British /Indian political influence in East Africa, Northern Rhodesia and down South..
Indian merchant mariners, Arab seafarers, Chinese and Persian sailors, among other seafarers have all visited the East African coastline stretching from the Horn of Africa to the port of Sofala in the south.
From the times of the Egyptian Pharaohs who hired Phoenician mariners to the pre-biblical era and after, these visitors came to trade on the African coast.
Although historians have not widely highlighted these visitors and the flourishing trade, its extensive evidence found on the East African Coast, known as Zeng or Zenj as well as Azania, deep inland, and as far south as the ruins in Zimbabwe, is highly indicative of commerce long time before its colonial occupation.
The presence of Indians in East Africa is well documented in the Periplus of the Erythrean Sea or Guidebook of Red Sea by an ancient Greek author written in 60 AD. The ancient Indian work the Puranas also mention the East African coast as well interior of Kenya as far as Lake Victoria, which was known as ’ Nil (Nile?) Sarover,’ Lake Nil, and knew the source the of ‘Nil’ Nile.
The Indian sea merchants from the Gulf of Kutch and further south on the west coast of India sailed their seagoing dhows, large wooden ships with a huge lateen sails, aided by the alternating monsoon winds. The North East monsoon winds brought these merchant sailors across the Indian Ocean to the African east coast from December to March. After trading and bartering, they returned using the reversed South West winds from June to September.
They sailed regularly to the Zenj Coast where they traded in cloth, metal implements, iron nails, copper wire, glassware, wheat, rice, sesame oil, raw sugar, and salt.
On their return trip, they carried incense, palm oil, myrrh, gold, copper, spices, ivory, rhino horn, wild animal skins and ‘boriti’, mangrove poles. As time went by, some Indians settled on the East African coast and set up their shops to trade in the merchandise from the dhows. These were the pioneer Indian traders on the East African coast. They were exclusively traders, and not indentured workers.
The Indians have had ancient connections not just with the East African coastline but also its hinterland. The more intrepid Indian ‘nakhoda,’ skippers, undertook caravans on foot safaris to the interior. They knew of places as far inland as Uganda. They also knew the Ruwenzori Mountains as ‘Chandragiri Shekhar,’ Moon Mountain or Mountains of the Moon.
They had knowledge of the great inland lake, the ‘Neel Sarover’ Neel (Nile?) Lake, named much later as Victoria Nyanza, and even of its outlet the source of the Nile.
Much later European explorers encountered Indians settled in the interior married to the indigenous women.Relics of Chinese pottery found in the ruins along the Kenya coast at Gedi and Bagamoyo in Tanganyika, now Tanzania, indicates that the Indian merchant sailors who traded with China, in turn traded with the Gulf Arabs who then trans shipped this cargo to the East African coast. These relics found in the great ruins of Zimbabwe, also indicates that the Indian trade connection was an old thread in the history of the region.
From the second to the eighth century, no major changes took place on the coast. However, with the rise of Islam, the Omani Arab rulers who came to the East African Coast, turned the coastal settlements into city-states with the most important one being Zanzibar followed by Mombasa, Pate, Malindi, Manda, Tanga, and Kilifi. Using local stone and coral, they built palaces, houses, and mosques to give Islamic atmosphere and culture to the coast, which endures to this day. The Indians traded along with the Arab traders in these city-states that flourished undisturbed until the arrival of the Portuguese seafarer Vasco da Gama.( Kersi Rustomji)
Just as Indian Commerce increased so did British political influence in East Africa and down South. In 1883 the growing momentum of the ‘scramble for Africa increased (British, Portuguese, Belgians, French, Germans, Italians etc..). Sir John Kirk was concerned that Germany paramountcy in Tanganyika would enable’ a rival nation to utilize the trading capacities of our Indian subjects to advance and develop her commerce’. Especially as Bagamoyo was the principle port in Tanganyika for the arrival and departure of the Ivory caravans with a large concentration of Indians operating from that port.
In 1883 also the ‘right of the Jurisdiction over British subjects in East Africa and other’ was transferred from the British Indian Government to the Imperial British Government. Consequently the Indian bourgeoisie had to channel their interests in East Africa and beyond via the markets in the Indian Ocean. That is, all their business ventures in East Africa and beyond in Africa were no longer connected with the Bombay Government as in the past.
1896…..Decision to employ Indian labour. Government of India insists that labourers who so chose should be free to remain in East Africa after completion of contracts. The general attitude of the Government of India caused consideration to be given in 1897, to the recruitment of Chinese labour, but this was not pursued.
The coolies were indentured workers bound by a contract that offered them a monthly wage of 30 rupees and freedom to return to India at the expiry of their contract. Of the 32000 brought in by recruiting agents back in India, 26000 returned to India when the work was completed.
Indian Army during World War I. ... Over one million Indian troops served overseas, of whom 62,000 died and another 67,000 were wounded. In total at least 74,187 Indian soldiers died during the war. In World War I the Indian Army fought against the German Empire in German East Africa and on the Western Front.
The Indian Army during World War II was one of the largest Allied forces contingents which took part in the North and East African Campaign, Western Desert Campaign. At the height of the second World War, more than 2.5 million Indian troops were fighting Axis forces around the globe.
The legacy of the people from the Indian Sub-Continent seen many Indians move into East Africa and South thus found their way into hinterland as time went by, they were already established in Tanganyika, Nyasaland, Mozambique, South Africa and so on.
Zambian, East African Asians: Kenyan Exodus & Ugandan Expulsion
Many Asian people from Kenya and Uganda were displaced from the 60s to 70s. We highlight the mass exodus and explusion of East African Asians.
WHAT ARE REGISTRATIONS OF BRITISH NATIONALITY?
FROM 1949, PEOPLE IN THE BRITISH COMMONWEALTH COULD REGISTER THEIR BRITISH CITIZENSHIP TO REMAIN BRITISH CITIZENS – WHETHER OR NOT THEY ACTUALLY MOVED TO THE UK. UP UNTIL 1949 CITIZENS OF ANY COLONY OR DOMINION IN THE BRITISH EMPIRE WERE AUTOMATICALLY CONSIDERED BRITISH SUBJECTS BUT THIS CHANGED WITH THE BRITISH NATIONALITY ACT 1948.
PEOPLE BORN IN IRELAND BEFORE 1949 WERE, LIKEWISE, CONSIDERED BRITISH SUBJECTS AND AFTER THE 1948 ACT COULD ALSO REGISTER BRITISH NATIONALITY; HOWEVER, ANYONE BORN IN THE REPUBLIC OF IRELAND AFTER 1948, SEEKING BRITISH CITIZENSHIP, WOULD NEED TO APPLY TO NATURALISE.
REGISTRATIONS ENDED IN 1981 AND FROM THEN ON ALL FOREIGN NATIONALS, WHETHER FROM THE COMMONWEALTH, FORMER BRITISH COLONIES OR ANY OTHER COUNTRY IN THE WORLD, HAVE HAD TO APPLY FOR NATURALISATION TO BECOME BRITISH CITIZENS.
IN 1883 ALSO THE ‘RIGHT OF THE JURISDICTION OVER BRITISH SUBJECTS IN EAST AFRICA’ WAS TRANSFERRED FROM THE BRITISH INDIAN GOVERNMENT TO THE IMPERIAL BRITISH GOVERNMENT. CONSEQUENTLY THE INDIAN BOURGEOISIE HAD TO CHANNEL THEIR INTERESTS IN EAST AFRICA VIA THE MARKETS IN THE INDIAN OCEAN.
IT WAS "COLONY AND PROTECTORATE OF KENYA"...NATIONAL STATUS: BRITISH PROTECTED PERSON OF KENYA.....
LATER ON IT WAS ...STILL COLONY AND PROTECTORATE OF KENYA...NATIONAL STATUS: BRITISH SUBJECT: CITIZEN OF THE UNITED KINGDOM AND COLONIES..
UNITED KINGDOM OF GREAT BRITAIN AND NORTHERN IRELAND.. NATIONAL STATUS: BRITISH SUBJECT: CITIZEN OF THE UNITED KINGDOM AND COLONIES.
REMEMBERING CHIMAN VYAS
Chiman L. Vyas arrived in Northern Rhodesia from India in 1953. A professor of Gujurati Literature, Chimanji was fascinated by local story telling and folklore that he dedicated his time and a number of outstanding books to enrich Zambian folk literature.
Having been caught in the fervour of Indian nationalism and the influence of Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi (Mahatma Gandhi) in his home country, he was imprisoned twice in 1939 and 1942.
When he arrived in Northern Rhodesia, he was not dissuaded from quiet contacts with Northern Rhodesian nationalists. His prose and poems both in the English language and Gujarati went along with his collection and research in African folklore in Northern Rhodesia. The Department of Education for whom he first worked, were instructed by colonial authorities to warn him about his contacts with Africans which they considered to be possibly subversive.
He recounted an incident of how one District Commissioner 'boxed him in the ear' when he saw him animatedly talking to the Lunda people in Mwinilunga.
He also lost original manuscripts to Northern Rhodesia police action.
In 1963 after his publication of a Gujarati book of poems, the local press referred to him as 'A poet of the Zambian struggle' due to poems relevant to the political and social atmosphere before Zambian independence.
In independent Zambia, his work with the Department of Cultural Services with the full support of its Director Mr. M. Yeta, saw some of his lost work restored with the help of Alick Nkhata and Peter Frankeil.
'Folktales of Zambia' first published in 1969 with a foreword by His Honour the Vice-president of the Republic of Zambia Mr. Simon Mwansa Kapwepwe, is a collection of short stories encompassing the cosmogony and socio-cultural myths of the Lunda, Lozi, Lala, Tumbuka, Ila, Ngoni, Lamba, Tonga, Nsenga, Kaonde, Luvale and Luchazi peoples.
His nationalist streak in 1970 produced 'Flight of the Eagle: A brief Study of the Life of Dr. Kenneth David Kaunda, First President of the Republic of Zambia, Against the Background of the Struggle for Independence'.
