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Tears in Paradise
The world may be unaware of the horrors perpetrated on Indian indentured labourers in Fiji by their colonial masters but a book by the descendant of one such victim lays bare the ugly truth hidden in the sugarcane fields |
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The hill above our home is grazing land and it overlooks the river, the valley and, in the far distance, to the west, south and east, the unbroken ‘Karia Pahaad,’ the Black Mountain range. The mountains stand like a fortress overlooking a large part of the Ba district, and in the north is the Pacific Ocean. Here and there majestic waterfalls punctuate the Black Mountains; otherwise they sleep under a blanket of darkness from one end to the other. Once, in the distant haze, the mountains looked black when they were thickly vegetated with mostly exotic tropical trees and plants. Now, in the evenings, family members sometimes ascend the hill to capture the refreshing view of the Ba River. The unbroken green canopy of the sugarcane spreads like a huge carpet up to the foothills of the Black Mountain ranges.
I have often stood on this hill above our home. Even in sorrow, it has a refreshing and recuperative effect. Yet it is the sugarcane fields that have constantly gripped my attention. Behind the beauty lies sadness, both profound and intense. Look at the sugarcane fields from high ground. There is an eeriness emanating from their silence. Walk through the narrow tracks, shadowed by cane stalks with dry leaves at the stems and thick green foliage at the top, dancing to the rhythm of the wind. Even in stillness, one can almost feel the powerful presence of the spirits of sorrow and grief exuding from these sugarcane fields. They are the spirits of our ancestors.
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| The sugar industry in Fiji was established with the blood, sweat and tears of our ancestors. The majority worked on the sugarcane plantations or the mills owned by the CSR Company |
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The sugar industry in Fiji was established with the blood, sweat and tears of our ancestors. The majority worked on the sugarcane plantations or the mills owned by the CSR Company. The overwhelming number of girmitiyas were Hindu. Hinduism assertively claims that the spirits of those who die in tragic circumstances do not find a resting place. The spirits of the dead become part of that environment. Indenture was that tragic period.
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April 2006
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