08/22/2024
I found this and thought of Sharing it : here is an Excerpt from the Book:- Alarakhiya K. Aloo’s (my Father) interesting story as published in the book “We came in Dhows” by Cynthia Salvadori. (All about Indian immigrants to East Africa.)
From interviews with Alarakhiya K. Aloo, Mombasa
It was my grandfather Aloo Punja and his brother Jusab who were the first of our family to come to Mombasa. Our family was living in Kapaya, near the port of Mundra in Cutch. My grandfather and his brother came around 1850. Aloo came with his sons, Ahmed (Amu), my father Khamisa and Tayib. Jusab was unmarried then but later he went back to India, married and then returned with his wife and only child, named Noormohammed.
I am not sure what Aloo and Jusab did when they first came but I know that later they both worked for J.P. Bhedwar, a big contractor from Bombay. [See "Parsi Pioneers") They got the contract to provide stones for him when he was building the High Court, Government House anti the Church, Bhedwar was not really a resident here, for he used to go back and forth to India, and eventually he died there, My grandfather and his sons Amu and Khamisa also helped to build the 'Badala' Mosque, which is used by all of us Cutchi Sunnis. My father Khamisa was made a trustee of the mosque and remained one until his death.
Aloo Punja brought other people over from India, one of whom was Osman Allu. Osman Allu was working for my grandfather as a labourer, carrying karais, when the Law Courts were being built. I knew Osman Allu. He was a pioneer sort of person, full of energy and he gave good advice and was very helpful to people. Later he went up to Nyeri and started his own business [see “A Very Decisive Person”] Because of his connection with our family, my father's sister's son Omar Haji went up to work for him there and our families are still closely connected — there's just been a marriage, in fact, although they are Vaghers and we are Luhars.
I never knew my grandfather though, for he died around 1910, twenty years before I was born. But my mother used to tell me a lot about him. When he was old he had a mule for his personal transport, and he employed two Hajams as his personal massagers. He smoked a ho**ah and employed one man just to carry that around. He lived here in this very house. Our family's first house was near the old fish market. It was a simple Swahili-style house (we recently remodelled it). My grandfather and his brother then built this big two-storey house. I am not sure of the date when it was built but it is definitely very old, for it is made of small stones, rather than blocks, and it has no cement in it. It is an unusual house, I think the only one in Old Town that is built around a courtyard. At first it was smaller, but it was added to. The main family flat has always been this front one where I am living, and the other rooms were for renting out to other people. We have about 20 families living here, Hindus and Muslims, Indians and Africans.
BUFFALOS
My father Khamisa and his brother Ahmed became contractors like their pioneer father Aloo Punja, My father and Uncle Amu started work in Zanzibar, having gotten a contract with the government there, While my father was there he got married to a Lubar girl named Sarah (she was his third wife), and I was born there in 1932.
(There was a large Lahar community there then. One Jusub Tharia, who originally worked for my father as a clerk, became very prominent. He had an Arab wife as well as a Luhar one.) My father and uncle also worked for some years in Lamu, though I don't know on which buildings in particular, and right up to Entebbe, But their main work was in Mombasa. They had a big workshop by the old Law Courts, towards the Old Port. They had so much business that they brought over many other people from Cutch, not only other Luharwadhas but Khumbars and other artisans, and cattle keepers.
My father bought a lot of property, in Zanzibar and Malindi and here along the coast. He tried his hand at farming. He and his brother brought over some water buffalos from India to be used for milking. But the Indian buffalos died from tsetse flies. They tried again with some more buffalos but those also died, Some Manjotis, Sidik Ladha and his brother Ismail Ladha, and Osman Manjlai also tried to keep Indian buffalos here, and some Khumbars did too, but they all failed.
My father bought some properties from auctions but most he bought from his Arab friends. Because of his properties and his personality, my father was a very respected man. He was a leader of our community, and as I told you one of the trustees of the Cutchi Sunni Jamat until his death. He was a very kind man - I remember how he used to take me swimming, and buying halwa, But as I was only four or five when he died in 1936, most of what I know of my father is what I've heard from other people.
In 1920 he bought these 200 acres on the north side of Mtwapa Creek from the Liwali Salim bin Kalfan, Edalji Patel, a Parsee law clerk [see "Parsi Pioneer'"], did much of the land transfer work for our family. At that time this area was all bush and it was full of wild African buffalos. To get the land cleared he gave people, Luhar’s and others, permission to cut wood here. Most was cut to supply fuel to the Railway.
It was I who began developing this property as a farm, in 1950. Now there are no buffalos left or any other large wild animals, only some antelope and small creatures.
I'm glad you've been able to come to visit me here.
THE MISTRY THEATRE
My uncle Ahmed was nicknamed Amu, and he was so well known as a craftsman-builder that he was referred to as Amu Mistry. It was he who got the original contract to build the huge Allidina Visram School (see "A Palatial Bet"]. He began importing building stones, huge ones, from Jamnagar. But when he heard the site was haunted, on account of there being graves of holy men there, he backed out and the job was taken over by Khaki Mistry, an Ismaili. Some of the huge stones were left over and can still be seen around. Some are near our house on Old Kilindini Road. It was said that a curse would be upon anyone who disturbed the graves, and the curse seems to have been true. [See "The Accursed School" .] Allidina Visram's son Abdul Rasul, who was building the school in honour of his father, died very soon after the building was finished, and he left only a son who is mentally deficient [cf."A Palatial Bet"]. Khaki Mistry's family also came to a sad end.
My uncle Amu Mistry also built a hall behind our house on Old Kilindini Rd.
This hall was used as a theatre for musical and dramatic performances. In those early days there was no cinema. Amu would bring groups over from Gujarat. One very popular show was about 'Ranak Devi and Rah Kangar', Rah Kangar being a Maharajah of Cutch. In such plays men took the part of women. Local people also performed there, such as the Badala singer Haji Sidik (who was also a taxi-driver), who would sing songs of praise about my uncle. I can remember my father describing these old songs, about how our forefathers came in dhows, that sort of thing. (Unfortunately the recording that was made by one of my relatives has been lost or stolen so I can't give you the exact words.) There was also a Badala drummer called Omar Kana, and someone called simply 'Arab', and a Langa named Mithoo Ajab who played the flute and the tabla. I myself met many of these people and remember them well.
Everyone around used to come. There was no admission charge, for the performances were sponsored by my uncle. The Hindus used to use the hall, too, and also the courtyard in our house. They would call priests over from India to recite the
'Mahabharata', and I remember they would have people called 'bhatts' to accompany them with harmonium and drums. Although our family is Muslim we have always had many Hindus living in our big house — and we always went to each other's performances.
The hall must have been used as a theatre up until about 1940. The building still exists, though the lane leading to its old entrance is now blocked from the Old Kilindini Rd side. Now you have to go around behind the Badala Mosque. The hall is being used by some carpenters now.
