Dear Editor,
Mr. Milton Jagannath in a letter in the Stabroek News, 1st October, 2023, completely misread my letter on the subject of enslavement and indentureship. He refers to “Mr. Nascimento’s claim of ‘multiple egregious comparisons of indentureship equaling slavery’”, as, “troubling”. I said no such thing. Those were not my words. I was quoting, in fact, from a presentation made by Mr. Eric Phillips at the University of Guyana’s launch of the International Centre for Migration and Diaspora Studies. Mr. Jagannath goes on to say that “there was no comparison of indentured labour and slavey conceptually or in a general sense” which he says my statement inferred. His quarrel is, therefore, with Mr. Phillips, not with me.
Mr. Jagannath, however, goes on to say that writers who have suggested that the experience of indentured Indians in Guyana were analogous or similar to slavery are being incorrectly accused of “equating indentured labour and slavery”. “Similar” he says, does not mean same or equal. Well, Roget’s Thesaurus of Synonyms and Antonyms, in fact, identifies the word “similar”, when used as an adjective, as meaning “resembling; alike; something like; comparable; analogous”, and when, as a verb, “look alike; resemble; bear resemblance”. Hence the confusion.
The purpose of my letter was to emphasize that these comparisons are odious and have no practical value for those of us who are descendants of either one or the other and should not be used to emphasize further ethnic division in our country. The same point that Mr. Jagannath makes when he concludes his letter by asking “does anyone believe a former slave and an indentured Indian ever sat in the cane field and argued about who suffered more or less?”
Sincerely,
Kit Nascimento