They Came to Africa: 200 Years of the Asian Presence in Tanzania
In 2000, I wrote an oral history book on the Indian diaspora in Tanzania. Doing the research for the book made me appreciate my heritage more than ever before.
My book "They Came to Africa: 200 Years of the Asian Presence in Tanzania" chronicles the lives of people from the sub-continent of India who immigrated to East Africa. The people whom I interviewed, in 2000, now live in Tanzania, but many of their ancestors settled in different parts of East Africa.
This book is an oral history told from the viewpoint of 20 men and women from the Sikh, Hindu, Jain, Bohra, Ismaili, Ithnaasheri, Sunni, Buddhist, Christian and Parsi communities.
They Came to Africa
All books are new and signed by me. It has 21 black and white photographs of the people whom I interviewed or objects that were important to them.
The following is a quote from Zarina Patel, the author of "Challenge to Colonialism, "as we learn more about our past, we are better able to understand the present and plan for the future".
