May is East Indian Indentureship month:
Indentureship – Guyana Sugar Burning
On May 5th, 1838, after the abolition of slavery in the British Caribbean, the first group of East Indians set foot in the Americas arriving on the Whitby, a British ship, where 244 Indians set foot in Guyana.
The journey to the New World begun on January 13th 1838, from the Calcutta port with 249 Indians, and lasted 5 long months, traveling half way around the world, from the Indian Ocean, around Africa and then up into the Atlantic Ocean and then to the waters of Guyana. The long voyage across the oceans brought seasick, hunger and diseases to the Indians on board the ship, where 5 people had died and only 5 females arrived alive.
Shortly after the arrival of the Whitby in Guyana, another ship known as the Hesperus, which left India on January 29th 1838, arrived in Guyana with another 165 Indians, where only 6 females arrived alive and 13 Indians died at sea. Read the complete article here: (http://www.cariwave.com/East_Indian_Indentureship.htm)
Kala Pani Crossing: Indentureship
May 5, 2012
KALA PANI CROSSING: INDENTURESHIP – GUYANA
THE VIDEOS YOU ARE ABOUT TO SEE WERE MADE POSSIBLE BY THE SKILLS OF THEN 13 YEAR OLD STAYON CHARLES, WHO USED THE EQUIPMENT OF HIS UNCLE CAPTAIN MIKE CHARLES OF GUYANA.
THE INTERVIEW WAS CONDUCTED IN THE HOME OF THE LATE MOSES RAMPERSHAD IN 1999 WHEN HE WAS 102 YEARS OLD. HE WAS BORN ON FEBRUARY 26, 1897 AT BLENHEIM, LEGUAN, GUYANA TO BIRJAH AND TOOLSEA WHO WERE INDENTURED SERVANTS FROM CALCUTTA AT THE TIME. HIS NAME AT BIRTH WAS SUKHOO BUT DIED AS MOSES RAMPERSHAD AT HERSTELLING, GUYANA AT THE AGE OF 103.
THE INTERVIEW WAS RATHER IMPROMPTU, BUT HOPEFULLY WILL GENERATE SOME INTEREST AND RESEARCH IN SOME OF THE AREAS THAT WERE TOUCHED UPON BYRAMNARINE SAHADEO(RAMJI) PRACTICING LAWYER INTHE GREATER TORONTO AREA.
RAMJI HAD NO IDEA OF THE IMPORTANCE OF THIS UNIQUE INTERVIEW WITH SOMEONE WHO HAD ACTUALLY CROSSED THE KALA PANI TWICE AND STILL REMEMBERS IN DETAIL SOME OF THE CONDITIONS ABOARD THE SHIPS THAT BROUGHT ABOUT HALF A MILLION INDIANS AND THE VALUES OF THE ANCIENT VEDIC CIVILIZATION TO THE WEST.
WE HOPE THAT YOU WILL ENJOY THIS AND PASS IT ON TO OTHERS :
Part 1
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DJkavSG7tJQ
Part 2
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xPR6i0bj6UQ
Part 3
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MEX2pTvptZY
Par 4
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pGRvNut_sK0
Part 5
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Agk19m_uBVY
********
COOLIES – How Britain re-invented SLAVERY
This story tells you how England “contracted” people from India to replace the blacks. These Indians were tricked into leaving India to go to Guyana, Fiji & Africa. One man is looking for any sign of his great grandfather who came to Guyana. Another man also looks for his roots in Fiji. Indians are dealing with SOME of the same circumstances that the Africans endured in slavery.
Part 1
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JMQbUajiIv4&feature=related
Part 2
http://www.youtube.com/watch?NR=1&feature=endscreen&v=t0ndZALZCFc
Part 3
http://www.youtube.com/watch?NR=1&v=O-J2ZPhpkLo&feature=endscreen
Part 4
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OfU9iQCThsE&feature=relmfu
Part 5
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5YO7bK5sXvQ&feature=relmfu
I sincerely appreciate your consideration of this post to mark this important event in the history of Guyana.
— Submitted by Leonard Dabydeen
Comments
This story is so interesting I feel so emotional when listening to this gentleman of 102 years relating his story of how his ancestors came to live in Guyana.
I was told my Indian, great grandmother married a plantation owner, Cyril Copeland Roberts,( ancestry Scotish), he used the dowry to purchase Cove and John Plantation. They had 7 children. They also built a home for homeless girls in Enmore…I am hoping that someone reading this story will contact me. I would love to know more.