Even nature was cruel to the coffee workers

If history is delayed justice, then verdicts of “guilty” have to be entered against most of the governors of Ceylon in the coffee period; the kanganis, and the planters. Even nature was cruel to the coffee workers. Death rode on the frail craft in which they faced the hazards of the “black water”. Death was only a step behind the workers on the weary 150-mile walk from the hot and arid plains of the north western province of Ceylon to the cold and wet hillsides of the coffee estates. Death struck in the shape of a slithering snake in the undergrowth, or though the claws and jaws of a man –eating leopard. The writings of William knighton, C.R.Rigg, William sabonadiere, P.D.Millie, John Capper, Edward Sullivan and others on the travails of the coffee workers make chilling reading today even after the passing of a century.
Whenever the awkward question of mortality surfaced, the planters blamed the government for not providing better communications and facilities for food, drink and shelter. The governor blamed the system of recruitment though kanganis. The kangani system certainly brought out the worst in human nature. The kanganis sent on recruiting missions to south India cynically engaged greater numbers than were required because they knew a percentage would perish on the way. And they spent the barest minimum to keep their human charges alive out of the advances the planters paid them as expenses. The kanganis fattened on the profits from their human cargo. The governors in Colombo knew of the inquiries of the kangani system but were unwilling or unable to change it. Sir Henry word, an able governor, said the kangani system was based on “fraud and peculation”, and tried to change it but failed. Sir William Gregory, another capable governor, said the planters would change the system if they could, but it was based on custom, “and anyone acquainted with east knows what a barrier that word is to innovation however palpably beneficial.” And so the system continued not only until the dying days of the coffee industry but also through the birth and growth of the tea industry.