I is a long memoried woman 
From dih pout
of mih mouth
from dih
treacherous
calm of mih
smile
you can tell
I is a long memoried woman
-Grace Nichols
Nanny
Ashanti Priestess
and giver of charms
earth substance woman
of science
and black fire magic
Maroonic woman
of courage
and blue mountain rises
Standing over the valleys
dressed in purple robes
bracelets of the enemy’s teeth
curled around your ankles
in rings of ivory bone
And your voice giving
sound to the Abeng
its death cry chilling
the mountainside
which you inhabit
like a strong pursuing eagle
As you watch the hissing
foaming cauldron
spelling strategies
for the red oppressors’ blood
willing them to come
mouthing a new beginning song
is that you Nanny – Is that you Nanny?
-Grace Nichols
But there were other ships
But there were other ships
rocked by dreams
and fears and promise
Rolling
with new arrivals
across Atlantic.
From the fields
of Bengal
and Uttar Pradesh,
From Kowloon
and Canton.
From Madeira and Ireland –
Their indentured mud-
stained feet, soon embroidered
like the slave’s instep to the fields.
Their songs of exile
their drums of loss
all caught in a weaving odyssey
of no return.
No waiting Penelope
unpicking all her work.
-Grace Nichols
Last Wednesday, January 12, Guyana observed Chinese Arrival Day. It was the anniversary of the arrival of indentured labourers from China to British Guiana. The Grace Nichols poem , “But there were other ships,” addresses that page in the history of Guyana as it salutes the Chinese, Indian and other immigrants who braved the oceans to take up contracts on the sugar plantations of Demerara.