FRIDAY, APRIL 26, 2024
CYPRIAN FERNANDES pays tribute to Dr Fitzval de Souza
On March 23, 2020, the Goan community worldwide lost one of its greatest sons with the passing of outstanding politician and lawyer, DR FITZVAL REMEDIOS SANTANA NEVILLE DE SOUZA, in London. He was 90. He is survived by his wife Romola, and children, Veena (Justin), Maya (Prashant), Roy (Aisha), Mark (Antke) and his many grandchildren
He became a lawyer and a politician by intent. He explains in his book “Forward to Independence” “As I set sail for Zanzibar the war in Europe was coming to an end, yet India’s future lay still unresolved. By now a keen and devoted disciple of Mahatma Gandhi, I had decided to spend my life fighting not only for the freedom of India, but Goa too, and carried within me a burning sense of justice on behalf of all those to whom it was denied.”
He met and was greatly influenced by Pio Gama Pinto, who was destined to become the first politician to be assassinated in an independent Kenya. While de Souza admired Pinto’s brilliance in political strategy and planning, in later years it was the student advising the teacher, especially in the day’s before Pinto’s excesses in challenging Kenya’s first President, Jomo Kenyatta.
Above everything else, Dr de Souza was endowed with and integrity and astuteness reserved for the best legal mind. I watched him in his role of Deputy Speaker of the House every day for many years Kenyan Parliament Press Gallery. Both he and the Speaker of the House, Sir Humphrey Slade, were always respected even by a sometimes boisterous if not unruly Parliament. The call to “order, order” was heeded with good grace.
He was also an astute businessman with a gift or quickly assessing an opportunity and grasping the moment. Another gift was his brilliant memory even in his later years, and his memoir “Forward to Independence” is testament to this. It is also the single most eyewitness expose of everything, everyone and every event Dr de Souza witnessed from the earliest days of Kenya’s struggle for independence, early independence and post-independence about the achievements, the sins and the crimes … “Forward to Independence” is a gift of truth to the people of Kenya who longed for just such an explanation of some of the things that were done in the corridors of power or conspiracy. Dr de Souza was a fly on many such walls.
The exposes have been brilliant, history has been illuminated and for want of repeating myself, allow me to turn your attention to Fitz de Souza’s earliest recollections of Pio Gama Pinto...
