History
Bibi Masikini" - A Goan Pioneer
- Details
- Published on Tuesday, 24 July 2007 19:07
There were revolts by the Abagusii against the British in 1904 and again in 1908. The last revolt claimed the lives of around a hundred Abagusii were killed, two police guards at Kisii, two Asian traders and eleven African porters. Throughout this period of unrest the Mascarenhas brothers quietly worked their "Duka" (shop) at Raina.
In 1910 Thomas Mascarenhas went back to India leaving his disabled brother to manage the shop. Meanwhile Father Brandsma of the St. Joseph's Foreign Mission (also known as the Mill Hill Fathers) entered the Kisii country and in the following year the mission was established at Nyabururu in 1910. This was the base of the Catholic Mission to the Abagusii. The 1911 Non-native census includes 7 people in the "Others" category, which at this period included Goans (but not Arabs or other Asians). However, at the moment we don't know the precise ethnicity or gender of these people. Thomas Mascarenhas got married in Goa and returned with his young wife, Marcilia. The couple travelled on foot from the railway terminus at Port Florence and reached Raina in 1912. The first European settler that we know in the tribal area of the Abagusii was an ex-army man by the name of Capt. Richard Gethin (Snr) who was born in 1886. Gethin arrived in Kenya in 1908 and had worked for the government in moving the Maasai from Laikipia to the Southern Reserve. It was suggested that he might establish a flour milling business in the Kisii Highlands and that the flour may then be sold to the Maasai. So in 1913 he visited the Kisii Highlands and then returned to Nairobi. In 1914 Capt. Richard Gethin aged 26 returned to Kisii with a motor and flourmill. He had travelled on the Uganda Railway from Nairobi to Molo and on to Port Florence arriving at Homa Bay by a government tug in March 1914 and set off on foot with an oxen cart to carry the equipment. An Indian trader at Homa Bay provided the cart and oxen for the 32mile trek. On the same tug was the Irishman Fr. Ross who was being posted to Nyabaruru. After spending a night at the Catholic Mission of Asumbi. Capt. Gethin set off into the Kisii Hills, arriving at Raina, where he was surprised to meet the "barefoot and poorly dressed" Mrs Mascarenhas who offered him a cup of tea. Gethin was impressed by this pioneer Goan women and sorry to leave her company for the Kisii Boma. Gethin arrived at the Kisii boma to be greeted by Mr. Spenser the District Commissioner. He found the settlement to consist of a few government house and 4 Indian shops - one of which was owned by a large man known as "Bwana Tumbo".
Eventually Capt. Gethin owned much of the land beside the British administrative settlement of Kisii and was in the town when the Germans invaded from Tanganyika on 11 September 1914 during the First World War. A force of two hundred and forty Kings African Rifles were landed at Kendu Bay and marched to Kisii where they fought the Germans until their ammunition was exhausted, the Germans were unaware of this but retreated leaving four machine guns and ammunition as well as some of their dead. It was Capt. Richard Gethin and the Catholic Missionaries at Nyabaruru who were responsible for introducing Arabica Coffee cultivation to the Kisii Highlands. During the war a group of Jaluo and Abagusii men struck the Mascarenhas shop, looting it of practically everything, so that by 1916 the shop had to be completely restocked. In 1921 Mrs Mascarenhas gave birth to a son called Alex at Raina. Within a year of the birth Mr. Thomas Mascarenhas died at the age of 38 leaving his widowed wife and their son Alex to run the shop with his brother Joaqim Mascarenhas. Mrs. M. Mascarenhas the pioneer trader was known to the Africans as "Bibi Misikini" or "Mongina" (Gusii for "mother") and was to develop a tailoring business at Raina and a small fruit orchard around the shop. To the Goan community of Western Kenya, Mrs Mascarenhas was known as "Mercy" Mascarenhas. Alex was initially sent for his education at Kisii, and later to the Goan School at Kisumu, before attending the Alidina Visram School at Mombasa. At some point in the 1920s the Ismailis from Raina left for Tanganyika which was now in British hands.
The 1931 Non-native census suggests that there were 9 Goans in the Kisii (or South Kavirondo) area of which only one was a woman. The same census shows that two people (one of them a woman) were living out of the township. It is very likely that this was Mrs M. Mascarenhas as her age is given in the 20-49 bracket. The other person is her brother-in-law Joaqim Mascarenhas, and his age is given in the 50-59 bracket. The same census records the existence of 7 people in the category of "others". It is suggested that these could have been Sudanese (Nubian) soldiers.
By 1948 the number of Goans at Kisii and the surrounding area was 16. Around 1950 Joaqim Mascarenhas decided to give up running the shop as his legs were worsening with age. When Capt. Gethin published his memoirs in 1955 he made much mention of Mrs. Mascarenhas adding that she was "one of the wealthiest people in Nyanza Province with house property in Kisumu, Kisii and many other trading centres." Mrs Mascarenhas was still alive (possibly in her sixties) and was regarded a pioneer settler on par with Major Richard Gethin in the late 1950s. At this time the Goan community at Kisii town only included about sixteen people.
The nearest Catholic Church to township of Kisii was at Nyabururu where Fr. Jac Van der Weyden was assisted by two priests. Mrs Mascarenhas is said to have inspired if not provided some funds for the stained-glass window at the Nyabururu Mission on the outskirts of the town perhaps with the sale of some of the property that she owned within the town. There is some suggestion that Mrs Mascarenhas had left Raina for Kisii town. Richard Gethin's son also by the same name went into partnership with the farming Dawson family of Sotik and employed a number of Goans in his garage and transport company. It was around this time (1963) that Mrs. M. Mascarenhas died at Kisii and was buried at Kisumu Cemetery. The ceremony was witnessed by a large crowd of Goans, Ismailis, Europeans, Jaluo and Abagusii. Joaqim Mascarenhas eventually had to have his leg amputated at the age of 92. He never recovered from the operation and died at the Victoria Hospital in Kisumu in 1965. He was looked after in his last days by his married nephew Alex Mascarenhas and wife Jessie.
By 1966 the number of Goans numbered no more then 20, and their numbers steadily declined after this. Mr. Alex Mascarenhas left Kisumu in 1971 and went to the Republic of Ireland where he lived with his family in Dublin until 1994, at which point they moved to Cambridgeshire.
