Article A17 · Book 1 · Scrapbook page p.15
Cedros slowly going to ruin and decay / Hosein camps in bid to bring a sleepy, silent town altogether again
[Piece 1 of 2 — headline strip]
[Piece 2 of 2 — main feature piece]
HOSEIN CAMPS IN BID TO BRING A SLEEPY, SILENT TOWN ALTOGETHER AGAIN
THE STE. MARIE grounds Bonasse Village, Cedros, will be the venue for a bumper Hosein celebration in the southwestern peninsula next month.
Hosein camps in Ste. Marie, Bonasse and Bois Bourg have combined into a group, called the Cedros Hosein Camps, which is behind the big venture.
Celebrations will begin on February 11 and continue nightly until the afternoon of February 14.
Speaking for the Cedros Hosein Camps, Mr. Bal Rampaul said that part of the intention of the group was to preserve the arts connected with the festival e.g. tadjah building and ower-making [first letters of the word hidden at the column edge in the photograph; evidently "flower-making"], as well as to see whether some of these arts could have economic application for their practitioners.
Mr. Rampaul was supported by Mr. Siuchand Buxoo, one of the leaders of the Ste. Marie Hosein camp, who also saw the move as one which would lead to the preservation and improvement of the other cultural arts connected with Hosein.
Some of these arts include gatka (the East Indian style of stick fighting with stick and shield), Jharra (broom dancing), Massyah singing (which is done exclusively by women) and fire dancing.
The Cedros Hosein Camps has also organised an essay competition among the school children of the district in which there will be two age-groups: under 12 and over 12.
Essays are to be on various aspects of the Hosein festival. Cash prizes are being offered and entries close on February 21.
Rampaul and Buxoo, who are not Muslims, explained that although Hosein is a religious festival, it has further meaning for the people of Cedros.
In this year's celebrations the religious aspect will be respected, but the festival is to be seen as a social event in Cedros where Hindus, Muslims, Christians, Indians, Africans and those who are still indifferent towards Hosein will come together to do something meaningful for the social life of the district.
[Photo: Turtles rot on the beach at Cedros.]
At this time, Siuchand Buxoo and his team of workers are busy building the Ste. Marie tadijah which will be some 15 feet in height.
In Bonasse, itself, Badoye Gunpath and his team are hard at work on their 16-foot beauty, while down in Bois Bourg, Boysie Gopaul and his workers are trying to outdo the others.
The Hosein camps raised funds for this project in the form of donations from interested persons, by soliciting help from a few firms (so far W.I. Tobacco, Shell and Sissons Paints have responded) and by giving a film show at the Tivoli cinema.
It has been pointed out that this getting together of the Hosein camps is one of the few real community activities taking place in the Cedros district today.
Spokesmen told of the general apathy in the district which has set in after the messianic arrival of the Parish Priest has cooled.
Some told of the ineffectiveness of the Village Council whose sole function, it was suggested, was to prepare for the Better Village competition.
The shell of a Community Centre, with heaps of bricks over-run with vines and grass stands in mute testimony to the lack of community co-operation in the area.
Some of the people are disenchanted with the way things are going in Cedros — a large number it was stated assuredly.
Beside the continued deterioration in public services and buildings (there are five or six public buildings going to ruin) nothing was being done to improve the fishing industry in Cedros.
"Cedros is not a poor place you know" one spokesman said. "It have money lablash [lablash?] in Cedros."
And one of a group of relaxing fishermen in the snackette where the jukebox exploded a funky reggae said: "Nobody can't strive in Cedros, man. It have money circulating here. Is only that the small man can't keep his share."
Why?
"Because is rum, jamette and the wappy always flowing," he said as the 16-year-old fisherman at his side burst out laughing.
"What about ganja?" my friend asked him.
"You looking like a fuss [fuss?]," he said, turning back to his bottle.
Our sociologist-scholar friend, a resident of Cedros, assured us that what was needed in Cedros was mainly a change of attitudes.
There was too much of the easy-come, easy-go attitude which kept most of the fishing district in seeming poverty, he said.
But if one wants to satisfy religious principle and attempt to feed the poor or beggars in Cedros, Ossie Kismatali (17 years a fisherman and now a prosperous businessman) said, one would have to import them from other areas.
ADVANCE
Even the very old people in the district had to be notified long in advance, and transportation had to be provided in order for him [him?] to attend too.
And if one wanted a domestic servant, he added, Cedros was not the place to look. There would be no takers.
With the ready source of income from the sea, agricultural labour is at a premium and the coconut estates are feeling the pinch.
But much more prosperity could come to Cedros it was suggested, especially to the small fisherman who did not own trucks, if there were adequate cold storage facilities.