| Stopover is
a story of migration. Indians were shipped to Fiji, beginning 1879,
under an unfortunate indenture system to graft in the colony’s
sugar cane fields. While some died in service and others returned to
India at the end of their indenture, many remained and settled. The
descendents of those labourers, third- fourth- and fifth-generation
now, still denied land ownership in Fiji, continue to emigrate from
this fickle Pacific country in considerable numbers, as a succession
of coups – the first in 1987 and the fourth in December 2006 – and
ensuing racism and economic hardship reinforce
their view that their future lies in first world cities such as >> |
|
