Harnessing the Trade Winds

The Story of the Centuries-Old Indian Trade with East Africa, using the Monsoon Winds

Harnessing the Trade Winds is the outcome of a generation of research undertaken in Nairobi, Mombassa and Zanzibar in East Africa, and Mumbai and Goa in India. Of her work the author says: “In all my research I found that Arab and particularly European, sources of information downplayed the importance of Indian trade in the Indian Ocean which goes back at least three thousand years BC. [The book] attempts to rekindle in the Indian diaspora a justifiable pride in the achievements of its forebears in East Africa, and indeed other parts of the world. In East Africa they promoted the development of agriculture and industry and the globalization of trade stemming from their trading activities.”

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Reviews

“Blanche D’Souza’s book is a most direct statement on ‘brown man’s’ transcripts over thousands of years trade, labour and migrations for settlements against a pervading backdrop of Arab, British and Portugese rivalries in the Indian Ocean. In this wake Harnessing the Trade Winds adds to plural historical perspectives, in that the text upholds the value of diversity that shapes the identities and self-knowledge of the peoples of Asia and Africa. It challenges those who hold the political reigns and direct policy, on education as well as race relations.”: Sultan Somjee, Former head of Ethnography at the National Museums of Kenya, founder of the Community Peace Museums Programme and Foundation, and the Asian African Heritage Trust in Kenya.