From the land of Pashtuns to the land of Maa

From the Land of Pashtuns to the Land of Maa: Memoir (2013) Kenyan-born Khan traces his father’s journey from his village in India (now within Pakistan) to Kenya in 1929, alone, at the age of 18 after a family dispute.

Here is the story of migration, of Khan’s father and other Pashtuns (mainly from the Punjab Province of Pakistan), to the Maasai tribal lands in rural Kenya. His father, Juma Khan, raised 18 children from two wives: the first was a Maasai woman who assumed a Muslim name after marriage, and the second was the daughter of a Pakistani father and Maasai mother. It was a time of colonial rule when mixed marriages – and children from them – were regarded with discrimination.