The Sunee Surtee Muslim Diaspora; In Search of My Roots, from Mauritius and Beyond: By Anwar Youssouf Cara

SUNEE SURTEE DIASPORA: GOING BACKGROUND FROM MAURITIUS AND ABOVE.

This book has taken over fifty years to prepare. From the time Anwar Youssouf Cara first began research into his family history to the actual completed manuscript. But the Muslim diaspora of Sunee Surtee began many centuries earlier. Prof. Dr. Ghulam Vahed’s introduction lays out the background of the Sunee Surtee Muslims’ migration.  The book describes how the Kara family became traders, moved to Mauritius, and eventually made their mark all over the world. The author invites the reader to discover the history of his grandfather, Ahmad Muhammad Kara, who migrated to Mauritius at the age of twenty, and at the same time encourages them to undertake their own research.

This is a story of pain and happiness, as it took a long time to progress the search.  It was not until many years later that developments led to the opportunity to meet with long-lost cousins in Mauritius, South Africa, India, and the United Kingdom. Though the author heard about the village of Lajpore in India, where his grandfather was born, it took two trips and at least twenty years before he was finally able to travel to the village. However, once his family home was discovered, new avenues of research were opened up, and an unexpected encounter, thousands of miles away from home, led to a surprising discovery.

ANWAR YOUSSOUF CARA was born in 1949 and was educated in Mauritius.
In 1983, he joined the audio-visual department of the Islamic Foundation, Leicester, United Kingdom, where he produced a range of Islamic audio-visual presentations. He worked with actor and producer Zia Mohyeddin and the famous singer and songwriter Cat Stevens (Yusuf Islam) to produce an album of Muslim stories for children. Anwar Cara became an assistant editor of children’s books with the Islamic Foundation and is himself the author of two children’s books. He also served as Sales and Production Manager and is currently working as a consultant in publishing. He is a founding member of the Human Welfare League.
The Human Welfare League (HWL), founded in Mauritius in 2016, is a social organization. Its main objective is to change society through training and education at its highest level in order to eliminate cultural barriers and enable people to live in peace and harmony.

The League has set itself four objectives: training, publishing, research, and the integration of knowledge.