James Martin

A Goan Wedding in Zanzibar, 1896

A Goan Wedding in Zanzibar, 1896

By Selma Carvalho

Issue no. 19

Maria Augusta Elvira de Sousa is lost to history. She wanders its corridors, unclaimed. In accounts by European chroniclers, her ethnicity remains a shadowy unknown to be guessed at, presumed most likely to be a Portuguese woman. But I am determined to reclaim Elvira’s rightful place, because Elvira was a Goan.