Fiji Diaspora
M H KOYA (PhD)
(Memoir Part 1)
Preface
FIJI DIASPORA is written in two parts. It is basically my memoir. This is the first part, which has a lot to do with my growing up in Fiji.
Following an uproar in 1830s in the British Parliament against slavery, British trading companies in India coined a new term ‘Indentured Laborer System’ to recruit coollies for colonizing countries in Africa and the Pacific.
Coollies from various states of India were lured into what was promised as a five year work agreement (“girmit” in Fiji Hindi). By the end of "girmit" time coollies will to go back home to Inida.
Born in Fiji’s second generation Indians, the descendants of the indentured laborers, I am part of the Fiji Indian Diaspora.
Although I grew up in the final phase of the Colonial era and saw some of British, Australian and the New Zealanders work in Fiji in the Colonial Refining (CSR) company, the banking industry, the Lautoka Pineapple Factory, and high-ranking government positions, I never felt any first hand experience of slave treatment.
However, the presence of Whites was intimidating for the way they were perceived and talked about by our people ( and the way they poised and positioned themselves).
Because of the leadership positions the Whites occupied, their superiority was a conceded matter both by the Indigenous Fijians and the Fiji Indians. The situation gave rise to the presumption that they were superior people and deserved our highest respect , consideration and obedience.
Like the more well-known Khans, the Shahs, the Singhs and the Sharmas, the Koyas also feature very prominently in the annals of Fiji Islands.
The book is not a biography nor does it pretend to be a history of the Koyas. However, I have deliberately hastened to write this small book ( taking time off from the editorial and graphic designing I am involved in with my monthly publication The Fiji Sun USA in San Francisco Bay Area for the past 15 years and another project on Introduction to Islamic Criminology ) intending it be very skeletal leaving wide enough gaps and voids for other writers to fill in. I hope it will help tempt other members of the Koya family to do justice to the subject where I have failed to do so. I must also admit that I am under pressure from my mentor and the publishers for another piece of work I have been working on for sometime - all of which are on hold right now.
For two reasons, this book is not as comprehensive as I originally wanted it to be: One, the lack of resources and information due to the passage of time and two, the physical distance that I am at now (in San Francisco,
USA) depriving me of a ready interaction with other
family members who could have helped give me more details and depth to this book. As such, let’s settle for what can be seen as an abridged version.
My Indebtedness
First and foremost all thanks and praise to Almighty Allah that I have been able to put this short piece of writing together.
I am grateful to my mentor Steve Manning for pushing my buttons to write a book. He has an amazing personality and the art of persuading people to write.
I could not have finished this book without the input from Dr. James Anthony, former professor of University of Hawaii and a pioneer trade unionist in Fiji . Despite the fact we both are from Fiji, we had never met back home. I met him on the internet when I posted a line on the Fiji Times open blog and inserted my email in the note. It caught Dr. Anthony’s attention and he contacted me right away by email. A month later we met in Berkeley, California. Over a two-hour dinner at Priya’s,
Dr. Anthony gave an exhaustive account of his meetings and association with my late uncle Hon. S M Koya. We parted on the note that he will write a piece for my book which he so kindly did and I have the pleasure of placing it as the foreword to this memoir. It is the missing piece that has been holding me from completing the book. Dr. Anthony has offered the services which my closest relatives declined. My deepest thanks to him.
I devote this book to the memories my late father and mother - two very ordinary and humble souls who raised twelve kids and many grandchildren before parting from this world.
I must also add a special acknowledgement for a piece from the writings of Dr Brij Lal, professor at Australian National University.
