Olive was born in Nairobi, Kenya during the Second World War. Her parents were from Goa in India, so she was brought up a Catholic in a British Imperial system, which she describes as a “semi-Apartheid’ system, wherein the Asians lived within their own communities, the White people had their own areas, the Black people had their own”.
Olive trained as a teacher and worked in Kenyan schools for 10 years. After Kenyan independence in 1963, there was a period of ‘Africanisation’, and she had the choice to take a Kenyan passport or a British ‘D’ (Dominion) passport. She chose a British passport.
Olive came to Exeter in February 1968 with her husband-to-be, Albert. They went on to work as teachers in Devon, and had one son, Gerard.
Olivia Hall and Abigail Mureva interviewed her at her home in Exeter in February 2013. Read the transcript. To hear the extracts, click on the ‘play’ button. Read the full transcript.
Extract 1
Olive talks of her first memories of Exeter in February 1968.
Extract 2
Working at Countess Wear Primary school in the 1970s, Olive talks of her experience with difference and racism
Extract 3
Olive talks about identity
Extract 4
British food since 1968
Extract 5
Olivia asks Olive for a message to Exeter.