Lawyer’s Lantern
REFLECTIONS ON THE JOURNEY BY JAVADE CHAUDHRI
I was born in Kenya when it was still a British colony and educated initially in the British tradition. I follow politics and other events in the old British colonies and many other parts of the world.
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My father, who was also born in Kenya but educated in the Indian subcontinent, would have me re-read the stack of newspapers that piled up and direct me to clip and save “important” articles. Although the holes in the pages made the owner of the Nairobi grocery store where I recycled the newspapers (for 10 cents a pound) rather unhappy, the clipping process certainly reinforced
DIVERSITY & THE BAR® JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2014
important news stories and other events for me. Tat was obviously my father’s real objective. In general, as will sur- prise nobody, once clipped, the articles were rarely looked at again or saved for very long. In retrospective, however, the more important lesson that I learned was the nature of the articles that my father thought should be clipped and saved. When he described those stories that were “important,” the items that interested my father most were those that demonstrated friendships and bridges across national borders, ethnic groups, political enmities, and geographies. While we discussed political developments or sporting events, his real enthusiasm was for the develop- ments that advanced cross-cultural relationships and his lasting disappointments were about the events—far too many, unfortunately—where relationships broke down, leading to disputes, war, and worse. Te 1960s and early 1970s had their challenges. On the
one hand, the British colonies in Africa began to become independent nations with all the promise and excitement that went with it. On the other hand, there were uneven political developments, drought, and famine in parts of Africa, strife, revolution, and worse in many parts of the continent, including East Africa. Tis was a source of great distress to my father, both in his capacity as a senior mem- ber of the East African civil service and as an optimist who believed that bridges could be built across any divide. In any event, to fast-forward, the family immigrated
westward, and my siblings and I are now scattered on three continents. Our collective families are a mini-United Nations
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