Family Photographs: Memories and Histories

Our paternal ancestors come from the provinces of Bihar and Uttar Pradesh. They consist of eight family members of men, women and children of which three are from our grandfather’s side and five from our grandmother’s side. After a perilous voyage across the Indian Ocean, in quest of a better future for themselves and their families, they reached Mauritius in 1858 and 1873. They settled as labourers, housewives and sirdars on the sugar estates in Savanne, Grand Port and Plaines Wilhems districts. From the 1870’s and 1920’s during the Grand Morcellement, their children and themselves purchased land and became ‘small planters’.

Immigrant Bundhoo or Bhundhoo No. 208675

Our great grandfather Immigrant Bundhoo No. 208675, arrived in Mauritius on board the steamer Shah Jehan, ship number 795 at the Immigration Depot or the Aapravasi Ghat. He was 5 years old and accompanied his father, Bheekarry No. 208377 and his mother, Koonjee, No.208586. When he reached the age of 10 years in 1863, he signed a 5 year contract as a child labourer and engaged with Wilson Co. at Bel Air Estate in Savanne where his father was also working as a free labourer, having completed his 5 year contract in September 1863.

Bundhoo was born in 1853 in the village of Bhudar, in the district of Arrah in Western Bihar. His paternal grandfather was Khaidoo, our great, great, great grandfather and his maternal grandfather was Bheechook, whom he left behind in 1858.

In 1874 Bhundhoo married Hoogunie Dwarkaour great grandmother and had their first child Ramessur Bundhoo, our grandfather in February 1876 at Bon Acceuil Estate where they had moved in 1873. They had 4 other children besides Ramessur: 3 boys namely Parmessur, Jagessur and Seean and one daughter Gowrie.

Bundhoo and his sons continued to work as labourer at Benares estate after a passage to Bon Acceuil estate Savanne. During the 1910s he was working at Tivoli estates belonging to F Wilson and on August 02, 1919 he died there at the age of 65.

His father Bheekarry worked as labourer with Wilson Co. at Bel Air Sugar Estate in Savanne. He was married to Koonjee No. 208586. Bheekarry died at Benares Sugar Estate at the age of 58 in 1886.

Immigrant Kokeel No. 368487 is our Paternal Grandmother’s Grandfather. He arrived in Mauritius in November 1873 on the Nimrod. He married Jeetnee and had one child.He was engaged as a labourer under a 5-year contract with Belzim & Harel on Trianon sugar estate in Plaines Wilhems. He was a labourer, sirdar and over time, owned several plots of land. He died in 1903 at the age of 68 years in Mon Desir.

Immigrant Jeetnee No. 368671, our Paternal Grandmother’s Paternal Grandmother, arrived in Mauritius in November 1873 and married Kokeel No. 368487. They had one son, Dooknah (Dookun). She was a house wife and land owner and helped in tending the family vegetable garden. She passed away at Montagne Candos in 1891 at the age of 53.

Immigrant Dooknah (Dookun) No. 368745 is the son of Kokeel and Jeetnee. He worked as child labourer at Belzim & Harel Sugar Estate, Trianon in Plaines Wilhems. Soon with the help of his father Kokeel, he acquired vast areas of land in Vacoas and Moka and became a well-known planter. He married Radheea Ramdin, the daughter of Koylassee and Ramdhin and they had 12 children. In December 1911, he travelled to India on board the steamer Shirala. He died in Mon Desir Vacoas in the 1920’s.

Text by Karamchandre Bhundhoo & Anathlall Bhundho