Angola offered little hope to Indian workers

LATCHMAN, colonial number 66095, was lucky to leave Lobito Bay alive. After being freed from indenture in Natal, he was in dire straits with the dreaded £3 tax and growing debt. The economic depression that followed the Anglo-Boer War made matters more desperate.

The Natal Government Railways on which he had worked since arriving in 1897 had even lowered wages. Along with 2 207 others, he seized the opportunity in 1907 to work on the Benguela Railway in Angola. Deceptive labour brokers made the prospects