “the Hayes’ were being approached through Michael by the Aga Khan. When Charles Hayes was charged with the task of finding the means of printing a newspaper, he found an Asian-owned job printer in the “back streets of Nairobi.”

In his friendly voice, Curtis said: “Charles I think we can do better than that.” He then divulged that his proposals were being financed by the Aga Khan and that the target was a newspaper group to cover the whole of East Africa.”

East African Newspapers  (Nation Series) Ltd, was born on April 1, 1959, with Michael Curtis as Managing Director and Taifa its only publication, a tabloid. Hayes introduced  Dr Mareka Gecaga (a highly respected Kenyan with direct links to Jomo Kenyatta) who asked him to be the group’s first African director, which he accepted. Althea Tebutt was the Advertising Director and Hayes the Editorial Director.

The rest as they say is history and as history is recorded it is fair to say that Kenya owes much to the prowess and genius of the Hayes family. Charles, as into almost everything in media, radio, tv, theatre, recording studios, government information services and lots and lost more. He was a charming man with a ready smile and it did not matter who you were, if you asked his advice you got it in bucket loads. I was only 16 at the time and he never once turned me away. In many ways, I tried to model myself in the image of Charles Hayes, sadly I think in hindsight that was silly. I could only learn from him but there was ever only one Charles Hayes.

Both Michael Curtis and Charles Hayes were the stuff of superstars of their time and their world.

Consider this tribute to CH by a mutual friend who passed away recently, journalist Gerry Loughran: Soldier, colonial administrator, linguist, actor, hotelier, environmentalist, editor, publisher, Charles Hayes was a renaissance man of a type rarely seen in these more sedate times. In a volume which ranges from pre-World War II London through wartime Burma and India to the mesmerising beauty of Kenya and finally to anchorage in British Columbia, Canada. Margaret Hayes has chronicled an astonishing life with wifely tenderness and professional precision. Those who knew Charles Hayes will see him come alive in these pages; those who did not know him will come as close to his impetuous, bright-eyed enthusiasms as this esoteric experience allows. Margaret Hayes  has introduced us to a new literary genre: the love letter as biography. And what a billet-doux it is.

 

 

Captain Richard Gethin and remarkable Goan lady

 

Omongina, a remarkable Goan lady"

This is the original version Mervyn Maciel typed for Captain Richard Gethin

Even though her name was Mascarenhas, the Abagusii named her "Omongina" when she arrived in Kenya in 1912   and settled in the village of Riana where her husband Thomas Joseph also from Goa India, operated a duka he had established in 1902.

Unfortunately, Omongina’s joy of settling down with her new husband was short-lived, for he died 10 years later (1922) at Riana after contracting Blackwater fever, a complication of Malaria that killed many people around Lake Victoria. They had just gotten a baby.

Widowed at the age of 29 in a remote part of Africa, with one year old baby, life wasn’t rosy for Omongina the young Goan girl.   Capt Richard Gethin (Snr), who met her at Riana wrote:

" I was passing, a Goan woman came out of one of the shops and was very interested to know where I was going. She struck me as being very poor, as she was barefooted and badly dressed, but she very kindly asked me to come in and have a cup of tea, which I did. " 

However, despite her situation, Omongina was still determined   to continue with what her husband had started in the village of Riana.

While at Riana she discovered an opportunity that she wanted to capitalise on. Many people were starting to embrace Western style of dressing, and she thought dressmaking would be a lucrative venture.  However, she didn’t have enough capital to start the business.

Consequently, she sold her four gold bangles to an Indian trader at Kisii, raised enough money and bought a ticket to India. While in India she sold her assets, obtained the proceeds of her husband's insurance policy then made her way back to Riana Gusiiland via Mombasa.

 "I bought and carried with me plenty of Indian cloth. With the help of my 'Singer' hand-sewing machine (bought for my wedding in 1910), I started dressmaking for the Kisii and Luo women," she wrote.

 "Until then, they did not wear any Western clothing. Men wore loin cloth or goatskin flaps in front and rear. Kisii women wore goat skins from the hip downwards. Luo women wore a sort of skirt made of papyrus or other reeds grown along the lakeshore. The Catholic Mission at Asumbi and Nyabururu helped me tremendously by sending all the women to have them "dressed" by me”.

As news of her dress making spread, so did the business boom. she expanded the business by selling the most sought-after items like sugar, salt, soap, kerosene oil, beads, cigarettes, matches and hoes.

She sold some of her wares at Homa Bay and Kisumu where she travelled by boat. It must have been tough for her to travel around with her baby.

In 1924, she bought a plot at Homa Bay and erected a rental structure at a cost of 4000/-. She rented it for 80/- a month. A year later, she bought another plot, this time at Sare-Sakwa-Awendo for the same price, and again rented it out at 80/- per month.

Wanting to give her son Alex the best of education, she moved to Kisumu in 1927 and got Alex admitted to Indian Primary school which later became Government India School, and today, Kisumu Boys High School.

Initially she rented a house but later on bought a plot on De Boer Street in the Kisumu CBD, where she put up permanent buildings consisting of two shops and four living rooms. She and Alex moved into the two rooms and rented the remaining two.

She later bought another plot for Shs. 5,500 on Station Road, in the present Kisumu CBD.

The most remarkable venture of this young, widowed lady was the purchase of a 160-acre farm at Kibigori, which she bought from a soldier-settler.

" I sold a lot of wood fuel, extra cattle, some coffee and maize. Within two years, I recovered the purchase price I had paid for the farm. However, with the depression at its height, and the prices of produce at rock bottom (a 200 lbs bag of maize for Shs 2/25), I started losing money; what I had gained in the first four years, I lost in the subsequent five years, and eventually sold the farm in 1940 at a profit."

At the time of her death at Victoria Hospital Kisumu in 1963 at the age of 69, Omongina was the richest woman in Nyanza, a total contrast of the young, widowed lady struggling in Kisii.This could be attributed to a good business head, a forward vision of events and her shrewdness.

 

Mervyn and Elsie Maciel chatting with Captain Gethin in Kisii a long, long time ago

https://www.britishempire.co.uk/article/mrsmascarenhas.htm

This is  a much longer version that Mervyn Maciel wrote!

Charles Hayes interviews The Aga Khan

 

http://www.nanowisdoms.org/nwblog/

Charles Hayes saw a future independent Kenya before virtually any white person. He started a Swahili Newspaper called Taifa (Nation) and sold it to the Aga Khan who tweaked the title to Taifa Leo, Daily Nation.

 

Radio Times of Kenya (KBS) Interview, Charles Hayes (Kenya)

·        14 October 1959

 

·      

From the Ismaili teachings, what is there that could be of value to the peoples of East Africa – living in harmony perhaps?

I think perhaps the greatest asset, which the community has proved so often here in East Africa, and in other parts of the world, is self-help. The people who are well-off help the people who are poor. The community schemes are very widely supported and appeals that are made to support one scheme or another have tremendous response in the community. I would be very happy if similar forms of response were created throughout these territories for national schemes.

INTERVIEWER: CHARLES HAYES

Charles Hayes: How do you see the future of the Ismaili people in the development of East Africa?

The Aga Khan: First of all, I should make it clear that I have been brought up in the Western world and am, of course, a believer in a democratic course, a believer in a democratic form of government and I see that it is very important for the Ismailis to fit into this pattern of democratic government as it is being shaped in East Africa. I see them as citizens of the territories which they have adopted and contributing to the progress of these Territories just as would be expected of any citizen in any State.

CH: Outside your own community do you think that the Asian community as a whole plays its full part in the progress of East Africa towards independence?

AK: Yes, I do. I think, however, that there is a rather grave lack of communication between the various communities in East Africa. Now this, of course, is in varying degrees in the different Territories, but I do believe that there is a lot of room for improvement of communication, exchange of ideas and exchange of know-how. This is where the Asian community can help in helping people to acquire business know-how.

CH: What is the relationship of your followers towards African Muslims here?

AK: All Muslims are brothers and we live on this principle and help as much as possible, through our schools and through the East African Muslim Welfare Society, to help the African and Arab Muslims where they need help — that is if we can give it to them. That is very much the policy which I hope we will follow in the future and which I am sure the non-Ismaili Muslims wish to follow themselves.

CH: Your own position as a spiritual head of the Ismaili Muslims — is that in any way comparable with that of his Holiness the Pope towards Roman Catholics?

No, there is very little basis for a comparison. The Pope is elected, the Imam is not elected by the Ismailis, the Pope does not hold a hereditary position, the Imam does not have an ambassadorial service as the Papacy does, and so on these grounds there is little basis for comparison.

AK: No, there is very little basis for a comparison. The Pope is elected, the Imam is not elected by the Ismailis, the Pope does not hold a hereditary position, the Imam does not have an ambassadorial service as the Papacy does, and so on these grounds there is little basis for comparison.

CH: From the Ismaili teachings, what is there that could be of value to the peoples of East Africa — living in harmony perhaps?

AK: I think perhaps the greatest asset, which the community has proved so often here in East Africa, and in other parts of the world, is self-help. The people who are well-off help the people who are poor. The community schemes are very widely supported and appeals that are made to support one scheme or another have tremendous response in the community. I would be very happy if similar forms of response were created throughout these territories for national schemes.

CH: What is your view of East Africa as a series of mono-racial nations?

AK: I do not think that mono-racial nations would be possible in East Africa and from the interviews that I have been fortunate enough to have with the leaders of various groups, I do not believe that they really aim at this because, after all, the basic aim is to create the happiest and most prosperous state possible. I doubt, personally, whether it is possible to create such a state by making it thoroughly mono-racial.

CH: What is your view of African Nationalism at such a time as this in the development of East Africa?

In East Africa I have been very impressed with the leaders. I must say that in the private interviews I have found them very courteous and extremely intelligent. They have the interests of the country at heart and I would say that they are not as extreme in general as is made out to be and this is the very field where I believe that improvement in communication between various communities could do a tremendous amount of good.

AK: In East Africa I have been very impressed with the leaders. I must say that in the private interviews I have found them very courteous and extremely intelligent. They have the interests of the country at heart and I would say that they are not as extreme in general as is made out to be and this is the very field where I believe that improvement in communication between various communities could do a tremendous amount of good.

CH: So you would say that there is not only no point in a policy of purely African dominance, it does not exist in anyone’s imagination at all?

AK: I would say that responsible African leaders do not view their countries in this light.

CH: Do you think there is anything wrong with the African attitude towards Asians?

AK: I think that I will have to turn this question round and say that it is not a question of what is wrong, it is a question of making improvement where there is room for improvement and there are certainly fields where, simply through discussing issues with them, you find common ground which is totally ignored if these forms of communication had to go through letters or through non-personal contacts.

CH: In view of the boycott which is taking place at this moment in Uganda, communication seems to be a little difficult between some of the races there. I wonder if you could be more specific. Can you see ways and means of improving these relationships?

Yes, I certainly can [see ways and means of improving relationships among races]. In the first place, I think that education is one of the bases in Uganda on which there can be a very valuable meeting ground. In my own schools thirty percent of the students are Africans. We have African, Asian and European teachers teaching our students. This is one field. The other field, of course, is in business, which has for the moment a very strong Asian interest. We should bring the local population into businesses and train them so that they are eventually able to start themselves.

AK: Yes, I certainly can. In the first place, I think that education is one of the bases in Uganda on which there can be a very valuable meeting ground. In my own schools thirty percent of the students are Africans. We have African, Asian and European teachers teaching our students. This is one field. The other field, of course, is in business, which has for the moment a very strong Asian interest. We should bring the local population into businesses and train them so that they are eventually able to start themselves.

CH: Do you see radio, perhaps television, playing important roles in this policy of education?

AK: Yes, I do. I think that television, for example, the sort of programs you have in America or in England where you put national leaders on a panel to discuss their problems can be of tremendous value to passing on the real issues to the people in their homes. The issues then seem to become much more real to the people who are watching the interview and they are able to get a better knowledge of what is the real point behind the issue.

CH: Would you like to sum up what you found, what you met, during this tour?

AK: I have been particularly happy, as I have said already, with the progress that my community has made. I have particularly worked for the hospital — the Aga Khan Jubilee Hospital here in Nairobi, to get the insurance scheme running, so that all people can have an insurance by which they pay £4 a year and are insured for up to £250 worth of medical service at the hospital — equivalent to 66 days of hospitalisation.

The other scheme, of course, is completing our housing projects by the target date of 1960. In most of the territories we have reached approximately 80% or 85% completion and we want to complete this by 1960. I think two other issues have been of great interest to me. The first is, of course, pushing forward our educational schemes as quickly as possible and the other one is reorganising the East African Muslim Welfare Society so that the funds can be distributed according to the importance of the project, such as giving more bursaries to Muslim students and financing more bursaries to Muslim students and financing more Muslim schools.

CH: You have got followers behind the Iron Curtain, I understand. Have you any plans for moving across to see them?

AK: I did say at a Press Conference that I would like to go to the U.S.S.R. if I can, but for the moment my time is very taken up. But I hope to be able to visit the U.S.S.R. in the future.

CH: Do you intend to take up permanent residence anywhere in East Africa?

AK: I am afraid my permanent residence for the moment has been inside a suitcase. I do not think that I would make any permanent residence for the next two years. I plan to do another year or two years of travelling and will not have a permanent residence during these next years.

         Photos from the book by Margaret Hayes,  I am only the Editor!

ONCE UPON A TIME IN KENYA: Part 2, Peter Kenyatta and his mother