'The Cane-Cutter’s Song' by Raphaël Confiant
There’s a history of India’s people that is often left untold—that of the people working as indentured labourers, who made their way across the sea to places like the Caribbean, Malaysia, and East Africa. After the abolition of slavery, these groups of people formed a replacement to slave labour for colonialists—working often in bad conditions, and facing terrible violence. This intricate and forgotten history is explored in Raphaël Confiant’s ‘The Cane-Cutter’s Song,’ translated from French by Vidya Vencatesan.
In this book, travel is not an easy choice—and sometimes not a choice at all. We meet the Indians of Martinique, brought across the sea as indentured labourers to work in the sugarcane fields. Some sign contracts escaping dire circumstances in India, expecting to return home with riches, and some are lured onto the ship under false pretences. But once on the island, Indians find themselves at the lowest rung of a complex social order. Here, there are white occupiers, freed Black workers who were formerly enslaved, and people of mixed races, all trying to cement their own place in Martinique’s society.
We witness a history that is not often seen, a story of survival often fraught with violence and fear. We watch stereotypes soften as the years pass, as a new history of the Antilles emerges, built from these complex interrelations between diverse cultures.
‘The Cane-Cutter’s Song’ is our pick for the Champaca Book Subscription this March, an exploration of the idea of ‘travel’ as something borne out of necessity.