|
Guyana Guyana: The Society and Its Environment
![[GIF]](http://lcweb2.loc.gov/frd/cs/guyana/gy02_00a.gif)
Georgetown's public market building
THE COMPOSITION OF GUYANESE SOCIETY is a reflection of the
country's colonial past. The colony was created by Dutch and
British planters who grew sugarcane using the labor of slaves and
indentured workers. Ignoring the country's vast interior, the
planters constructed dikes and dams that transformed the coast into
an arable plain. With the exception of the indigenous Amerindians
and a few Europeans, the entire population consisted of imported
plantation workers or their descendants.
Guyanese culture developed with the adaptation of the forced
and voluntary immigrants to the customs of the dominant British.
Brought to Guyana as slaves, Africans of diverse backgrounds had
been thrown together under conditions that severely constrained
their ability to preserve their respective cultural traditions. In
adopting Christianity and the values of British colonists, the
descendants of the African slaves laid the foundations of today's
Afro-Guyanese culture. Arriving later and under somewhat more
favorable circumstances, East Indian immigrants were subjected to
fewer pressures to assimilate than the Africans had been. As a
result, more of their traditional culture was preserved.
Although the culture of independent Guyana has become more
truly national, the Guyanese people remain divided by ethnic
mistrust. The Guyanese elite that has emerged to replace the
colonial administration faces the enormous challenge of satisfying
the aspirations of the people concerning economic development and
educational opportunity.
Data as of January 1992
|
