Curiously, a road in Nairobi is named after Pio Gama Pinto. Curious, because it’s named after a Goan. But Pio was foremost a Kenyan, deeply involved in Kenya’s nationalist struggle, and whose assassination, in 1965, made him Kenya’s first martyr.
His legacy, sadly, has not been documented in a biography, neither by Goans nor by Kenyans. But a recently released book titled, Pio Gama Pinto: Kenya’s Unsung Martyr, 1927-1965 (Vita Book, 2018), seeks, in some measure, to fill this vacuum. The book is a collection of essays, letters and other documents which loosely piece together his role in Kenyan politics. Several reasons have hindered documentation of Pio’s life. Chief among these, is the political climate at the time of Pio’s death which did much to intimidate and censure free speech. This led Pio’s close friends to burn the bulk of his private papers. Nor, has the state of secrecy been any less in Britain. Although any number of prominent personalities can be researched through Britain’s various archives, there is no file on Pio. Either it is not yet declassified, or the British have been known to conveniently lose files with sensitive information. What we know about Pio, then, has be gleaned from contemporaries, family members, newspaper reports and Pio’s own writing, of which very little survives.
Pio was born on March 31, 1927 in Nairobi. When he was about 8, his father sent him to India for his education. He studied Arts and briefly joined the Indian Air Force in 1944 as a clerk. He then worked for the Post and Telegraphs Company in Bombay.
There is the often-repeated story that Pio played a fundamental role in Goa’s Liberation movement. What saves it from being an apocryphal story is that it stems from Pio’s own writings wherein he states that he ‘took an active part in the Goa National Congress and was one of its founder members and a member of its National Executive.’ But this assertion does pose a problem. The National Congress Goa, (NCG) was formed in 1946 during meetings held at Londa. At that time, Pio would have been a young man of about 19 years. His name does not feature in popular liberation lore or writings, nor is he mentioned in the Who’s Who of Freedom Fighters, published by the Goa Gazetteer Department. Doubtless, Pio was allied with the movement, and he might have travelled to Londa to attend the formation meetings as hundreds of Goans had, but we will need more corroborating evidence to understand the extent and exact nature of his involvement. An essay by Fitz de Souza, Goan-Kenyan nationalist lawyer, however, sheds light on Pio’s lobbying for Goa’s decolonisation in the years preceding its eventual Liberation.
What is well documented is the central role Pio played in Kenya’s nationalist movement. Upon his return to Kenya in 1949, Pio immediately involved himself with the trade union movement which had gained traction under the leadership of Makhan Singh, Fred Kubai and Bildad Kaggia. In an article, included in the book, Makhan Singh recalls meeting Pio for the first time, and then later when they were both involved in Kenya African National Union (KANU). An essay by Joseph Murumbi, of part-Goan origin, and Kenya’s second vice-president, provides insights into Pio’s character, particularly his private philanthropy and assistance to people in need of money. The grotesque injustices perpetrated on indigenous populations, disparities in income and distribution of arable land, had led to much discontent, and would ultimately fuel the Mau movement in which Pio played a pivotal role.
In January 1954, Pio married Emma Dias, whose family was from Borda, Goa. The minutes of daily life recounted by Emma provides a window, albeit a tiny window, into his private life. She describes him as being ‘gentle, kind, thoughtful and quiet’. A man, continuously on the move, athletic, deeply committed to social causes, and able to offer Emma very little by way of material comfort. Her parents had gifted the couple a car, washing machines, a sewing machine and a substantial cash cheque. Shortly after their marriage, Pio was arrested, incarcerated first at Takwa Detention Camp on Manda Island, and later at Kabernet, and released finally in 1959.
One surprising revelation in the book, is Pio’s relationship with the ‘Sixties US Black civil rights leader Malcolm X. The two men had met when Malcolm X visited Africa in 1964 and formed a close bond. Both were assassinated just a few days apart. A link is inferred between these two assassinations, and possible foreign involvement in Pio’s death but the link is too tenuous to be taken seriously. The political history of Kenya, and the assassinations which followed Pio’s, which were no doubt state-sanctioned, should lead us to conclude that Pio’s death was a Kenyan affair.
What we see emerge from this book is a portrait of Pio as a tremendously influential broker of political power. He excelled at bringing together disparate groups whose common ideology was universal freedom and suffrage. In this regard, he engaged with and leveraged the power of Indian politicians, British MPs, and of course, Kenyan leaders in the making. He had the ability to spot opportunity, he created pockets of resistance whether that was by forming groups as innocuous as the KAU African Study Circle or blatantly nationalist as the Kenya Freedom Party. He was a relentless letter writer, propitiating help from all those in a position to help, and he continued being part of the journalistic world right up to end. In 1962, he was the commercial manager of the Pan Africa press. Because the book is a collection of various essays and articles, it does tend to repeat information, but it is an impressive read. It will serve as an efficient guide should a Goan or Kenya decide to embark on the formidable task of writing a comprehensive biography on the life of Pio Gama Pinto.
(The writer is the Author of Goan Pioneers of East Africa)
