By Karam Bharij (Years 1959 - 1966 in Kenya)

Voices of Kenya, ReunionA VOK (Voices of Kenya) reunion held on 30 November, 2009 in Slough, UK, was attended by over 130 VOK associates. Various renowned VOK artists entertained the group before the launch of a brochure to commemorate an era of broadcasting in Kenya from the early 1940's up to 1965. It was a tribute to iconic broadcasters who set up the
biggest Hindustani broadcasting station in the Diaspora outside of India. Plans to publish a reference book for the history of Broadcasting in Kenya are in the pipeline. Karam Bharji, an ardent fan of the VOK Hindustani Service, gives us a personal view of that time.

Iwas in secondary school during the early 1960s; Kenya was our birthplace, home, our country - most of us were second generation South Asians. Second World War uncertainties were over; family members in India separated by the war had rejoined their spouses in Kenya. South Asian settlement was in its hey-day. Asian businesses and entertainment industries, i.e. cinemas and radio stations, had attained maturity and flourished during this golden, halcyon era.

At the time, when newspapers and radio were the only media available, a team of South Asian VOK broadcasters played a pivotal role in making information available to the community. Informed individuals began to collaborate with the broadcasters. Projects ranged from children's programmes, health issues, poetry, music and radio
dramas. The programmes catered for the diverse Indian communities and were broadcast in Hindi, Urdu, Gujrati, Punjabi and Konkani. The broadcasters were multilingual and imbued my generation with the love of languages.

The broadcasters helped in maintaining our cultural connections with our country of origin - India. Anchor broadcasters, Chaman Lal Chaman, Pritam Singh Chaggar and Bikrim Singh Bhamra had achieved iconic cult status; Indian women, Darshi and Tochi Chaggar made their mark with their brand and presentation styles.

The East African Safari Rally used to grip us for four days during Easter. VOK broadcasters kept up a running 24/7 commentary to keep us up-to-date on the progress of the Safari. Thus it came to pass, that we grew up with the voices of our icons though we had never met them in person. Alongside the broadcasters, radio empowered two local singers, Raghbir Singh Rahi and Didar Singh Pardesi. The station launched their singing careers and provided them with regular musical slots.

During its heyday, VOK employed about 200 South Asians who were involved in broadcasting, radio and as electrical technicians and administrative staff. Outside of India, VOK was the leading Indian broadcasting station in the diaspora and a prolific producer of programmes that catered for the needs of the community.

As Kenya moved towards independence in 1961 Africanisation of the station, particularly of the Indian broadcasts, was initiated. The political winds-of-change introduced a policy which basically dictated the forcible replacement of Asian employees with Africans. It was a time of great upheaval; imagine the stress of training
someone to replace you because the colour of your skin did not fit in with the new regime! Eventually, with no future job prospects, decisions had to be made to leave our home and country and start afresh in new and strange lands.

Within their lifespans, many of the broadcasters had to reinvent themselves twice. Firstly, partition in India in 1947, meant that many of them had lost homes in India and Pakistan and had migrated to East Africa to make a new beginning. Secondly, after nearly twenty-five years of settlement in Kenya, they were again forced to
uproot themselves and start all over again in the UK. It takes a strong will, tenacity and faith in one's own inner strength and the Almighty, to start a new life twice in one's lifetime.

Our migration to the UK, among other impediments, was a cultural shock. But rather than wallow in self-pity; all of us started rebuilding our lives in earnest. For some, it was the best opportunity of a life-time. With hard work one could save money for a mortgage; pursue educational courses which were within reach and generally reorientate our lives around ex-Kenyans in various cities of the UK.

During the process of this rehabilitation exercise, little did I and more importantly, had relaunched their broadcasting careers in the UK.

These same broadcasters have recently formed a 'Voices of Kenya Union' basically to document an evidence-based history of this unique South Asian broadcasting service in Kenya as well as the lives and times of all those who were associated with it, and including a tribute to those who are no longer with us.

Year 2009 Reunion- United Kingdom

I received an invitation to the Reunion and launch of the brochure entitled, 'Voices of Kenya Union - A history'. The brochure documents the people in, and the contributions they made to, the VOK programmes. It reveals exclusive information and photographs of legendry greats such as the Maharaja of Patiala, Yuvraj Devindra Singh, Lt Gen. Jagjit Singh Aurora, Ustad Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, Mohamed Rafi, Mukesh, Mehdi Hassan, Dalip Kumar, Sunil Dutt and many more - all interviewed on VOK.

For me, it was a poignant moment to meet the icons of Kenyan realise that our former broadcasters were also in pursuit of similar ideals; broadcasting, our childhood role models and heroes. I had grown up with their voices throughout my schooling in Kenya.

I had arranged with Chaman to take photographs at the occasion. I met him in the car park - his voice struck me - it was the same voice that I had heard on air during my school days. I walked past Didar Singh Pardesi and Raghbir Singh Rahi Bains, not recognising them. They are all now in their seventies. But I did recognise Bikram
Singh Bhamra and he introduced me to all others. Chaman, an accomplished poet, was the master of ceremonies. Apart from his welcome speech, he enthralled the audience with a rendition of poetry he had specifically written for the reunion.

A trip down memory lane was the playing of recorded broadcasts by Chaman during the 60's: An interview with Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru by Chaman following India's fiasco during the war with China in 1961. The second recording was a broadcast of a play in which Inderjeet Dhillon, a young VOK presenter, played the part of a policeman. Inderjit died following a motor cycle accident and I can still remember the many, many tributes paid to him by the broadcasters that day.

Chaman introduced Pritam Singh Chaggar who to my utter amazement has retained his youthful looks of bygone days. He gave a fascinating account of the history of broadcasting in Kenya.

Broadcasting in Hindustani started in the mid forties by the then operating company known as Cable & Wireless Ltd. Apparently during those days there used to be two friends who would take turns on duty. One a disc jockey who played popular numbers while the other would prepare parothas (fried chapattis). One day it happened that
the disc jockey rushed out on an urgent errand and forgot to turn the disc over. The cook was frying his parothas and ran in to change the record. As his mind was still on the sizzling parotha he nonchalantly told the listeners, 'Now listen to the other side of the parotha'! They were Arjan Singh Virdee and Hazara Singh Virdee, both engineers working at the Cable & Wireless and doing broadcasting stints as additional duties assigned to them.

Among the pioneers of Asian broadcasting were Sardar Mohammed and Jagdish Chui. Then came Musa Ayoob and T N Soni. They were later joined by Pritam Chaggar and Chaman Lal Chaman. The first fulltime Asian engineer to join was Mansoor Rajabali. The Cable & Wireless studios and transmitters were located at Kabete and were providing thirty hours a week of programmes. One cannot forget freelancers like Bhaiya Moorti, Sewa Singh Mandla and Manohar Vaid presenting Phulwari; later on joined by
Bikram Bhamra (popularly known as Bhaiya Bikram) in the children's programme; Sudesh Sharma and Lata Dhiri as continuity part-timers; and Prem Joshi and Mrs Verma presenting Pangat.

Apart from the artists, popular music also featured regularly. Deedar Singh Pardesi, Raghbir Singh Rahi Bains, Bashir Butt, Laeq Butt, Esmail Sheikh, Gurmit Singh Virdee, Sohan Singh Virdi, Ripduman Singh Dhami, Sital Singh Sitara, Ajit Singh Mutlashi, Kehar Singh Matharu and Hari Swaroop Rahi were among those who provided
popular music.

In 1959 when the Government took over the control of broadcasting, the entire team of the South Asian broadcasters• together with the engineers, were absorbed into the
Asian wing of the new Kenya Broadcasting Service. It was then that staff was recruited to serve the extended service of seventy-two hours a week. Bikram Bhamra, Darshi, Lal Chand Sofat, Inderjeet Singh Dhillon, Bahadur Mangrola, Jeevan Vadukul, J. Bhatt, Hafiz Khan, Sudesh Chetan and Ishaq Mirza Qari joined the team.

Other important names were Tochi Chaggar, Olga Ngugi and Usha Jasani who worked as continuity announcers. Joe D'sa presented a weekly Konkani programme.

The first Programme Organizer was David Russell after whose departure Trilok Soni acted in that capacity for some months before Sajjad Shamsi took over. Sajjad
remained in charge of the service for three years before he handed it over to Haroon Ahmed, a seasoned and patriotic journalist. Arvinda Dave was recruited from All India Radio to promote Gujarati programming. A separate news division was created to deal with the language news bulletins. Pritam Chaggar was given responsibility assisted by Lal Chand Sofat. News bulletins were by almost all other presenters in turn. Makhan Singh, a leading trade unionist who fought for the independence of Kenya along with Jomo Kenyatta and other African leaders, and was detained for twelve years, joined VOK in 1961 upon his release from detention. He worked as a translator and prepared news bulletins in Urdu. On his first day at work the new Prime Minister of the Internal Self-Government of Kenya, Jomo Kenyatta (who after independence became the Prime minister of Kenya) was also there in the broadcasting house.

Makhan Singh was later ignominiously frustrated by VOK officials and side-lined by Kenyatta. It is interesting to note that a special effort was made to prepare an in-house directory 'Lexicon' of simple Hindustani words for the smooth and satisfactory running of the service. Justice Chanan Singh, the first Permanent Secretary to President Jomo Kenyatta, was chairman of the Language Committee.

Subsequently, Kenya Broadcasting Service was replaced with a corporation and thereafter once again the government took over its control as Voice of Kenya. 1962 saw the arrival of VOK Television when Musa Ayoob was transferred to the television department as Head of Programme Productions along with Tochi Chaggar as Production Assistant and promoted to the ranks of Director. The notable name that made history as the first English newsreader was Dr Visho Sharma who was later joined by
Yakub Ishaq.

The independence of Kenya brought about many changes in all spheres of life. In broadcasting, gradual programme Africanization was implemented in all departments. The reorganization of the VOK drastically reduced broadcasting hours for the Hindustani service together with a corresponding reduction in staffing levels. Some staff members left broadcasting and migrated to the UK.

Pritam Chaggar certainly took us down memory lane. At the reunion we met all those broadcasters who had reinvented themselves in a new country they now called 'home'.
Tremendous inner strength, tenacity and determination have enabled all these ex-Kenyans to surmount their 'forced' migration to the UK.

Most of them have become involved with local BBC broadcasting stations, or as independent broadcasters. Pritam Chaggar is now a director of his own UK radio station 'Asian Star'. Bikram Bhamra was the first to leave VOK and arrived in the UK in January 1967. Perhaps obsessed with broadcasting, he tried BBC, and though unable to
get a full time job, was taken on a freelance basis by BBC Hindi Service and given occasional roles to play in features and plays. In the early 1970s when BBC was starting local radio stations, he was chosen to present a fortnightly half hour programme called 'Sangam' from BBC Radio Medway, now Radio Kent. Sangam became so popular that it was increased to one hour every Saturday evening.

Pritam presented it from 1973 to 1988, and ventured further. The Asian Programme Unit in Birmingham invited him occasionally to present a weekly programme, 'Apna Hi Ghar Samajhiye' on Radio 2. Then when BBC 2 started telecasting Asian news, he used to read the bulletins on BBC2 TV. And when he moved to Birmingham from London in 1996, BBC Asian Network took him on as a freelancer to present news, music and religious programmes when the regular presenters went on leave or were not available. This continued until 2005 when BBC had to retrench hundreds of its staff. Similarly, when Chaman came to London he presented 'Geet Mala' on Radio Capital; and later on
on Sunrise Radio and Radio Punjabi; in addition to his cultural activities.

The first entertainer to come on stage was Didar Singh Pardesi. I had not recognised him as in my mind, I still had his youthful image of my days in Kenya. He was given his first singing break by VOK having first been rejected as he only played the flute. He was advised to go and learn vocals and try again. He was the first South Asian singer to make records with Philips and went on to sing with notable Bollywood singers. On arriving in the UK he maintained his singing career and now has several albums to his name.

Didar was followed by Raghbir Singh Rahi Bains. Born in India in 1939, he joined his parents in Kenya in 1947. He is tall, handsome and with the regal features of a maharaja. I was able to have a long chat with him. He trained as a teacher in Kenya and taught at the Technical High School in Park Road. There was a big contingent of old boys of the school in the audience and they really applauded their former school teacher.

Raghbir left Kenya in 1967 and came to live in the UK. He studied western classical music as a full time student and sang in many operas. He reverted back to Indian music due to the demand from Asian migrants.

During the proceedings and the lavish dinner served at the Haveli Banqueting Suite, it was exciting for me to mingle with the audience and meet several individuals who were familiar figures to me during the 60s era in Kenya. Notable amongst those was Tocchi Chaggar. She was born in Nairobi and became a child singing star. She was the first South Asian lady to join television and was instrumental in starting programmes like Mambo Leo and Radio Doctor. Tochi was a permanent member of the crew for outside broadcasts with the President of Kenya. She came to the UK in 1986 and made her mark on the broadcasting scene here. In 1990, Tocchi was awarded an Excellence Award for the Best Presenter.

The book, 'Voices of Kenya Union - A History' was launched during the event by the Patron, Nirpal Singh Riat. He stated that he was born in Kenya and that the name of VOK still rings in his ears, as it was then the only media channel available to South Asians. His father Darshan Singh was a regular contributor of poetry from the early Cable and Wireless days. Nirpal's accomplishments in the UK make interesting reading.

The glossy brochure records the history of the VOK from its early days as Cable and Wireless. The broadcasters have collected and incorporated historical photographs and biographical details of most of the staff who worked for this station. Looking through the brochure, there are a number of names one recognises whose voices one heard over the radio once upon a time.

The event, apart from the purpose of a reunion, also provided extra entertainment by a lady singer from India who sang in both a male and female voice. The closing vote of thanks was by Dilbagh Singh Chana. He came from the Punjab to Kenya when he was twelve. He went to school in Nairobi and then did a teacher training course. During this period he became interested in broadcasting and theatre. He was the first Asian to win an Elocution Contest organized by the Kenya Music Festival in 1951. As a result of this he took part in the winners' concert which was broadcast by Cable and Wireless.

Dilbag left Kenya in 1964 to work as a teacher and settled in England where, by taking part in TV discussion programmes like Panorama and Apna Hi Ghar Samajhiey, he became involved in immigration issues. He has been awarded an MBE. Sadly, many of the VOK broadcasters are no longer with us but they have left behind memories of their legendary roles, and photographs to remember them by.

South Asian broadcasting lives on in Kenya. It is a matter of rejoicing that today, the Kenya Asian community is well served by two radio stations, East FM and Sound Asia. New, younger broadcasters are casting themselves in the iconic moulds of their predecessors of the era of 1940s to late 1960s. Whilst this new generation of broadcasters has a plethora of technical gadgetry, their predecessors had hardly any yet enthralled us all.