1

Chapter One

Introduction

Canadian literature is a synthesis of several cultural, racial and ethnic groups. The

people who lost their original native identities in an alien land gain a new identity

gradually and develop an urge to create a new identity for themselves. Due to the

atmosphere of multiculturalism that prevails in Canada, Canadian writers need a unifying

force to highlight their new found identity.

There are approximately more than thirty lakhs Canadians of Asian origin,

including those who have settled there from Europe, Africa and South America. They

have their own distinct values and a heritage which has been enriching the mosaic of

tapestry of the Canadian Literature. Diversity of cultures, ethnic groups and trends has to

given rise to the emergence of varied literatures, the most vibrant and noteworthy being

South Asian Canadian literature. It constitutes the works of writers which illustrates

South Asian sensibility or their writers maintaining a distinct South Asian identity. Hence

the migration experience finds expression in the works of the writers. Whilst these are the

voices of change, they also speak of their love for Canada, and issues like racial

discrimination and the process of acculturation. Their literature seeks to serve as a bridge

between the white Canadians and their own selves as also among ethnic groups

themselves, to help develop understanding and multiculturalism.

Evidently the racial, religious, cultural and linguistic diversity of these people,

accented by immigration patterns and the various waves of the diaspora, make for a heady

mix. Culturally, religeousely and experimentally, South Asian Canadian writers are a

remarkably varied assembly. South Asian Canadians with their culturally affluent
 2

heritage, ancient civilizations and long- lived traditions, endeavor to make their

inheritance part of their Canadian writing. The Asians immigrated for variety of reasons-

economic deprivation, ethnic rivalry, political victimization or sheer physical insecurity.

Many of the Asians were compelled to relocate themselves from Africa due many of the

trade policies of independence states, whereas some of the second generations Asians

were expelled from some east African nations.

The writers of the Diaspora are situated in a complex space between two worlds

and two cultures. They can neither forget the world and culture they have come out nor

they can fully assimilate into new country as they cannot subvert their own identities

totally. The literature of immigrant writers writing about their homeland or their own

personal experiences tends to focus attention on the lives and experiences of the Diaspora.

As a result, the projection of the marginal becomes the objective of the discourse and

these writings exemplify the post-modern experience. Narula opines, “Immigrant writers

focus more on the experience of expatriation, alienation and transplantation, in their

works. These are chief features of Canadian literature” (16).

The eighties saw the emergence of a new generation of writers of South Asian

origin, however remote their antecedents and links with the land of ancestors have made

substantial contributions to the richness of Canadian fiction. Writers like Mukherjee,

Rohinton Mistry and Vassanji are preoccupied with their pasts and their effort is to

recreate the life of the community native to them. Their works deal with the themes that

are predominant in Canadian literature such as survival and self -identity. These writers

do write about specific ethnic communities quite often but resist any attempt to be

‘labeled’ as ethnic or immigrant writers. Pandya opines, “Their works explore the

boundaries between fact and fiction, memory and immigration, individuals and collective
 3

consciousness, drawing from their first-hand experience of being a part of different

communities” (84).

M.G Vassanji is one such writer conveying social consciousness stimulating

ideas through his fictional Shamsi community projected against colonial history. He has

been very successful in juxtaposing the historical realities with imaginary intricacies.

Vassanji rummages through the social, political and economic contours of the Asian

settled in East Africa supplying a descriptive invoice of events influencing the affairs of

nonages. Accommodating fictional characters in historical premises and recreating

history has been his forte. Germination of new ideas through the process of dismantling

and reconstructing history is an excellent approach in literary ambiance.

MoyezGulamhusseinVassanji an African Asian novelist and editor who writes

under the name M.G. Vassanji is a South Asian immigrant to Canada. He has made

significant contribution to the growing body of Canadian literature and has joined the

stream of writers contributing in a significant manner to the sphere of histographic fiction.

Vassanji visualizes a writer’s role, as a preserver of the collective tradition, a folk

historian and myth-maker. Immigrant writers are concerned with giving a voice to the

displaced and dislocated by showing through their work, what it is like to belong

nowhere. More significantly, they are all determined to narrate and thus put on record,

their pasts, bequeathed memories, oral testimonies and stories of their voyage. Vassanji’s

appearance on the Canadian scene as a writer of fiction and his great popularity across the

common wealth countries are linked with the modern phenomenon of immigrant

literature. In the words of Pandhya, “For Vassanji and Mistry, the past is valuable, to give

meaning to the present. It is worthy to reclamation, through recreation. They attempt to

do this without sentimentalizing and without negoting the past” (89).

 4

M.G. Vassanji was born in Kenya and grew up in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. His

parents were part of a community of Indian Muslims who had once immigrated to East

Africa in the nineteenth century from Gujarat to East Africa for trade and commerce. He

studied at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, USA on a scholarship and earned a

post-doctoral degree in Nuclear Physics on 1978 from the University of Pennsylvania.

From there he migrated to Canada where he presently lives. From 1980 to 1989, he is a

research associate at the University of Toronoto. During this period he developed a keen

interest in medieval Indian literature and history. In 1989 he is invited to spend a season

at the international writing program of the University of Iowa. In 1996, he is a fellow of

the Indian Institute of Advanced Study in Shimla, India. Vassanji has occupied an

important place in South Asian Canadian writing with the publication of his novels. His

novels deal with the fragmented communities. The writings of the South Asian Diaspora

depict a vast diversity of style, theme, perspective and setting as well as a new ‘voice’ and

a new perception of the historic period of their narrative.

According to Pandit, “On examining M.G. Vassanji’s literary output, consisting of

several novels and short stories, we find him preoccupied with the life of immigrants,

refugees and displaced communities” (28). As a writer who belongs to South African

Diaspora, he skillfully writes about the immigrant experience combining along with his

own personal experience. Vassanji’s characters are confronted with racial tensions as a

result of such instabilities in their lives. His works often serve as windows through which

the world can see a newly emerging literary world.

Vassanji’s first novel The Gunny Sack (1989) is certainly one of the best novels to

appear on the contemporary scene. The novel’s success is a spur and it is translated into

several languages. It is a spirited saga of alliance, rivalries, success and failures. Vassanji
 5

also clearly pictures the customs and conventions followed by the Shamsi communities

with humour and zest. No New Land is his second novel written in 1991. It is an intimate

portrait of Indian community in Toronto who feels they do not belong anywhere. They

stand at the cross road between traditional and Western culture.

Vassanji’s next novel The Book of Secrets is written in 1994. This novel confirms

his fame as a popular writer of the universal theme of displacement and exile, which are

common occurrences of the diasporic existence in these modern times. Vassanji’s

Amriika(1999) deals with the struggle of an idealistic young African who leaves home in

1968 to attend an American college Amriika and describes how the protagonist faces

racial discrimination, politics and spiritual quests. In Between World of VikramLall(2003)

offers account of history and races. The question of Asian African identity hinging on

discourse is well discussed in this novel. Vassanji’slast novelThe Assassin’s Song (2007)

depicts the story of a young Indian boy who escapes from his family’s religion legacy and

latter escapes by travelling to United States and finally settles in Canada.

Apart from writing novels, Vassanji also shows interest to write short stories. The

main themes in his short stories are the cultural conflicts and sufferings of South African

immigrants. His short story collection titled Uhuru Street (1992) is a collection of stories

set in the Asian community of Dar es Salaam, depicting the changes in Uhurustreet from

the sheltered innocence of colonial rule in the 1950. When She was Queen (2005) is an

extraordinary collection of ten stories that take the readers from one world to another. His

non-fiction collections include A Place Within (2008) and Biography of Mordecai Richler

(2008).

The main theme of Vassanji’s focus is the situation of East African Indians and

the issues related to them. As a secondary theme, he pays interest to deal about the
 6

migration of people. He examines how the lives of his characters are affected by these

migrations to Europe, Canada and United States. Other important concern of Vasanji is

how history affects the present and how personal and public histories can overlap. Public

history, folk history and colonial history are the histories that are interrogated in his

works. In much of his works mysteries of the past remain unresolved.

The style and technique of the writers of the South Asian Diaspora have attracted

a lot of appreciation and recognition. The literary techniques of symbolism and metaphor

are used repeatedly to represent that the immigrants life is always difficult to establish.

The main objective of the writer is still to present the history of his community. The

narratives are important not only for their content but also for the stylish techniques. He

uses the objective and subjective position where he narrates the incident as an insider, but

with the distanced perspective of the outsider, requires a subtle use of the irony, which is

evident in his writings. Use of irony is considered as a tool by Vassanji where he exploits

to distance himself from the experience and yet to narrate it from within and project the

personal narratives. He constructs the past through memories but also use the construct as

a metaphor to interrupt the present. The metaphor becomes a tool to negotiate the

difficult.

Another narrative style followed by Vassanji in his novels is the use of stories of a

specific community, that of the Shamsis and their language Swahili and Cutchi. They are

bound to be subjective, polyphonic and fragmented. They attempt to establish their roots

in East Africa. But they are uprooted and forced to move again. He writes the social,

political and economic contour of the Asians settled in East Africa supplying a

descriptive invoice of events. The important style applied in his novels is the hybridity of

the use of two languages. It redeems a marginalized language from ambiguity and gives it
 7

a certain value and importance. The foreign words are used frequently and in a very

subtle manner. The use of language of the community such as Cutchi and Swahili

represented in the novels of him created certain place among other writers of Diaspora.

Sreekala comments “The cultural influence of Africa on the Indians is reflected in the use

of Swahili along with Cutchi and English by the fictional characters” (112). Another

literary technique used by him in his novels is the play of imagination and the use of

cultural heritage.

In The Book of Secrets, the protagonist Pius Fernandes, who is the retired school

teacher in Dar esSalaam is given an English language diary by his former student. The

diary entries written between 1913 and 1914, is an account written by Alfred Corbin,

Assistant District Commissioner, in Kikono, While there, Corbin becomes intrigued by a

young woman named Mariamu, who is engaged to Pipa before her marriage. Mariamu

nurses Corbin when he strikes with blackwater fever. After her marriage, Mariamu’s

husband, Pipa claims that she is not a virgin and accuses Corbin who sleeps with her.

Mariamu’s husband Pipa gets angry at the thought that she is not a virgin and he

gradually grows to accept and love her. When their son Ali Akber Ali is born and has fair

skin and grey eyes, their marriage becomes problem again. During this time World War I

has reached Kikono and Pipa is enrolled as a messenger by English as well as for

Germans. When Pipa returns home, he finds Mariamu has been raped and murdered.

After her death Pipa finds that she has stolen Corbin’s diary. Pipa believes that the diary

hold the secret of Ali’s paternity, being an illiterate, he is unable to read its secrets.

Then Pipa remarries a woman named Remti. Soon after their marriage Pipa’s son

Ali is sent to live with his maternal grandparents in Moshi. He encounters Alfred Corbin

and his wife Anne. Corbin visits Khanoum, Ali’s grandmother and offers to pay for Ali’s
 8

education. But she refuses to accept Corbin’s help. Then Khanoum falls into poverty and

Ali goes to live with Pipa, Remti and their two daughters. Living with Ali, Pipa begins to

harass over Mariamu. He builds a private shrine to her, where he keeps Corbin’s diary.

Through Ali, Pipa learns to spell and read the word Mariamu. Though he questions

Mariamu’s spirit about the true paternity of their son he never obtains direct answer from

her.

Pius Fernandes, the protagonist immigrates from India to Dar es Salaam. He teaches at

boy’s school. He is also forced to teach the inferior girls school. He becomes infatuated

with a teenager girl named Rita. Ali, a successful married man also falls in love with Rita.

He convinces her to runaway with him to London. Ali becomes successful in London.The

letters left to Pius reveal that Corbin and Ali meet several times though Ali’s paternity

revealed is remained hidden. Rita now divorced from Ali, returns to Dar to reclaim the

diary on behalf of her former husband. Pius willingly give up the diary to Rita.

Vassanji does not aim inspiring readers but simply at helping them in identifying

the pain and sufferings of the immigrant. Through his works, he makes the readers to

understand the problems of immigrants. His fictions which is optimistic in the final

analysis, plays its own subtle didactic role in the lives and attitudes of Asian immigrants.

Vassanji’s optimistic vision can be discerned from the fact that all the protagonists who

suffer initially on account of immigration emerge as confident and successful in the end.

The more one tends to embrace the Canadianess the less the pain one undergoes as

an immigrant. The bitter experience of the past is soon forgotten when one gets involved

totally in the job at hand. This is the unique power of time. Vassanji’s presentation of

events with reference to time is unique in the novels. His mode of narration is quite
 9

unconventional, often incoherent and disconnected through the flow of the principal

narrative shows a rare depth in clarity.

Some of the thematic topics inspired or provoked for contemplation are: human

relations, self-identity, political ideologies, socio- cultural ethos, historical occurrences

and so on. Ruminations on these concerns are prone to render more percipient

understanding and potential solutions. Vassanji’s novels are abundant with both particular

as well as universal implications and plethoric with historical vistas.

The thesis consists of four chapters. First chapter deals with introduction, in

it, it is says about literature and Canadian literature. And about the brief summary of

Vassanji’s woks. Second chapter is about the theme ‘cultural consciousness’, it explains

how the life of Asian immigrants in Canada is affected by their previous culture. Third

chapter is discussing with the theme ‘ordeals of dislocation’, it says the problems faced

by the Shamsi community as an Asian immigrant to the Canada. And in the last chapter

‘summation’, describes the essence understood about Vassanji’s“The Book of Secrets”,

through this thesis.

The thesis proposes through analysis and close textual study to examine

M.G.Vassanji’sThe Book of Secrets with a view to analyse the writer’s longing for

cultural identity and cultural integration. The methodology followed in this dissertation is

in accordance with the seventh edition of MLA Handbook for Writers of Research

Papers.
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Chapter Two

Cultural Consciousness

Culture refers to the cumulative deposit of knowledge, experience, beliefs, and

values, acquired by a group of people, through generations, which cultivate their

common behavior and attitudes.

Vassanji, in his works writes about culture and gives a correct and foresight look

into the culture of one particular group of Indians who are born and grew up in East-

Africa during the mid–twentieth century. In all his novels, he pays special interest to

portray the unique Indian culture. Though the immigrants are migrated to different parts,

they try to follow their own community tradition in their alien land. Vassanji’sThe Book

of Secrets deals with Indians living in East Africa. He also deals with how these

migrations affect the lives and identities of his characters. This maintains their respective

positions within the hierarchical binary of race and culture. Commenting how skin

pigmentation is often read as a powerful marker of one’s racial background, Livingstone

observes how there is, as biologists have regularly observed, as much variation within

each side of this culturally charged contrast as between them.

In the wake of hi- tech encroachment and supercharging world, globalization

has been acting as an erasure effacing the dividing lines and precincts. This erasure has

not only bridged the oceans and mountains, but also the gulf between the marginal

minorities and the main stream minority. The communities, cultures and nations which

have been under marginalized inertia, remote from the Centre, appear to be moving

nearer towards it. Migration along with multiculturalism has been acting as a pulley,

bridging gulfs and drawing decentralized communities into the centre.

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The Book of Secrets confirms Vassanji’s name as a popular writer of universal

themes of displacement and exile, which are common happenings of the diasporic

existence. Culture and national identity are inescapably linked because culture is one of

the most powerful element which unite the people. David Mount remarks, “Much of

Vassanji’s fiction is also multi generational in scope, which show how the Shamsi’s

identity is transformed in the diasporas as it comes into contact with different cultures and

different ethnicities” (4). When the characters move from one place to another they face

different culture and life style. As the individuals move from one cultural space to

another, the culture of the land of origin within the immigrant is constantly interacting

with the new culture of the adopted land.

In Vassanji’s novels the characters are always on the move in search of greener

pastures. Sometimes they dream of settling down in a foreign land not only to earn wealth

and fortune but to do it without risking the little danger of culture. The Shamsigroup of

people are united together because of their unique culture. The larger themes Vassanji

deals with are community values, individual identity, history, effects of colonialism and

multiculturalism. Cultural changes are not avoidable when several cultures merge in any

sociological context. Every individual longs for his past culture and tradition and tries to

follow the place where he currently lives. Indians can hardly go away with their native

culture and custom when they move to Africa. Following their forefathers, the Indians try

their best to observe their traditional old rituals in order to show their own distinct

identity.

The narration of the novel, The Book of Secrets accommodates various instances

proving long established ceremonies in the Indian community. The Shamsiscommunity

try to follow their religious values even though they migrated to a new land. Alison Toron
 12

comments, “The Book of Secrets is a multi layered account of the fictionalized Shamsi

Muslim community in the East Africa” (176). Half of the Indians belong to Shamsi sect

of Islam and they have separate mosque. The Shamsis are both Hindu and Muslim, Indian

and African.TheShamsis help and assist each other with material support or finding with

suitable marital partners.

Shamsi sect of Islam are very particular in following their religious rituals in the

alien land. Indian Shamsis usually wakeup at four a.m to pray. In the mosque, they have

less singing and give importance for discussion. Early morning, “the mosque caretaker

got up and went around the village knocking on doors” (52). Those who are inclined will

attend the prayer. They remain silent for half an hour because they have to meditate

during this time. Even in the migrated land Asians in India follow the same religious

practices. Cultural identities come from somewhere, have histories. But, like everything

which is historical, they undergo constant transformation. And identities are the names we

give to the different ways we are positioned by, and position ourselves within, the

narratives of the past. Itis only from the second position that we can properly understand

the traumatic character of the colonial experience.

Indians have a special custom of selecting a community leader called Mukhi. If

the people have any difficulty they go to the community leader Mukhi. He “was paid not

financially but with honour and respect, and promises of rewards in the hereafter” (27).

When Mariamu is possessed with evil spirit, the Mukhi comes there to say prayer. He is

also one of the important members in the marriage festival, who announces the marriage

and says “there had not yet been a wedding in the town, and so this was something

special” (85).When the messenger, Juma asks Pipa to be the messenger,Pipa asks the

suggestion of Mukhi. The Mukhi says, “Do what the man said” (165), as per the Mukhi’s
 13

suggestion he accepts to be the messenger. The Mukhi comes to meet Corbin when

Mariamu is in the hands of the mission ladies, he says, “Sir… our daughter … taken away

by the missionary lady… most in appropriate” (70) and takes Mariamu back. As soon as

Pipa findsMariamu’s death, he first goes and informs to Mukhi. Thus people give

importance to Mukhi and he plays a significant role in the community as an advisor, and a

caretaker. Vassanji detailed the Mukhi system in order to show how the immigrants

follow their own cultural tradition eventhough they are displaced to another culture.

Traditional Indians give much importance to marriage law, duty of a daughter and

other religious observations. It presents the glory of Indian tradition and attests the sense

of tradition among the Indians. They consider marriage as something divine. In The Book

of Secrets, the novelist pointsout the rituals that takes place during the marriage ofPipa

and Mariamu. The immigrants of Asia not only practice the marriage law but also

celebrate marriage rituals luxuriously. They believe marriage brings prosperity to the

couple. On the day of her marriage, Mariamu wore a dark green frock and green pachedi

with needle works. Her “hands and feet were covered with henna in detailed bridal

patterns. She shimmered and jangled as she gracefully moved” (84). The people gave the

pachedi frock to her. The marriage ceremony is arranged in the evening in the

shamsimosque.People sit on the floor facing the Mukhi. The Swahili Sheikh reads the

nikaa in Arabic and the bride and groom put signature in the register. According to their

custom, the marriage is announced by the Mukhi. The people gathered there congratulate

the newly wedded couple and wished them happy life.

The Asians follow many ceremonies during the marriages. They decorate the

mbuyu tree with coloured papers and lamps. These rituals and culture make them
 14

excellent from other culture. After wishing the couple, the guests sit facing the couple.

The novelist realistically describes the ceremony as follows:

The bride was presented gifts by a delegation of two men from Moshi,

representing the groom’s family and the community, and the groom

received gifts from her family. It was an event that drew many of the

neighbourhood, even the English women missionaries. Afterwards a meal

was served and sherbet flowed freely. Music was provided first by Mr.

Corbin’s gramophone, then a harmonium and tabla and dhol appeared, and

an impromptu concert began. (85)

Thus, the Shamsi people follow certain ceremonies in their marriages. For them

such rituals play an important role. Even in alien land the South Asians are very particular

to follow their unique culture, so the marriages are celebrated as great festival. They also

give much importance to the rituals because they consider it as brings good luck to the

wedded couple. The immigrants pays special attention to celebrate the marriage in a

grand manner. Cultural identity, in this second sense, is a matter of becoming, as well as

of being it belongs to the future as well as to the past. It is not something which already

exist, transcending place, time, history and culture.

Superstitions are also popular and work wonderfully even after many generations.

The immigrants are skilled in curingdeseases and they also drive away the evil spirit. The

superstitious belief, they inherited from their immigrant land. Meeting and conversing

with the dead and curing the diseases by chanting mantras are popular and still practiced

by the Indian immigrants. People believe that Mariamu, wife of Pipa has a shetani spirit.

Mukhi says, Mariamu, “The girl is wild” (50). During this time, she goes away from the

house without the knowledge of others. In order to drive away the evil spirit, they beat
 15

Mariamu. They believe, if they beat Mariamu the evil spirit will flee from her body.

Corbin observes:

She was seated on a stool, clutching at her hair with both hands, looking at

the ground in sheer exhaustion. Her feet were bare, the clothes on her back

shredded. She was being beaten. The old maalim, the exorcist, in kanzu

and cap, stood over her glowering, a whipping branch in one hand, a tin

box in the other… a fog of incense smoke rose from a brazier on the

ground infront of the girl and had filled the area…the tin contained red

pepper. (68-69)

When the evil spirit enters into Mariamu, she becomes a tigress. She begins to

attack her mother using all kinds oflanguage. She also eats like a demoness. Only Rashid,

her step father, can speak to her.Emphasizing the return to the displacing gaze of

disciplined the text’s description of the urbanity, the polish, the acquired Englishness of

the Indian- how much did mock him, the real English man. Simultaneously alienates a

discourse that ascribes attributes to race, even as it signals to the reader how culture itself

can be separated from race. The manner in which the movements of the colonized

circumvent the fixity of boundaries and control is thematically echoed in the novels

example of how people pay not duties but bribes at the, freely exchanging and carrying

forbidden currency.

Mariamu’s stepfather, Rashid knows about spirits. He communicates with the

spirit. He knows the local languages and so he can talk to saithani spirit who haunts her.

Rashid “had seen them come as simba, lions, when he worked on the railway” (80). He

has the power to drive away the spirit which haunts Mariamu. When Corbin is affected by

“Blackwater fever” (82), Maalim comes and says prayers in Arabic. He uses the dialect
 16

which the Mukhi does not understand. He speaks in “harsh tones, stone-faced, his hand

remaining pressed on Corbin’s forehead” (83). He has a book with him. Corbin does not

believe in his powers. Maalim sits in the bed and starts to take Corbin’s pulse. Mrs.

Bailey, a Christian missionary does not like this. After prayer, Maalim asks for water and

Mrs. Bailey goes to take water. Then Maalim takes the bottle of brandy which is on the

table and holds it with both hands. He prayers verses and blows over it and places the

bottle back. Mrs. Bailey returns with water and the Maalim takes it and prays. After the

departure ofMukhi and Maalim, Mrs. Bailey removes the incense sticks and takes the

water and throws it back of the house. Asian immigrants believe that diseases are caused

by evil spirits. Even in the alien land they are self-conscious of their previous methods.

Though they are in alien land the early methods are in their mind and no one can wipe

away completely. This concept of cultural difference is deeply rooted in the evolving

concept of national communities.

The South Asian immigrants create separate community life and share their

burdens and other problems among them. Socio- cultural borders are, to a certain degree,

unfixed since they relate to ethnicity and ethnic identity. Mount states, “thatsosio- cultural

borders and their negotiation determine the characters’ lives” (4). In India, the Shamsis

live separately in a particular area. Even when they are migrated to new land they create

their own community. The Indians belong to the Shamsi sect of Islam have touch with the

people in Voi, Mombasa, Nairobi and German East. They arrange feast for their

togetherness and feel that they are in their own land. The novelist explains:

They are in touch with Voi, Mombasa, Nairobi, even Bombay and German

East. Once or twice a year it seems they hold large feasts, and when they

do not go to Voi for that purpose they collect in Kikono community

 17

members from the neighbouring towns and give themselves a regular

jamboree. There are also Hindu, Punjabi and Memon families, but quite

often the distinction blurs. (35)

Whatever efforts they make in their alien land it does not make equal to the

original. Shane Rhodes remarks, “which is both the making of history and the making of

fiction –as a colonial movement synonymous with the subjection of one alien race by

another “(8).

The Asians give more importance to moral values. They consider even the lustful

desire as sin. Even in the migrated land they follow strict moral values.On the wedding

night Pipa discovers that his wife Mariamu is not pure. He feels “She was touched” (88).

Pipa shows at Jamali and says, “Take your whore back” (105). Mariamu’s stepfather

Rashid also points that he has seen Mariamu in Corbin’s bed. Mariamu remains silent for

this accusation. The immigrants follow strict moral principles and consider sex as

something pure and try to lead a good life. They maintain a pure life. Though their

migrated land is morally lower value, the Asian immigrants are not yet absorbed to their

loose moral behaviour of the land. Cultural identities are the unstable points of

identification, which are made within the discourses of history and culture. Not an

essence but a positioning hence, there is always a politics of identity, a politics of

position, which has no absolute guaranty in an unproblematic, transcendental law of

origin.

Vassanji portrays in his novels how Indians preserve their culture and not

encourage inter culture marriages. The Asian community refuses to mingle with the

African community in a socio-cultural place. They will not co-operate with inter –

marriages between two communities .Patani, the Hindu book keeper falls in love with
 18

Parviz, the Shamsi girl, leaving his wife and child.When the people came to know

these,people blame the girl. The rude behaviour of the people is described in the

following lines:

The girl was shamed in public, from which she would never recover. But

the matter did not end there. The next evening the gealots knocked on

Patani’s door. They went in, roughed him up so he fled, then they thrashed

his flat. Chairs, sofa, went over the balcony to crash on the sidewalk, three

floors below. Radio, ice box, coal stove, primus. (259)

When Parviz goes to mosque people talk behind her. Once a woman comments, “If I were

she I would jump into the ocean and die” (260). This deeply affects her mind. After

praying and drinking the holy water, she goes to the ocean and gets drowned aherself.

Because community is against their affair.Parviz committed suicide in order to get mental

relief. Because of the inter caste problem and illegal affair their dreams are shattered.

Thus they consider sex as something pure and try to lead a good life.

Indian immigrant in Africa are much concerned about their duties and

responsibilities. Parents punish their children for their evil deeds. They never hesitate to

punish, them. Once Ali betted by Pepa, when he gets into the private room of his

father.Pipashouts, “Shaytaan, he heard, as the blows fell, you devil, bastard” (219). Ali

has not returned to his home that day. He sleeps in the mosque and decides never to

return. But the caretaker takes him home, and says “Many like you have come to me for

refuge” (219). When they reach home, the father and son reconcile each other and Pipa

forgives his son.

 19

The Asians want the children to accept their wish. It presents the glory of Indian

tradition and attesting the sense of tradition among the Indians. When Pipa comes to

know that his son Ali has run away with Rita to London, thinks, “the boy whom he had

come to love in his own gruff way, who had sat quietly in the shop with him, who once

with so much devotion sketched Mariamu for him, was now gone for good” (263). He is

angry at Ali for not asking permission. Ali leaves the home suddenly, without giving any

notice to Pipa. The immigrants think that they want to compel their children to follow

their traditional culture.

The funeral rituals are conducted for celebrating the glory of Indian culture. It is

the sense of tradition among the Indians. Amin’s death ceremony shows the preservation

of culture in alien land. The funeral van comes with, “the little coffin bobbing on

shoulders to the wail of the kalima – ‘There is none but Him’ – and the sobs, of men,

boys in kanzus, coats, cloth caps” (280). The coffin is pushed back of the van and Ali

with others begin to recite the kalima. Gregory, wearing a suit, also tells the kalima along

with others. There are some events that make the immigrants a part of a place. The

funeral of Hassam Punja and Pipa are held together at the town mosque. Punja sells

peanuts in the streets and Pipa is a porter. Both men begin their life in poverty. During

their funeral service, their dead bodies lays displayed to their people under white sheets,

revealing only their faces. The Shamsis sing, “Naked we come and naked we return”

(312). Thus Asian immigrants still follow their culture even though they are migrated to

another life style.

Vassanji explores the relationship between dress and culture in his novels. Dress

code is also an important factor which can be included in the culture. Indians have their

own special kind of culture in wearing dress like white drill suits and red or black fezzes,
 20

or in dhotis and turbans. For every festival Indians wear the dress which suits the Indian

culture. Thus the culture in dress code is followed by the immigrants in the alien land. In

the festivals at the Shamsi mosque, there are gaiety and food, sherbet and dancing. At the

other end, outside the mosque, women conduct traditional procession. Older women

support the young unmarried women and girls for carrying the brass pots of sweet milk

on their heads. They “walk in a long file through the crowds, to where the mukhi and

other elders, in robes and turbans receive them and give each girl a shilling” (259).

During the festival week there will be a break in the religious ceremonies every

evening between prayers. It is described as follows:

…a procession would head off from the mosque, proceed at a stately pace

around the neighbourhood … accompanied by the deep, lugubrious

dhoom-dhoom-dhoom of a dhol and two trumpets bleating variations of

the same ten notes in a wonderfully mellifluous refrain that echoed in the

mind for days afterwards. (249)

Among the dancing young men and women, elderly mothers of the community

and shopkeepers turned noblemen in turbans and robes, go in a lorry with Dar’s

“Hollywood girls” (249) waving. They go past shops decorated with flags, bunting and

strings of lights and stop frequently for sherbet and sweets.

The Asians are very stubborn in following their tradition. Once a party is arranged

to welcome the District commissioner, Alfred Corbin. During the party at the club, the

Indians are invited and come in two large groups. They stand apart uncomfortably, and

eager to watching the Europeans . The Europeans are whites, look pink and clean. They

sit down on the chairs. The “servants and the Indians at the back gawked”(194). When the
 21

ceremony ends, sandwiches and drinks are served. The Indians are concerned about ham

and beef. The men are not happy and say “Cucumbers, bread, no harm here”(194)The

women are shy and they soon leave. Thus the Shamsis are not ready to follow the

customs and practices of the alien land.

Vassanji’sThe Book of Secrets gives an elaborate account of the immigrants’

experience. He clearly states how the early immigrants try hard to protect the culture in

the alien land. Though the immigrants face more problems as aliens in the new land, they

are very stubborn in preserving their unique culture. They are not ready to giveup their

own peculiar culture and traditional values. Thus the Asian immigrants are conscious

about their Indian culture and strive hard to maintain their culture and traditional values in

their adopted land.

 22

Chapter Three

Ordeals of Dislocation

Vassanji’s novels give an elaborate account of immigrants experiences and

sufferings. The Asians faced many problems in the immigrant land. The individuals suffer

not only because of the loneliness common to all human beings but also with other

problems. David Mount remarks that “ the space of colonial encountres,the space in

which peoples geographically and historically separated came into contact with each

other and establish ongoing relations’’(6). The Asians once enjoyed freedom and

preserved their cultural rights in their homeland but when they go to different places they

face many problems related with adjusting to the new environment. Evidently the racial ,

religious , cultural and linguistic diversity of these people , accented by immigration

patterns and the various waves of the diaspora , make for a heady mix. In India, they have

not faced any problem related to racial discrimination, alienation and so on. But when the

people shifted from India with a view to earn more they have to endure bitter experiences.

The Asians may not be important politically, but they are of considerable importance for

the economic structure of the region. Asians come to East Africa in order to acquire

wealth quickly. The Asians immigrated for a variety of reasons- ecomomic deprivation,

ethnic, rivalry, political victimization or sheer physical insecurity. Many of the Asians

were compelled to relocate themselves due to many trade policies of independence states.

Vassanji through his novels describes how the Asians shifted to new environment

and face problems in the new country as aliens. In their own country, the Asians are

considered as citizens but in the immigrant countries they are treated like second class

citizens. In course of time, Asians lose their hope and identity in the new land.

Vassanji’sThe Book of Secrets engages the characters to go back through memories of

 23

countless dislocations and ruptures. Mount says that “ what determines Shamsi identity in

this novel is not a remembered or reconstructed origin but how origins dissolve when a

character resides on various socio-cultural borders’’(7). Vassanji wishes to portray

through his novels the different ways of suffering faced by immigrants. He has the first–

hand experience about the problems of immigrants because he is also an immigrant. It is

the representation of it’s racial and a reflection of itself as the self- proclaimed bearer of

light.

The important characteristic of Vassanji as an immigrant writer is that he is

preoccupied with the theme of rootlessness, alienation and racial discrimination.

Literature has been a memoir of human existence encapsulating various transitional

phases from time immemorial.The Book of Secrets,contains the experience of migration.

It is the migration of Indians to Africa. The position of Indians in East Africa does not fit

easily with much Western critical thought. As the globe is a cauldron of various ethnic

groups, cultures, races, nationalities, languages , so is literature varied with many

compartmentalization according to the place and time of origin. The western critical

thought, which seems stuck in the binaries of oppressor and oppressed, slave and master.

As an individual, Vassanji has the talent to observe and to record the culture and

sufferings they faced in a peculiar tradition. In his works, Vassanji “presents not only the

problem of double displacement but also seems to give the implied solution that the

displaced immigrants, whom he portrays in his fiction can face the present reality only by

carrying over the past to the present and attempting to make a clear understanding of it.

The experience of immigrants in Africa is completely different from that they

encountered in their homeland. Vassanji has the reputation of being a gifted author of

immigrant experience and of the state of living in exile from one’s homeland. The
 24

Shamsis adapt easily and welcome outsiders. The Shamsis eventually acquire the status of

a colonial elite because “they had learned the colonial game well” (267). Pius narrates

how the Asians in East Africa have always been in an insecure position. Needed by the

Germans, they have to struggle for formal rights and recognition. Despite their riches,

they remain mere colonial subjects regardless of what they achieve. According to Karim

Murji, “this community has found itself able to inhabit all and one of the three identities

in the subtitle sometimes simultaneously” (3).

The Asian immigrants experience a sense of alienation in their adopted land.

Every major character in The Book of Secrets migrates at least once. Pipa migrates to

escape from shame, to marry, to escape from German and British agents, to forget

Mariamu, and finally, he also migrates for economic reasons. He is not only a restless

character but also a homeless one. Home does not translate a place for Pipa but figures as

a location that becomes home only by virtue of his recognition by the society he lives in.

His given name is “Nurmohammed” (127). Pipa is the nickname given by the family and

by the neighbourhood. It “made him feel a lack of respectability, of a place that was truly

home” (127). Pipa longs for status and respectability in his hometown Moshi, something

that he has not been born with. His father abandons his family. Pipa is an Indian without a

community and with a mother who is a prostitute. Economic rise and status do not come

easy within the conventions of the society Pipa is belongto. Pipa’s rise in the world is not

conceivable without the support and protection of the Shamsi community. The new

respectability the Shamsis endow him allows him to rise economically and to acquire

social status:

Whether he was of the Shamsi community or not, Pipa could not say with

certainty. But like many others before him, he accepted the Shamsis, and
 25

the rewards that followed: a job and a place to stay; eminent men to vouch

for him; and, if he wanted, a bride. So he could become the camel who at

last stopped his endless journey and found a home. May a lonely young

man had been compelled to change allegiance, may a willing young man

duly rewarded with abride and a business (133).

Pius moves because of the political instability and economic crisis in his

homeland. Like Pipa, whose name he echoes phonologically, he is disoriented and has

lost his sense of belonging. Like Pipa, moreover, he is also surrounded by cultural

difference translating as discrimination. As a colonial subject Pius migrates to a place

where he cannot hope for an adequate recognition of his subject status. Unlike Pipa, his

marginal status allows him to understand those who are in a comparable situation. Thus

the shared experience of displacement links Pius and the British, despite the fact that their

very different experience of colonialism should alienate them from each other. Shane

Rhodes remarks that, “he still represents a larger colonial project totally given- over to

it’s own superiority over those people who have not reached high stage of

civilization”(31). Pius mentions in the prologue that “in this city where I had no family or

close friends and was after all an immigrant’” (79).

The main reason for the suffering of the Asian immigrants is war. The novelist has

the first-hand knowledge about the riots and lootings in Africa. In this world, the masters

might have the ultimate power but, particularly during the war, that is not the only power.

In this period people who live there are very much disturbed. Pipa becomes the

messenger for both Germans and for British. Maynard, the captain tells Pipa to work in

the shop and also to work in his post office. At any time the messages will come and Pipa

wants to inform this to Maynard. The man who brings the messages will say “Bones for
 26

the Fisi” (125), and from this Pipa wants to understand that he is the messenger.

Moreover, Maynard threatens Pipa and says:

“The Fisi needs bones to chew. And you will give him all you have for me.

Ume elewa?. Do you understand?”

“Yes”.

“You will be paid”.

“Yes”.

“If you tell anyone about the Fisi…” Maynard took out a pistol. “Risasi.In

the head. Ask these two how many of your tribe I have hanged in

Mombasa”.

Pipa was silent

“ask”

“Eti, how many did this one hung”

“Two. And shot may in tunga. And killed one with his own hand, one who

refused to obey, the Swahili man said”(125).

Bwana Rudolfu, the messenger asks Pipa to post the letters in Kikono, and he adds

that he will pay for Pipa’s trouble. Because of those letters, Pipa is in trouble, and he is in

the clutches of Fisi. Pipa is forced to be the messenger.

Pipa works as a porter for a European expedition of missionarieswho come on a

tour to inspectthe African interior. The leader of all the porters is a man called

Livingstone. The chief among them is Bwana Turner. After twenty-nine days of travel

through a hostile jungle in Moshi, they reach their destination. However after their arrival

in Moshi and after receiving his pay, Pipa makes a fatal mistake of stealing Bwana

Turner’s unattended valise. On the open ground the missionaries have set up a tent, in
 27

which they have kept the money to be paid for the porters. The tent at which Pipa has

been paid is open. He looks around him, then swoops up the valise.When he is about to

go, a English voice stops him and shouts:

“Wehmwivi-you thief!Simama! Halt!”

He was pinned to the ground by Livingstone’s lieutenants and it seemed a

mountain of men, fell upon him. The valise was extracted from his hands

by someone and passed on towards its owner, who stood stiffly away from

the crowd… when Pipa got up he thought his back was broken. Why had

those sons of dogs jumped on him? He wondered. What would these white

bwanas give them? As if they’d never pinched a thing in their lives. (137)

Thus the whites brutally mistreat the Asians and suppress them.

The Indians lead their lives with panic and uncertainity. Because of the threat of

war the mosque worked overtime for prayers and also for possible shelter and advice.

The Book of Secretsdemonstrates how the Shamsi community, as a diasporic community

with Indian roots and connections and persist into the present, flexibly adapts to it’s

environment, picking up local cultural practices in the course of it’s migrations and

incorporating them into it’stradition.Vassanji alerts the reader to the fact that cultures,

cities and countries far from being stable or homogeneous groupings – all bear histories

of crossing, mixing and change . Pipa’s shop has been raided. They put the “cigarette

tins, cigarettes, shelves, kerosene tins, spice and grain boxes… all turned over and inside

out; then finally the spice and sugar packets” (166).

They arrestPipa and put him in the prison. There he endures a lot of tribulations.

Through a hole in the roof, he sees the light of the night sky. He is nervous of sounds and
 28

afraid of snakes. At first he “dared not move, but later, barraged by all manner of rustling,

scraping, soughing, he made his own, propietary sounds in the dark” (166). Later he

becomes bolder, but a pack of hyenas bark at him angrily through the wall where the mud

has been washed and broken away. Pipa in fear claps his hands, stamps his feet, and

shouts to go away. But “he was a prisoner and they knew it, they would not go away”

(166). Thus Pipa suffers physically and mentally because of colonialism. Vassanji

employs the enstraging effects of relocation and movement in-order to cast the narratives

of colonial knowledge into dissaray

During the war, Maynard spies for the British, Hamisi, and Juma, are the

messenger agents for the Germans. The PedlarAbdalla carries information for both

German as well as for British. Spying becomes dangerous for Pipa. Pius representation of

East Africa in the 1910s are engaged in creating, selling and delivering information, or in

buying, probing and discarding it. The spy motif continues Pius historiographical

obsession with truth. For it is truth, not historical truth which all are after, and it is stories

that all come up with.He says, “Encrusted in foul dirt, and hiding the secrets of an enemy

army, these bits of information would be sniffed at by Maynard, the Fisi what an apt

name, because the hyena is also an indiscriminate scavenger – who would piece together

a truth, a story, the secrets of the enemy” (154). Spying does not give pleasure to the

carriers of information like Pipa who is forcefully recruited by both sides.For Pipa spying

is not a great game which has dangers but offers an opportunity to prove oneself as a man.

Pipa comes to know that Hamisi, an Arab Sheikh and his close friend are hanged

by the Germans for spying to the British side. He is shocked by this news and feels that

“the war could touch someone like himself directly. Hamisi, his friend and patron, was

dead; pipa hanged by those same Germans whose secret papers, pipa had received,
 29

handled and then passed on to Maynard ” (159). He worries because the messages are

passed to Maynard by Hamisi and himself. He feels insecure and thinks:

Hamisi-working for Maynard? How could that be, when he had been so

clearly the German commandant’s friend? Would Hamisi have betrayed

his friend? Pipa remembered that it was Hamisi who had sent him to see

the commandant, whose letters he agreed to take with him to Kikono. It

was these letters that had involved Pipa in all this trouble. Hamisi had been

so innocent then. Had he known all along he would be placing Pipa in

danger?. (159)

Thus the Asians are forced to work for the whites. This makes the Shamsis to feel

insecure and suffer from isolation.Inspite of their respective roles as employee and

employer- inverts the power relations between colonized and colonizer, resulting in the

disruption of colonial authority.

An Indian watchman and some soldiers have been killed and the British are

searching for those who have betrayed them to the Germans. Abdalla, a peddler arrives in

Mbuyuni from Kikono. A German captain walks towards him and watches him

arrogantly. Abdalla looks at him and he doesnot lose his humour. He “was of that age at

which an air of advanced self-respect-like that of a Muslim sheikh – attaches itself to

certain men” (158). He is also nervous. He cracks a joke and takes a sip of his tea. At

once the German captain gives a slap to Abdalla and arrests him. Abdalla also carries

messages for both British and the Germans. The Germans also hang Abdalla. Pipa then

recalls the words of Mukhi, “no one knows who works for whom” (160).
 30

Once in Pipa’s house Juma the messenger arrives and he is the follower of

Hamisi. Pipa pleads with Juma that the war is nothing to him and he wants to lead his life

happily. Juma says to Pipa to prove that Hamisi is his friend, by working for them by

passing the messages which are come from the British camp in Mbuyuni. Then as per the

Mukhi’s suggestion, he accepts Juma and there after he will be free. After the war, Pipa

lives in fear. Because he is a marked man known both by the Maynard and the Germans.

When Pipa comes to his house the front door panel is opened, but the store is not

opened because everything has been turned over by the Fisi and his men in their search

the previous night. Then he sees the terrible sight of his wife Mariamu. She has been

brutally raped and murdered.The pitiable condition of Mariamu can be seen as follows:

She looked dead. She was in a sitting posture on the floor against the wall,

her head lolling sideways towards her right shoulder. Her eyes were open.

Catching his breath, emitting a choking sound, he went over to her slowly

and with tenderness picked up one of her hands. He felt her forehead,

caressed strands of hair, and with the back of his hand touched her neck

where the line of blood ran. (170)

Pipa thinks that the Sufis of Moshi only kills her in order to take revenge upon

him. From the beginning itself Mariamu has lot of problems. She has spirits within her, so

her marriage gets postponed. After her marriage, she is accused by her husband that she is

not a virgin. After the murder of Mariamu, there is no one to investigate her murder, no

witness is sought, no rewards are offered and no evidence is gathered. The people only

know that she is brutally murdered.Asthey are peace loving people and not having the

habit to seek vengeance,they comfort themselves by the thought that Mariamu had a

better life.
 31

War is the Prime factor for the displacement of the Asians. Alison Toron remarks,

“The Book of Secrets, but the ways in which the text engages with colonial masculinity

also reveals how gender hierarchies and colonial rules are enforced” (8). During his

childhood, Ali Akbar Ali only remembers about the war. He plays with guns and armored

cars and planes in the streets. He has witnessed wounded people without arms, legs and

eyes. There are boots, khakis, binoculars, mess tins, bullet casings, rifle parts, tires, belts,

tiffin boxes, shaving brushes, razors, and tinned food appear for sale. Ali’s remembrance

about the war is explained as follows:

It would appear to him always in the same scene of utter chaos: dust

churned up into a clinging choking mist; fires-a house burning, a garbage

dump smouldering, smoky campsites dotting the grassland; people rushing

about, bare feet thumping the ground; shouts of people and honking car

horns and tinkling bicycle bells, whistling trains, bleating goats… and

himself lost, abandoned, in knickers and singlet… Kindly large hands

picking him up and carrying him home. (187)

War leads to various problems in the society. One of the major problems is

poverty. Khanoum, grandmother of Ali does not allow him to do odd jobs. She herself

finds a work as a mistress. She suffers in poverty even though she cares for Ali. When an

Indian family comes and asks for Ali, Khanoum says, “she will not take charity and she’ll

not let the boy go. She says she is a wife of Mukhi” (197). The Mukhi leaves Ali with her

in the absence of the child’s parents. So she too is the leader of the community. She has

the right to take care of Ali. Her husband Mukhi also wishes that Ali should grow in a

good way. She asks, “So why do you come to harass me now that this husband is dead?...
 32

Has my Soul lost anything, or my honour? Eti, have my abilities as women and mother

been diminished? (197).

Pipa comes to know that Ali, the angel boy is mistreated and used as a servant,

then he takes care of his child. Thus Ali suffers because of war as well as by his family

condition. Because of the threatening of the war family after family bid farewell and they

move to another place. Jamali’s sister, Kulsa also leaves the place. Mukhi is the first of

the Indian to arrive in Kikono. Finally he too leaves to the nearby Moshi. The war “had

left numerous scars on the land: rusting machine parts, piles of refuse reduced by the

elements and scavengers, charred campsites” (190). Asians tolerate the effects of war to a

greater extend. The result of war brings bad effects upon them. So they move to various

places. At one point some Masai emerged from the road side and stood watching them –

tall and erect at the side of the road, with spears and shields in their hands giving them a

quite a scare. Asian immigrants become the victims of war. They can’t escaped from this.

As an Asian immigrants they have to face the problems. The air is polluted by riots and

land by bloodshed. Their life becomes insecure in the land which they consider as the

newly selected home.

Another tribulation the migrants face in the immigrant country is racial

discrimination. According to David Mount “it is clear then that Vassanji’s novel presents

us with a form of daisporic identity that is not dependent upon home land. And the

transformations and differences appear along various socio-cultural borders of the

community, especially those of religion, race, ethnicity, gender, language, social status

and class” (143). As a christian and an educated man, Pius in East Africa feels closer to

the British than to the Africans. Both Pius and Corbin share an outsider status, which also

links them to the isolated Shamsi community. Shane Rhodes states,

 33

‘The Book of Secrets, books are always already political and involved in the

politics of the real world by the particular situations – ideological and geographical –of

the authors and readers ” (69). Pius Fernandes is a man with a university education, this

does not protect him from racism. He is to train colonial subjects but he himself trains on

the premises of colonial discourse.He says, “The African servant, like the Indian, we

learned, did not have a sense of ‘mine’ and ‘yours .We were to wear shoes ” (238). Racial

discrimination can be seen, on the death of Khanoum’s Indian husband, Jamali, she cries

out, “Does this black self lesson in value now that its brown partner is gone?” (197). This

is a strong indictment of racialism that forces the reader to do some soul-searching of his

own.

The Asians face more misery on the basis of their identity. Identity crisis is one of

the major issues that the immigrants face in the alien land. The immigrants feel that they

are being alone in Africa. Migration is a phenomenon that has drawn much attention in

the latter part of the twentieth century. This movement of people especially of large

groups, from their own country to another is either forced or deliberate. This movement is

not just movement away from one’s own culture but also movement towards adaption to

some other culture. As a result, losing identity takes a different shape for people who

migrate from one country to another . So it seems that they have come to another part of

the universe. Indians have been settled in Africa for several generations but they are

viewed upon only as second class citizens in their adopted land. Even if an immigrant

accepts African way of life, the struggle of identity crisis arose because he is not treated

as African and as immigrant. Preserving one’s identity proves to be very challenging

factor under such condition.

 34

Pius is a complete outsider, because he does not have any common caste, religion,

mother tongue and place of origin. The immigrants realize the need to adjust to the ways

of the adopted land. The immigrants are sailing to freedom, “Freedom from an old

country with ancient ways, from the tentacles of clinging families with numerous wants

and myriad conventions; freedom even from ourselves grounded in those ancient ways”

(239). Pius recalls his feeling of being alone in Africa.

Vassanji shows how the condition of identity through native –as –discourse. The

novel suggests that there is freedom to be found in the transposition of old selves into a

origin context, in moving away from once home or home land. During the night Pius

hears the croaking sound of frogs and the whispering of trees in the breeze. In the

darkness, he remembers his home town which he left behind is as distant as the nearest

star in the sky. Pius leaves to Dar with some relief for a place where he has no direct

family and he now calls it home. Pius hopes that his new job will allow him to take up

some new projects he is planning to do. Mount points out, “Thus, we get overlapping

perspectives presented to us in the first half of the novel, which do not depict the original

homeland as a defining feature of Shamsi identity. Instead the novel exemplifies the space

of colonial encounters, the space in which peoples geographically and historically

separated come into contact with each other and establish ongoing relations” (6).

The immigrants talk about the changes in the country. They also aware of their

homelessness. Their world is diminishing with the Empire. They are all travellers for their

personal reasons, to pursue their career they have chosen to teach. They are proud of their

efforts. They feel, “We were now aware that we would have to choose: to return home…

but what was home now? to take on a new nationality… but what did that mean? to move

on to the vestiges of the Empire” (274). Pius chooses to go to the new nation as solitary
 35

man without any close attachments. But for others, even they wish to stay, the question

pricks in their mind as, “to stay or to go, and where to go?” (274).Vassanji evokes

awareness of the impossibility of extricating ourselves from the narratives in which we

are enclosed, and through which we perceive and make sense of the world around us. The

immigrants make every effort to adopt themselves to a new milieu and try to get absorbed

in it. Asian immigrants fail to assimilate into the new society. So they proved to be

failure. It is the duty of the immigrant to accept homeland and it’s way and tradition.

Otherwise the new found homeland will treat them as immigrants and they have to face

many problems.

The immigrants experience a lot of tribulations while finding job in the alien

country. They have to accept menial jobs for survival. Pipa suffers a lot in finding a job.

First he finds a job as a sweeper in a big hotel. After that, he moves on to pulling

rickshaw. Then he works in the harbour where porters are always in demand. The novelist

writes, “For a few months he did a number of odd jobs, beginning at the harbour, where

porters were always in demand. He lived in Swahili quarters then, in the African sector.

One day he was spotted, working for a butcher, by an Indian shop keeper who gave him a

job minding his store”(131). After doing many odd jobs and struggle at last he opens a

shop and named it as, Indian. Thus Pipa suffers a lot to get a good job in the alien land.

Like Pipa, his son Ali also suffers. As a child he is in the care of Khanoum. Then

years passed he accepts to work as a gardener in the house of aEuropean. Then Ali comes

to know about his father who is rich and he decides to go to his father. In each place the

immigrants face ordeal as aliens.Vassanji in his novel, The Book of Secrets presents the

question of survival in spite of all it’s odds. The immigrantsfaced hostile experience. The

later migrants coming from different nationalities also have to negotiate dangers of

hostility, racism and alienation. In spite of all these odd situations they try to survive in
 36

the new found land. He shows interest to present the generation gap between characters.

The earlier immigrants are mostly illiterates. They suffer a lot for doing a mean job. But

younger generation people who left India are learned people and their main motive is to

live in metropolitan cities and to shine among the people of land.

Vassanji in a clearest way explains the various kinds of sufferings faced by the

immigrants. The novelist tries to say that an immigrant is always an outsider and tries to

live at the edge of two interesting worlds, trying his best to maintain a balance. In case he

succeeds in assimilating into the new culture, he still cannot dissolve himself totally from

the old culture incase if he struggles to maintain the difference between his ethnic identity

and the new culture then he remains as an outsider. Because of such conflicts the

immigrants always face sufferings in one way or the other.

 37

Chapter Four

Summation

Canada is a land of immigrants. Variety of literature is produced in Canada. The

daisporic writers also find their stream in Canadian literature. The novels emerging in the

twenty first century furnish examples of whole range attitude towards the imposition of

tradition. The diasporic writer’s main concern is rootlessness and alienation. The

immigrants face many difficulties in setting and adjusting in their new countries. They try

to find right balance between taking up a new culture and preserving their roots.

Vassanji’s works often serves as windows through which the world can see a

newly emerging literary world. Canada’s largely colonized culture, offers refuge to many

expatriates from other colonies in the world. In the works ofVassanji, mixed identity

conflicts are dealt with a sting of originality.

In this novel Vassaji portrays the situation of East African Indians and the issues

related to them. As a secondary theme, he pays interest to deal about the migration of the

people. His other concern is how history affects the present and how personal and public

histories can overlap. His literary techniques also gain so much appreciation, popularity

and recognition. The literary techniques of symbolism and metaphor are used repeatedly

to present that immigrant life which is always difficult to establish. The author himself

experiences double migration in his life. All of his characters undergo the same problem

of double migration. The main theme he discussed here is the problem of identity.

He describes about the identity and cultural problems of the alienated people. In

this novel, he says about a particular community named Shamsi. The Shamsi community

people are migrated from India. The study discusses about the culture of Shamsi
 38

community and Asians’ struggle to maintain their unique culture and custom in the alien

land. They have their own moral code and ethics of life. In their new homeland they try

their best to maintain their culture.

Here, as the aliens have the habit of selecting community leader in their home

land, they selectedMukhi as their community leader . According to their custom the

marriage is announced by Mukhi. Here the marriage of Pipa and Mariamu is also

announced by him. Whatever happens, the Shamsi community people first inform to the

Mukhi. In the case of taking any decision, Shamsi community approachesMukhi for his

opinion.Vassanji detailed the Mukhi system in order to show how the immigrants follow

their own cultural tradition even though they have displaced to another culture.

They also followed superstitious believes in the alien land.When the heroin

Mariamu , the wife of Pipa is affected by shetani spirit, they beat Mariamu in order to

drive away the evil spirit. They believe that if they beat Mariamu the evil spirit will flee

from her body. Asian immigrants believe that diseases are caused by evil spirit. And

theyconsider sex as pure thing. On the wedding night Pipa discovers that Mariamu was

touched. According to Indian culture the woman should be pure before the marriage.

Due to their odd practice and culture they are considered as aliens and have to

face many problems. The Shamsi community tries to follow their religious values even

though they migrated to new land. The Shamsis are both Hindu and Muslim, Indian and

African as their identity is shaped by an African component too. The Shamsis help each

other with material support or with finding suitable marital status.

Every individual in this community longs for his past culture but they tries to

observe their traditional old rituals in order to assert their own identity. The recurrent
 39

theme in the novels of Vassanji is South Asian immigrants’ cultural conflicts they face in

new land. Once a party is arranged to welcome the District Commissioner, Alfred

Corbin. European peoples are also invited, at this time alien people not followed the

Europeans eating style but they eagerly looked at them. Thus particular Shamsi sect of

people sticks on their values and feel proud to follow their culture in the alien land.

Then he describes about a vivid picture of various forms of sufferings that the

South Asian immigrants have undergone in the alien land. Including Pius and Pipa,

almost all characters first migrated to Africa and then to London because of economic

problems. In their own country, the Asians are considered as citizens but in the immigrant

countries they are treated like second class citizens. In course of time, Asians lose their

hope and identity in the new land. The experience of immigrants in Africa is completely

different from that they have encountered in their home land.

The sufferings may be physical and psychological. The main reason for their

suffering is war. At the time of war Pipa worked as a messenger for both Germans and

British. And he fell in trouble because of a letter. So then he worked as a porter for a

European expedition of missionaries, there he stole the valise of, the chief of that

expedition. An English man caught him and brutally mistreated him. In his mind hethink

that home is the best place. As Vassanji has his first hand experience as an immigrant, he

portrays the sufferings realistically. Pipa move with hope and for better life to different

countries but everywhere he face problems in adjusting to the new land.

Because of the wars and riots, peoples are migrated to other countries.Pipa is

arrested and put it into the prison for spying British. And he happens to hear that he may

be hanged by the enemies. When he returns to shop, he finds that his wife Mariamu is

murdered. And also he happens to hear that his angel son Ali is mistreated and used as a
 40

servant, when he was not with him. The cruelty war affects the life of Pipa to a great

extend. As his shops are looted he loses his peace of mind.

Identity crisis is another area discussed in this novel and it pictures how the

immigrants strive hard to get identity. It also analyses their lack of identity in their home

land. Refusing to adjust with the new land and it’s ways act as obstacle in the path of

progress. So the immigrants always an outsider and tries to live at the edge of two worlds

trying to maintain balance.

At the end of the novel, it is seen that, how the Asians in spite of all the sufferings

try to survive in the new land. The immigrants make every effort to adopt themselves to

the new milieu and try to get absorbed in it. But later they discover the fact that it is not

just for them to adopt the new country but also for the new country to adopt them. So they

proved to be failure. After all sufferings he is ready to migrate to new country. It is the

duty of the immigrant to accept home land and it’s way and tradition. Otherwise the new

found home will treat them as immigrants and they have to face many problems.

The younger generation identify the fact that if they hold on old values and

traditions in the new land they will be considered as aliens. So he clearly states the

mindset of younger generation as they wish to stay in the new land and their inner urge to

live in better standards among the native people of London. But for some peoples the idea

of past acts as stumbling block for survival in new land. By shedding their past memories,

they start to assimilate in the alien country with more power and hope.

In the end Ali, the son of Pipa married a girl without informing to his father. This

itself shows the change. According to Indian culture the son and daughters should marry

the person suggested by their parents. Here Ali broke that law. And he came to know
 41

prince and mistress. And started international business. London government sanctioned

loan to him. He became known personality to everyone. So Ali recreated the identity.

Thus younger generation accepts the migration as a positive force rather than a

problem. The study discusses the fact that self- realization leads to the survival of the

person. Rebirth of the character and their ideas also pave a positive approach for the

survival. The past becomes a source for drawing on strengths and helps them for

resolving the dilemmas of the present and face the future confidently to reclaim their

former selves .

Thus Vassanji in his novel “The Book of Secrets” portrays very vividly the

suffering endured by the Asian immigrants. The personal odyssey of Vassanji from the

position of expatriate to immigrant is reflected in his writings at the thematic level of a

movement from expatriation to immigration. This ongoing journey becomes a metaphor

for universal quest from alienation to integration. This novel projects the writer’s own

problem and difficulties. The immigrants revolt against some traditions because they do

not feel comfortable and happy. His characters are in search of independence, identity,

and happiness. Thus the dissertation finds that the novel, “The Book of Secrets” is

concerned with the South Asian immigrants’ quest for self.

 42

Works cited

Primary Source

Vassanji, M.G. The Book of Secrets.New Delhi: Penguin, 1994. Print.

Secondary Source

Harb, Ahmad. “Collective Memory”.Third World Quarterly 12(1991): 199-201. Print

Khan, M. Anjum. “Polarity, Incongruity, Animosity: Predicament of a Foster Community

in M.G. Vassanji’sThe Gunny Sack.” The Literary Criterion 46.1 (2011): 35-49.

Print.

Mount, David.“Dealing with Another Culture’s Ghosts: Mariamu, Diaspora and Contact

Zones in M.G.Vassanji’sThe Book of Secrets”.Postcolonial Text 4.5(2009): 1-15.

Print.

Murji, Karim. “Mis-taken identity: Being and not being Asian, African and British in

M.G vassanji’sThe Book of secrets”. Postcolonial text 1.2(2008):36-74. Print.

Pandit, M.L. “The Cosmopolitan Themes of M.G. Vassanji in The Book of Secrets”.The

Common Wealth Review 16.1 (2002): 28-33. Print.

Pandya, Sudha P. “Voyages of Self Discovery: Some Immigrant Writers in Canada.”

Indian Journal of Canadian Studies 2(1993): 83-90. Print.

Rhodes, Shane. “Frontier Fiction: Reading Books in M.G.Vassanji’sThe Book of

Secrets”.Ariel 2.1 (1998): 179-193. Print.

 43

Sharma, Itty. “Renarrating History and Quest for Identity in The Book of Secrets,”

Wizcraft2.1 (2000): 77-82. Print.

Simatei, Peter Tirop. “Voyaging on the Mists of Memory : M.G. Vassanji and the Asian

Quest/ion in East Africa”. English Studies in Africa 43.1(2000): 29-42. Print

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