LOST LION OF THE EMPIRE

 The history of Colonel Ewart Grogan is a story of what a man can do for love –or what men could do  for love then . Ewart Scott Grogan was born in London in 1874. He fell in love with Gertrude watt, but her stepfather disapproved the match. To prove his worthiness in character and seriousness he commenced his expedition from Cape Town to Cairo at the age of 24, reaching Cairo in 1900, after two and a half years of travelling. To cap this success he married Gertrude. In 1904 Grogan hired the London architect, H. O. Cresswell and a firm of local Indian contractors to build his home in Kenya. “Chiromo” (meaning the joining of two rivers) named after the Nyasaland settlement at the junction of the Ruo and Shire rivers) was built on the site that Grogan bought from Bennet. Gertrude's Garden Children's Hospital located in Nairobi, Kenya was founded in 1947, with the donation of some land by Colonel Ewart Grogan, in memory of his wife. After his epic trip, Grogan returned to London in 1900 a celebrity. But Africa was in his blood and he soon returned, first serving in Lord Milner's 'Kindergarten', a elite group of young imperialists charged with reconstructing South Africa after the Boer War, then settling in British East Africa.

THE ITALIAN MEMORIAL CHURCH, NYERI.

My curiosity to learn about this man was inspired by a visit to the Italian War Memorial Church in Nyeri, Kenya, it is not your ordinary Catholic sanctuary. It houses the remains of 676 mostly Italian soldiers captured by the British durin...

g the Second World War.Vaults containing the remains of African soldiers, mostly from Somali-land, who could not be interred in the church because of their faith. They had fought alongside the Italian soldiers.At the entrance here is a marble-lined tomb, It is that of the Prince Amedeo Savoia-Aosta, the leader of the Italian forces in East Africa. He himself commanded the 7,000 Italians at the mountain fortress of Amba Alagi, in Northern Ethiopia. With his water supply compromised, surrounded, and attacked by 9,000 British and Commonwealth troops and more than 20,000 Ethiopian irregulars, the Duke of Aosta surrendered Amba Alagi in Northern Ethiopia on 18 May 1941. Due to their gallant resistance, the British awarded him and his men a surrender with military honors. Shortly after his surrender, the Duke of Aosta was interned in a prisoner-of-war camp in Nairobi, Kenya. He was placed in command of his fellow prisoners, but never saw the end of World War II. On 3 March 1942, shortly after his internment, he died at the prison camp, reportedly as a result of complications from both tuberculosis and malaria.Count Galeazzo Ciano, Italian Foreign Minister under his father-in-law Italian dictator Benito Mussolini, paid Amedeo a high compliment in his famous diaries. Upon being given the news of the Duke's death Ciano wrote, "So dies the image of a Prince and an Italian. Simple in his ways, broad in outlook, and humane in spirit."

THE BLACK COMMUNITY IN THE INDIAN SUB-CONTINENT

An East African community arrived and settled in the Indian subcontinent during the 1200AD and 1900AD period. They are believed to have been descendants of slaves, sailors, servants and merchants from East Africa. They were to be known as the sidis. A large number occurred in the region in the 17^th century when Portuguese slave traders sold a number of the slaves to the local princes.

The origins of the name sidis is believed either to be from a term of respect from North Africa or derived from the name of captains of Arab vessels that first brought the sidi settlers to India. They are currently estimated to be a population of 20 000 – 55,000 within the regions of Gujarat, Maharashtra, Karnataka states of India and Sindh and Balochistan provinces of Pakistan. Some Indian Siddis are descended from Tanzanians and Mozambicans brought by the Portuguese. While most enslaved African people became Muslim and a small minority became Christian, very few became Hindu since they could not find themselves a position in the traditional Hindu caste hierarchy

In western India (the modern states of Gujarat and Maharashtra), they were known for their physical strength and loyalty, they were sought out as mercenaries by local rulers and as domestic servants and farm laborers. Some escaped slavery to establish communities in forested areas,.

Although Gujarati Siddis have adopted the language and many customs of their surrounding populations, some African traditions have been preserved. These include the Goma music and dance form, which is sometimes called Dhamaal (Gujarati).The term is believed to be derived from the Ngoma drumming and dance forms of Bantu East Africa. The Goma also has a spiritual significance and, at the climax of the dance, some dancers are believed to be vehicles for the presence of Siddi saints of the past.

Many members of the Siddis community of Karnataka had migrated to Pakistan after independence and have settled in Karachi, Sindh. The majority of the Siddhis in Karnataka are descendants of Siddhi slaves who were brought from East Africa (mostly Mozambique) and Ethiopia to Goa by the Portuguese, British and the Arabs between the 16th and 19th centuries. During the Goan Inquisition, some of these slaves were freed and some escaped into the forests of the neighbouring Karnataka state.

A number of Africans (Ethiopians aka Abyssinians aka  Habshis) who  were enslaved and taken to India in medieval and post-medieval times eventually rose to positions of power and influence in the 16th century e.g.  Shams ud-Dawlah Muhammad al-Habshi, Bilal Habshi, Said Safar Salami and Shaik Said al-Habshi Sultani (perhaps best remembered as the builder of a famous mosque, known by his name, in Ahmedabad)

FORT JESUS

Fort J

Fort Jesus is a Portuguese fort built in 1593 by order of King Philip I of Portugal

(King Philip II of Spain), then ruler of the joint Portuguese and Spanish Kingdoms,

located on Mombasa Island to guard the Old Port of Mombasa, Kenya. It was built

in the shape of a man (viewed from the air), and was given the name of Jesus. In

2011 the fort was declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO, highlighted

as one of the most outstanding and well preserved examples of 16th century

Portuguese military fortifications

Between 1631 and 1875 the fort was won and lost nine times by the nations contesting control of Mombasa. It was declared a historical monument in 1958. Today it houses a museum.

The fort was designed by a Milanese  architect, Giovanni Battista Cairati, who was the Chief Architect for Portuguese possessions in the East. It was the first European-style fort constructed outside of Europe designed to resist cannon fire. Today, it is one of the finest examples of 16th century Portuguese military architecture, which has been influenced and changed by both the Omani Arabs and the British. The fort quickly became a vital possession for anyone with the intention of controlling Mombasa Island or the surrounding areas of trade. When the British colonised Kenya, they used it as a prison, until 1958, when they converted it into a historical monument. James Kirkman was then assigned to excavate the monument, which he did (with a large use of external historical documents) from 1958 to 1971.

The architecture of the fort represents the rough outline of a person lying on their back, with the head towards the sea. The height of the walls is 18 meters. The original Portuguese fort had a height of 15 meters, but the much taller Oman Arabs added 3 meters upon capturing the fort.

The fort combines Portuguese, Arab and British elements, representing the major powers that held it at different times in history. Portuguese and British presence if felt by the presence of their respective cannons. The Portuguese cannons had a range of 200 meters and are longer than the British cannons which had a range of 300 meters. Oman Arabs marked their occupancy with numerous Koran inscriptions into the wooden door posts and ceiling beams. The Muslim tradition of 5 pillars is also portrayed throughout the fort, with a former meeting hall supported by 5 stone pillars to the ceiling.

Some of the historical structures still standing in the fort include Oman House, which was the house for Sultan who governed the East African coast. Others are an open water cistern by the Portuguese for harvesting rain water, and a 76-foot deep well sank by the Arabs, but whose water was too salty to be used for anything but washing.