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Abolition,
Indentureship and Creoleness: Reflections on the
Indo-Grenadian predicament
by Raymond
D. Viechweg
A Meeting of cultures
The abolition of the
British slave trade in 1807 signaled the end of the
trade in African slaves and the beginning of the trade
in Indian indentures.
As such, it meant the
continuous intermixing, or creolizing, of cultures that
would eventually place the Grenadian Indian in a
position of cultural vulnerability. When Indians arrived
in Grenada in 1857, they found themselves in a position
subordinate to a dominant Anglo-African creolization.
The occasion of the abolition of the slave trade should
be commemorated neither as spectacle, nor as a mere
dramatization, but as a marker which from year to year
will chart the progress made towards mitigating the
hegemonistic tendencies within Grenadian creolization.
Hegemony is the
tendency of one group to exercise dominance over other
groups, even without the threat of force.
In hegemonies, the
espoused beliefs, values and philosophies of the
dominant group are empowered, almost to the exclusion of
others. In Grenada, Indians have functioned within and
alongside the dominant Afro-Grenadian cultural formation
for 150 years now. So, as we commemorate the abolition
of the slave trade, we must simultaneously commemorate
the addition to Grenadian culture of an indispensable
East Indian component.
Today, as we remember
the perils of the slave trade, so should we also
remember the perils of the journey from India. As we
remember the end of the slave trade, so should we also
remember the beginning of indentured labour.
Today, unfortunately, we
must lament the absence of any monuments to Indian
contributions to Grenadian nationhood and culture.
Hopefully, through the lamentation, a solution may
appear.
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