In the 1890s, some 32,000 workers were brought from British India to East Africa for manual labour to build a railway line. Despite it being a foreign land filled with uncertainty Indians were attracted to migrate to find jobs or to trade. One such migrant was Mohanlal Kala Savani. The author covers the history of a vital, hard-working, and successful Indian migrant and his family in Africa through a series of vividly written personal and family vignettes, enhanced by a gallery of photographs.
Jambo, Samji Kala! brings with it an undertone of the sociopolitical history of East Africa from 1918 onwards. The late Mohanlal Kala Savani landed at the port of Mombasa with rudimentary elementary school education and empty pockets. He was an aspiring young immigrant who worked with focus, resolves and a dauntless spirit to succeed in the world of business.
The growth of the Indian film business in East Africa and overseas is also a chapter in the history of the Savani family. With struggles, in 1922 he imported an Indian silent movie. In his efforts to showcase his films he also imported a portable hand-cranked projector.
This is a biography of a visionary who went through a turbulent road to become a movie mogul, textile and cotton mega trader, industrialist, real estate developer and philanthropist.
Manu M. Savani is the youngest of the six sons of the late Mohanlal Kala Savani. Manu was born in Kenya and now resides in Southern California with his wife, Varsha (Vipula) Savani. Manu has three grown children and five grandchildren.
He has been a pioneer in the Indian film distribution business for over five decades, since 1968 when he moved to the United States.
The Savani family has been involved in the film business for over a hundred years. Manu's father, the late Mohanlal Kala Savani, was a renowned Indian businessman. The book Jambo, Samji Kala! follows his father’s story and legacy of being an Indian immigrant in East Africa. Besides being a real estate developer and leader in the textile trade and industry, he started the distribution of Indian films to East Africa in 1922 with silent Indian films.
Manu’s elder brother the late Dhirubhai Savani (of De Luxe Films Ltd.,, London) was a pioneer of Indian film distribution in the United Kingdom and Europe since 1954.
Jambo, Samji Kala! is Manu’s first as an author. His only previous experience as a writer was in 1966 when as a final year student at the Brookes University at Oxford, he wrote a thesis titled “Indian Film Industry and The World Market”.
