{"id":4034,"date":"2021-04-02T04:08:29","date_gmt":"2021-04-02T04:08:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/girmitiya.girmit.org\/new\/?page_id=4034"},"modified":"2021-04-02T11:37:43","modified_gmt":"2021-04-02T11:37:43","slug":"fiji-times-article-12-may-1979","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/girmit.org\/index.php\/girmitiya-stories\/fiji-times-article-12-may-1979\/","title":{"rendered":"Fiji Times Article – 12 May 1979"},"content":{"rendered":"

[vc_section parallax=”content-moving-fade”][vc_row][vc_column][vc_message message_box_style=”3d” message_box_color=”grey”]This article was published in the Fiji Times dated 12 May 1979.\u00a0 The interviewer was Torika Tora of The Fiji Times.<\/span>[\/vc_message][vc_separator color=”orange” style=”shadow” border_width=”2″][vc_column_text]<\/p>\n

A Girmit woman who came to Fiji when she was only 12 years old has recalled of her past experiences with the indentured labourers in Fiji and in South Africa.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

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Rangamma, who claims to be more than 100 years old, said life during this period was very tough.\u00a0 <\/span>We were whipped and left to starve if we were not able to complete a day’s work,’ she recalled.\u00a0 <\/span>She said at her age now she was beginning to feel the pain of the beating she used to get during the old days.<\/span><\/p>\n

Rangamma left her hometown of Madras with her parents when she was only two years old. They went to work as indentured labourers in South Africa.\u00a0 <\/span>Her parents worked on a fruit farm near Capetown for nine years. When she turned eight she worked as a babysitter for a European couple who also had a fruit farm. <\/span>She said the couple looked after her well during her three years of babysitting.<\/span><\/p>\n

She said she still remembers African words for “where are, you going, come here” and other simple English words.<\/span><\/p>\n

Her parents spent another year in Madras before they came to Fiji on the boat “Ganges<\/em>” in 1899.<\/span><\/p>\n

She said when they arrived in Fiji they were taken by boat again to Rakiraki where they worked on a vegetable farm belonging to Mr Freddy.<\/span><\/p>\n

“In those days there were no roads and the islands were mainly thick forests, she said.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Photo credit: The Fiji Times (12 May 1979)<\/p><\/div>\n

She said Mr Freddy had 100 workers working on his farm in Daboni, Rakiraki.<\/span><\/p>\n

She said he was very cruel to his workers and whipped and beat them whenever their day’s work was not completed.<\/span><\/p>\n

She said they were living. on two shillings and six\u00acpence per week and given a six months ration.<\/span><\/p>\n

After the six months, their wages were increased to ten shillings without a supply of ration.<\/span><\/p>\n

She said she recalled the day when the workers wrote a petition to an administrator in Suva against Mr Freddy’s ill-treatment.<\/span><\/p>\n

She said because of this she was sentenced to seven days imprisonment at the Rakiraki prison by the local magistrate’s court, because she initiated the move. <\/span>She said in those days they were very scared of the Fijian people.<\/span><\/p>\n

They were huge, with big hair holding clubs and spears. They were also not well-covered.<\/span><\/p>\n

We were very frightened of them because we learnt that they would eat human beings, Rangamma said. She said she met and married her husband Sari Gounder who was also a labourer on the farm.<\/span><\/p>\n

She said after their five years contract with Mr Freddy, they came to Nausori with their three children.<\/span><\/p>\n

Her h<\/span>usband worked at the Colonial Sugar Refining in Nausori for six months before they were transferred to work on a rubber plantation in Wainadoi, Lami for another six months.<\/span><\/p>\n

She said a Mr Warren of the Soqulu Plantation in Taveuni offered the family a job as copra cutters on his estate where they worked for 30 years. Rangamma has a Fiji-born brother Kuswani who how lives in Taveuni.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Rangamma and Sari Gounder have eight children who now live in Taveuni and Suva.<\/span><\/p>\n

She said her husband died in Taveuni a decade ago.<\/span><\/p>\n

“I have so many great-grandchildren. I know their faces but I don’t remember their names, she said. Asked whether she would like to return to India, Rangamma replied: “Fiji is my place, there’s nobody in India for me.” She said she could not recall India<\/span><\/p>\n

[\/vc_column_text][vc_separator style=”shadow” border_width=”2″][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][\/vc_section]<\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

[vc_section parallax=”content-moving-fade”][vc_row][vc_column][vc_message message_box_style=”3d” message_box_color=”grey”]This article was published in the Fiji Times dated 12 May 1979.\u00a0 The interviewer was Torika Tora of The Fiji Times.[\/vc_message][vc_separator color=”orange” style=”shadow” border_width=”2″][vc_column_text] A Girmit woman who came to Fiji when she was only 12 years old has recalled of her past experiences with the indentured labourers in Fiji and in…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"parent":2759,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-4034","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry","description-off"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/girmit.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/4034","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/girmit.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/girmit.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/girmit.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/girmit.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4034"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/girmit.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/4034\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4048,"href":"https:\/\/girmit.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/4034\/revisions\/4048"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/girmit.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2759"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/girmit.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4034"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}