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Guyana Portuguese and Chinese
The Portuguese were among the first indentured workers brought
to Guyana. Portuguese indentured immigration began in 1835 and
ended in 1882, with most of the immigrants having arrived by the
1860s. Most of the Portuguese came from the North Atlantic island
of Madeira.
Economically successful in Guyana, the Portuguese nonetheless
experienced discrimination. Even though of European origin, they
were treated as socially inferior by the British plantation owners
and officials because of their indentured past and Roman Catholic
religion. Despite discrimination, by the end of the nineteenth
century the Portuguese were firmly established as an important part
of Guyana's middle class and commercial sector.
Indentured Chinese workers first came to British Guiana from
the south coast of China in 1853. Relatively few in number, the
Chinese became the most acculturated of all the descendants of
indentured workers. The Chinese language and most Chinese customs,
including religion, disappeared. There were no clans or other
extended kinship organizations, and soon most Chinese did not trace
their ancestry beyond the first immigrant. Because almost all of
the Chinese indentured immigrants were men, they tended to
intermarry with both East Indians and Africans, and thus the
Chinese of Guyana did not remain as physically distinct as other
groups.
Like the Portuguese, the Chinese left the plantations as soon
as their indenture contracts were fulfilled. Many entered the
retail trade. Other Chinese engaged in farming and pioneered wetrice production, using techniques they brought from China. The
Chinese tended to live in urban settings.
Data as of January 1992
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