Blanche D’Souza’s book is a most direct statement on ‘brown man’s’ transcripts over thousands of years of trade, labour and migrations for settlements against a pervading backdrop of Arab, British and Portuguese rivalries in the Indian Ocean. In this wake Harnessing the Trade Winds adds to plural historical perspectives, in that the text upholds the value of diversity that shapes the identities and self-knowledge of the peoples of Asia and Africa. It challenges those who hold the political reigns and direct policy, on education as well as race relations.