Dear Editor,
Reference is made to “Tombs found on Port Mourant site earmarked for hospitality institute” (SN Nov 14). I have been travelling internationally and only saw this report on November 22, resulting in this late response. Care should be taken not to disturb sections of the burial ground as this cemetery has historical significance for indentured laborers (girmityas) and possibly slaves who preceded the indentureds. Dr. Jagan’s father and so many indentureds, including my great grandparents and those of tens of thousands of others, were interred there. We must pay respect to the pioneer long ancestors, Africans and Indians.
The Ministry of Health responsibly and wisely requested information of family members to remove remains from the seven tombs and re-intern elsewhere. There are or were dozens more tombs in the area. It will be very difficult to trace surviving relatives since these tombs were very decrepit and probably there for decades. They are located just opposite the slabs of concrete of the old Port Mourant sugar factory and a couple hundred yards behind the Anglican Church. Surviving family members of the deceased in those old tombs would have migrated.
I share some historical information about tombs and burials there. I am very familiar with this cemetery as I went to St. Joseph Anglican Primary (English) School in the compound that also hosts the Anglican Church or vice versa before moving to secondary school after passing Common Entrance. The eminent Father Goodrich, who passed away a year ago in Georgetown, was the priest in charge during my schooling and many more years after and probably before; several other white priests were also residing in three buildings at separate yards in addition to the main one where Fr. Goodrich resided. The church (priest in charge) made decisions on who was buried in the compound. Only Anglicans were buried in the compound. There was a social hierarchy of burial spot based on race, colour, class, position in society, status, education, and affiliation with church service. Whites and Coloureds (Creole Class) were generally buried in front of or near to the church with deceased of other ethnicities some distance away. The discovered tombs in that far-off location, a couple hundred yards from the church, was probably an exception to the rule and were placed there because the land was elevated and not subjected to flooding and families wanted loved ones to be buried close together. Most tombs or graves were on the flat plain. Poor working class Indians and Africans had no grave markers.
It is not known if the “tombs” that were found have names of deceased and dates. It is also not known if they are actual tombs or concrete crowns placed over graves as markers; crowns and tombs generally had identifiers at least when I used to play cricket and youthful pranks with other students there. The cemetery once hosted a popular cricket ground that has been overrun by graves since the 1980s. The crowns will not have remains; the remains will be in coffins in graves below. The seven concrete tombs perched high on elevated land were covered by tall trees and very thick bushes and were revealed upon bulldozing of the surrounding vegetation. There were dozens more grave crowns on the flatlands below.
There are hundreds, if not thousands, of tombs (actual tombs and grave crowns) and other unmarked graves in the Anglican graveyard. The tombs (or graves below the crowns) unearthed at the planned hospitality site most likely contain the remains of deceased Indians since more than 99% of the neighbourhood are Indians and the church’s membership or followers a few decades back (1970s and before) were predominantly Indians. Famous or prominent Port Mourant Indian families were laid to rest there including the Rawanas, Drepauls, Malays, Tilokees, Carpens, Boodram’s, and several other regular church goers. During the 1960s and 1970s, human skulls and bones were seen lying around, giving some idea of the age of the cemetery and tombs or crowns.
Just for historical record, which is not known by present day generations: At the back of the Anglican Church cemetery, adjacent to the revealed tombs, just behind the Training Centre, across the road of the old sugar factory, was the burial ground for Indentured labourers (Girmityas) and their early descendants. The cemetery was called by locals as Tilokee (Dullar) Burial Ground, named after the caretaker who was awarded land by the Port Mourant estate owners; he managed the Tilokee Gardens (where vegetables were grown) adjacent to both burial grounds. The indentured burial ground predated the church and the training centre. I am told that Dr. Jagan’s father was buried there. One can see evidence of old graves in Tilokee ground because of so many deep sunken land spots or holes that had the appearance of graves. The last burial at the Indentured Cemetery was in the early 1940s after which burials shifted to Babu Jahan (John in the local vernacular); Jahan was a loyal staff for the White managers of the estate (Manager’s Compound and the exclusive White Club at Haswell) and his remains were buried at the back of Haswell coining the name of the area and the cemetery as Babu John (Jahan). Jahan was the uncle of the well-known Frederick Ramcharan who is the manager of Alim Shah (Rose Hall branch).
After an interval of over fifty years, permission was granted upon request for burial at the Tilokee Indentured Cemetery in 1997 for a member of a prominent family of neighbouring Free Yard; other family members were interred in graves there. The indentured cemetery could be considered as part of Free Yard. The unmarked graves of the indentureds adjacent to the revealed tombs are on the flat land; hundreds of holes that looked like graves can be seen at the indentured cemetery as well as in the Anglican cemetery.
The Ministry of Health has put out notice for re-internment of remains in seven tombs. It has not put out request for re-internment of remains of others, suggesting tombs and graves of others were not disturbed. It also suggests that the countless graves of the indentureds were not graded. Or were they? Ultrasound detection should be carried out to determine if human bones and or skulls or wood lie below the ground that was or is being excavated.
I commend the excavators for not disturbing the resting place of the pioneering indentured fore-parents and their descendants and for the Ministry of Health in reaching out to the public to give a proper re-interment of remains of deceased.
Yours sincerely,
Vishnu Bisram
