As I am launching a non-profit organization to save animals, PurrFactory.org, in between chores, rescuing, raising money, and purrs, I have no distractions and my mind can roam freely. I rarely share personal topics, but maybe I should.
I was born on the French island of Martinique, a colorful island also called Madinina the island of flowers. The island of Martinique is not only mine but the birthplace of Josephine de Beauharnais, Napoleon’s wife and first Empress of France. Josephine’s bloodline made Martinique secretly flow in the bloodline of powerful nobles, Kings, and Queens in France, Sweden, Denmark, Brazil, Russia, and Greece. Places far away from Martinique with very diverse cultures.
The chain of islands forming the Caribbean is also known as the Antilles and the West Indies. During the colonization period, a wave of immigrants came to the islands, in particular from India, at that time still under British Control. Indian immigrants settled on every island from Jamaica to Trinidad and Tobago.
The French Caribbean’s islands have one particularity: diversity is ruling, people from the beginning of history mixed without prejudice and India’s culture left a strong footprint in Martinique. Indian immigrants in Martinique came from East India, the Chennai region. The influence made by the Indian immigrants was so strong that the national dish in Martinique is made of a dark green curry called Colombo. Martinique ethnic costume is made of Madras material, you will see it during the Carnival. Madras is the older name for the Chennai region.
The Indian heritage not only made it in the bloodlines but also in the language, in Creole someone with Indian descent is known as a “Coolie” which is not a noble term historically in India, to say the least, however for us on the island, the meaning is not a prejudice one, it is just a reference of ethnic blood descent in the Creole language.
My grandmother was a Coolie, married my grandfather, who is of French descent. Diversity is naturally occurring on the island, we don’t talk about diversity just simply because it is occurring naturally on the island and there is nothing to talk about on this topic. The mix of ethnicities in Martinique has fostered some beautiful people.
Throughout my consulting years in the IT world, I am always surprised when speaking from my colleagues from India that they are not aware of this part of the Indian influence in the Caribbean's history, it is forgotten or unknown.
I have more ethnic bloodlines, but this will be for other blogs. Don’t forget to visit the PurrFactory.org fundraising campaign there is another interesting story behind it: https://gogetfunding.com/purrfactory-org/ and if you can contribute to making it happen, even better!
Visit Martinique it is a beautiful island full of wonders, see here: https://travel.usnews.com/Martinique/
Note on the side. My father won the bid to renovate the Schoelcher Library in Fort de France, Martinique. On the picture above, a famous landmark in Martinique. He came to me and ask me: “do you want to make some quick cash this weekend”, I responded “yes”. That Saturday it took me down to Fort de France early in the morning, a crane was there already, my dad said: “here are some brushes and gold paint, all you have to do is to refresh the paint on the dome of the library, we got only two days. Then the crane lifted me on the dome for me to do my thing. Yes, the dome you see in the picture, made of glass! The crane dropped me on top of the dome, I spent my weekend painting the metal frame walking with calculated steps to avoid going through the glass. Not working on eggshells was the name of the game. I managed to do it without damages and bruises, mission accomplished!
