Ruth DeSouza » Migration & Culture » Goa/India

Goans in New Zealand, Goa and around the world

Goa is my ancestral home, on the south west Coast of India it has an area of 3,701 square kilometres. It was a Portuguese colony from 1510 until 1961 and before that came the Bhojas, Mauryas, Chalukyas, Rashtrakutas, Shilaharas, Kadambas, Yadavas, Bahmanis, the Vijayanagar and Adilshahi dynasties. On May 31, 1987 Goa became the 25th state in the Republic of India. You might like to look at the links below for more information about Goa. My mother's village is Saligao famous for it's church, you can see more on the Saligao village website and my father is from Socorro. Read papers from the AMCHEM GOEM symposium on the many facets of Goan society held on November 2004 inlcuding debate on identity, culture and politics.

I have a personal interest in the Goan diaspora and for my Master's thesis researched the experiences of Goan women in New Zealand, focussing on the dual transitions of maternity and migration. From the thesis I've written a few articles for the Goanet Reader: you can read them by clicking on the links (just be prepared to wait a while as they are pdf documents). What does it mean to be Goan? Issues of celebration and connection, reflected in food and song , Goa, migration and more and about Catholicism and Goan women in New Zealand. More recently I've commented on gambling in Goa.

I would really like to encourage budding Goan writers to contribute to the Goanet Reader. Unlike other publications I have written for Goanet Reader encourages readers to send in feedback directly to the writer and it's an incredibly supportive Goan diaspora out there. Contributions are encouraged by way of essays, reviews, features and think-pieces. Quality Goa-related writing is shared among the growing readership of Goanet and it's allied network of mailing lists.Goanet Reader is edited by Frederick Noronha, who is the most awesome individual (who is also from my maternal village Saligao).

Goans in New Zealand

The GOANZ (Goan Overseas Association of New Zealand) has launched it's new website, so you can now catch up on all the local Goan community news and events. There is a terrific new energetic and dynamic committee.
For my Master's thesis researched the experiences of Goan women in New Zealand, focussing on the dual transitions of maternity and migration. You can read one of the first things I wrote which was called Goan mothers in a new country for the Goan Overseas Digest. I have recently written a couple of pieces for Goanet Reader: you can read them by clicking on the links (just be prepared to wait a while as they are pdf documents). What does it mean to be Goan? Issues of celebration and connection, reflected in food and song , Goa, migration and more and about Catholicism and Goan women in New Zealand.

Migration

Goans first worked for the British in 1779 at the time of the French Revolution, when the naval fleet of the British India Government was stationed in Goa. The British found the Christian Goans were eminently suitable because of their Western dress, diet and customs and when the fleets withdrew from Goa some time afterward, the Goans went with them. Goans who trained at the medical school also moved to other Portuguese colonies around 1842 after the first medical school was created Goans migrated to British India as well where there were more opportunities and economic development was occurring, which led to a demand for English language schools for these migrants which surpassed that of those educated in Portuguese. However, such was the demand that Goans began sending their children to neighbouring cities such as Bombay, Poona and Belgaum. Employment opportunities also arose in Karachi, Pakistan. In the eighteenth century Goan traders began trade with Mozambique, Zanzibar and East Africa Goans and Africa. Indian independence also exacerbated the flow of migrants of Goan origin who were residing in British India and resulted in the migration of Goans from 1948-59 (Keyes, 1979). You can read more about Goans in Africa by clicking here.This page continues to grow and develop as I add new links relating to Goa and India. You can read more and explore more links on the Asian page. You can read more about the history of Goa in an article I have written for the Global Indian it is in pdf format so takes a while to download.

Konkani

India has 22 officially recognised languages and 1,630 dialects. Konkani is spoken by 1.7 Million people and is the official language of Goa and Mangalore (despite Portuguese colonisation and the rendering of Konkani as inferior to Portuguese, called he language of the servants: see more about this in my publications). I nterestingly the Archdiocese of Goa and Daman has undertaken an 18-million-rupee (US$4 million) project to print the Bible in Konkani, the official language of Goa state, an event that has taken 450 years, even though Jesuits established Asia's first printing press there in 1556 according to an article in the Indian Catholic called Goans To Get Bible In Local Language

Websites/information sources and portals

Newspapers

Food

When I think of Goa, I think of food: Pomfret, prawns and crabs (nisteachi kodi, sungtachi kodi and kurleachi kodi), xec-xec crab, pomfret reichado, prawn papads, samosas at Mapusa market with falooda and much more.You can read more about the intricacies of Goan cooking at the Goa2u website but to give you an idea, Goan food is overwhelmingly made up of rice, fish, and coconut. Equally important are 'kokum' (binichi sola), a sour plum like fruit, red Goan chilies and tamarind. Goans make their own version of vinegar from toddy. Pork is a must for any festive occasion in Goa and the most famous preparation is vindaloo and of course sorpotel. For dessert bebinca, made with the traditional 16 layers, not to mention dodol made from jaggery, rice flour and coconut; curled and sugared kulkuls spiraled around the tines of forks and deep-fried as Christmas goodies. All washed down with Feni! I have recently written a piece for Goanet Reader about the significance of food in the diaspora for Catholic Goans, you can read it by clicking here (it is an acrobat file).

Associations and villages

Books

Articles

Arts and Culture

Oral Histories and stories

Health and Social Services

Entrepreneurs, Innovators and Leaders

Scholarships

Portuguese

Restaurants around the world

Visiting or working in Goa

home   migration & culture   mental health   women's health   nursing   education   research   profile   contact

Copyright © 2003-2007 Ruth DeSouza. All rights reserved. Contact: ruth[at]wairua.com.