Station Master, Eburru and Other Stories

In this collection of intimate, absorbing, and very human stories, Pheroze Nowrojee takes his readers back in time. The setting is the Kenya colony, roiling with undercurrents of discomfort, disaffection, and outright disobedience as colonial administrators attempted to enforce the racial stratification, coerced labour, and resource extraction that strictly benefitted themselves and their overlords. Some laws, including those targeting suspected Mau Mau sympathizers, were modelled on the South African laws, which were much admired by the Kenya colonial administration. Ordinary life persisted in the colony. In the Asian African community, this manifested in family businesses, cultural and religious occasions, sports events, or culinary traditions. But as people went about their daily tasks-engaging in humble livelihoods, pursuing an education, seeking adventure, finding romance, or actively resisting the colonial enterprise-the unjust British occupation and its aftermath pervaded every space and affected every relationship.