The Karen women of Webi, mothers and shopkeepers, wear sarongs and side-buttoned blouses, as in the Irrawaddy delta. Members of the community still speak Karen (mostly Sgaw, but also some Pwo), and schoolchildren have Karen language textbooks.
The Andaman Karen also speak Hindi, Burmese and often English. When I visited, the last day of term at Webi’s English Medium Middle School was being celebrated by maroon-uniformed children with orange drinks and samosas. A family invited me into their house and one of the daughters, a university student, discussed Shakespeare plays with me.
Some intermarriage has taken place with Muslims and Hindus, but the Karens’ Christian identity stays strong. Webi has two churches: the Zion Baptist, with a red-trimmed crenellated facade, and the Rev Lugyi Memorial, with a blue pagoda-like entry decorated with paper streamers.
The Karen of the Andaman Islands are aware of conditions back in Burma, through family connections and radio news, and they know that life is very different across the sea to the north. As I walked through Webi, I was asked, “How is Aung San Suu Kyi?”
« previous 1 | 2 |