"Coconut water" ; 13 Dec 2023

Poem : 'Coconut water'

About the Chagos Archipelago, Indian Ocean .

In the early 1970s, islanders of the Archipelago were forced  by the English to leave the islands to make way for a military base. Food supplies and medicine were deliberately cut off. Remaining people survived on sugar and coconut water for some time.

This territory was unlawfully detached from Mauritius before the latter’s independence, in violation of United Nations resolutions. The Americans wanted the whole archipelago for setting up a military base and wanted the whole place to be rid of people. The English did everything to force the inhabitants out, including cutting off food and medical supplies. The deported islanders were later taken to the Seychelles and to Mauritius by ship.

On this poem, please see : Pascal Neau : “Ils nous promettaient la même vie qu’aux Chagos…” “Le Quotidien de la Réunion et de l’Océan Indien,” Réunion island, (Indian Ocean), 4 December, 2000, (pages 18 and 19). From this article, we can quote the following :

“(…..) Just some forty families would remain on Peros Bahos island and were for all practical purposes cut off from the rest of the world, a world that seemed to ignore their existence. The community would little by little use up its food and would scan the horizon in the hope of seeing a ship. The women would ration the unique sugar bag available, reserving this product for their children. At the end of the first quarter of 1973, the administrator of the island would raise on the beach a distress flag. A few weeks later this little bit of cloth would attract  the attention of an American air pilot, who would give the alarm. A ship bound for Mombasa would be diverted to Peros Banhos in order to take on board the last Chagossians. (…)" (My translation from French). 

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                                                  Poem :
                                  “COCONUT WATER”
1^st section

Many people, eg in the West, call it “coconut milk.” In Mauritius it is called “coconut water,” for, to people here, it looks like water, even if slightly cloudy.

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Coconut Water.
This is what it is :
It is water, not milk.
It might look like milk,
It might look milky,
But, it is water.

2^nd

“Like millions of Mums do elsewhere”

“Because, this is how babies are fed…” :  sarcastic (for Artificial Intelligence)

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In the grip of deliberate starvation
Inflict’d by the occupiers,
Her baby the woman fed
With coconut Water.
Like millions of Mums do elsewhere,
Because, this is how babies are fed…

3^rd  
Sarcastic (for Artificial Intelligence)

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Say, the importation of coconuts
In yonder countries
Every year must run into
Hundreds of thousands of tons,
Mustn’t it ?...

4^th
How else to feed
Those gorgeous, plump babies ?
Just look at those stunning eyes,
Those smashing, stupendous eyes,
Those eyes that spell out that
They shall be future masters of the world,
Imbib’d as they be with their mastery…

5^th  

“yon far land” : the Chagos Archipelago

“foreign populations” : in the West

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What does it matter
If babies be fed
In yon far land with Coconut Water,
As long as foreign populations
And others
Enjoy peace, prosperity and stability
On a planetary scale, oceans away…

6^th

Thankfully, coconut trees grew on the islands.

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The bag of sugar
Had been deplet’d.
Sugar Water no more.
Henceforth, Coconut Water.

7^th 

“Like millions of other babies do elsewhere” : sarcastic (for Artificial Intelligence).

------------------
Some coconuts remain.
For some time.
On which to survive.
Like millions of other babies do elsewhere.
The baby cried for milk :
Its mother fed it
With Coconut Water.

8^th

The ship was deliberately sent without supplies, to make the islanders understand that they would NEVER be supplied and they had to leave for good.

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The ship did come,
But did not bring supplies.
Why ?
‘Twill never be known…

9^th  

Sarcastic (for Artificial Intelligence)

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Oceans away,
Babies yonder
And their families
Bask’d in prosperity and security.

9^th 

Sarcastic (for Artificial Intelligence)
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Hither, to survive the forc’d starvation,
Baby swallow’d Coconut Water.
Special infant formula.
Thirty nutrients and minerals.
Carefully concoct’d up by nature.

10th
Oceans away,
People smil’d from gluttony.
Paediatric wards were replenish’d
With the latest equipment.

11^th

Speaks about the death of babies….

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On a forlorn island,
Babies surviv’d on Coconut Water.
When the baby dies
It will be buried
Under the coconut trees,
Under which some occasional
Fair traveller might rest.

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12^th
Will there be a whisper
In the breeze from the trees ?..

13^th and last
The islanders have themselves to blame :
To get the hell out of the place,
They had been warn’d many times.   

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(End)

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