Celebrating the cultural heritage of karasabai

As is customary every year during Amerindian Heritage Month celebrations, a heritage village is identified where many will converge to celebrate their cultural heritage. This year we celebrate scenic Karasabai.
Karasabai is an Amerindian village located in South Pakaraimas, Region Nine. The community is accessible by land and air. It has a population of approximately 1,600 whose main source of income derives from agriculture. Meat (beef and mutton), peanuts and cassava by-products such as farine and cassareep are its primary products.
The village has a nursery and primary school, health centre, two health posts, an RDC admin building, police station, teacher’s quarters, guest house, village office, shop and churches.
Karasabai is made up of Makushi tribe members. Over the years the village has benefited from many hinterland projects.  Some of these development projects include presidential grants, which were instrumental in the formation of a village shop, and capital projects with contributions of 4×4 pickups, tractors, boat and engines, a village market building, among others.
The village is already buzzing with activities as it prepares for the influx of visitors who will be enjoying a series of activities such as cultural presentations (dancing and singing), horse riding, donkey riding, cassava bread baking, farine parching, fire lighting, tomma cooking, cotton spinning and football, just to name a few.
This year, Amerindian Heritage Month is celebrated under the theme, “Honouring Our Culture, Advancing our future”. According to the Ministry of Amerindian Affairs in a submitted statement, the theme “demonstrates the fact that people simply cannot live without culture, neither can they exist without development.  Both are inextricably linked as the precursors of human existence.  Honouring our culture means that we respect our norms and practices, appreciate our songs, language and literature, affirm our values, uphold our traditions, and take pride of our cultural identity.
When culture is understood to denote the transmission of values as contained in our language, literature, music, art, and practices,  it provides meaning and purpose, and becomes an expression of our ideals and aspirations as a group of people, and as a nation.  These aspirations and ideals become the core element in any public policy or in public planning. For instance, the LCDS was conceptualised because of our love for the environment which our first peoples have protected and preserved.  This overarching principle or ideal had become the fulcrum of the evolution of our strategy for development, and therefore cannot be ignored in projecting our future,” it also added.
The statement pointed out that “cultural identity, social justice, and ecological balance have their roots in our cultural values, and all these play important roles in development.  To neglect their importance, is to neglect and dismiss the impact of culture in the agenda for development. When we uphold our cultural values concerning these precursors of development, then we are actually ensuring that development becomes sustainable.”
One can only truly experience Amerindian customs and traditions in an Amerindian village.  That is why Karasabai was chosen. With its panoramic sceneries, mountain ranges and pulsating Makushi culture, Karasabai will be worth the visit.