Goa: An African writer's perspective

Bonnie Lubega
March 6, 1964

(submitted, courtesy author, by Francisco Monteiro 19 Dec 2001)

[Francisco Monteiro: This article was written on 6th March 1964 by Bonnie Lubega. The author of this article is an Ugandan journalist in his home country. He was educated at Holy Family Seminary, St Henry's College and St Joseph's Teacher's Training College in Uganda. In his capacity as journalist he came to England in 1958 at the invitation of the Colonial Office. He was also a guest of the Republic of Sudan in 1962 and until recently of the Federal Republic of Germany. A faithful seeker of truth, he is fearless in expressing his opinions. In his own words, he "chose to stick to truth, however bitter it may be".]

I want the reader to know from the beginning that my intention to write this is from a purely curious point of view of the political situation regarding Goa, from which part of the world I have had an opportunity to meet many friends.

 There are many Goans living in Uganda and before I was journalist I worked with many of them in various occupations. I learned from them and from various writings that Goa was in the Indian subcontinent well settled, developed and through centuries became undebatably prosperous. This prosperity has never escaped the eye of the world press, which had to connect it with Indian Union's intentions to annex it. The few examples from the world press are as follows:

"Der Spiegel" a well-known German political news magazine, issued an article on 10th January 1962: "Behind the violent occupation of Goa by India stands the economic interest as Goa's export of iron will yearly add 250 million DM into the Indian Treasury to build up its money reserves from only 982 Million Rupees (825 million DM)."

"Miami Herald" of 19th December, 1961, reports of an American who spent a week in Goa negotiating the sale of three transport planes and who said back in America: "Iron is so plentiful in Goa that they use for building farm fences. Goa abounds in rich iron and manganese mines. While the Goanese may be poor compared with US standards, they are certainly not, compared with the peoples of the Middle and Far East. India's steel mills had reached their capacity and needed more iron ore."

"The Daily Telegraph" of 5th December, 1961, reported: "Goa earns more than 10 Million pounds a year at present from her mining operations by exporting mostly to Japan and west Germany. This incidentally is a good reason for grabbing the colony so far as hard-currency hungry India is concerned."

And on the 14th of the same month the same paper repeated:

"Until 1956 direct rail connections between Goa and the Indian Union and free interchange of passenger and goods traffic such as manganese from Mysore and Bombay States in India, and from Goa to India; coal for Indian railway; oil products for places in South of Bombay State, passed through the port of Mormugão".

"At the end of 1955 for political reasons, the Indian Government closed the frontier and a portion of the railway on the Indian side of the border was dismantled and the interchanges of traffic ceased. The action had a reverse effect. The mining of iron ore, which is of excellent quality and which was only on a small scale before 1956, was rapidly developed. By the resources and enterprises of mine-owners in Goa, ready markets were found in Japan and Europe".

"During the twelve months ending March 31st, 1961, no less than six million tons of Goa-mined ore were exported through Mormugão, bringing great prosperity to Goa and its people".

"It is therefore not surprising, perhaps that India casts envious eyes at Goa and would be pleased to incorporate it into the Union. Last year, 1960, Japan bought nearly three million tons of ore from Goa and have stated that they would like to take at least six million tons".

These are just a few examples I wanted to bring to the mind of the reader so that he may be well acquainted with little Goa and its dependencies (Damão and Diu) if he should know its political situation and its economic standpoint which, I am sure, if Goa were left to administer itself, she gives the country a good chance to develop its economy.

There should still be good relations, political and economic between Goa and India, as aforesaid, and India would only be proud to use her neighbour's mineral and tell the world how proud she felt of the little sister country, free from Portuguese or any other colonial rule.

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