CHILDREN OF THE SUGAR CANE

 CHILDREN OF THE SUGAR CANE: 

 Harry Bissoon  12/31/2021

The lights flickered and danced as if they were doing a dance of joy, relishing the cool calmness of the early morning darkness. They could be seen in a soothing pattern as they lined both sides of the street, ensconced in bottom house kitchens, or, in open backyard firesides. Many were amazed and awed by the regularity and unison of these lights that came from hurricane hand lamps, which softened the darkness that came just before dawn. They signaled the beginning of the workday for hundreds of field workers who were readying themselves for estate work – work that brought the sugar estate alive.

As housewives and working ladies stoked the flames of open firesides, hastily preparing meals, to provide delicious meals for estate work, the crackle of burning wood filled the damp morning air. Embers jumped and floated in open kitchens that were filled with hastened urgency and pregnant expectancy. 

Estate lorries rumbled and rattled along the street, tooting horns, as they headed to predetermined stops, picking up cane cutters, with food carriers firmly grasped in their hands, ready to go into the sugar cane fields to wield their cutlasses, and to be  gainfully employed in a day of fruitful work. At the end of the day they were satisfied that what they did benefitted them and their families. 

 

Fathers, mothers, cousins, grandparents, uncles, and friends constituted this workforce.

Many of them got other jobs on the Estate through a pattern of promotion that was based on merit, experience, and qualifications.  They became leading hands, clerks, foremen, supervisors, managers, bookkeepers, and engineers. Their children also, once they became of age, fell into many of these same categories and classifications.

The Estate was alive and it thrived and filled the village with progress and prosperity, touching even those who were employed elsewhere.

The Sugar Estate fed the village! Salaries and wages flowed out of the estate and became tools of investment and trade which boosted the national economy. Grocery stores, vegetable farmers, fishermen, farmers of poultry and farm animals, hardware suppliers, rice farmers, suppliers of entertainment, transporters, and the coffers of the administration, were all fattened by these estate workers! The Sugar Estate was a wheel that spun and weaved its own universe!

Field managers, supervisors, foremen and leading hands gathered in front of the sugar factory, under a flamboyant tree, in the grey, misty dawn, before the sun rose, to weave and fashion the events and tasks of the day.

The dock area buzzed with activity. Freshly harvested, juicy sugar cane, in steel punts streamed along black water canals towards the lifting crane which took them to crushing machines where its sweet juice was extracted and then processed into sugar crystals.

The sun rose and workers toiled! Field workers sweated and hustled, in a rush of agility, precision and productivity, which became one cohesive effort, making them into a well knit team. 

Office workers tabulated, calculated, and translated the arduous work of these sinewy cane cutters, producing figures that were converted into results which wafted its way to all corners of the village. 

Many watched with aloofness and wanted to change the results! They were jealous of sugar!They wanted to create competition and provided alternatives without seeking to examine the true sweetness of sugar that came from the grass which was the lifeblood of the workers, the people, the village, the nation.

Diversification is good but no proper feasibility studies were done. Huge amounts of money were invested and specialists were employed from within and without the nation. Sugar, and the workers and their families who rose in the early morning hours, with hand lamps and open firesides, were threatened and asked to find jobs and produce in the other crops. But sugar was envious and held a strong grip on those who toiled for it. Other crops failed as field after field was laid to waste!

There seems to be  a new beginning in the agricultural sector!  Agricultural diversification is good but it must be done wisely, as it now appears to be! 

Sugar, however,is now threatened by a new enemy that dwells deep within the bowels of the earth, but sugar is envious and will grudgingly hold on to those who are its children. The value added dimension of sugar, and other crops, must be actively pursued.

Sugar will fight and will prevail!