Bridging social, cultural and political gap

Exploring new possibilities and dimensions in African-Asian relationship between the locals and settlers like Gujaratis and Indian communities living in East Africa, Zahid Rajan-a political activist, printer and editor, visited Gujarat to track the roots of reverse migration of Sidi community settled in Gujarat. Hailing from an Ismaili Khoja family that had migrated from Kathiawar (Saurashtra) region to East Africa and settled in Kenya, Zahid Rajan is leading a progressive movement to incorporate the Asians and Indians into mainstream politics of Kenya. Talking to DNA, he deliberated on various issues, before his return to Kenya.

Talking about his family roots in Gujarat, Rajan said: "I am the fourth generation of my family, settled in Kenya. My great grandfather had migrated to Kenya and he was doing some business related to horses. My father, Kabirdin Somaji Rajan was an accountant and he was also active in social and community services.

My mother is Kachchhi, so I have knowledge of Gujarati as well as Kachchhi languages. I completed my schooling and high school in Kenya and due to financial issues, despite getting calls from six universities, I could not attend even one."

However Rajan's social activism started being nurtured in his youth. He said, "My perspective for life started changing after the completion of my high school studies, I started reading lots of African literature and I politically began to move to the national left of the country. I knew that there are two types of history, one relates to who ruled and another is of who were ruled. So I decided to devote rest of my life fighting for the underdog."

Rajan choose printing as his profession, as it would help him in his activism as well. He said: "I obtained a diploma in printing and started doing jobs along with my social-political movements."

He has participated in civil society activism since 1992.  He has also been involved in the publishing of south Asian history in Kenya and presently he is the executive editor of Awaaz - a magazine that voices social, political, civil rights issues. Rajan has published some significant works done on the history of Indians and Gujarati communities and individuals in Kenya. His wife Zarina Patel has authored biographies of Alibhai Mulla Jeevanjee's struggle for equal rights in Kenya, life and times of Makhan Singh, who was the founder of the trade union movement in Kenya.

Rajan said: "We have started a project where we are building links with social justice and human rights groups in India and in East Africa. I have done search to identify such groups. Our aim is to bring the experience of these human rights and social justice workers to Kenya to create and engage with them and to learn from each other's experiences and establish a solidarity at that level."

He further said, "Though Asians have settled in East Africa for many generations and they have  economic dominance there, they are not willing to get into the political process of Kenya. However, our efforts are to bring the Asian communities into the mainstream social and political scenario of Kenya."

Rajan is also the moderator of Solidarity Network Kenya which publishes material on South South Solidarity. He was a PR consultant with the Kenya Human Rights Commission on the Mau Mau Reparations Suit filed against the British Government and continues to work around issues of the Mau Mau in Kenya. Presently he is the chairman of the Eastern Action Club for Africa, a lobby group for minority rights.