Goan book on diaspora gets a launch in the UK

Aug. 25, 2010 - PRLog -- London-based first-time author Selma Carvalho has released a book of Goan diaspora experiences at a major London community later this week.

Called 'Into the Diaspora Wilderness', the 290-page book digs up significant new information specially about the British Empire (East Africa, the Gulf, UK itself) and the 'New World' (primarily the US).

Among other things, the book focuses on Goa in 1900, the adventures of 'tarvottis' (the humble ship staff whose earnings propped up the Goan economy), and colonial East Africa. It is published by Goa,1556 and Broadway Publishing House, both based in Goa.

It also touches on the Goan "lads" who worked -- very much behind the scenes -- for the famous explorer Sir Richard Burton, Gulf Goans, and the resettlement of East African Goans in America.

This book's launch happened at the UK Goan Festival, held on Sunday July 25 in conjunction with Goan organisations at Croydon.

This is UK's premier Goan event, and some 5000 persons attended last year. It features Goan food stalls and entertainment.

This year, there were some 40 stalls at the event, offering children's entertainment, pickles, Goan spice, and even a link to Goan expat associations like the GOA (Goan Overseas Association), and the St Francis Xavier Mungul Union.

Carvalho's book -- online details of which are at http://selmacarvalho.squarespace.com -- has already drawn attention in Goa and cyberspace, for being both well-written and throwing up a plethora of new facts, which were earlier not noticed in the debate on the history of Goa and Goans.

Written in journalistic -- not academic -- format, this book contains stories about Independent Kenya's first martyr Pio Gama Pinto, the expulsion of Goans from Malawi, the bombing of the M.V. Dara in Dubai in 1961, the Gulf War, and Goans of Swindon.

The Goa launch of the book is due for August 2010. Copies of the first print urn are available at Rs 295 at Broadway Book Centre, on 18th June Road, Panjim. It is expected to be reprinted soon.

Carvalho, who has family in Nuvem and Vasco, says she "grew up in Dubai when the place was just an arid patch of land with a few houses huddled around the Creek". She has been based in the US and then the UK, with her husband, Savio and young daughter Lauren. ENDS

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A book publishing venture in Goa, India. We mostly focus on non-fiction books related to Goa. Launched in 2007, and relaunched as the Goa,1556 Trust in May 2010 has now fifteen titles to its credit. It welcomes proposals for publishing Goa-related texts, specially non-fiction.