“SOME DEATH !” This poem refers to the fate of the Diego Garcia people after their kidnapping and forced removal to Mauritius. A number of these Diego people committed suicide in Mauritius, having been unable to cope with the poverty, hunger, misery and utter destitution that they faced here. We shall recall that a F Office (England) official was quoted as writing in a letter on 16 August, 1976 : “Although we have no information, some deaths are no doubt bound to have occurred among the islanders in the normal course of events.” (Please see the supplement of “L’EXPRESS” newspaper, Mauritius, of 22 May, 1994, page 14). “Some deaths !”….. Some death !
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SOME DEATH !
Lo ! The “ship” wait’d, swaying silently yonder :
The poor islanders were being torn asunder;
They were being kidnapp’d and forcibly dragg’d
By those that about their own civilisation bragg’d.
The poor folks from their land had to go away :
The West was bent ‘pon some “defensive” array ….
The islands firmly had been chosen for “defence” :
Just straggling here would be some big offence.
The poor islanders were robb’d of their land :
A terrible, lingering look cast they at yon sand;
How did it feel of one’s country to be robb’d ?
The suffering folks huddl’d together and sobb’d.
Onto the faraway land dump’d like cattle,
Sadly wander’d they from place to place;
All manners of misery did they face,
As they fought out their lone battle.
In rain, from the winds, often they shiver’d :
In silence, in solitude, they shudder’d;
A myriad far off in “security” slept,
While the poor islanders bitterly wept….
Yonder would live happily the community :
Their baskets would boast of fish a-plenty;
Here, for every meal, a piteous struggle :
For mere survival, unending trouble…..
Yonder was death something of a rarity :
Hither, suicide struck rather with regularity…..
Yonder, the base secretly was complet’d :
Hither, little by little were families deplet’d.
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Listen, though we have no information,
Yet, we can say quite with certainty
That there be hardly any abnormality
About this so-call’d community depletion.
Though to suicides ‘tis often being referr’d,
Some deaths are no doubt bound to have occurr’d….
Indeed, what more normal in the course of events,
Than these natural, occasional interments !....
We can hardly see any reason for all the fuss :
Why at all should people act stupidly thus ?
Excess publicity is being given in the press,
But, ‘tis a mere question of STATISTICAL EXCESS….
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