Fitz Remedios Santana de Souza
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Fitzval Remedios Santana Neville de Souza (1929 – 23 March 2020), often known as Dr. F. R. S. de Souza and Fitz de Souza, was a Kenyan lawyer and politician who was an important figure in the campaign for independence for
Kenya ) , national_anthem = "Ee Mungu Nguvu Yetu"() , image_map = , map_caption = , image_map2 = , capital = Nairobi , coordinates = , largest_city = Nairobi , ...
, a member of the Kenyan parliament in the 1960s and
Deputy Speaker The speaker of a deliberative assembly, especially a legislative body, is its presiding officer, or the chair. The title was first used in 1377 in England. Usage The title was first recorded in 1377 to describe the role of Thomas de Hungerf ...
for several years. He helped provide a legal defence for those accused of Mau Mau activities including the
Kapenguria Six The Kapenguria Six – Bildad Kaggia, Kung'u Karumba, Jomo Kenyatta, Fred Kubai, Paul Ngei, and Achieng' Oneko – were six leading Kenyan nationalists who were arrested in 1952, tried at Kapenguria in 1952–53, and imprisoned thereafter in No ...
, and he was one of the people involved in the Lancaster House conferences held to draw up a constitutional framework for Kenyan independence.


Biography

Born to a
Goa Goa () is a state on the southwestern coast of India within the Konkan region, geographically separated from the Deccan highlands by the Western Ghats. It is located between the Indian states of Maharashtra to the north and Karnataka to the ...
n family in Mumbai, de Souza lived in
Zanzibar Zanzibar (; ; ) is an insular semi-autonomous province which united with Tanganyika in 1964 to form the United Republic of Tanzania. It is an archipelago in the Indian Ocean, off the coast of the mainland, and consists of many small islands ...
before settling in Kenya in 1942. Fitz de Souza took a first degree in England and trained as a
barrister A barrister is a type of lawyer in common law jurisdictions. Barristers mostly specialise in courtroom advocacy and litigation. Their tasks include taking cases in superior courts and tribunals, drafting legal pleadings, researching law and ...
at
Lincoln's Inn The Honourable Society of Lincoln's Inn is one of the four Inns of Court in London to which barristers of England and Wales belong and where they are called to the Bar. (The other three are Middle Temple, Inner Temple and Gray's Inn.) Lincoln ...
. As a young man in 1952 he joined a team of lawyers from various
Commonwealth A commonwealth is a traditional English term for a political community founded for the common good. Historically, it has been synonymous with "republic". The noun "commonwealth", meaning "public welfare, general good or advantage", dates from the ...
countries, including the British barrister
Denis Nowell Pritt Denis Nowell Pritt, QC (22 September 1887 – 23 May 1972) was a British barrister and left-wing Labour Party politician. Born in Harlesden, Middlesex, he was educated at Winchester College and the University of London. A member of the Labou ...
and other lawyers educated in England but not born there, defending Kenyans accused of Mau Mau activities by the British colonial administration, in a series of trials including that of
Jomo Kenyatta Jomo Kenyatta (22 August 1978) was a Kenyan anti-colonial activist and politician who governed Kenya as its Prime Minister from 1963 to 1964 and then as its first President from 1964 to his death in 1978. He was the country's first indigenous ...
. Feelings in the country were running high, with some settlers of European ancestry disrupting any legal process for people they considered assassins, while other people in Kenya were convinced of bad faith amongst those involved in the all-white British prosecution. In this atmosphere, de Souza and an
Asian Asian may refer to: * Items from or related to the continent of Asia: ** Asian people, people in or descending from Asia ** Asian culture, the culture of the people from Asia ** Asian cuisine, food based on the style of food of the people from Asi ...
colleague faced implied allegations of 'encouraging' defendants to criticise police witnesses, but judges at the
East African Court of Appeal The East African Court of Appeal (EACA) was a court which served as the appellate court for the British colonies in eastern Africa and west Asia. The court was established in 1902 as the Eastern African Court of Appeal and was the appellate court ...
supported them, praising their assistance to the court. For part of the 1950s Fitz de Souza was studying for a PhD at the
London School of Economics , mottoeng = To understand the causes of things , established = , type = Public research university , endowment = £240.8 million (2021) , budget = £391.1 millio ...
and was politically active both there and in Kenya. His doctoral thesis was on "Indian Political Organization in East Africa" (1959). He knew Kenyatta and was a major figure in the movement towards an independent Kenya. He has been described during this period both as a "freedom fighter" and as someone "organiz ngAfricans and Asians against the colour bar". In the early 1960s he was a legal adviser at the Lancaster House conferences in London where Kenyatta and the Kenyans worked with the UK Colonial Secretary,
Reginald Maudling Reginald Maudling (7 March 1917 – 14 February 1979) was a British politician who served as Chancellor of the Exchequer from 1962 to 1964 and as Home Secretary from 1970 to 1972. From 1955 until the late 1960s, he was spoken of as a prospecti ...
, and his team to develop a constitution for the country. In 2001 de Souza told the Constitution of Kenya Review Commission why he felt the Lancaster House Constitution had been a good constitutional framework, and expressed his disagreement with some subsequent changes, especially the re-introduction of detention without trial. The Ministry of Overseas Indian Affairs has described him as making "a principled exit from public life in the 70s". De Souza was an elected member of the Kenyan Parliament even before full independence in 1963, and Deputy Speaker of the Lower House from June 1963. He left this post in 1970, spent many years in private practice, before becoming semi-retired. He was married with four grown-up children. In 2004 he was given a ''Pravasi Bharatiya Samman'' award alongside other people honoured for their "outstanding contribution to the understanding of the Indian civilisation and for advancing India's cause abroad" at a conference opened by the Indian prime minister and organised with the aim of "bringing together the Indian
Diaspora A diaspora ( ) is a population that is scattered across regions which are separate from its geographic place of origin. Historically, the word was used first in reference to the dispersion of Greeks in the Hellenic world, and later Jews after ...
and leveraging the potential offered by the Global Indian Family". 2005 brought a different kind of publicity when a
Pulitzer prize The Pulitzer Prize () is an award for achievements in newspaper, magazine, online journalism, literature, and musical composition within the United States. It was established in 1917 by provisions in the will of Joseph Pulitzer, who had made h ...
-winning book written by
Caroline Elkins Caroline Elkins (American, born Caroline Fox, 1969) is Professor of History and African and African American Studies at Harvard University, the Thomas Henry Carroll/Ford Foundation Professor of Business Administration at Harvard Business School, ...
, an associate professor at
Harvard Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher le ...
, quoted a "respected attorney in
Nairobi Nairobi ( ) is the capital and largest city of Kenya. The name is derived from the Maasai phrase ''Enkare Nairobi'', which translates to "place of cool waters", a reference to the Nairobi River which flows through the city. The city proper ha ...
", de Souza, as believing that at least one hundred thousand
Kikuyu Kikuyu or Gikuyu (Gĩkũyũ) mostly refers to an ethnic group in Kenya or its associated language. It may also refer to: * Kikuyu people, a majority ethnic group in Kenya *Kikuyu language, the language of Kikuyu people *Kikuyu, Kenya, a town in Cent ...
disappeared at the time of Mau Mau, in "a form of ethnic cleansing on the part of the British government". These figures have been challenged by John Darwin, a fellow of
Nuffield College Nuffield College () is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in England. It is a graduate college and specialises in the social sciences, particularly economics, politics and sociology. Nuffield is one of Oxford's newer co ...
, and lecturer on the History of the British Commonwealth at the
University of Oxford , mottoeng = The Lord is my light , established = , endowment = £6.1 billion (including colleges) (2019) , budget = £2.145 billion (2019–20) , chancellor ...
.''The Times Higher Education Supplement'', 30 September 2005 In December 2006, Commissioner for Non Resident Indian affairs (Government of Goa) Eduardo Faleiro announced that de Souza would be one of the eight persons to be honoured during the Global Goans Convention. It was held from 3–5 January 2007. The awards, for the first time, were being given to "eminent non-resident Goans and persons of Goan origin." De Souza and his wife Romola had two sons and two daughters. He died on 23 March 2020 in London.


References


History of the Parliament of Kenya
*Caroline Elkins, '' Imperial Reckoning: The Untold Story of Britain's Gulag in Kenya'' (Owl Books, paperback edition, 2005) *David Anderson, ''Histories of the Hanged: The Dirty War in Kenya and the End of Empire'' (2005)
FRS de Souza, ''Building on the Lancaster House Experience''
presented to the 'Constitution of Kenya Review Commission Workshop' in September 2001


Further reading


Elkins and her research
{{DEFAULTSORT:Souza, Fitz Remedios Santana de 1929 births 2020 deaths Indian emigrants to Kenya Kenyan politicians of Indian descent Alumni of the London School of Economics Kenyan people of Goan descent Members of the National Assembly (Kenya) Kenyan people of Indian descent