[Book review] harnessing the trade winds. the story of the centuries old indian trade with east africa using the monsoon winds nairobi; Zand graphics by D’Souza, Blanche Rocha

Abstract

"This slim volume is the latest in series of histories narrating the positive role of South Asians within East African history written by (often, as in this case, highly transnational) members of the ‘East African Asian’, ‘Asian African’ or ‘Indian diasporic’ communities, depending on individual taxonomic preferences. The last decade has witnessed a flourishing of publication on the topic notably in Awaaz magazine and by activists such as Zarina Patel. Much of the work is very informative, but it must be noted that some of the output can fall foul of a common myopia in heritage studies pointed out by David Lowenthal – that many tend to ‘celebrate’ the past, rather than soberly analyse (often contested and divisive) historical developments. In the case of the burgeoning corpus of ‘East African Asian’ literature this has often been characterised by emphasis being placed on ‘Asian’ solidarity with African ‘freedom fighters’ at the expense of scrutiny of colonial loyalism, political apathy and division within East Africa’s often fragmented South Asian communities. There are nevertheless implicit emancipatory goals to such studies, which should be lauded, given the political marginalisation of many East Africans of South Asian origin since independence."(pg 243)