THE five sugar workers gunned down by colonial Police on September 29, 1872 were remembered during a commemorative service, at the Cabbage Dam Monument on the Essequibo Coast last Wednesday morning.
Delivering the feature address on the occasion, retired headmaster and current member of the Teaching Service Commission (TSC), Mr. Maydha Persaud said the uprising at Devonshire Castle, where the men were martyred, is very important and its history must be known by all Guyanese, especially schoolchildren.
Talking about the incident, which took place 138 years ago, he said the indentured East Indian immigrants, who were locked as prisoners in the Devonshire Castle Estate endured severe punishment under the then Labour Act.
Persaud reminded his audience, scores of schoolchildren from Hampton Court Primary and Eighth of May Secondary included, that the East Indian sugar workers were denied freedom and could not have left the estate.
According to him, they did not enjoy normal family life because the population ratio at that time was 18 women to 100 men.
Persaud said the labourers were flogged and imprisoned and had to answer a roll call every morning.
They were not allowed to give evidence and, if absent for seven consecutive days, were prosecuted, he related.
Persaud said the sugar workers were prisoners on the estates where they worked and could not have visited their relatives who were working at other sugar plantations.
He said some of the occurrences that led to the uprising were under-pricing of jobs, unfair allocation of task work, forced overtime, arbitrary deductions from wages and long working hours.
According to Persaud, the poor working conditions and pay were the root causes of the disturbances that caused 200 persons to gather at Cabbage Dam on September 29 and protest angrily.
He said the magistrate summoned Police and read the Riot Act twice to the crowd but the determined sugar workers refused to disperse and advanced with akya sticks when they were fired upon.
Persaud said the shots fired killed Achloo, Baldeo, Becaro, Kalica and Maxidally on the spot and badly wounded seven more while 17 others were imprisoned that day.
During the memorial, wreaths were laid at the foot of the monument by Member of Parliament (MP), Mr. Parmanand Persaud; Vice-Chairman of Region Two (Pomeroon/Supenaam), Mr. Vishnu Samaroo; former MP, Mr. Isahack Basir, some school children and devotees of Devonshire Castle Mandir.