Shar­lene Ram­per­sad

They came clutch­ing re­minders of their home­land wrapped in bright­ly coloured cot­ton, hud­dled to­geth­er on a boat, fear­ful yet ex­cit­ed for the land and ad­ven­tures that lay ahead and hope­ful that they would find a bet­ter life for them­selves.

Step­ping off the Fa­tel Raza­ck af­ter a per­ilous three-month jour­ney across the seas, the 200 or so East In­di­an in­den­tured labour­ers were screened by lo­cal im­mi­gra­tion as their tasks on the plan­ta­tions of this strange land were to be­gin soon.

The East In­di­an in­den­tured labour­ers came to Trinidad in ships by the thou­sands from 1845 to 1917 af­ter African slaves fled the sug­ar­cane and co­coa plan­ta­tions and es­tate own­ers turned to In­dia for cheap im­mi­grant labour.

Yes­ter­day, mem­bers of the Fyz­abad con­stituen­cy of­fice of MP Dr Lack­ram Bo­doe re-en­act­ed the ar­rival, com­plete with tas­sa drum­mers at the Mos­qui­to Creek in La Ro­maine.

The ac­tors who played the parts of labour­ers bowed to the earth when they reached dry land, as their an­ces­tors would have done 171 years ago to show their grat­i­tude for a safe ar­rival.

They were quick­ly ac­cost­ed by Micheal Chat­ter­goon, who played the part of the dread­ed im­mi­gra­tion of­fi­cer and would de­cide if any among them was to be sent back to their home­land.

Sookram Mungroo, whose grand­fa­ther came as an in­den­tured labour­er in 1906, car­ried with him the Hin­du holy book, the Ra­mayan­na.

Mungroo spoke of the times on the sea, as he delved in­to his char­ac­ter's life. "We came here with the bless­ing of God and we are hap­py to be here," he said. "We had some hard­ships on the way but we will not think of that now, we will look to the fu­ture."

Re­bec­ca Ab­der, one of the two women in the cast, was more forth­com­ing about the strug­gles the labour­ers faced on their jour­ney. "A lot of peo­ple got sick, some of them even died and their bod­ies were thrown over­board," she lament­ed. "A woman even gave birth at sea, it was not an easy ex­pe­ri­ence. I am pray­ing now that things go well for our peo­ple in this land."

While it would take an­oth­er 72 years for in­den­ture­ship to be brought to an end in Trinidad, the labour­ers per­se­vered through the hard­ships to make a bet­ter life for their fam­i­ly. Many of them, like Mungroo's grand­fa­ther, chose to stay in Trinidad af­ter their pe­ri­od of in­den­ture­ship was over. Those labour­ers, both Mus­lims and Hin­dus, passed on their re­li­gious tra­di­tions and their rich in­flu­ence is now a part of T&T's cul­ture. The re-en­act­ment end­ed with a mo­tor­cade.