11.4 Our Common Heritage: East Indians, Chinese & Caribbean Culture
Key Takeaways
The first indentured East Indians, 200 men, 28 women and 33 children, arrived at Old Harbour Bay on 10 May 1845 aboard the Blundell Hunter.
About 36,000 East Indians came to Jamaica under indentureship over the following seventy years.
The first Chinese arrived in 1854, one group directly from Hong Kong and another from Panama; about 680 more arrived on the Prinz Alexander in 1884.
Push factors such as poverty and famine drove people to leave India and China, while pull factors such as contract wages and free passage drew them to Jamaica.
East Indian and Chinese contributions include curry dishes, Divali and Hosay celebrations, rice and vegetable farming, grocery and wholesale businesses, and Chinese New Year festivities.
11.4 Our Common Heritage: East Indians, Chinese & Caribbean Culture
The first Grade 6 Social Studies unit in the National Standards Curriculum, Our Common Heritage, examines the roots of Caribbean culture and identity, with a special focus on the East Indians and the Chinese. Students construct a timeline of the arrival of different ethnic groups, explain the push and pull factors behind their migration, and discuss their contributions to Jamaica's economy and culture. Jamaica's motto, Out of Many, One People, grew out of this history.
Key Terms
| Term | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Migration | Moving from one place to live in another |
| Immigrant | A person who comes into a country to live |
| Push factors | Problems that make people want to leave their homeland (poverty, famine, war, lack of jobs) |
| Pull factors | Attractions that draw people to a new place (jobs, wages, land, safety) |
| Contract | A written agreement that sets out what each side must do |
| Indentureship | A system in which workers signed a contract to work for a fixed number of years for a fixed wage, often in return for their passage |
| Indentured servant | A worker bound by such a contract |
| Festival | A celebration of a people's culture, religion or history |
| Carnival | A large public festival with costumed street parades, music and dancing |
Why New Workers Came After Emancipation
After full Emancipation in 1838, many formerly enslaved people left the sugar estates to farm their own land or to work elsewhere for fairer wages. Planters, wanting cheap and reliable labour, turned to indentured workers from overseas: Germans (who settled at Seaford Town in Westmoreland in the 1830s), liberated Africans, and then, in much larger numbers, East Indians and Chinese.
Timeline: Peoples Who Shaped Jamaica
| Period | People | How they came |
|---|---|---|
| About 600 to 900 AD | Taínos | Migrated from South America |
| From 1494 and 1509 | Spanish | Exploration and colonisation |
| 1500s to 1807 | Africans | Brought by force through the Transatlantic Slave Trade |
| From 1655 | English (British) | Conquest of Jamaica from Spain |
| 1830s | Germans | Indentured workers; Seaford Town |
| From 10 May 1845 | East Indians | Indentured workers |
| From 1854 | Chinese | Indentured workers |
| 1890s onward | Syrians and Lebanese | Merchants and traders |
The East Indians
On 10 May 1845 the ship Blundell Hunter anchored at Old Harbour Bay with the first indentured Indians: 200 men, 28 women and 33 children. Over the next seventy years about 36,000 East Indians came to Jamaica. They were sent mainly to estates in Portland, St. Thomas, St. Mary, Clarendon and Westmoreland. When their contracts ended, some returned to India, while many stayed.
- Push factors in India: widespread poverty, famine, debt, loss of land and a shortage of work in parts of the country.
- Pull factors to Jamaica: the promise of regular wages, free passage, housing and medical care on the estates, and in some contracts a free return passage.
- Life in Jamaica: hard work on sugar and banana estates, low pay, and a new language and religion around them. Despite this, they kept many traditions.
Contributions: East Indians helped develop rice growing and vegetable gardening; worked as farmers, fishermen, barbers, goldsmiths and jewellers; and later contributed in business, medicine and education. Their influence is seen in curry dishes, roti and dhal, and in festivals such as Divali (the festival of lights), Phagwa (a spring festival of colour) and Hosay, a street procession observed especially in Clarendon and Westmoreland. May 10 is remembered as Indian Arrival Day.
The Chinese
The first Chinese came in 1854 in two groups: one sailed directly from Hong Kong, and the other came from Panama, where Chinese workers had been building the Panama Railroad. About 200 more arrived in the 1860s from Trinidad and British Guiana, and about 680 arrived in 1884 on the Prinz Alexander. Most were Hakka people from Guangdong province in southern China.
- Push factors in China: poverty, overcrowding, floods and famine, and unrest and war in southern China.
- Pull factors: work contracts, wages, and the chance of a better life.
Contributions: after their contracts ended, many Chinese opened small grocery shops, and Chinese-owned shops spread across the island in the 1900s. Chinese Jamaicans founded the Chinese Benevolent Association (1891) to help their community, built businesses in wholesale and retail trade, and contributed to Jamaican music, for example as record producers. Dishes such as chow mein and fried rice, and the celebration of Chinese New Year, are now part of Jamaican life.
Culture as Goods and Services
Culture is the way of life of a people. Social Studies sorts parts of culture into two groups:
| Goods (things you can touch) | Services (things done for people) |
|---|---|
| Curry powder, roti, chow mein | Running a grocery shop or restaurant |
| Gold jewellery, saris | Repairing jewellery |
| Musical recordings and instruments | Performing at a festival, producing music |
| Craft items and festival costumes | Teaching dance or cooking classes |
Promoting and Preserving Caribbean Culture
- Festivals and celebrations: Independence and Emancipation celebrations, the Jamaica Festival, Indian Arrival Day, Divali, Chinese New Year, and carnival celebrations across the Caribbean, such as Trinidad and Tobago's Carnival.
- Education: teaching history and heritage in schools; museums and heritage sites such as Seaford Town and the Old Harbour Bay memorial to the first Indian arrivals.
- Media and the arts: music, dance, theatre, literature and film that tell Caribbean stories.
- Everyday life: cooking traditional dishes, using traditional crafts, and passing on stories and songs from elders.
- Tourism: cultural and heritage tourism that earns money while showcasing traditions, as long as it respects the communities involved.
Where and when did the first group of indentured East Indians arrive in Jamaica?
Kingston Harbour in 1838
Old Harbour Bay on 10 May 1845
Port Antonio in 1854
Montego Bay on 1 August 1834
Which of the following was a pull factor that attracted indentured workers from India and China to Jamaica?
Famine and crop failures in their home villages
Debt and loss of land at home
Unrest and war in southern China
The promise of contract wages and free passage
In Social Studies, which of these is an example of a cultural service rather than a cultural good?
A jar of curry powder
A gold bangle made by a jeweller
Running a neighbourhood grocery shop
A recording of a reggae song
Sections you finish are checked off in the contents.