Why are guyanese people called coolie

It supposedly means a person of East Indian descent who does unskilled labor. As you probably know, East Indians were hired to work as indentured laborers on the plantations after the abolition of slavery. East Indians who came from India to work as cane cutters on the sugar plantations of Guyana supposedly came from very poor environment with little opportunities or upward social mobility.

Those who came to work in Guyana were given ample opportunities to upgrade themselves financially and educationally. There is ignorance regarding the history of our ancestors and their plight. There is classism through associating the work of a laborer as an unskilled occupation that carries shame.

Preserving our culture also means acknowledging the hardships of our ancestors. Rather than shy away from their occupation, we should embrace it as a sign of resilience and strength. Our ancestors were not meek and docile. They craved freedom and liberation. Between and , 65, indentured workers in Guyana were arrested for breaching their work contract.

Strikes were common and arrests could not dissuade our ancestors from seeking independence and dignity. In trying to suppress the fire of freedom within indentured workers, British colonizers worked to portray them as uneducated and unworthy of personal autonomy.

Their history was tainted by the pen of the colonizers who hoped that the descendants of workers would never realize the resilience and power that have coursed through our veins and blood for generations. No amount of arrests or malicious words could quench the thirst for liberation. My ancestors did not endure such demeaning treatment for me to not take pride in their resilience.

Many were fleeing impoverished conditions with the hope of a better life. Their blood, sweat, and tears have watered the soil from which I was born. I carry the pain of their labor within my own body. Term referring to those of West Indian descent who have spend years and many more years to come contemplating whether it is indeed chicken curry , or curried chicken.

Trini : Curried Chicken! Guyanese : Nah! It's Chicken Curry! The word " coolie " is also used commonly in the Hindi language to refer to porters…In Trinidad and Tobago , Guyana and other parts of the Caribbean… the word was commonly used to denote any person of Indian origin or descent.