Dear Editor
I recently read about Giatree Kowsilla, a 103-year-old who now resides at 272 Good Hope, Housing Scheme, East Coast Demerara, who came to Guyana on October 10, 1912 as an indentured labourer.
I trust that historians, researchers and cultural organizations would garner as much knowledge as possible from Mrs. Kowsilla, and assist her financially as well. Mrs. Kowsilla came to a new land, and sweated in the canefields to help Guyana become what it is today. Guyanese are what they are now because of their foreparents’ sweat and blood; these older peoples’ contributions should be appreciated, not ignored.
Mrs. Kowsilla is just one of the few persons left in Guyana, who actually departed from the shores of India. One should search out other older immigrants from other lands, and quickly and arduously extract as much oral history as possible from such persons. Another Indian immigrant is (was?) a woman known as “Auntie Paatie”, about 99 years, who lived in Enmore, about a hundred metres south of the police station. We need to circumspectly document (and appreciate) this oral history, as sooner or later, these precious souls would be no more.
Yours faithfully,
Devanand Bhagwan
