Guyana's Culture
Culture name: Guyanese
Identification. Guyana is an Amerindian word meaning "the land of many waters." Attempts to forge a common identity have foundered, and it is more accurate to speak of African, Indian, and Amerindian Guyanese cultures. There were small European, Portuguese "colored," and Chinese communities before large-scale migration to Canada and the United States in the late 1960s. British Guiana was referred to as "the land of six peoples."
Location and Geography. Guyana is on the northeastern shoulder of South America, bounded on the north by the Atlantic Ocean, on the east by Suriname, on the northwest by Venezuela, and on the south and southwest by Brazil. The capital city is Georgetown. In an area of 83,000 square miles (212,000 square kilometers), there are three regions: the narrow coastal belt of rich alluvium; the densely forested, hilly sand and clay belt; and the Rupununi grasslands between the rain forests and the frontier with Brazil. Over 90 percent of the population lives on the coastal belt, which is below sea level. The Dutch, using African slaves in the eighteenth century, made this area habitable. Every square mile of cultivated land has forty-nine miles of drainage canals and ditches and sixteen miles of high-level waterways.
Demography. The population was 758,619 in 1980. It had declined to 723,800 in 1991, and an estimated 720,700 in 1996. In 1991, the population consisted of 49 percent Indians; 35 percent Africans; 7 percent mixed race peoples; and 6.8 percent Amerindians. Indians are of the following religions: Hindu, 65 percent; Muslim, 20 percent; and Christian, 15 percent. Massive migration has led to the virtual disappearance of Chinese, mixed, Europeans, and Portuguese.
Linguistic Affiliation. The official language is English. No African languages survived slavery, nor have those of the indentured laborers (Indians, Madeiran Portuguese, and Chinese). Guyanese speak creole dialects of English with varying ethnic lexical
Identification. Guyana is an Amerindian word meaning "the land of many waters." Attempts to forge a common identity have foundered, and it is more accurate to speak of African, Indian, and Amerindian Guyanese cultures. There were small European, Portuguese "colored," and Chinese communities before large-scale migration to Canada and the United States in the late 1960s. British Guiana was referred to as "the land of six peoples."
Location and Geography. Guyana is on the northeastern shoulder of South America, bounded on the north by the Atlantic Ocean, on the east by Suriname, on the northwest by Venezuela, and on the south and southwest by Brazil. The capital city is Georgetown. In an area of 83,000 square miles (212,000 square kilometers), there are three regions: the narrow coastal belt of rich alluvium; the densely forested, hilly sand and clay belt; and the Rupununi grasslands between the rain forests and the frontier with Brazil. Over 90 percent of the population lives on the coastal belt, which is below sea level. The Dutch, using African slaves in the eighteenth century, made this area habitable. Every square mile of cultivated land has forty-nine miles of drainage canals and ditches and sixteen miles of high-level waterways.
Demography. The population was 758,619 in 1980. It had declined to 723,800 in 1991, and an estimated 720,700 in 1996. In 1991, the population consisted of 49 percent Indians; 35 percent Africans; 7 percent mixed race peoples; and 6.8 percent Amerindians. Indians are of the following religions: Hindu, 65 percent; Muslim, 20 percent; and Christian, 15 percent. Massive migration has led to the virtual disappearance of Chinese, mixed, Europeans, and Portuguese.
Linguistic Affiliation. The official language is English. No African languages survived slavery, nor have those of the indentured laborers (Indians, Madeiran Portuguese, and Chinese). Guyanese speak creole dialects of English with varying ethnic lexical
Bibliography: Adamson, Alan H. Sugar without Slaves: The Political Economy of British Guiana, 1838–1904 , 1972. Benjamin, Joel, Lakshmi Kallicharan, Ian McDonald, and Lloyd Searwar, eds. They Came in Ships: An Anthology of Indo-Guyanese Prose and Poetry , 1998. Brown, Stewart ed. The Art of Martin Carter , 2000. Carter, Martin. Selected Poems , 1997. Jagan, Cheddi. The West on Trial: My Fight for Guyana 's Freedom , 1966. McGowan, Winston F., James G. Rose, and David A. Granger, eds. Themes in African Guyanese History , 1998. Menezes, Mary Noel. The Portuguese of Guyana: A Study in Culture and Conflict , 1994. Moore, Brian. Cultural Power, Resistance and Pluralism: Colonial Guyana, 1838–1900 , 1995. Rodney, Walter. A History of the Guyanese Working People, 1881–1905 , 1981. Seecharan, Clem. "Tiger in the Stars": The Anatomy of Indian Achievement in British Guiana, 1919–1929 , 1997. ——. "The Shaping of the Indo-Caribbean People: Guyana and Trinidad to the 1940s." Journal of Caribbean Studies 14 (1–2): 61–92, 1999–2000. Smith, Raymond T. The Negro Family in British Guiana: Family Structure and Social Status in the Villages , 1956. ——. British Guiana , 1962. Spinner, Thomas J., A Political and Social History of Guyana, 1945–1983 , 1983. St. Pierre, Maurice. Anatomy of Resistance: Anti-Colonialism in Guyana, 1823–1966 , 1999. Sue-a-Quan, Trev. Cane Reapers: Chinese Indentured Immigrants in Guyana , 1999.