Five decades in the sugar industry…‘Aunty Chalma’ is a ‘Special Person’

May 08, 2016 News

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“Time hard yes, but you must get up and get…Hard or soft you gah battle fuh yuh self.”

By Suraj Narine
As most of the world observes Mother’s Day today, many mothers of Guyanese origin are probably in the kitchen, despite being told it’s their day off. But Guyanese mothers are like that. They are of the opinion that their sole purpose in life is to make and keep their children forever happy.

One such mother is 89-year-old Pongavanum Munsammy called “Aunty Chalma”.
Now Aunty Chalma isn’t your typical old-timer that lives in the village whom you go to for a “noint down” (massage) when you get a sprain or a strain – no, she is much more valuable and precious – not only to her family members, but to her village, Leonora Pasture (West Coast Demerara) as well.
She was recently honoured at Pushpanjali 16 as, supposedly, the oldest surviving worker of the Leonora Sugar Estate. She was also given the honour of cutting the ceremonial ribbon to commission the Indian Commemoration Trust (ICT)’s, Open Air Museum, which is now located in the Monument Gardens at Camp Street and North Road, Georgetown.
Kaieteur News was fortunate to get an interview with Aunty Chalma who does not like to be interrupted from her evening newscasts. On our way to locate her, we stopped and asked a little boy on a bicycle for directions. He volunteered to show us the way. We later learnt that Aunty Chalma was as popular as dhal puri at a kangan.
Her daughter, 59-year-old Golin, who operates a canteen at the Leonora Secondary School, said that her mother is probably the most popular person in Leonora. Her exact words were, “Who nah know Aunty Chalma, nah born yet”. That little boy leading us to her house was proof of this.

Aunty Chalma was more than happy to be interviewed although she reiterated that the discussion must be finished by 18:00hrs so that she can commence her habitual two-hour-long news-watching session.
She was born on February 17, 1927 to Andikan and Chinganie who she said came to Guyana on a ship. Both her mother and father worked at the sugar estate to take of her and her two siblings. Her father was a “fork-man” and her mother, a “bad fuh days” cane cutter.
She remembers always competing with her two siblings to show their parents who the most hardworking child was.

MEMORIES OF HARD TIMES PASSED
She remembers vaguely the 1939 Leonora Strike and Riot at Plantation Leonora. At that time, the estate was one of the 27 functioning sugar estates in colonial British Guiana.
The strike and riot surfaced against the backdrop of the Great Depression of the 1930s, which was particularly due to the impact of First World War
By the 1920s and 1930s, workers’ wages were depressingly low in the face of an extremely high cost of living, there was acute poverty, the unemployment rate was high and diseases and malnutrition were widespread.
Aunty Chalma remembers the cries made by workers for better wages as the times began to get harder and cost of living climbed to unbearable heights. She and her brothers never got the opportunity to go to school; they had no choice but to start “hustling” to stay alive.
She was introduced to labour at the age of seven and by the age of 12, she was officially a worker of the Leonora Sugar Estate.

THE DUCK, AND THE MARRIAGE TO “TAMBIE”
With the times getting harder and the strikes becoming more frequent, her parents decided that it was time for her to get married. She was just 12 years old when her parents began secretly meeting with the relatives of potential suitors.
Aunty Chalma said that she was home one day when a lady (presumably her neighbour) told her that she should go to the backyard and “catch a duck” to cook for her in-laws.
“Meh suck meh teeth and seh that me nah know wha she ah talk bout, because me nah got dem thing da (in-laws). Not knowing dat dem (her parents) bin and look bai fuh me,” she said.
Days later, she got married to an estate worker from Leonora called Munsammy, or better known as “Tambie”.
After marriage, she moved to Cane Grove on the East Coast of Demerara where she and Tambie – a man she never knew before, with nothing but the clothes on their back and a few shillings, began their marriage life in a logie. They lived happily for four years till tragedy struck – her first-born passed away.
Unable to cope with it, she and Tambie returned to Leonora, and the estate that she once left behind.
Her marriage produced six children. She now has seven grandchildren, three great-grandchildren and two great-great-grandchildren.

ESTATE SERVICE
She and Tambie immediately began working at the Leonora Estate and it was sometime after that period that her parents passed away. Even more committed to make her life and the life of her children better, Aunty Chalma immersed herself in her work. She began working harder than ever. Tambie worked in the “cut and plant” gang while she was inducted into the weeding gang. She would from time to time try her hands at cane-cutting. She eventually saved enough money and she bought several cows. Life, for the first time was beginning to get easier.
Things began to go smoothly until Tambie started to go astray. He had become an alcoholic.
Her daughter, Golin, said that she remembers her father pawning his fork, shovels and cutlass just to get money to buy alcohol.
“So when he go on his drinking spree, Ma (Aunty Chalma) had to go work in he place,” Golin said.
Life continued on like that for many decades until Aunty Chalma left the estate. She was 60 years old when she left, chalking up 48 years of service to the sugar industry. She is now a beneficiary of the Old Age Pension, National Insurance Scheme Pension and also, estate pension. She cooks, clean and washes for herself and is a dedicated Hindu that attends the Mandirs regularly.
She would also, from time to time, visit the Lenora Market to sell fruits and vegetables. She enjoys hanging out with her best friend, 92-yer-old Aunty Doris who lives two houses away from her.
The duo, along with another 89-year-old woman, would sit for hours on a bench in front of Aunty Doris’ yard where they discuss the news, politics and recipes.

“THIS TIME NAH LIKE LANG TIME”
Aunty Chalma can speak a little Hindi and is an expert masseuse – something she inherited from the elders back in the days at the Estate. Villagers regard her as the go-to person when they experience post and prenatal complications.  She is also an expert dancer and “nowah” (organiser of religious functions).
Asked what she remembers the most but does not see around anymore, Aunty Chalma said that she remembers the mud roads, the trains, the earthen lamps, the firesides and the large pails of  “cow-dung” mixed with trench-mud that people use to “dab” under their bottom-house and on the ground that surrounds their dwelling place.
“This time nah like lang time. Now ah days people ah guh run a dem neighbour house with plate fuh some rice. Dem a sit down lang lang and ah talk. Dem nah want get up and get. Lang time yuh nah bin a see dat. Everybody bin ah hustle. Time hard yes, but you must get up and get. Nobody bin a know yuh story. If yo eat salt and rice and lock up in yo house– not one soul nah know. Hard or soft you gah battle fuh yuh self. When yuh wuk yuh guh eat.  Yuh nah wuk – mouth guh white”
Asked what advice she would offer to the youths, Aunty Chalma said that the youths of today need to listen and have respect for their parents and elders. Also, youths should work hard and “care themselves” so that in time, they can surpass her.
She believes that we are now in a better time and should do all we can to have a good life for our families and to take advantage of all the positive opportunities that comes along.
As she continued to praise this “modern” time, she was asked whether she would have preferred to be born in this era instead of the early 1900’s, and she replied “Nah! Lang time bin mo nice. It bin hard but it bin really sweet.”
We are certainly grateful for the likes of Aunty Chalma on Mother’s Day.

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