Equal Opportunity Tribunal (EOT) Chair Donna Prowell-Raphael says Indian Arrival Day should be a reminder that society will flourish with unity and equality if people work to build it with those values.
In a statement, she said, “Indian Arrival Day commemorates the arrival of our ancestors aboard the Fatel Razack in 1845, the first ship to bring Indian indentured labourers to these shores.”
She noted that the people who journeyed together formed bonds beyond family ties. “A particular bondage developed among them – a human relation stronger than even blood relation – the survivors called each other as Jahajis and Jahajins – ship brothers and ship sisters.”
Prowell-Raphael pointed to the 1995 calypso Jahaji Bhai by Brother Marvin, which highlighted that the legacies of indentureship and slavery “bind together two races in unity.”
She said, “Despite their different origins, India and Africa, both groups have shaped the rich cultural montage of Trinidad: ‘No more Mother Africa, No more Mother India, just Mother Trini."
Originally used to describe a bond among Indian indentured labourers, the idea of the “Brotherhood of the Boat,” she said, can be extended to all who came or were brought to this land, including “the native settlers who were the first inhabitants, the enslaved Africans who were brought here against their will… and many other migrants.”
Prowell-Raphael added that the labour and entrepreneurship of all communities “have built the industries and markets that sustain us,” while acknowledging challenges such as “social divisions, economic disparities, and political tensions often drawn along ethnic lines.”
She said the “spirit of the ‘Brotherhood of the Boat’ endures,” seen in the blended cultures, languages, music, and traditions. She added that the country is beginning to show “hopeful signs that people are starting to come together in new ways to work beyond old divides.”
“As a judicial arbiter of equal opportunity and non-discrimination,” she said, “we recognise that such complexity calls for a legal framework that goes beyond rigid traditions to embrace inclusivity and unity.”
Prowell-Raphael said, “Let us draw inspiration from the ‘Brotherhood of the Boat.’ Jahaji Bhai sends a powerful message: we are all passengers on the same vessel – one nation, coming together, not as disparate groups, but as one people committed to the common good.”
