Online talk with Selma Carvalho

As an extension of 0832, the on-going exhibition curated by Wendy Amanda Coutinho, Museum of Goa organised a talk on ‘Goan Journey to Zanzibar’ by Selma Carvalho.

Across the expanse of the Indian Ocean lay Zanzibar. Mostly unknown to Goans, and yet from the 1850s, young men set sail for the island. Landing on the beachfront, they settled on a street which came to be known as Rua dos Portuguese. Here, they set up bakeries, butcheries, alcohol stores and provision stores, and rose to extraordinary prominence. Their stories are seldom told. Through the talk, the audience journeyed back to the 19th century, looking at their lives and just what made them essential to Zanzibar.

Selma Carvalho is the author of the novel Sisterhood of Swans and three non-fiction books which document the Goan presence in colonial East Africa. Her research on the Goan diaspora is widely cited.