Category: HISTORY

The National Trust of Guyana published a booklet that focused on Guyana’s “Heritage of Water”. The Trust looked at water as a catalyst for Guyanese economic, environmental, cultural and social development and achievements. It noted that water “inspired various aspects of educational and vocational endeavour, especially in areas of art, poetry and literature, while shaping our intangible cultural values associated with beliefs, religions and other practices.” Guyana’s waterways have helped shape our infrastructure, exports, environment and human settlement from the moment the territory was discovered and explored. Guyana’s many historical…

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Theodore Wilson Harris, born March 24, 1921 in New Amsterdam, Berbice on what was then the colony of British Guiana, grew up to become one of the most famed Guyanese writers and one who, in recognition of his outstanding literary career, at 89-years-old was knighted by the British monarch. The litmus test of young literature undergrads, Harris’ work has been described as challenging and rewarding by critics, and he has been praised for his singularly unique and innovative use of language to express his stories; stories that especially tell of…

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Part III (Continued from July 7) The missionary John Wray’s arrival to fulfil Post’s desire to have the slaves taught religious education and to read and write brought much censure from other plantation owners who felt that it would lead to revolt. They accused Post of creating “anarchy, chaos and discontent among the slaves” that would lead to “destruction” of the colony. The planters insisted that if they were teaching the slaves religion, they should teach them “their duties to their masters”. Newspaper articles also arose that warned of the…

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The Preamble to an 1887 ordinance in British Guiana stated that it had become necessary for the “establishment and regulation of a town” at the confluence of the Essequibo, Mazaruni (Massaruni) and Cuyuni rivers. The point, known as Bartica Grove, was chosen for the new town. In 1829 the Church Missionary Society established the area to conduct missionary work, and it was known for its quiet environment surrounded by palms and mango groves. The name was later shortened to Bartica, which is said to mean “red earth” in one of…

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Plantation Highbury is now the site of a monument commemorating the arrival of the first group of Indian indentured labourers to Berbice, British Guiana. Two hundred and fifty labourers had sailed from Kolkata (then Calcutta) India on The Whitby to arrive in the colony on May 5, 1838. Four had died along the 96-day journey. According to some accounts, many of those who returned to India after their indentureship period at Highbury had ended, returned with substantial wealth; paving the way for the Indian indentureship era in Guyanese history, and,…

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According to ‘Ethnologue, Languages of the World’, the number of individual languages listed for Guyana is 17. Of these, 14 are living and 3 are extinct. Of the living languages, 2 are institutional, 7 are in trouble, and 5 are dying. Guyana’s national language is English, the language used in education, work, mass media, and government at the national level – an inheritance of our British colonial history; while Guyanese Creole English, according to ‘Ethologue’, is the “De facto language of national identity”, spoken by 650,000 individuals of an estimated…

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(CONTINUED FROM APRIL 28) The war which at the time raged between the English, French and Dutch nations in the outer world affected these same nations in the Guianas. In 1664 Lord Willoughby wrote home regarding the Dutch seizure of several places in Guiana…and advised that they should be attacked before they grew too strong; and in the following year, Sir Thomas Moddyford submitted his proposition for rooting the Dutch out of Guiana and the West Indies generally. Accordingly, in this latter year, Lord Willoughby set out himself to attack…

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(CONTINUED FROM APRIL 21) It is well here to try to realize the relative position of the three centres of Dutch population by that time established in Guiana, on the Pomeroon, the Essequibo and the Berbice. Each stood, as it were, in a clearing of land otherwise everywhere covered with dense forest down to the edge of the water. Between these clearings there was no road and no means of communication except by water. Between them lay a dense, trackless forest, inhabited only by [indigenous] Indians. Gradually, however, in spite…

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(CONTINUED FROM APRIL 14) Gromweagle [or Groenewegen] was a Dutchman, born in 1581, who, serving under various Spanish expeditions in  the Orinoco, acquired so a great liking for the adventures incident to a life in Guiana that, having heard that his own countrymen from Zealand were establishing themselves more firmly on the Essequibo than the Spaniards were likely ever to do in any part of Guiana, he asked for employment from his own countrymen and was sent from Zealand, in what capacity does not appear very certainly, in 1616 with…

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As early as 1580, certain Dutch traders established a settlement on the eastern bank of the Pomeroon River; and even in the first year after its formation, this settlement was recognised by the home government. A Dutch population gradually spread along the banks of this river and long flourished, though never developing a colony with a distinct government. At a considerably later period…between 1650-1660, a vain attempt to give new vitality to the settlements on the Pomeroon was made, by building the two towns of New Zealand and New Middleburg.…

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