Charlie King Junction Fyzabad
Around 1871, the village of Fyzabad emerged. The village was settled by East Indian workers who had completed their indentureship. The settlement started out as a project of the Canadian Mission to the Indians (CMI), and it was founded by Kenneth Grant, who was in charge of the San Fernando arm of the Mission. The project developed around the successes Reverend Grant had in converting Hindus, and to a lesser extent, Muslims, to the Presbyterian Faith.
Reverend Grant was concerned about leaving the converted Indians among others who were not converted, least they return to their old faith. He took these East Indian converts to what was Crown lands, a little south of the Oropouche Lagoon. The ex-indentured Indians named the new settlement 'Faizabad' after a well known district in the Uttar Pradesh State in India.
The village grew slowly and villagers engaged in agriculture, producing all sorts of vegetables, cocoa and coffee. The sudden discovery of Oil in Fyzabad during the First World War (1914-1918) changed the village. Hundreds of Africans from Grenada were recruited to work as labourers for the oil companies and by the 1940s Africans were nearly 40 percent of the population which changed the Indian character of the village.
Source: Towns and Villages by Michael Anthony
Labour Day Celebrations in Fyzabad, photos at:
www.triniview.com/album/Labour-Day-2005
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