Author Zarina has transitioned but her impact will last for years

Zarina Patel. [File, Standard]

Last week we lost an invaluable Kenyan. Zarina Patel died. It is a major loss.

Zarina’s many-faceted achievements were a major neural network in the cultural body in our nation, with similar close connections with today’s progressive political figures and movements.

Zarina’s commitment to public discourse took her from advocacy to action for change. In the slough of the Moi years, Zarina was active in politics. She was a member of the Social Democratic Party (SDP). And then an official.

She rejected the grotesque politics of the Moi years and worked for the alternative of institutional policies and public life built on social justice. She was present in the alliances of the opposition parties and speaking in public meetings.   

She was writing all the time, with particular interest in women’s rights and progressive figures in Kenya’s past. Apart from her continuous writing as Chief Editor of Awaaz magazine, Zarina is the author of three major books and biographies of the key Asian figures in modern Kenyan history. Her first was the biography of A.M. Jeevanjee, who broke the monopoly of the White settlers in respect of representation in the Legislative Council. In 1906, Jeevanjee was appointed a Member of the Legislative Council (LegCo). The book is titled Challenge to Colonialism.

Her next major book Unquiet was her biography of Makhan Singh, the founder with Fred Kubai of the trade union movement in Kenya, and an implacable opponent of settler colonialism and British imperialism. Makhan Singh pushed for freedom in 1950 calling for, and organising for, the immediate independence of all four East African colonies. For his pains, Makhan Singh was put in detention and not released till 11 years later in 1961. Our university students of our past have much to gain from this study of Kenyan history. Zarina’s deep research in international archives and the whole-hearted cooperation of the family of Makhan Singh make this an invaluable part of the literature of our history. That Zarina found Makhan Singh’s politics enjoyable was a bonus in the writing of the book.

This was followed by her major study on M.A. Desai, The Stormy Petrel. M.A. Desai, (who died in 1926), after whom Desai Road in Nairobi City is named, was one of all Kenya’s greatest politicians. Again, Zarina’s research led her to archives and collections in Kenya, India and Britain. Desai was a journalist, writer, politician, printer, and publisher, active with Harry Thuku, both politically and in the publishing of newspapers.

Zarina found herself once again reflected in her book on another person. Not for nothing has it been said, ‘Every biography is an autobiography.’

Zarina’s books covered major periods of our past: the years 1906 onwards during the shaping of the early politics in the colonial period; the period 1918 to 1923 when the Kenya Indians blocked the surge for self-rule by the White settlers on the model of South Africa, and the Devonshire Declaration of 1923 established the paramountcy of African interests; and the period 1950 and the advent of Uhuru. Zarina was at home working in all of these periods. No understanding of those periods of Kenyan history is complete without reference to her studies.

It was not only the past that she reveled in. The SAMOSA Cultural Festival which she and Zahid Rajan established and held annually, celebrated music, dance, theatre and all the performance arts. 

A most important achievement has been Awaaz magazine. This has been, and is, a journal of events, achievements, reflections and records. The editors’ intent has never been communal glorification but is an admirable addition to the history of Kenya and its international spillovers.

The magazine’s achievement is not only the fascinating coverage, with the audience offering to the unknown while gathering more thought on the known. Its greater importance is the constancy of its aims and its intellectual stamina. In that it reflects the same qualities in Zarina and Zahid.

Zarina did not let illness halt her many work goals or her participation outside. Nor even to slow her down. Her determination was unflagging.  She would be present at events put up by Awaaz or at the regular lunches with old friends, engaging fully in the planning of new events, and of course in the disagreements on political stands.

Zarina’s passing is a major loss to Kenya and East Africa. RIP.