By Selma Carvalho

Here amidst the well-preserved wooden boxes and files was almost a Pompeiian preservation of how Goans lived in Zanzibar, the quarrels they had, the estates they left behind, their obituaries, registration of contracts, and most significantly their quasi-political role within the Portuguese consulate of Zanzibar. Here they existed not as someone else’s perception of them but as blood and bone, kith and kin.