Who Do You Think You Are - Adeel Akhtar 23rd Jul

[kiterunner]

On BBC1 at 9 p.m.

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Episode summary:

Adeel Akhtar grew up in Buckinghamshire. His father, Akhtar, was born in Pakistan and his mother, Mumtaz, was born in Kenya. They both came to the UK in the 1960's. Adeel went to see his parents, who still live in Buckinghamshire. Mumtaz showed him a photo of herself when she arrived in England at the age of 17, to avoid having an arranged marriage like her four sisters had. Her parents were both born in Nairobi, her father coming from a poor family and her mother Kulsum Esmail, known as "Ma", coming from one of the second or third richest families in Nairobi. They spoke Gujerati and both died when Adeel was very young ("Ma" when he was 6). Mumtaz didn't know her grandparents, but she said that her sister Begum and Begum's daughter Shelly would know more about the family history.

Adeel went to Nairobi to see Shelly, who showed him a photo of Mumtaz with the whole family in the 1960's, and told him that the first in their family to come to Kenya was a man called Suleman Verjee, who travelled to Mombasa from India in a boat called a dhow. She also told him that Ma's father was called Esmail Kassam. Adeel went to Mombasa and met an historian who told him that Suleman Verjee was his (Adeel's) 3xg-grandfather and that he travelled to India with his son Kassam Verjee, Adeel's 2xg-grandfather. The family later used Suleman Verjee as their family name. The historian told Adeel about dhows and showed him a document written by the family's bookkeeper in the 1920's after Kassam's death, which said that the travelled to Mombasa on the dhow in 1885 and that it took 48 days. Adeel was also shown a photo of Kassam and had a look around the old town of Mombasa. Another excerpt from the family history said that Suleman opened shops in and around Mombasa soon after he arrived. Adeel was shown photos of Kassam's two brothers Madatally and Hussein.

Another extract from the family history said that in 1895, Suleman and Kassam decided to take advantage of the opportunity offered by the building of the Kenya-Uganda railway, when Kenya had become part of the East African Protectorate controlled by Britain. Thousands of Indian workers were brought over to work on the railway. Adeel went to Mombasa railway station and met an historian who showed him a report which said that Indian traders built bazaars by the railway as it was built, to supply materials needed for building the railway and also to supply goods to the workers. Nairobi was built on a site chosen by the British as a good staging post along the way, and in 1905 it became the capital. Suleman Verjee died before the railway was built but his sons were involved in the bazaars. Adeel was shown a big advert in the East African Chronicle for Suleman Verjee and Sons, Merchants, which listed a lot of different things that they sold and showed their PO Box Number as 12 and their phone number as 54.

Adeel went back to Nairobi, to Biashara Street, where the Indian bazaar used to be, and met an historian who showed him pictures of what it looked like, and told him that it was built on swampland and that there were many outbreaks of plague over the years. An article in the East African Standard from 1911 said that representatives of the Suleman Verjee business were among those working to clean the bazaar up. A Sanitary Commission was set up to investigate the problem and Kassam was among those who gave evidence. [B]Sir William Simpson's[B] report proposed dividing Nairobi into European, Asian and African areas but it was not fully implemented.

Adeel went to the McMillan Library in Nairobi and met an historian who showed him an article from the African Standard of 1919 about a session of the East African Indian National Congress, of which Hussein Suleman Verjee (one of Kassam's brothers) was president. Adeel was shown a typed copy Hussein's presidential address to the Congress, which contrasted the poor treatment of Indians in Africa by the British government with the commitment that the Indians had shown to the British side in the First World War.

Adeel then met two of his third cousins once removed, Inayat and Basharat Suleman Verjee, descendants of Madatally who still live in Nairobi. They showed him an article from the African Standard from the early 1920's which said that the Suleman Verjee contributed a lot to the building of the Jamatkhana centre for the Ismaili community in Nairobi. The Ismaili faith is a branch of Islam led by the Aga Khan. Kassam also donated money to set up an Ismaili girls' school in 1922, and the school register showed that Adeel's grandmother "Ma" was a pupil there. Inayat and Basharat showed Adeel the family tree which they had researched and it showed that Kassam was married three times, his first wife, Ziada (Adeel's 2xg-grandmother) being a Kenyan from the Giriama people who lived around Kenya's eastern coast and did some trading as well as agriculture. Kassam and Ziada separated. Adeel met an historian who told him more about the Giriama people and suggested that Ziada was not her original name but that she changed it to Ziada when she converted to Islam.

[kiterunner]

They have mentioned DNA testing in a couple of the other episodes in this series but not this one - I wonder whether Adeel has since taken a DNA test to confirm the Kenyan line?

[Guinevere]

I found this one fascinating. I hope Adeel explores further.

[Olde Crone]

It was interesting because it was very different. I'm not sure I followed it completely though.

OC

[Ann from Sussex]

It was extremely interesting and I hadn't really expected it to be. It did bear out his mother's claim that her family were the third richest in Nairobi! I did get the impression that his distant cousins and a few of the Kenyan historians didn't quite know what to make of him and his attempts at humour. He is a bit of an oddball I think. It grated on me every time he called Kenya's capital city "Narrowby" when all around him were pronouncing it properly!

[crawfie]

I also found it interesting as I had lived in Nairobi (not Narrowby, grrr) in the early 70's. It has grown massively since then, but certain parts are still recognisable. The market on Biashara street was where my mother would go to get her spices and vegetables. By then it was right in the main city centre.

OH, who has also lived there commented that the trains were much improved!

[Ann from Sussex]

I've just realised where I had seen him before. He played Thenadier in the television adaptation of Les Miserables a few years ago.