Dewjee Parpia
- Merchant piece goods
- Parents
- Siblings
- Children
- Peera Dewjee 1841–1904
It was Dewjee Parpia who brought the family to Zanzibar somewhere around 1850.
Family tradition says Peera Dewjee’s father, Dewjee Parpia, settled in Zanzibar in the early 1850s taking his wife and family with him. Three younger sons, Rashid in 1853, Hasham and Allaya, were born in Zanzibar, so he would have settled in 1853 at the very latest, when Peera was eleven or twelve
"It is likely that Peera’s father, Dewjee Parpia, started as a pedlar or general trader selling ‘piece goods’ and small manufactured items. Indian dyed or patterned cottons cut up into short lengths suitable for making a single garment, had long been the most popular traded item to East Africa and were known as ‘piece goods.’ Other traditional Indian exports to East Africa included foodstuffs, particularly cooking oil, rice and ghee, and manufactured goods such as beads, metalware and earthenware pots. There was also a market for a variety of small luxury items such as hand mirrors, oil lamps and perfumes - indeed anything which could easily be transported from British India and exchanged in Zanzibar and along the African coast and bring a profit to the trader."
The Sultan's Spymaster – by Judy Aldrick pg 32
