Moyez G. Vassanji’s forefathers were Khoja-Ismaili who migrated from Gujarat, in India, to East Africa. Usually described as a religious group which values the teaching of both Hindu gurus and Moslem pirs, the members of this fundamentally entrepreneurial community played a vital role in enabling the commercial expansion of the British Empire into East Africa. Vassanji was born in Kenya but spent his growing years in Tanzania. He attended M. I. T at Boston and settled in Canada thereafter in 1978. His personal identity has therefore been shaped by experiences of multiple locations. Vassanji’s creative fiction predominantly focuses upon reconstructing the multi-generational history of the Ismaili Khoja community, whose collective history has been constituted by a series of historical…
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Citation: Pandurang, Mala. "The Book of Secrets". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 04 March 2021 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=28184, accessed 14 December 2024.]