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African Indentured Labour – a neglected area of national life

Dear Editor,

One of the anomalies of the commemoration of Indentureship in Guyana has been the refusal to acknowledge the role of Africans in the labour system that had been introduced after the Abolition Act of slavery in 1834. People of African Descent (PAD), however, were also recruited as indentured servants:  first, from the West Indies and secondly, directly from Africa. While the system was launched with the arrival of 40 Portuguese Labourers from the island of Madeira starting on May 3, 1835 on the Louisa Baille followed later in the year by another 389, freed PAD’s from the West Indies had also been recruited in that same year when 137 of them arrived. Wages in Guyana (and Trinidad) were much higher than in the islands and the immigrants came voluntarily.

While there were no further Portuguese brought in until 1841, indentured African West Indians continued to pour in: 1427 in 1836 and 2150 in 1837.  In 1838 when 396 Indian Indentureds arrived on the Hesperus and Whitby on May 5 as an “experiment”, another 1266 African West Indians arrived. Most pertinently, however, they were joined by 91 Africans brought directly from West Africa. Research needs to be done in our National Archives to discover when and the name of the ships on which the first of these indentured Africans and PAD West Indians arrived.

African indentureship arose after Britain’s 1807 abolition of its trans-Atlantic slave trade when its navy sometimes intercepted slave ships from other nations that continued the trade to destinations like Cuba and Brazil. They would seize the “Liberated” human cargo and land them in St. Helena or more frequently Sierra Leone or when closer from Brazil, to colonies like Guyana, where they would be indentured. Indian indentureship would be halted until 1845 because the “Gladstone Experiment” was shown to have violated the original agreement. But Indentureds from Africa and the West Indies continued to be brought in. In 1841 when Portuguese indentureship resumed with 4297 Maderians, a further 5645 African West Indians and 1192 Africans arrived as Indentureds.

As the sugar planters bemoaned the cessation of Indian Indentureship after 1838 and worked assiduously for it to resume, they simultaneously pursued immigration from Africa. In 1843 a local ordinance was passed to recompense expenses incurred by ships hired by the British Government to transport Africans to Guyana. This ordinance was modified on order from the British Government which insisted that these African immigrants would be entitled to a return passage after five years of service. These conditions were then extended to any importation of labour from India and China. The return passage was first instituted for immigrants from Africa.

The first African return ship, the HMS Growler left Guyana on Aug 21, 1847 with 121 persons to Sierra Leone. They were from the 2,931 who had been “rescued” between 1841-42. This means that most of the indentured Africans remained in Guyana, like the other immigrant groups – including the PAD West Indians. The Africans and PAD West Indians, however, would have moved from barracks directly into the newly formed villages and settlements of the freed enslaved Guyanese, among whom no new slaves had arrived since 1807. By 1874 when the last 388 “liberated” Africans were liberated into indentureship in Guyana, 13,355 of them had arrived here. These Africans would have never been enslaved. We can hypothesize therefore, that those who chose not to return to Africa brought and practiced their West African cultures. And not facing the same kind of violence from the authorities as had the original enslaved PAD’s prior to 1838, would have been living exemplars of African culture. From the records, some of them ended up in the villages across the coast where we see a higher African cultural retention.

Indentured labour from the West Indies continued with stops and starts as late 1892 by which time an astounding 40,783 had arrived. Even after the abolition of Indian Indentureship in 1917, a new arrangement of “contracted” labour from the West Indies was instituted and a

further 1729 PAD West Indians arrived by 1928 when the system was abolished. These individuals lived in the “Bajan Quarters” on several sugar estates. 607 Indians were also brought in on this “contracted” arrangement.  Analogous to the Indian indentureds, the West Indian PAD Indentureds were immigrants with that cohort’s drive for economic success and it would make an interesting study to test this hypothesis. Anecdotally, the persons from the “Bajan Quarters” in my village of Cashbah, Uitvlugt were noticeably upwardly mobile. There is a record of some conflict between these indentured PAD’s and the ex-slaves because of complaints that they were lowering the wages. When the Police Force was launched in 1839, there was a preference to recruit Barbadians, who the authorities felt, would have less compunction in arresting local PAD’s. We must explore this facet of our history.

Sincerely,

Ravi Dev

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Only now he knows that Africans was brought to British Guiana as indentured labors after the abolition of slavery.

Apologist always amazes ,this man bread and butter comes the Guyana Times ,the owner who made millions by give away from PPP government.

Django

Indian immigrants wanted security; Indo-Guyanese still do

May 7,2021

https://indo-caribbean.com/ind...SvjfeGJZY_jWI5NiW3wU

Ravi-Dev-Guyana-indentureship

This year, Indo-Guyanese commemorated “Indian Arrival Day” on May 5th in a rather restrained manner on account of the COVID 19 pandemic.

But never mind the “official” designation “Arrival Day”, it was “Indian Arrival Day” excepting those who wanted to be politically correct. I doubt there was a single instance of any other group that had come to Guyana as indentured servants, organizing any public commemoration.

I have always suspected that perhaps the other “arrivals” wanted to bury their “degrading” early years, and for this reason, doubted they would ever jump into any “Arrival” activity.

Indo-Guyanese
Photo : Indian Arrival Day Guyana

Just as doggedly, I have always maintained that as Indians commemorate this day on which their ancestors first landed in Guyana, they should focus their thoughts on what “Arrival” should mean. It was because of this insistence that we in Jaguar Committee for Democracy, ROAR and GIHA designated our commemorations as “Indian Arrival Day”, rather than “Indian Immigration Day” as had been the custom before.

So I pose the question once again to Indians, “What should arrival mean to you?” Is the answer simply a matter of geography? That “arrival” means landing at a place called “Guyana”? Observing many of the specific activities organized at the various Melas, Floats, cultural performances etc in previous years, it does appear that most Indians have answered, “Yes” to the question. The motifs of ships and plantation work still abound.

But I posit that if Indians want to know what is “Arrival” and whether they have, “Arrived”, they have to inquire as to why their ancestors left India and what were they seeking. You cannot know whether you have arrived unless you know your destination and what exactly you were seeking.

Indian immigrants were impoverished

The Indians who came to Guyana starting from 1838 were from a wide swathe of North India, but overwhelmingly from the Bhojpuri Belt of Eastern Uttar Pradesh/Bihar and also from the then Madras Presidency in South India. These parts of India were conquered very early on by the British and the devastating consequences of British looting were (and still are) very evident.

Millions of villagers had lost their jobs as the Indian cotton and indigo industries were destroyed by the British who shipped the raw cotton to Lancastershire and forbade the importation of weaving machinery into India. Millions more were thrown off their land as a system of taxation was imposed that tied the output from the land to ownership and production.

Indo-Guyanese

Many do not realise that the word, “loot” entered the English language at this time and that it is a Hindi word from the Bhojpuri dialect. Some who resisted the British depredations were “pacified” by various means – the most popular being uprooting the rebels and relocating them into some remote and desolate region. In fact, the Indian indentureds of the first decade into Guyana that came from Chota Nagpur had been “relocated” into those hills because of sustained anti-British activities.

While there might be all sorts of individual personal reasons, the context for Indians leaving their native land in the 19th century – even though crossing the Kala Pani of the Indian and Atlantic Oceans meant a loss of their social moorings and position – was a total loss of security (in all its forms and manifestations) consequent to British rule. The corollary that follows is that the Indian immigrants to Guyana were seeking that security in Guyana. “Arrival” for Indians then, has to mean security for them, or it means nothing at all: Arrival is not simply a matter of geography but of security.

What is security for the Indian? It is not just a matter of economics as some would have it. Economics is important – Indian culture is very frank on this point: nothing can be achieved unless there is a solid economic base. The indentureship system – and the capitalist system as a whole that the Indians were inserted into – emphasised the economic drive but security fundamentally meant living in a harmonious society where all the four goals of the life – physical, social and spiritual realised through the performance of ones’ duties – could be achieved.

The armed forces must be racially-balanced

“Security” for the Indian, therefore, means that each person has a duty to work to ensure that his society as a whole is secure through the creation of a just order. The Indian has an organic view of society where each part has to work cooperatively and harmoniously to ensure the security of the whole: literally, “no man is an island”. On “Indian Arrival Day”, therefore, Indians have to ask: how secure are they today in Guyana, where so many of their forefathers decided to call “home”? And that security includes the security of all Guyana.

It was for this reason when, since the late 1980s, we called for the recognition of the underlying structural problems in the society, we did not just talk about the “Indian Security Dilemma” grounded in their physical insecurity but also of the “African Security Dilemma” based on their exclusion from the Executive under our majoritorian rules. When we proposed the professionalizing of the Disciplined Forces, we never called for there to be an “Indian Force” but for there to be a Guyanese Force that would reflect the population of all Guyana, and would address the security concerns of all Guyana.

When we talked of a “New Political Culture”, we proposed a culture that would insist on the recognition of diversity while ensuring that that diversity be represented in all our national institutions – including the State. When we spoke of economic security we proposed a model that would recognise the idiosyncrasies introduced by our historical experiences and ensure that the rising tide of economic growth raise the ships of all the groups in Guyana.

Today, because of the changing demographics, all ethnic groups are now minorities and the African Ethnic Security Dilemma has been addressed. Not so the Indian Ethnic Security Dilemma.

So we return to our question: what should “Arrival” mean to Indians? It should mean in a nutshell, asking if we have played our role in ensuring that a just and harmonious society has been created. If we believe that such a society has been created, then we have arrived. If it has not, then we have to do all in our power to make such a society a reality.

Read More Articles From Ravi Dev

Django

Indian immigrants wanted security; Indo-Guyanese still do



Nothing wrong with this ,it's been on the limelight for a long time ,why was no attempt made to implement such.

Are Indo-Guyanese only secured when an Indo-Guyanese is head of the country ?

Django

The Indian that Ravi conceptualizes does not exist.  It has been almost 200 years since our ancestors were removed from India.  Those years have brought so many changes that the Guyanese Indian bears little resemblance to their foreparents.  Yes, there are some physical and cultural similarities but not of the magnitude imagined by Ravi .  He sees at least two distinct societies in modern day Guyana--African and Indian.  The concept of a distinct society has been used to describe Quebec.  It is a more apt description of Quebec with its distict history and language.  How is the Guyanese Indian different from the Guyanese African?  Language?Religion?Food? Territory? Race?  The latter would be very interesting.  With services like "23 and me" one could easily get a glimpse of their biological make up.  What would Guyanese find?  Ravi's concept of the "Indian" could not possibly be based on biological race so he must be thinking that it is socially determined as many scholars now see it.  As I have described, a Guyanese Indian so determined bears little resemblance to those who were taken from India two centuries ago.

T
Last edited by Totaram
@Ramakant-P posted:

Enough of this shit.  The PPP is doing quite a lot for afro_guyanese who do not want to be called Africans.

Yeh like firing 1500 of them. Where are the developments, where Afro-Guyanese live?

Mitwah
Last edited by Mitwah
@Django posted:

Only now he knows that Africans was brought to British Guiana as indentured labors after the abolition of slavery.

Apologist always amazes ,this man bread and butter comes the Guyana Times ,the owner who made millions by give away from PPP government.

Don't cut up Ravi Dev. He fought against the PPP and allowed the Coalition to win the election in 2015 by one seat. There are many like Ravi Dev who fought against the PPP and were discarded by the Coalition.

R
@Ramakant-P posted:

Don't cut up Ravi Dev. He fought against the PPP and allowed the Coalition to win the election in 2015 by one seat. There are many like Ravi Dev who fought against the PPP and were discarded by the Coalition.

For awhile he is back in the fold of the PPP. Ramothar put a good tongue lashing on him in one of the election campaign. I was never impressed with him ,he is class mates with some of my friends. I listened to him at a meeting around the latter half of the 90's in New York .

Django
Last edited by Django
@Django posted:

For awhile he is back in the fold of the PPP. Ramothar put a good tongue lashing on him in one of the election campaign. I was never impressed with him ,he is class mates with some of my friends. I listened to him at a meeting around the latter half of the 90's in New York .

I think he was a teacher in Berbice in the 70s and everyone knew him as Dev.

FM
@Ramakant-P posted:

Don't cut up Ravi Dev. He fought against the PPP and allowed the Coalition to win the election in 2015 by one seat. There are many like Ravi Dev who fought against the PPP and were discarded by the Coalition.

You really need to start eating blueberry again. Ravi Dev did not have a party in 2015.

FM
@Totaram posted:

The Indian that Ravi conceptualizes does not exist.  It has been almost 200 years since our ancestors were removed from India.  Those years have brought so many changes that the Guyanese Indian bears little resemblance to their foreparents.  Yes, there are some physical and cultural similarities but not of the magnitude imagined by Ravi .  He sees at least two distinct societies in modern day Guyana--African and Indian.  The concept of a distinct society has been used to describe Quebec.  It is a more apt description of Quebec with its distict history and language.  How is the Guyanese Indian different from the Guyanese African?  Language?Religion?Food? Territory? Race?  The latter would be very interesting.  With services like "23 and me" one could easily get a glimpse of their biological make up.  What would Guyanese find?  Ravi's concept of the "Indian" could not possibly be based on biological race so he must be thinking that it is socially determined as many scholars now see it.  As I have described, a Guyanese Indian so determined bears little resemblance to those who were taken from India two centuries ago.

They go out, blacks and Indos, and express their differences at the ballot box. They vote overwhelmingly for dem mattie. That is not a trivial difference. What has changed since the Jagdeo years was the ability to reach out to other groups since neither core group exceeds 50%. Granger reached out through a coalition (a noble deed) but once power was attained he went about empowering his mattie at the expense of others. Jagdeo-Iraan reaches out through raw patronage and tokenism. Jagdeo is yet to prove he can get black votes in large numbers, but he is able to pull on average a solid 25% of the mixed voters and 60% of Amerindians. That's enough to make them win and they will win for a long time to come. Jagdeo is willing to spend any amount of Afros if they come in the fold. He purchases support. A lot of mixed and Amerindians are willing to sell and they are rewarded handsomely.

Right now talk to any Guyanese who votes PPP. They are now in the lesser-of-two-evil mode. They recognize both large parties are evil, but they reason one less so than the other. Tek dat!

FM
@Ramakant-P posted:

Ravi Dev's baby was the Indian Arrival Day celebration and movement. When he received 20,000 followers he thought he can become a Political Leader with a view of becoming an arm of the PPP.

There was never 20,000 followers ,in 2001 Elections ROAR received 3,695 votes , 1 Top Up Seat in Parliament. In 2006 Elections ROAR joined with GAP received 4,249 votes ,1 Top Up Seat in Parliament.

Django

It has become a game. The PNC needs to recognize that. If not, it is slow death for the Party. And in desperation, they could do one more thing. Bring out their kith and kin which has a definite root as letter writer stated. I fear it could happen as a last act of desperation-kill as many people as they can. That scenerio has been creeping along since 1964, each incident a little more bold than the last one.

Now, there is alot of rhetoric on their part-perhaps stoking the hatred.

S
@Former Member posted:

They go out, blacks and Indos, and express their differences at the ballot box. They vote overwhelmingly for dem mattie. That is not a trivial difference. What has changed since the Jagdeo years was the ability to reach out to other groups since neither core group exceeds 50%. Granger reached out through a coalition (a noble deed) but once power was attained he went about empowering his mattie at the expense of others. Jagdeo-Iraan reaches out through raw patronage and tokenism.

Jagdeo is yet to prove he can get black votes in large numbers, but he is able to pull on average a solid 25% of the mixed voters and 60% of Amerindians. That's enough to make them win and they will win for a long time to come.

Jagdeo is willing to spend any amount of Afros if they come in the fold. He purchases support. A lot of mixed and Amerindians are willing to sell and they are rewarded handsomely.

Right now talk to any Guyanese who votes PPP. They are now in the lesser-of-two-evil mode. They recognize both large parties are evil, but they reason one less so than the other. Tek dat!

We shall see if the PPP will be there forever . Jagdeo started the massive rigging from 2015 ,there is a pattern of illegal voting in the PPP strongholds and Amerindian areas, aided by bloated voters list. That was proven by an analysis from 2011 to 2020 Elections for each divisional ballot boxes in all regions . Indo-Guyanese are comfortable with the rigging ,the same that was castigated during the Burnham years.

Django
@Django posted:

We shall see if the PPP will be there forever . Jagdeo started the massive rigging from 2015 ,there is a pattern of illegal voting in the PPP strongholds and Amerindian areas, aided by bloated voters list. That was proven by an analysis from 2011 to 2020 Elections for each divisional ballot boxes in all regions . Indo-Guyanese are comfortable with the rigging ,the same that was castigated during the Burnham years.

How they rig it massively? Well...they can get dead people off, but they cannot remove people who migrated so said Burnham constitution. If PPP supporters are indeed going back in larger numbers to vote, that is not rigging. I don't see how they can rig polling stations in their strong hold when PNC and AFC cover all the stations and they have no guarantee that GECOM will pick a PPP person to run the station. EAB also covers many stations. 

FM
@Former Member posted:

How they rig it massively? Well...they can get dead people off, but they cannot remove people who migrated so said Burnham constitution.

If PPP supporters are indeed going back in larger numbers to vote, that is not rigging. I don't see how they can rig polling stations in their strong hold when PNC and AFC cover all the stations and they have no guarantee that GECOM will pick a PPP person to run the station. EAB also covers many stations.

The method used is uncovered , dirty tricks does come to light one day ,there is a handle on it for future elections. The large numbers of PPP supporters returning to vote ,may be a pie in the sky.

Django
@Django posted:

The method used is uncovered , dirty tricks does come to light one day ,there is a handle on it for future elections. The large numbers of PPP supporters returning to vote ,may be a pie in the sky.

Yeah...many Brooklynites and Atlantaites when back to vote. No one really knows which tribe went back the most.

FM
@Django posted:

There was never 20,000 followers ,in 2001 Elections ROAR received 3,695 votes , 1 Top Up Seat in Parliament. In 2006 Elections ROAR joined with GAP received 4,249 votes ,1 Top Up Seat in Parliament.

That was Ravi dev;'s mistake. He thought all 20,000 Indians would have voted for him by he was wrong. I also told that the Kidmost but he also thought that sentiments for Indian arrivals would be the same for political sentiments. You must have noted that any Politician who left the PPP did not carry with them Indian votes.  That is why TK got kicked out from the Coalition.

R
@Ramakant-P posted:

That was Ravi dev;'s mistake. He thought all 20,000 Indians would have voted for him by he was wrong. I also told that the Kidmost but he also thought that sentiments for Indian arrivals would be the same for political sentiments.

You must have noted that any Politician who left the PPP did not carry with them Indian votes.

That is why TK got kicked out from the Coalition.

Me thinks Ravi ,started his own party when he went back to Guyana ,perhaps he was PPP supporter before leaving Guyana. I can recall he was on the stage with Hoyte at a public meeting in Georgetown .

Django

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