Dear Editor,
As the nation comes to grips with the reality of what happens to our dead when there are no family members willing to memorialize them, honestly, I wouldn’t doubt that this type of thing happens more often than anyone is willing to consider, and this is the only mass grave to have been discovered. With all of the investigation that is about to take place, I just thought I would give a brief history lesson about the first documented instance of fraud relating to government assistance for burials in this country,and offer my opinion on what we might learn from it.
On Sunday 10th February, 1895, a “coolie man” walked into the office of the Assistant Protector of Immigrants, and met with Mr. Stone to plead for assistance with the burial of his recently deceased wife. The man claimed to have lived in Laventille with his wife, until her passing, but also admitted that he had recently been an occupant of the Royal Gaol, from which he was recently released, and as such, did not have the resources to provide the love of his life with the burial she deserved. Taken in with the sobbing man’s heart wrenching story, Mr. Stone donated a shilling to his cause, and handed him a note to present to the Warden of Maraval, who upon receiving it, order the Ward Constable to supply the man with both a coffin, and and porter to assist him in taking it home. The Assistant Protector of Immigrants was surely living up to his office, as he had not only a kind heart but a generous purse to back it up in assisting those destitute immigrants that looked to him for support.
It’s just too bad that the entire story given to him by the “coolie man” was a complete and total fabrication, but that doesn’t mean it’s the end of our story here.
I presume it was at the point when the Assistant Protector had finished drying his eyes that he realized that he had received very little information about the death itself, and took it upon himself to hire a cab and visit the home of the recently deceased woman. When arriving in Laventille, he could find no evidence to back up anything that the man had claimed regarding the dead woman and as such, he decided to return to his office. And it was on his return trip that he came upon the “coolie man” and the porter who were still transporting the coffin, and this is where the final act of this story takes place.
Upon questioning the man again, the “coolie man” claimed that he would take Mr Stone and the porter to see the body as proff, however, the man led them into a forest, of increasingly dense foliage, to the point where the coffin eventually became stuck among the trees. While the porter attempted to free the coffin however, the man escaped, with the shilling in hand, and the Assistant Protector, along with the porter, dragged the coffin back to their office in shame. And following this incident, it became necessary for any “coolie” who was applying for a coffin to provide some proof of an actual death otherwise they would be considered scamps and punished as such.
Side note, the reason I know of this story is because it was infamous in the history of Colonial Trinidad, as it is thought to be the incident that broke the sacred trust that the British had in the “coolie” population at the time. This story was first published in the Port-of-Spain Gazette a week later, on February 16th 1895, in an article that started thusly: “A Coolie is the hero and the Assistant Protector of Immigrants, a Ward constable of Maraval, and the Warden too, are the victims of rather a good story which is being told.” And the humiliation and embarrassment this caused the British became an excuse for them to clamp down on the East Indian population even harder.
This all being said, like the British learned in 1895, just because someone dies doesn’t mean checks and balances needs to be put aside. And whatever is decided to be the answer to the problem we are faced with today, regarding the issue of unclaimed corpses and laying them to rest, we need to have some level of care in how they are being tended to, whether we are related to them or not.
Best regards,
Ravi Balgobin Maharaj
