A traditional open cremation at the Shore of Peace in La Romain, South Trinidad would mark Ma’s final earthly journey. It will take place at 8 am Monday November 8, 2021. Owing to the COVID-19 threat there will be a slight variation of the traditions and all the rituals will take place at the cremation site, rather than at the home. Relatives, villagers and well wishers are asked to kindly note to observe all Covid 19 protocols and restrictions. Please stay tuned to here and social media for updates as we recall the life of Ma.
A Humble Life A Global Impact
Ma treasured the traditions that her ancestors brought to Trinidad and Tobago from India, but was open to adapting and moulding them to the new environment. She was a repository of original traditional folk songs that marked various social and cultural village events. She composed and adapted the traditional Bhojpuri songs and music to the chutney music traditions of Trinidad. She also enjoyed playing the dholak at village weddings and other occasions. I will share more of this in the coming days, as it forms the backdrop to components of the MultiMedia MicroEpic short film and how her songs contained clues that allowed me to piece together our family history.
She was the oldest resident of the Sancho-St Julien villages in South Trinidad, outliving all her contemporaries.
Ma spent all her life in various small villages in Trinidad – Navet/Rio Claro, Fyzabad, Whiteland, before settling with my Pa,Seekumar Seebance, a market gardener and sometimes stickfighter who practiced the art of Gatka as ‘the Sheriff’ with other stickfighters of a similar African tradition of Kalinda. Read more about my Pa and stickfighting in my piece, Just all Me Cooligan.
She has influenced and inspired much of my life’s work in education, culture, media and gender development, transferring her aspiration in me that fed into global efforts. In this way her reach, even without leaving her small village, was global.
She was the kind of women I thought of when I conceived and drafted the initiative that became the Commonwealth Caribbean Women Agents of Change project to recognize the undervalued and unaccounted work and contributions of women. It was piloted through the Network of NGOs for the Advancement of Women where I served as International Relations Director to the Commonwealth Women’s Network. It became the flagship event of the newly appointed first woman Prime Minister of Trinidad and Tobago, Kamla Persad-Bissessar when she assumed office in 2010 and lead to the creation of the new category of National Awards for Women. It has since seeped into international systems for recognition of the work of grassroots women, through gender programmes of the Commonwealth and Organisation of American States into the UN system.
Ma also inspired the ‘Middle Earth’ component of my new literary genre, MotherContinent and her songs form the backdrop of engaging with the interconnections between pre and post columbian/colonial migrations of the Southern Continent.
Phulmatia Seekumar, February 28,1930 to November 4, 2021, will be cremated at the Shore of Peace, Mosquito Creek, La Romain at 8 am on Monday November 8, 2021. All Covid protocols would be observed. Updates and Memoriam would be posted on my social media channels and this website GloCal Knowledge Pot (www.krisrampersad.com).
Grow Your Legacy
With rapidly changing technologies in media, many of our knowledge resources are fast disappearing or becoming inaccessible. We are in the process of digitising our archives representing more than 30 years of contemporary Caribbean development linked to pre and post colonial history and heritage.
This is in cross cutting disciplines of education, culture, gender, environment, agriculture, To support, sponsor, collaborate and partners with our digitisation efforts or to develop your own legacy initiatives, make contact.
Related: The light of my world now lights all the world-shubh-divali