By Michel Outridge

THIS week, the Pepperpot Magazine visited the agriculture-based village of Zee Zight/Ketting, West Coast Berbice.

This community is located between Cotton Tree and Number 3 Village and is home to mostly cane harvesters, cash-crop farmers and rice farmers and other suitably qualified professionals, who hold office jobs and other skilled professionals.

Zee Zight has a population of about 1,500 residents including homemakers, nurses, teachers and other professionals.

The men in the village tend to the crops and spend long hours in the backlands and other plots that are utilised for farming.

With schools closed since March this year due to the worldwide pandemic, the school-aged children are being home-schooled while the youths are idle and sometimes work.

This village has a nursery school and a few shops, but is generally a very quiet countryside place where people mind their own business and engage in meaningful activities to earn.

Zee Zight also has a health centre, a mandir, potable water, electricity, good drainage and irrigation, landline phone and internet services.

Within this community there is a smaller village called Ketting, a housing scheme of 40 families who used to reside at Rosignol, also on the West Coast of Berbice. These persons were relocated by the government in December 2005 to allow the construction of the Berbice River Bridge. The people were given land titles on the reserve land owned by the government and they seem quite comfortable there.

The cane harvester
The Pepperpot Magazine met Balgobin Suknarine, a resident and cane harvester, who was not at work that day.

He stated that he is attached to the Blairmont Sugar Estate and has been in that line of work since 2003.

The father of one related that life in the country is good because they can catch fish for the pot or pick some greens to cook and with that at hand-reach they cannot go hungry since they have the means of planting.

Suknarine added that he likes the place and he is one of the 40 families who were relocated from Rosignol.

The 35-year-old, in highlighting the job of a cane harvester, pointed out that whether it rains or there is sunshine, a cane cutter has to work under extreme conditions.

“We does cut the cane from the cane beds and work in groups after which we fetch the cane and load the punt until it is full and at times when it gets too hot I would take a plunge in the canal to cool off,” he said.

He reported that one truckload of cane-cutters reside in the village and they would leave home at 04:30hrs and the truck would pick them up on the public road at 05:00hrs.

Suknarine disclosed that they have a notice board on the public road and the supervisor would write it up so they would know which section they have to work to cut and load cane.

“The truck would take us in the back dam and we would start cutting cane early and for that to happen one must have their own cutlass and file to sharpen it if the need arises because is stiff work and once we load the punts early we get to go home, a day job is done,” he said.

The resident said that when it rains and they have to work and it is not easy and they have nowhere to hide from the rain and they have to make do with the wet conditions but he has gotten used to the work.

Suknarine added that five men would form a group and take on five beds of cane and would cut and load it into punts which would later transport it via the canal to the estate.
As a cane-cutter, he disclosed that he has his old-fashioned water bag which is insulated and it keeps the water cool.

Suknarine revealed that years ago, when cane-cutters from Enmore Sugar Estate had to go to Blairmont Sugar Estate to work, a woman was among the group. It was the first time he encountered a female cane-cutter and it was amazing.

“The lady used to rally out just like a man and she did even and straight work as a man and that was really something; we used to watch her work and it goes to show you can never judge people,” he said.