Five generations ago, two families from the Madeiran archipelago launched themselves on a transatlantic gamble. Lured by half truths and shady contracts, they embarked for the terra incognita of a small, anomalously anglophone part of South America named British Guiana. Inconvenienced by emancipation, “King Sugar” had turned to the deceptions of indentureship, which was little more than a higher form of slavery, to maintain its supply of cheap labour. The Madeirans took their place among Indian and Chinese coolies who had also been duped by the myth of a better life, and they tried to make the most of their situation. One account of the period notes that Portuguese workers were “despised by black Creoles as ‘white niggers’ who had come to do slave work, while West Indian whites never regarded them as true Europeans. They were not a success in the sugar-fields and those who stayed on soon moved into retail trade.”
In 1910 one of the families moved again...
Brendan de Caires was born and grew up in Guyana. He was educated in England and has lived in Port of Spain, Bridgetown, Mexico City and New York. He now lives in Toronto.
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