RootsChat.Com
General => The Common Room => Topic started by: nanny jan on Friday 28 July 17 09:03 BST (UK)
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Am I the only one who watched and enjoyed this? My only connection is a very brief stay in Kenya about 20 years ago.
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You're not the only one nanny jan. I watched it too. Adil was so natural and confident. And what an intriguing ancestry he had.
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Am I the only one who watched and enjoyed this? My only connection is a very brief stay in Kenya about 20 years ago.
Although having no personal interest in those areas, I also found it interesting and enjoyable.
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For me, this was pure joy ! I used to live in or near Kisumu, and was last there in March this year.
I get my phone topped up in the Orange shop next to his grandfathers tin-workshop, and I know the mosque, and the family house .... got photos somewhere !
As a genealogy programme, I can see it wouldn't appeal to most watchers of WDYTYA, as there were none of the paper chases we all indulge in, but surely it shows the amount of information that can be gleaned from talking to the older generation, and listening to their memories and knowledge of the past. I am constantly telling African friends to record what their elderly aunts and parents can tell them, for once they are gone ...... haven't we all said 'Oh I wish I'd talked more to Granny about the family' ??
(No idea who the subject of the programme is though !)
I shall watch it again, just for pure indulgence ....
Oh .... and can I add its not possible any more to travel from Nairobi to Kisumu by train; most people fly or go by road ... six hours by dodgy road by car, or eight hours by bus .... or 40 minutes to fly !
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I enjoyed this episode ;D
It made a pleasant change from the usual paper-chase. Agree with you Lydart.
Adil Rey is an actor, comedian and presenter. Probably most famous for his comedy series "Citizen Khan". He is almost unrecognisable underneath the make-up, false beard, and clothing ;D
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Top Marks!
Skoosh.
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I enjoyed it too. ;D
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Glad you all enjoyed it. I'm afraid I went to sleep !
Perhaps I should try again.
:)
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I have a problem connecting to these types of programmes but that's just me.
It did seem to me though that he knew quite a lot about his family to start with. I noticed that when asking his mom questions he prompted her with the answers.
The producer was determined to squeeze someone of interest out of it & settled on his 4XGrandfather's sister being the mother of the local "king".
Nice for him though.
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I expected to enjoy this from the Radio Times write up, and eventually I did, but found it slow to get going. Once he arrived in Africa it became much more enjoyable and interesting. I would have liked another minute or two looking at the reasons for the movement of the Kenyan Asians to Britain. It was a different approach looking at it from the point of view of someone who had a fairly solid knowledge of the family history, and was confirming and expanding that knowledge rather than just having 'a story' which has often been the case. And even getting the 'story' (about royal connections) confirmed!
As others have said, it proves the importance of talking to older relatives, and I thought it also showed how cultures with a tradition of oral history can be very valuable to social historians. I just wonder how much that tradition is still surviving into younger generations in Africa. Growing up I had little knowledge about either side of my family, and I query how much my cousins, nephews and nieces would know even about my grandparents' generation without the bits I keep passing on ... no real tradition of oral history!
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I have no connections, apart from being born in Birmingham. Watched this programme last night, and found it very interesting.
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I found it fascinating. I have many links to Kenya and recognised plenty of the scenes from Kisumu. While there were family photos and stories to work on perhaps what wasn't explained was how thin the documentation is for events even in the early 20th century. In Britain we have the luxury of census and BMD records stretching back well into the 19th century and church records stretching much further back; there may be gaps, but there is masses of material. Elsewhere there is nothing at all; without the royal family link the story would have come to a halt in more recent generations and wouldn't have got that far back.
With Kisumu so close to Uganda and all that happened to Asians there, you can readily imagine some of the motivation to leave Kenya.
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I found it a bit boring. There were interesting bits but I was wanting it to move on and tell us about other ancestors and their stories and not keeping focusing on his ancestors in East Africa.
Blue
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still not watched it all ....
xin
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I enjoyed this one. A lovely gentle feeling to the programme, no rushing from one country to another. No histrionics, no over-the-top exclamations. Forty five minutes in before the lap top came out :D I liked the way he honoured his ancestor with the bark cloth, I found that quite moving.
And, yes the importance of oral history. It's such a shame that by the time we become interested in our own history it can be too late to speak to those who came before us :(
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I just found this .... its several pages, so probably won't appeal to most RC-ers, but only to those old Africa hands/old ex-pats of which there are several on RootsChat !
http://ufdc.ufl.edu/UF00080855/00069/119 and the next several pages ....
Its the info Adil Ray found in the Uganda Journal from 1960.
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I found this to be by far the most turgid episode of the series.
I spent almost the entire programme trying to remember the person they have already done who had African/Indian heritage with their Indian family moving to somewhere in Africa.
Can anyone remember who that was?
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I found this to be by far the most turgid episode of the series.
I spent almost the entire programme trying to remember the person they have already done who had African/Indian heritage with their Indian family moving to somewhere in Africa.
Can anyone remember who that was?
I think you're thinking of WDYTYA? S02 E06 - Gurinder Chadha, originally broadcast on 15 Feb 2006, see the link below for more where it says, "According to a family rumour, Lakha had at one stage lived with an African woman, and had fathered two children with her...":-
http://www.bbc.co.uk/whodoyouthinkyouare/past-stories/gurinder-chadha.shtml
Blue
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I just found this .... its several pages, so probably won't appeal to most RC-ers, but only to those old Africa hands/old ex-pats of which there are several on RootsChat !
http://ufdc.ufl.edu/UF00080855/00069/119 and the next several pages ....
Its the info Adil Ray found in the Uganda Journal from 1960.
I loved reading the article in Uganda Journal, although I didn't know exactly that period I did have great deal of pleasure visulisingbparts of Africa that I hold dear to my heart.
Times don't change and african definitely haven't. I have very fond memories of Ethiopia and Kenya from mid 1950's - late -960's.
I very much enjoyed this episode with Adil Ray and although not the conventional style it was a pleasure to see him soak up and appreciate and empathise with his African roots.
My heart will always belong to that dark continent but my family are here in UK!
I'm sure other African old hands will enjoy the article.
Thanks Lydart.
Caroline
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"My heart will always belong to that dark continent but my family are here in UK!"
I couldn't have said it better myself ! My thoughts today are in Kenya, where they are having the elections. Fingers crossed and double crossed there is no violence or riotous aftermath .......
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Me to Lydart- it's such a wonderful country that needs lots of TLC, just a pity that those at the top can be so vicious to their fellow countrymen.
All to gain the power and wealth for themselves when the countries need it so desperately for all the population.
Like you I shall be hoping that it all runs smoothly and that no incidents occur.
Africa never seems to have changed over the centuries and the people are still so very tribal.But It's hard not to be touched by its beauty and that certain something that continually draws you back.
Happy days
Caroline
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Agree with all of the thoughts on Kenya. Today is a very worrying day and the key will be how the losing candidate responds. Both have made appeals for peace but their henchmen are less likely to say the same.
A few years dated now, but Michaela Wrong's book, Our Time to Eat, is well worth a read (and of course has been hard to obtain in Kenya).
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I think you're thinking of WDYTYA? S02 E06 - Gurinder Chadha, originally broadcast on 15 Feb 2006, see the link below for more where it says, "According to a family rumour, Lakha had at one stage lived with an African woman, and had fathered two children with her...":-
http://www.bbc.co.uk/whodoyouthinkyouare/past-stories/gurinder-chadha.shtml
Blue
That's the one - thank you!
"At the end of the nineteenth century, Britain took control of Kenya and set about developing the new colony using cheap labour from other, more established regions of the British Empire, such as India. Bhajan's father Bishen and two of his brothers were among the first to make the move."
I guess after 11 years they can do another India to Kenya to UK story!
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This might be of slight interest ... its a photo I took a couple of years ago of the mosque Adils grandfather funded in Kisumu, in (I think) Nyerere Road.
(Have adjusted photo size !!)
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I usually find something of interest in each episode but I'm still waiting with anticipation an episode where someone has Irish ancestry with no indication on any census where their parish and county of origin is in Ireland.....just that painful word....Ireland! - staring back at you from the page like a challenge ;D
I think I've seen most episodes but if there has ever been one with a successful conclusion to this particular problem I want, no NEED :) to see it ;D
it's the guests who stay stoic through most of the program and then finally get upset that leave the most impression I find.
I actually rather like the episodes with different cultures,