The fiery legacy of Zarina Patel, a friend and mentor

I am writing to describe the Zarina Patel I knew and loved and the role she played in my awakening to Kenya’s post-independence struggles to restore the democratic constitution we inherited on December 12, 1963.

It is hard not to begin without recording the outpouring of grief from leaders, academics and ordinary Kenyans on the death this week of this indomitable writer who fought for the poor and marginalised.

Within that framework fell her devotion to the cause of women’s liberation, and prolific writings which brought out of the shadows the politically buried achievements and sacrifices of the Kenyan Asian community in our freedom struggle.

Vital chunks of that critical early history of African-Asian anti-colonial alliances would have been lost had she not chronicled them in masterfully written histories of Makhan Singh, one of the most formidable leaders of Kenya’s trade union movement; of Manilal Desai of the EA Indian National Congress (EAINC), who was freedom pioneer Harry Thuku’s closest friend and adviser and coordinated anti-British activities.

The EAINC in turn had been founded by Zarina’s grandfather Alibhai Jeevanjee to confront colonial injustices. He also founded the East African Standard and donated Jeevanjee Gardens to Nairobi. No other writer has remotely done as much as Zarina in highlighting the community’s political contributions, which helped our winning freedom much quicker. Those contributions also helped prevent a Rhodesia-like (now Zimbabwe) situation in which Kenya’s settlers might have grabbed power.

In an introduction to Zarina’s book on Manilal Desai in 2010, then-Kenyan Prime Minister Raila Odinga wrote that her work had made an “immense contribution by Kenyans of Asian origin to our nation’s freedom, which was not widely known as little of it had been documented”.

Also Read: Kenyans of Asian origin have had a long history of good deeds and deserve respect

He hailed her contributions to our second liberation.

Above these efforts and labours, Zarina’s overall commitment was to a global liberation struggle which transcended race, colour and gender. Kenya and East Africa have lost an irrepressible fighter for justice and equality.

Let me turn to Zarina’s personal story with the day in 1977 when my wife Patricia and I went to pick her up at Jomo Kenyatta International Airport. She was thrilled to be home and was brimming with stories about her two years in the US, where she had received her first university degree, a Master’s in Education, at the age of 40, made possible by fellowships from the Ford Foundation, Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Harvard.

Among Zarina’s most fascinating stories was a discussion she had with two elderly American women about the turbulent period of change in the US. Zarina was pleased that the two were fully aware of the problems bedevilling the country: poverty, racism, the high cost of living, lack of discipline in the young and increasing violence, including the assassinations of President John Kennedy, his brother Robert, Malcolm X, Martin Luther King and a host of other progressive Black leaders.

Zarina was keen to know what the women thought were the causes of the problems. They answered almost jointly: it’s the Communists. Zarina was stunned but didn’t try to dissuade them. She said their answer dramatically brought home to her more strongly than ever the enormous influence of the news/entertainment media and other institutions in diverting attention from the central causes of American woes, which included the inordinate power of the rich and powerful over government policies. Even now, anyone who proposes peace talks rather than giving Ukraine billions of more military dollars for its unwinnable war, is branded a Russian/Vladimir Putin “stooge”.

Her studies and encounters also led her, she said, to becoming more conscious of the need to address the grossly disproportionate power the West exercised in preventing developing countries from pursuing independent, home brewed economic policies. Zarina later wrote that she returned from America in 1977 “a thoroughly convinced socialist/Marxist and feminist”.

Also Read: Alibhai Mulla Jeevanjee -The man who built Nairobi

Zarina had in fact been a progressive activist long before her time in America. When we launched Viva magazine in 1974, aimed mostly at women interested in following socio-political developments at home and abroad, I asked Zarina to write a leading piece on women’s rights, an issue she already cared about deeply.

Her article, entitled “Just Call Us Ms” provoked an equally fiery response, including from women who abhorred the idea. Even in the West, most women still thought the prefix “Ms” a radical idea.

Zarina was not mouthing a Western notion. She had long observed at home how the deck was tilted against women, and the other horrors and inequities that faced the poor amid the vast wealth and land that a small group of regime cronies had amassed in just a decade of independence. Zarina was a path breaker with few equals in East Africa’s activist and intellectual history, man or woman.

She was my earliest, closest and longest-lasting friend, and one of my two mentors. The other was also Kenyan, Philip Ochieng, through his writings in the Sunday Nation.

Zarina was named to head the dormant Community and Race Relations Committee of the National Christian Council of Kenya (NCCK) – later renamed National Council of Churches of Kenya. NCCK was headed by John Kamau and she worked closely with his deputy Bethuel Kiplagat. I was Editor of the Sunday Post, and she asked me to join the committee. Being there and with her insights, it became an eye-opener into our local politics.

The NCCK was seen as a progressive body, but other regime forces were at play. NCCK, in fact, terminated Zarina’s employment shortly before she returned to Kenya in 1977.

One of her eye-opening experiences was NCCK advising her not to highlight her relationship to grandfather Jeevanjee as people said he did not have a good reputation. But when she met Jaramogi Oginga Odinga at an NCCK meeting in Kisumu, he told her it was an honour to meet Jeevanjee’s granddaughter! That was a transforming moment for Zarina and led her to look more deeply into her grandfather’s and her community’s other radical leaders. She also realised how tainted most of the entire establishment had become in its bid to get along with those in power.

Zarina was profoundly affected by her experience of Tanzania’s evolution under Mwalimu Julius Nyerere, which she said introduced her to an authentic version of African socialism.

In closing, I want to pay heartfelt tribute to Zarina’s absolute courage to not be laid low by a stroke she suffered.

“Indomitable” is in fact mild praise for someone who heroically fought on and made some of her best contributions even as she fought against the heaviest medical odds. That included the indispensable Awaaz magazine, which she started with her life partner, the irrepressible Zahid Rajan.

Zarina’s later struggles were of course made easier by the indefatigable support Zahid provided, and by the love of their wonderfully affectionate and adopted son Rahat. To them and to the entire family, my most sincere condolences and prayers for fortitude at this immensely painful period.

- Salim Lone served as Spokesperson for UN Secretary General Kofi Annan and Kenya’s Prime Minister Raila Odinga