Dear Editor,
When Harold Bascom asked the question, “Who was Banwari?” everyone in the room raised their hands. One would think.
In a place and times where things are hard you would think that everyone has felt sometimes or even permanently like Banwari.
But in a sense Banwari is more than an individual. More like a state of being.
Banwari has come to mean long suffering, patience and endurance in difficulty, life in a place and state far from the ideal… It has always been a condition that most people endure or witness at some stage of life. It is living in Banwas, as the Hindu scriptures say Lord Rama lived 14 years in Banwas. Rama as a figure in the Hindu pantheon is thus the original Banwari.
Although, concretely, the Banwari I understood, when small, to be this Old Indian Man, that gets indentured here. Goes through all the affliction and hardship and grows old. He lives only for repatriation at the end of the indentureship and period of hardship. He, according to a version I remember, gets sick. But still gets the ship to make the reverse journey to Mother India whose sacred soil he treads after a harrowing journey.
This personified Banwari whose physical functions, in the end only by the power of the will to get back home, dies, surrenders his spirit upon touching the sacred soil and thus becomes more than a man bearing his chafe, but a man bearing his chafe in the interest of some higher end or goal.
Banwari is thus legendary even though thousands would have lived the legend.
He exists in our “Banwas,” which may be translated as a place of exile. And Banwari would have been derived from ‘Banwas.’ In Trinidad the terms are also used. I am sure the scholars in Guyana and elsewhere can throw additional light on this.
Yours faithfully,
Abu Bakr
Hi Mr. Abu Bakr,
Please read the other article that I have posted in respect of this subject. I have never ever heard of the “Banwas” theory that you propose. I know that there is an Indian city by the name of Banawas and the residents from that city are sometimes referred to as “Banawari”. A lot of people who migrated to the Caribbean have been named after their villages and cities. The spelling is not the same at all times. For some it is Banwahree, Banwari and Banawari and so on.
I would also like to mention that I have lived for 3 years at 71 Maisur Weg, Kwatta, Suriname, amongst people of East Indian descent, and I have never heard of the term there. I also resided in Trinidad and Tobago for app 5 years, and I cannot recollect hearing the term used there either. It is possible for Trinis to use the term, I have no doubt about this, but I am confident that it is not widespread as it is in Guyana. I would assume that the term was taken to Trinidad and Tobago by Guyanese, who have been interacting very closely with Trinis over our recent history. Also, prior to 1970, we have no reference of the term, ” Banwari seh bear yuh cafe” in our history.
I agree with you that the term became popular due to the hardship that Guyanese have been facing since our independence. However, the term was first used in the village of Annandale, some 40 years ago by a barber who used to drink a lot. He used to put his clients in some very uncomfortable positions as he barbered their hair, and then leave them like that and go to a bench where he had his “flatty’ bottle of rum to take a drink. He used to take his time in doing so, and when the clients complained, he would say “bear yuh chafe”, but because of our economic hardship, a lot adopted the term. In the beginning, the term was used for those suffering from pain and injury. When one had a pain or cut and it was being tended to, as they cried out for pain, they would be told, “Banwari seh bear yuh chafe”, just as how the late Banwari of First Street, Annandale South, Guyana, used to say to his clients.
Ask any older person from the village of Annandale and they would defend what I am saying.
Red Lion
Thanks Abu for the info.
Quote:” Banwari has come to mean long suffering, patience and endurance in difficulty, life in a place and state far from the ideal.”
Very true and that is why we have continuously used that phrase “like Banwari seh, bear yuh chafe’ when we personally face difficuties particularly those which come upon us unexpectedly.
What Banwari seh can be found in most religious texts, but I believe that it is a Guyanese saying though not original in its origin.
Even though I out of G/T so long, I still use the phrase.
Thanks for your input.
Guyanese in general seems to have a very serious problem with the way they see themselves. They themselves seem to find it difficult to accept the fact that they can write their own history. Why it is that anything positive about Guyanese must have some sort of foreign input? Why is it that our history can only be written by some person in a far away land? At times I myself tend to feel this way. Sometimes I wonder whether Cuffy and Damian were heroes, or simply outlaws. What about “Blackie” and “Fineman”? Would future generation see them as who they are, or immortalize them as great freedom fighters?
This idea is not only restricted to our history. The same attitude exists with goods and services provided by Guyanese. Goods and services provided by Guyanese at home, in most cases, are not recognized and given the credits by fellow Guyanese, who always tend to prefer foreign products and services, while these same products do very well in external markets.
Today we hear a lot about Chutney music. Sure, the name was given to this kind of folksongs, popular amongst the East Indians of the Caribbean, by the Trinidadians, but it is a fact that this kind of music has been in existence in Guyana long before Sundar Popo and Sunny Man. It was ours when Trinidad was busy with Kaiso and Soca. We never brand it. Today it seems as if it’s been pioneered by Trinis. I have no problems with Trinis. They are my best friends, but we must not surrender what belongs to us easily.
I like to eat “doubles” a lot. I would wait in line for 15-30 minutes every night at the Curepe Junction to get my 2 doubles before I creep into my St. Joseph, Trinidad, apartment. I always felt that the “doubles” is a Trinidad thing. Infact one man is South Trinidad by the name of Ally, claimed that his ancestors invented the “doubles”. However, when I was taken to a New York restaurant by my Punjabi friend, Satvinder Singh, and he ordered a “Channa Bathura” for me, I realized that what I was eating was nothing more than what is referred to as a “doubles” in the Caribbean.
Red Lion
http://www.gtrl.tv
Only the ignorant will see fineman as a ‘freedom fighter’. Murdering babies in their sleep is the act of a coward, not a ‘freedom fighter’.
I remembered the doubles by Ally in Curepe Junction too. Trinis have the roti thing mix up though…roti in Guyana is roti, roti in Trinidad is Dhall puri in Guyana, and roti in Guyana is “buss-up shirt” in TT. Nevertheless it’s all the same food between the two countries, just a different name.
But I must tell dem Trinis, Guyanese can cook better than all yuh.