Post by jonnygemini on Jan 29, 2006 14:46:16 GMT -5
LIFESTYLE MAGAZINE
www.nationmedia.com/dailynation/nmgcontententry.asp?category_id=33&newsid=66093
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Story by MWANGI GITHAHU
Publication Date: 01/29/2006
Title: A Knight in Africa: Journey from Bukene
Author: J.K. Chande
Publisher: Penumbra Press, Ontario, Canada
Available in selected bookshops
Journalist and commentator Philip Ochieng recently observed that autobiographies left him with the whiff of narcissism in the mouth. One agrees that most literary self-portrayals are about a certain amount of self-aggrandisement, in the sense that such writings are rarely about warts and all portrait of the author.
However, in a region such as East Africa there is a definite dearth of autobiographies, self-aggrandising or not. Few of the people who experienced and shaped our contemporary history seem to want to tell their story in such a manner.
Yet by now we should all be aware of the remark by Henry Wordsworth Longfellow, the American poet, teacher and linguist that: "Lives of great men all remind us, we can make our lives sublime, and, departing, leave behind us, footprints on the sands of time."
Over the last decade and a half, there have been very few lives of great men and women from East Africa that have been put down on paper.
Some of the few that come to mind immediately are the autobiographies of people such as veteran politicians Tom Mboya, J.M. Kariuki, Michael Blundell, the industrialist Madatally Manji, the educationist Prof Joseph Mungai, former minister G.G. Kariuki, President Yoweri Museveni of Uganda and, more recently, the one by Dr Muthoni Likimani, a veteran champion of women's rights in Kenya.
In a recent Sunday Nation commentary, Ochieng recalled the advice of Tanzania's founding head of state, Mwalimu Julius Nyerere, who he said "admonished us to ng'atuka – to continually pass on responsibility to the younger generation – thus enriching Kiswahili with a significant Zanaki verb".
Few Kenyans (or in fact East Africans) of the calibre that Ochieng mentioned have autobiographies out there, but recently one Tanzanian of that generation that saw independence dawn and who is now in his mid-70s wrote and launched his story.
Jayantilal Keshavjee Chande, better known to his intimates and friends as Andy Chande, or, after his 2003 honorary knighthood by the Queen, Sir Andy, just recently launched his autobiography, A Knight In Africa: Journey from Bukene at a ceremony at the Canadian High Commissioner's residence here in Nairobi.
Before everyone rushes off thinking that Sir Andy has Canadian roots or a special tie to that country, the man himself has explained that the choice of the launch venue was simply because the people who finally agreed to publish his work after being turned down by British publishers, were Canadians.
Sir Andy is the Freemason's District Grand Master for East Africa, a Rotarian, a Round-Tabler, a former member of the Tanganyika Legco and Executive Council (pre-independence Cabinet) and chairman and board member of a slew of private and public companies as well as government and regional corporations.
The launch of Sir Andy's book in Nairobi, on January 16, was attended by among others, Vice-President Moody Awori and former Attorney-General Charles Njonjo. Both these men, in common with their host, Sir Andy, have lived almost their whole adult lives in the public eye and service. Both have amazing stories to tell but, for the time being, neither seems to be willing to put pen to paper just yet.
Sir Andy said that one of the things that spurred him on to write the book was the fact that after open-heart surgery five years ago, he was put on medication by his cardiologists and told that one of the side-effects would be the gradual loss of memory.
When this writer questioned "Sir Charles" about whether there would be an autobiography from him any time soon, the 86-year-old former AG used Sir Andy's words to reply and quipped: "My memory has not yet begun to fade''.
From where I sit, that is all the more reason why those memories should be committed to paper and put down for future generations to read and learn from.
As for the book itself, the story is told in 199 pages of impeccable, if occasionally archaic, English. Instances of such archaisms such as the use of the word "cogitate" instead of "think" or the phrase "chancing his arm" instead of the more common "trying his luck."
But this occasional archaic use of the language gives the book a more authentic feel. It really is a story told by someone who was brought up and educated in the first half of the 20th century by people who had most likely been educated by Victorians and Edwardians.
In fact, the first half of the book reads almost as though someone weaned on the works of Charles Dickens or Jane Austen could have written it. The Dickensian connection, and this is somewhat tenuous, is echoed later in the book when the reader learns that Sir Andy's first-born son Manish, was married to Lucy Dickens, great-great-granddaughter of the great man himself.
For me, the best parts of the book were the priceless, personal anecdotes of the political power games played in Tanganyika (later Tanzania) in the run-up to independence and toward the 1967 declaration of Ujamaa (African Socialism) – the stress and strain of operating in an economy where almost overnight, everything went from being a private business concern to a nationalised industry.
While tales of the author's childhood, youth, school days and early socialisation were of interest, many people will be curious about his Freemasonry.
This book is not Sir Andy's first foray into the world of the published word. Those East Africans with an interest in Freemasons may have come across his first book, Freemasonry: Whither Directing Your Course.
Sir Andy's interest in the masons began in the early 1950s at a time when the masonic movement in Tanganyika was structured along apartheid-like racial lines and black Africans had no way to join.
Despite his eagerness to join he had to wait until 1954, nearly two years, to be invited to join the masonic lodge reserved for Indians, despite being, as he says: "the scion of one of the foremost Indian business families in East Africa."
In the book he writes of how Freemasonry in Tanganyika, later Tanzania and East Africa as a whole, has tried to ditch its image of being a "shadowy, conspiratorial body shrouded in mystery and intrigue."
Sir Andy gives some interesting insights into Freemasonry and to some extent continues with his life's work of demystifying the whole Masonic order.
Disappointingly for those wanting a more graphic account of Freemasonry, the chapter on the masons is more about Sir Andy's rise and rise through the ranks, than about whether they roll up one trouser leg when they take an oath.
That said, the book is definitely worth reading.
www.nationmedia.com/dailynation/nmgcontententry.asp?category_id=33&newsid=66093
username:hippo
pass:kiboko
Story by MWANGI GITHAHU
Publication Date: 01/29/2006
Title: A Knight in Africa: Journey from Bukene
Author: J.K. Chande
Publisher: Penumbra Press, Ontario, Canada
Available in selected bookshops
Journalist and commentator Philip Ochieng recently observed that autobiographies left him with the whiff of narcissism in the mouth. One agrees that most literary self-portrayals are about a certain amount of self-aggrandisement, in the sense that such writings are rarely about warts and all portrait of the author.
However, in a region such as East Africa there is a definite dearth of autobiographies, self-aggrandising or not. Few of the people who experienced and shaped our contemporary history seem to want to tell their story in such a manner.
Yet by now we should all be aware of the remark by Henry Wordsworth Longfellow, the American poet, teacher and linguist that: "Lives of great men all remind us, we can make our lives sublime, and, departing, leave behind us, footprints on the sands of time."
Over the last decade and a half, there have been very few lives of great men and women from East Africa that have been put down on paper.
Some of the few that come to mind immediately are the autobiographies of people such as veteran politicians Tom Mboya, J.M. Kariuki, Michael Blundell, the industrialist Madatally Manji, the educationist Prof Joseph Mungai, former minister G.G. Kariuki, President Yoweri Museveni of Uganda and, more recently, the one by Dr Muthoni Likimani, a veteran champion of women's rights in Kenya.
In a recent Sunday Nation commentary, Ochieng recalled the advice of Tanzania's founding head of state, Mwalimu Julius Nyerere, who he said "admonished us to ng'atuka – to continually pass on responsibility to the younger generation – thus enriching Kiswahili with a significant Zanaki verb".
Few Kenyans (or in fact East Africans) of the calibre that Ochieng mentioned have autobiographies out there, but recently one Tanzanian of that generation that saw independence dawn and who is now in his mid-70s wrote and launched his story.
Jayantilal Keshavjee Chande, better known to his intimates and friends as Andy Chande, or, after his 2003 honorary knighthood by the Queen, Sir Andy, just recently launched his autobiography, A Knight In Africa: Journey from Bukene at a ceremony at the Canadian High Commissioner's residence here in Nairobi.
Before everyone rushes off thinking that Sir Andy has Canadian roots or a special tie to that country, the man himself has explained that the choice of the launch venue was simply because the people who finally agreed to publish his work after being turned down by British publishers, were Canadians.
Sir Andy is the Freemason's District Grand Master for East Africa, a Rotarian, a Round-Tabler, a former member of the Tanganyika Legco and Executive Council (pre-independence Cabinet) and chairman and board member of a slew of private and public companies as well as government and regional corporations.
The launch of Sir Andy's book in Nairobi, on January 16, was attended by among others, Vice-President Moody Awori and former Attorney-General Charles Njonjo. Both these men, in common with their host, Sir Andy, have lived almost their whole adult lives in the public eye and service. Both have amazing stories to tell but, for the time being, neither seems to be willing to put pen to paper just yet.
Sir Andy said that one of the things that spurred him on to write the book was the fact that after open-heart surgery five years ago, he was put on medication by his cardiologists and told that one of the side-effects would be the gradual loss of memory.
When this writer questioned "Sir Charles" about whether there would be an autobiography from him any time soon, the 86-year-old former AG used Sir Andy's words to reply and quipped: "My memory has not yet begun to fade''.
From where I sit, that is all the more reason why those memories should be committed to paper and put down for future generations to read and learn from.
As for the book itself, the story is told in 199 pages of impeccable, if occasionally archaic, English. Instances of such archaisms such as the use of the word "cogitate" instead of "think" or the phrase "chancing his arm" instead of the more common "trying his luck."
But this occasional archaic use of the language gives the book a more authentic feel. It really is a story told by someone who was brought up and educated in the first half of the 20th century by people who had most likely been educated by Victorians and Edwardians.
In fact, the first half of the book reads almost as though someone weaned on the works of Charles Dickens or Jane Austen could have written it. The Dickensian connection, and this is somewhat tenuous, is echoed later in the book when the reader learns that Sir Andy's first-born son Manish, was married to Lucy Dickens, great-great-granddaughter of the great man himself.
For me, the best parts of the book were the priceless, personal anecdotes of the political power games played in Tanganyika (later Tanzania) in the run-up to independence and toward the 1967 declaration of Ujamaa (African Socialism) – the stress and strain of operating in an economy where almost overnight, everything went from being a private business concern to a nationalised industry.
While tales of the author's childhood, youth, school days and early socialisation were of interest, many people will be curious about his Freemasonry.
This book is not Sir Andy's first foray into the world of the published word. Those East Africans with an interest in Freemasons may have come across his first book, Freemasonry: Whither Directing Your Course.
Sir Andy's interest in the masons began in the early 1950s at a time when the masonic movement in Tanganyika was structured along apartheid-like racial lines and black Africans had no way to join.
Despite his eagerness to join he had to wait until 1954, nearly two years, to be invited to join the masonic lodge reserved for Indians, despite being, as he says: "the scion of one of the foremost Indian business families in East Africa."
In the book he writes of how Freemasonry in Tanganyika, later Tanzania and East Africa as a whole, has tried to ditch its image of being a "shadowy, conspiratorial body shrouded in mystery and intrigue."
Sir Andy gives some interesting insights into Freemasonry and to some extent continues with his life's work of demystifying the whole Masonic order.
Disappointingly for those wanting a more graphic account of Freemasonry, the chapter on the masons is more about Sir Andy's rise and rise through the ranks, than about whether they roll up one trouser leg when they take an oath.
That said, the book is definitely worth reading.