1.
Guyana
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Guyana, officially the Co-operative Republic of Guyana, is a sovereign state on the northern mainland of South America. It is, however, included in the Caribbean Region due to its cultural, historical. Guyana is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the north, Brazil to the south and southwest, Suriname to the east, with 215,000 square kilometres, Guyana is the fourth-smallest country on mainland South America after Uruguay, Suriname and French Guiana. The region known as the Guianas consists of the large landmass north of the Amazon River. Originally inhabited by indigenous groups, Guyana was settled by the Dutch before coming under British control in the late 18th century. It was governed as British Guiana, with mostly a plantation style economy until the 1950s and it gained independence in 1966, and officially became a republic within the Commonwealth of Nations in 1970. The legacy of British rule is reflected in the political administration and diverse population, which includes Indian, African, Amerindian. Guyana is the only South American nation in which English is the official language, the majority of the population, however, speak Guyanese Creole, an English-based creole language, as a first language. In addition to being part of the Anglophone Caribbean, Guyana is one of the few Caribbean countries that is not an island in the West Indies, CARICOM, of which Guyana is a member, is headquartered in Guyanas capital and largest city, Georgetown. In 2008, the joined the Union of South American Nations as a founding member. The name Guyana is derived from Guiana, the name for the region that formerly included Guyana, Suriname, French Guiana. According to the Oxford English Dictionary, Guyana is derived from an Indigenous Amerindian language, there are nine indigenous tribes residing in Guyana, the Wai Wai, Macushi, Patamona, Lokono, Kalina, Wapishana, Pemon, Akawaio and Warao. Historically the Lokono and Kalina tribes dominated Guyana, although Christopher Columbus sighted Guyana during his third voyage, the Dutch were the first to establish colonies, Essequibo, Berbice, and Demerara. After the British assumed control in 1796, the Dutch formally ceded the area in 1814, in 1831 the three separate colonies became a single British colony known as British Guiana. Since its Independence in 1824 Venezuela has claimed the area of land to the west of the Essequibo River, in 1899 an international tribunal ruled the land belonged to Great Britain. Guyana achieved independence from the United Kingdom on 26 May 1966 and became a republic on 23 February 1970, the US State Department and the US Central Intelligence Agency, along with the British government, played a strong role in influencing political control in Guyana during this time. The American government supported Forbes Burnham during the years of independence because Cheddi Jagan was identified as a Marxist. In 1978, Guyana received international notice when 918 members of the American cult, Peoples Temple, however, most of the suicides were by Americans and not Guyanese
2.
Georgetown, Guyana
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Georgetown is the capital of Guyana, located in Region 4, which is also known as the Demerara-Mahaica region. It is the countrys largest urban centre and it is situated on the Atlantic Ocean coast at the mouth of the Demerara River and it was nicknamed Garden City of the Caribbean. Georgetown serves primarily as a retail and administrative centre and it also serves as a financial services centre. The city recorded a population of 118,363 in the 2012 census, the city of Georgetown began as a small town in the 18th century. Originally, the capital of the Demerara-Essequibo colony was located on Borselen Island in the Demerara River under the administration of the Dutch and it was the French who made it a capital city when they colonized it in 1782. The French called the capital Longchamps, when the town was restored to the Dutch in 1784, it was renamed Stabroek after Nicolaas Geelvinck, Lord of Stabroek, and President of the Dutch West India Company. Eventually the town expanded and covered the estates of Vlissengen, La Bourgade and Eve Leary to the North and it was renamed Georgetown on 29 April 1812 in honour of King George III. The ordinance provided that the districts of Georgetown shall be known by their own names. The supervision of Georgetown was to be done by a chosen by the Governor. Estimates of expenditure were to be prepared, by 1806 the owner of Vlissingen asked to be exempted from the responsibility of maintaining the road which is now called Camp Street, but the Court refused the request. In 1810 the maintenance of the roads in the area called Georgetown cost 11,000 guilders per annum, the governing body of Georgetown was once a Board of Police. The Board of Police was chosen by the governor and the Court of Policy and it came into existence as the result of disputes among various organisations which controlled the districts. The Board met monthly but what was discussed is not on the records between 1825 and 1837, newspapers in the colony were prohibited by law from reporting public matters. The post of Commisary of Police was not regarded as important, people elected to the Board invariably declined to attend meetings and never gave reasons for their refusal. It was, therefore, decided that individuals elected to the Board were bound to serve for two years, or suffer a penalty of 1,000 guilders, the Board of Police was abolished when an ordinance was passed to establish a Mayor and Town Council. Georgetown gained official city status on 24 August 1842 during the reign of Queen Victoria, the names of Georgetowns wards and streets reflect the influence of the Dutch, French and English who administered the town at different periods of history. Cummingsburg was originally named Plantation La Bourgade by its first owner and it was laid out in streets and building lots by its second proprietor, Thomas Cuming, a Scotsman, from whom it gets its current name. He made a presentation of the Militia Parade Ground and Promenade Gardens to the town as a gift and it is noteworthy that Carmichael Street was named after General Hugh Lyle Carmichael who served as Governor from 1812 to 1813
3.
Guyanese in the United Kingdom
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Guyanese in the United Kingdom are citizens or residents of the United Kingdom whose origins lie in Guyana. At the time of the 2001 UK Census there were 20,872 Guyanese-born people in the UK. In 2001, Guyana was the sixth most common birthplace within the Americas for people in the UK, estimates published by the Office for National Statistics suggest that the Guyanese-born population of the UK was 24,000 in 2009. It is, however, claimed that this trend of success in the field has not continued through to the second-, the late Beryl Gilroy was a significant figure within the Afro-Caribbean diaspora in the UK. This highly respected Guyanese-born novelist became the first black headteacher of any school in the country. Another important literary figure of the Guyanese British community in the UK as a whole is John Agard, pauline Melvilles output of work has led to such awards as Guardian Fiction Prize, the Macmillan Silver Pen Award and the Commonwealth Writers Prize for best first book. Indo-Guyanese writer David Dabydeen, a UK resident, has interests that encompass the slave-trading history of Guyana as well as contemporary Caribbean culture in the UK, other UK-based writers of Guyanese origin include Fred DAguiar, Mike Phillips, and Jan Shinebourne. The music of Guyana is a mix of Indian, African, European and it is similar to the music of various other Caribbean nations, where reggae, soca and calypso prove the most popular. These forms of music have worked their way into British life by the Guyanese community of the UK, the influence of Caribbean music in the United Kingdom is evident in many walks of life, the work of many contemporary artists is based in the reggae and calypso styles. Eddy Grant, a Guyanese-born immigrant to the UK, helped popularise such genres as reggae through his global hits such as Electric Avenue and we are not Sony, and the artists on board realise it will take time. Despite this, as the Guyanese community in the UK has advanced into its second and third generations, british-born individuals of Guyanese origin have in particular become more mainstream and modernised. The most recent success story of a British singer of Guyanese origin is Leona Lewis and she has attained three number one hits in the UK and it the only solo British female in over two decades to have reached the top spot on the Billboard Hot 100. Haring Traditional Guyanese acts and British acts influenced by genres as reggae, soca and calypso can be found in festivals across the country
4.
Guyanese Americans
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Guyanese Americans are Americans who can trace their ancestry back to Guyana. After the independence of Guyana from the United Kingdom, in 1966, many of the first Guyanese immigrants to the United States were of African descent. They were women who were recruited as workers or nursing assistants. Prior to the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952 Guyanese of Asian descent faced immigration restrictions because of existence of Asiatic Barred Zone. However, many Guyanese who had studied in the US in the mid 20th century or earlier stayed on in the US, some, the United States has the highest number of Guyanese people outside of Guyana. The Guyanese-American community consists basically of people of Afro-Guyanese and Indo-Guyanese origins, as of 1990,80 percent of Guyanese Americans lived in the Northeast. The Guyanese Americans students vary their English accent, depending on whether they are at home or at school, in schools, Guyanese students learn to speak The British English. Some Indo–Guyanese Americans, in addition to speaking English, also speak Hindi, the Indians have religious ceremonies at their houses monthly and they attend a temple. The Indo-Guyanese who are Christian attend a church but there are a lot more Hindus than Christians. They have various centers for Bhajans, the Guyanese have formed their own businesses in the United States, many of which are shops, restaurants of traditional Guyanese cuisine, grocery stores, and jewelry stores. There are also many shops of clothing belonging to Guyanese that sell clothing Indian, in addition to these stores, there are also video playback stores specializing in Bollywood films with English subtitles for those who do not understand Hindi. The Indo - Guyanese Americans try to keep alive their culture and contact with Guyana, hence, they watch movies, listen to music and read books of Guyana and India. In addition, people of Indian - Guyanese descent that do not speak Hindi, try to learn it from their nearby Hindu temples, Guyanese have organized most of the U. S. Caribbean organizations. There are many nurses from Guyana and police associations, shirley Chisholm was the only Congresswoman of Guyanese descent in American history, as well as the first African-American woman elected to the United States Congress. Some of the associations are the Indo-Caribbean American Cultural and Arts Association, The Indo-Caribbean Federation of North America, the development of the cultural groups in the area had made a necessity for announcements of community news. The Guyanese American community has close ties with Guyana and help financially to this country. There is a large ongoing academic exchanges between Guyana and the United States as academic conferences, the Journal of the Caribbean is a Caribbean newspaper important to inform the Indo-Guyanese and other Caribbean groups of their achievements and inform them about the events in Guyana. This newspaper is published weekly and distributed throughout North America, the publications of these papers are written in English
5.
Religion in Guyana
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Christianity and Hinduism are the dominant religions in Guyana. According to the 2012 census, approximately 63 percent of the population is Christian, according to the 2012 census, approximately 25 percent are Hindu,7 percent are Muslim, and 1 percent practice other beliefs, including the Rastafari movement, Buddhism, and the Bahai Faith. More than 3 percent of the population do not profess any religion, between 1991 and 2012, Hinduism, Islam, Catholicism and Mainline Protestant churches all saw significant decline as the national population grew by 3%. This is in contrast to Pentecostalism, which more than doubled, and less-established Christian groups, the country is ethnically diverse, reflecting East Indian, African, Chinese, and European ancestry, as well as a significant indigenous population. Members of all groups are well represented in all religious groups. Foreign missionaries from many groups are present. Christianitys status as Guyanas dominant system of values is a consequence of colonial history, to the European planters, colonial administrators, and missionaries, the profession of Christian beliefs and observance of Christian practices were prerequisites to social acceptance. Even though the planters discouraged the teaching of their religion to the slaves, indeed, after abolition, Christian institutions played an even more important role in the lives of the former slaves than in the lives of the masters. By the time the East Indians and other indentured groups arrived in Guyana, among the Christian denominations active in Guyana in the 1990s, the Anglican Church claimed the largest membership, about 125,000 adherents as of 1986. Anglicanism was the religion of British Guiana until independence. The Roman Catholic Church had a membership of about 94,000 in 1985, the majority of Roman Catholics lived in Georgetown, and the Portuguese were the most active members, although all the ethnic groups were represented. The Presbyterian Church was the third largest denomination, with nearly 39,000 members in 1980, several other Christian churches had significant memberships in 1980, including the Methodists, Pentecostals, and Seventh-day Adventists, each of which had about 20,000 members. There were smaller numbers of Baptists, Jehovahs Witnesses, Congregationalists, Nazarenes, Moravians, Ethiopian Orthodox, other sects in Guyana included the Rastafari movement which looks to Ethiopia for religious inspiration, and the Hallelujah Church, which combines Christian beliefs with Amerindian traditions. There were also at least 60,000 people describing themselves as Christian who had no church affiliation. These groups would have services, bible teachings and discussions at a house or a provided empty location. The number of Guyanese practising Hinduism has been decreasing for many decades now, the majority of the East Indian immigrants were Hindu, and their dominant sect was Vaishnavite Hinduism. Status differences were attached to castes, and rituals varied with caste status, the higher castes worshipped the classic pantheon of Vishnu and Shiva. Vaishnavite Hinduism remains the predominant religion of the Indo-Guyanese, although it has been considerably modified, Orthodox Hinduism stresses the festivities accompanying religious rites
6.
Islam in Guyana
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About 7. 2-10 percent of Guyanas population is Muslim, representing 57, 572-79,961 individuals, many of whom are descended from indentured labourers from India. The largest Islamic organization in the country is the Guyana Islamic Trust, until the 1970s, Muslim holidays were not officially recognized. A number of non-Christian religious days are now public holidays, Muslim holidays include Eid al Fitr, the end of Ramadan, the sacred month of fasting, Id al Adha, the feast of sacrifice, and Mawlid, the birthday of Muhammad. The dates for these vary according to the Islamic calendar. The National United Halaal Authority of Guyana was established in 2011 and this organisation is dedicated to the inspection and certification of Halaal products and food establishments in Guyana. Although other organisations have Halaal boards/committees, N. U. H. A is the first organisation in Guyana whose main objective is Halaal certification, the Central Islamic Organization of Guyana is the oldest Islamic group in Guyana. They are involved in work and orphan sponsorships. The Guyana Islamic Trust is a multi-faceted, not for profit organization which has established since 1978. The GIT has dedicated itself to the process of bringing about intellectual, moral and spiritual improvement to individuals and our fundamental approach is education, since ignorance is the root cause of the intolerance, racism, immorality and criminality that pervades our society and our world. Our belief that Islam holds the perfect solutions to man kinds woes is demonstrated in our of program of Dawah, to bring Allahs message to each, the Guyana Islamic Trust manages its grass root work through fourteen Administrative Districts. The Guyana Islamic Institute remains one of the Caribbeans premier Islamic centers of learning, since its establishment in 1986, scores of students from Guyana and the Caribbean have graduated from a wide range of courses including Arabic Language, Quranic Sciences and Islamic Studies. Many of these graduates have since become Shuyukh, Imaams and Duat and today are serving the Ummah in Guyana, students of these programs are given in-depth tutoring in the areas of, Arabic Language Quranic Sciences Aqeedah Hifz Fiqh Hadith Islamic History Dawah Methodology Seerah Ideology and Concepts. Co-curricular Activities Additionally the curriculum is complemented by studies in Information Technology, enhancement courses in English language. Students of the GII are given experience in Teaching Delivering Khutbahs Dawah to Non-Muslims Organizing and participating in youth activities. Scholarship Guyana and Suriname are the only American countries which are states of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation. This article incorporates public domain material from the Library of Congress Country Studies website http, Central Islamic Organization of Guyana Guyana Islamic Trust
7.
Rastafari
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It developed in Jamaica in the 1930s, following the coronation of Haile Selassie I as Emperor of Ethiopia in 1930. There are many sects of Rastafari that have developed over the years and its adherents worship him in much the same way as Jesus in his Second Coming, or as God the Son. Members of the Rastafari way of life are known as Rastafari, Rastas, Rastafari are also known by their official church titles, such as Elder or High Priest. Rastafari has always been conceived as a way of life for, the name Rastafari is taken from Ras Tafari, the title and first name of Haile Selassie I before his coronation. In Amharic, Ras, literally head, is an Ethiopian title equivalent to prince or chief, while the personal given name Täfäri means one who is revered. Yah is a Biblical name of God, from a form of Jahweh or Yahuah found in Psalms 68,4 in the King James Version of the Bible. Most adherents see Haile Selassie I as Jah or Jah Rastafari, an incarnation of God the Father, Rastafari developed in Jamaica during the 1930s, having been influenced by both Ethiopianism and the Back to Africa movement promoted by black nationalist figures like Marcus Garvey. A number of Christian clergymen, most notably Leonard Howell, believed that the crowning of Haile Selassie as Emperor of Ethiopia in 1930 marked the fulfilment of a Biblical prophecy and this idea generated the Rastafari movement, which spread throughout Jamaica in that decade. By the 1950s the religion has come into conflict with other aspects of the islands society and had spread to other nations. In the 1960s it expanded and began to gain an increasing influence through music, the Rastafari way of life encompasses the spiritual use of cannabis and the rejection of the degenerate society of materialism, oppression, and sensual pleasures, called Babylon. It proclaims Zion, in reference to Ethiopia, as the birthplace of humankind, and from the beginning of the way of life calls for repatriation to Zion. This can mean moving to Ethiopia but also refers to mentally and emotionally repatriating before the physical. Some Rastafari also embrace various Afrocentric and Pan-African social and political aspirations, International awareness of Rastafari grew in the 1970s as a result of the popularity of reggae music, and especially the international success of singer-songwriter Bob Marley. By 1997 there were, according to one estimate, around one million Rastafari worldwide, in the 2011 Jamaican census,29,026 individuals identified themselves as Rastafari. Other sources estimated that in the 2000s they formed about 5% of the population of Jamaica, scholars of religion categorise Rastafari as a new religious movement. Many Rastas themselves do not however regard it as a religion, attempts have been made to summarise Rastafari belief, but these have never been accorded the status of a catechism or creed within the movement. Emphasis is placed on the idea that experience and intuitive understanding should be used to determine the truth or validity of a particular belief or practice. No Rasta therefore has the authority to declare what beliefs and practices are orthodox, the conviction that Rastafari has no dogma is so strong that it has itself become something of a dogma, according to Clarke
8.
Obeah
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Obeah is a term used by the Igbo tribe in Nigeria, and also in the West Indies to refer to sorcery, and religious practices developed among West African slaves, specifically of Igbo origin. Obeah is similar to other Afro-American religions including Palo, Vodou, Santería, Obeah is practiced in Haiti, The Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, Dominica, Guyana, Suriname, Trinidad and Tobago and other Caribbean nations. Obeah is associated with both benign and malignant magic, charms, luck, and with mysticism in general, in some Caribbean nations, Obeah refers to folk religions of the African diaspora. In some cases, aspects of folk religions have survived through syncretism with Christian symbolism and practice introduced by European colonials. Casual observation may conclude that Christian symbolism is incorporated into Obeah worship, in parts of the Caribbean where Obeah existed, slaves were taken from a variety of African nations with differing spiritual practices and religions. It is from these arrivals and their spiritualisms that Obeah originates, the hypothesis of origin that is most accepted and is supported by the W. E. B. Du Bois Institute database traces obeah to the dibia or obia traditions of the Igbo people, specialists in Obia were known as Ndi Obia and practised the same activities as the obeah men and women of the Caribbean like predicting the future and manufacturing charms. Among the Igbo there were known as ọbiạ which were said to be able to talk. Parts of the Caribbean where Obeah was most active imported a number of its slaves from the Igbo dominated Bight of Biafra. In another hypothesis, the Efik language is the root of obeah where the word comes from the Efik ubio meaning a bad omen. The last hypothesis of the origin of Obeah lies with the Ashanti who called their priests Obayifoɔ, there is also evidence of Akan names among Obeah men of the Caribbean in the 17th and 18th centuries. The Akan origin of Obeah has been criticised by writers who hold that an Igbo origin is more likely. However, in colonies where Bight of Biafra slaves were represented and Akan were plenty. The first time in Jamaican history the term obeah was used was to refer to Nanny of the Maroons an Ashanti-Akan queen as an old witch, Obeah came to mean any physical object, such as a talisman or charm, that was used for evil magical purposes. Referred to as an Obeah-item Obeah incorporated various beliefs from the religions of later migrants to the colonies where it was present, Obeah also influenced other religions in the Caribbean, e. g. Christianity which incorporated some Obeah beliefs. In The Serpent Myth, William Wynn Westcott, one of the founders of the 19th century Golden Dawn magical order, claims Ob was an Egyptian word for serpent and is the source of the term Obeah. In 1787 a letter to an English newspaper referred to Obiu-women interpreting the wishes of the dead at the funeral of a slave in Jamaica. A continuing source of white anxiety related to Obeah was the belief that practitioners were skilled in using poisons, an anti-Obeah law passed in Barbados in 1818 specifically forbade the possession of any poison, or any noxious or destructive substance
9.
Sub-Saharan African
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Sub-Saharan Africa is, geographically, the area of the continent of Africa that lies south of the Sahara. According to the UN, it consists of all African countries that are fully or partially located south of the Sahara and it contrasts with North Africa, whose territories are part of the League of Arab states within the Arab world. Somalia, Djibouti, Comoros and Mauritania are geographically in Sub-Saharan Africa, the Sahel is the transitional zone between the Sahara and the tropical savanna and forest-savanna mosaic to the south. The Sahara pump theory explains how flora and fauna left Africa to penetrate the Middle East, African pluvial periods are associated with a wet Sahara phase during which larger lakes and more rivers existed. Geographers historically divided the region into several distinct ethnographic sections based on each areas respective inhabitants, commentators in Arabic in the medieval period used the general term bilâd as-sûdân for the vast Sudan region, or sometimes extending from the coast of West Africa to Western Sudan. Its equivalent in Southeast Africa was Zanj, which was situated in the vicinity of the Great Lakes region. The geographers drew an explicit distinction between the Sudan region and its analogue Zanj, from the area to their extreme east on the Red Sea coast in the Horn of Africa. In modern-day Ethiopia and Eritrea was Al-Habash or Abyssinia, which was inhabited by the Habash or Abyssinians, Sub-Saharan Africa has a wide variety of climate zones or biomes. South Africa and the Democratic Republic of the Congo in particular are considered Megadiverse countries, the Sahel shoots across all of Africa at a latitude of about 10° to 15° N. Countries that include parts of the Sahara Desert proper in their territories and parts of the Sahel in their southern region include Mauritania, Mali, Niger, Chad. The Sahel has a hot semi-arid climate, South of the Sahel, there is a belt of savanna, widening to include most of South Sudan and Ethiopia in the east. The Serengeti ecosystem is located in northwestern Tanzania and extends to southwestern Kenya, the Kalahari Basin includes the Kalahari Desert surrounded by a belt of semi-desert. The Bushveld is a tropical ecoregion of Southern Africa. The Karoo is a semi-desert in western South Africa and this occurred 10 million to 5 million years ago. By 3 million years ago several australopithecine hominid species had developed throughout southern, eastern and they were tool users rather than tool manufacturers. The tools were classed as Oldowan, roughly 1.8 million years ago, Homo ergaster first appeared in the fossil record in Africa. From Homo ergaster, Homo erectus evolved 1.5 million years ago, some of the earlier representatives of this species were small-brained and used primitive stone tools, much like H. habilis. The brain later grew in size, and H. erectus eventually developed a complex stone tool technology called the Acheulean
10.
The Guianas
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Amapá is a state located in the northern region of Brazil. It is the second least populous state and the eighteenth largest by area. Located in the far part of the country, Amapá is bordered clockwise by French Guiana to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the east, Pará to the south and west. The capital and largest city is Macapá, in the colonial period the region was called Portuguese Guiana and was part of Portugals State of Brazil. Later, the region was distinguished from the other Guianas, Amapá was once part of Pará, but became a separate territory in 1943, and a state in 1990. The dominant feature of the region, and 90 percent of its area, is the Amazon Rainforest. Unexplored forests occupy 70 percent of Amapá, and Tumucumaque Mountains National Park, the estuary of the River Oiapoque, once considered the northernmost point of Brazil, is along the Atlantic Ocean coast at the north of the state. During the colonial era from 1637 to 1654 the Amapá region was merged into the Captaincy of Para, the Amapá region had the highest population of any region of Brazil in the 16th century, with an estimated population of 7 million residents. In the early period the Amapá region was a rich source of lumber, resins, annatto, vegetable oils. The French established sugarcane plantations in this period, with the discovery of mineral deposits the Amapá region was invaded by the English and Dutch, who were ultimately repelled by the Portuguese. The Treaty of Utrecht in 1713 established the boundaries between the colony of Brazil and French Guiana, but these were not respected by the French, a fort was constructed at São José de Macapá, now in present-day Macapá, as a base of Portuguese power in the region. In the 18th century, France retook control of the area and this international dispute continued until 1900. French settlers established the State of Counani, the gold rush however brought in Brazilian interests who gained control of the territory, which led to clashes with the French. The dispute was sent for arbitration and on December 1,1900 and it was incorporated it into the state of Pará, with the joint name of Araguari. It became the territory of Amapá in 1943. The discovery of manganese deposits in Serra do Navio in 1945 revolutionized the local economy. Manganese remains the largest source of revenue in the state, Amapá did not achieve statehood until October 5,1988, at the time of the promulgation of the new Brazilian Constitution. The State of Amapá possesses the lowest rate of loss of its original vegetation for any Brazilian state, most of the Amapá territory is covered with rainforest, while the remaining areas are covered with savannah and plains
11.
British Empire
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The British Empire comprised the dominions, colonies, protectorates, mandates and other territories ruled or administered by the United Kingdom and its predecessor states. It originated with the possessions and trading posts established by England between the late 16th and early 18th centuries. At its height, it was the largest empire in history and, for over a century, was the foremost global power. By 1913, the British Empire held sway over 412 million people, 23% of the population at the time. As a result, its political, legal, linguistic and cultural legacy is widespread, during the Age of Discovery in the 15th and 16th centuries, Portugal and Spain pioneered European exploration of the globe, and in the process established large overseas empires. Envious of the great wealth these empires generated, England, France, the independence of the Thirteen Colonies in North America in 1783 after the American War of Independence caused Britain to lose some of its oldest and most populous colonies. British attention soon turned towards Asia, Africa, and the Pacific, after the defeat of France in the Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars, Britain emerged as the principal naval and imperial power of the 19th century. In the early 19th century, the Industrial Revolution began to transform Britain, the British Empire expanded to include India, large parts of Africa and many other territories throughout the world. In Britain, political attitudes favoured free trade and laissez-faire policies, during the 19th Century, Britains population increased at a dramatic rate, accompanied by rapid urbanisation, which caused significant social and economic stresses. To seek new markets and sources of raw materials, the Conservative Party under Benjamin Disraeli launched a period of imperialist expansion in Egypt, South Africa, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand became self-governing dominions. By the start of the 20th century, Germany and the United States had begun to challenge Britains economic lead, subsequent military and economic tensions between Britain and Germany were major causes of the First World War, during which Britain relied heavily upon its empire. The conflict placed enormous strain on the military, financial and manpower resources of Britain, although the British Empire achieved its largest territorial extent immediately after World War I, Britain was no longer the worlds pre-eminent industrial or military power. In the Second World War, Britains colonies in Southeast Asia were occupied by Imperial Japan, despite the final victory of Britain and its allies, the damage to British prestige helped to accelerate the decline of the empire. India, Britains most valuable and populous possession, achieved independence as part of a larger movement in which Britain granted independence to most territories of the empire. The transfer of Hong Kong to China in 1997 marked for many the end of the British Empire, fourteen overseas territories remain under British sovereignty. After independence, many former British colonies joined the Commonwealth of Nations, the United Kingdom is now one of 16 Commonwealth nations, a grouping known informally as the Commonwealth realms, that share a monarch, Queen Elizabeth II. The foundations of the British Empire were laid when England and Scotland were separate kingdoms. In 1496, King Henry VII of England, following the successes of Spain and Portugal in overseas exploration, Cabot led another voyage to the Americas the following year but nothing was ever heard of his ships again
12.
Indo-Guyanese
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Indo-Guyanese are Guyanese people with Indian heritage. Linguistically they are known as the speakers of the Indo-Aryan Hindustani languages such as Hindi. Ethnically, originated from different parts of India, they were a more known as the Indians or Hindi people. Indo-Guyanese are the largest ethnic group in Guyana identified by the official census and this was the beginning of the indenture system which was to continue for over three-quarters of a century and whose essential features were very reminiscent of slavery. Within a decade Indian immigration was responsible for changing the fortunes of the sugar industry. Those from Chota Nagpur were the Hill Coolies or Dhangars, the Dhangars were in great demand by tea garden planters to clear the jungle for the expansion of tea cultivation. Consequently, recruiting operations were pushed further north-westwards and the North-Western Provinces and Oudh, emancipation had conferred on the Guianese laborers both physical and occupational mobility. The majority of Indian immigrants were drawn from North India with smaller batches coming from the Tamil and they were recruited, very often on spurious promises, by professional recruiters, largely assisted by paid local agents called Arkatis in North India and Maistris in South India. This system of recruitment by local agents formed the backbone of all recruiting operations from the inception of the system to its cessation in 1917, intimidation, coercion and deception were very often used to recruit Indian laborers. Women, in particular, were very vulnerable, when laborers were difficult to enlist, the recruiters resorted to such illegal practices as kidnapping and forced detention. Many recruited to be shipped off the Caribbean, were advised on where they were heading. Names of places would be altered, to fit a higher meaning, with a need for labor, after the slave emancipation within British territory in 1834, the recruited Indian immigrants set sail for Guiana and other British West Indian territories. Upon arrival, the newly transplanted indentured servants were forced to adapt to tropical conditions. Between 1835 and 1918,341,600 indentured laborers from India were imported into British Guiana, with the increase of Indians laborers, hostility and fear of being undermined derived from the existing working class of newly free slaves in British Guiana. Treatment of the newly arrived immigrants was horrendous, and they were pushed into isolated communities, the indentured servants were required to sign a contract, the terms binding their service to a plantation for five years, while earning a fixed daily wage. Once this five-year period had passed, they would have five years of industrial residence in Guiana. At the end of the contract, laborers either returned to India or stayed in British Guiana and those who stayed received land and money to create their own businesses. The prospect of relations with Indian women was at first unappealing to the original mostly male Chinese migrants to Guyana even though there was a lack of Chinese women
13.
Indentured servitude
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An indentured servant or indentured labor is an employee within a system of unfree labor who is bound by a contract to work for a particular employer for a fixed period of time. The employer is permitted to assign the labor of an indenturee to a third party. Indenturees usually enter into an indenture for a payment or other benefit or to meet a legal obligation. Upon completion of the contract, indentured servants were granted freedom or occasionally plots of land, in many countries, systems of indentured labor have been outlawed. Until the late 18th century, indentured servitude was very common in British North America and it was often a way for poor Europeans to emigrate to the American colonies, they signed an indenture in return for a costly passage. After their indenture expired, the immigrants were free to work for themselves or another employer, the consensus view among economic historians and economists is that indentured servitude occurred largely as an institutional response to a capital market imperfection. In some cases, the indenture was made with a ships master, most indentured servants worked as farm laborers or domestic servants, although some were apprenticed to craftsmen. The terms of an indenture were not always enforced by American courts, although runaways were usually sought out, between one-half and two-thirds of white immigrants to the American colonies between the 1630s and American Revolution had come under indentures. Indentured people were numerically important mostly in the region from Virginia north to New Jersey, other colonies saw far fewer of them. The total number of European immigrants to all 13 colonies before 1775 was about 500,000, of the 450,000 or so European arrivals who came voluntarily, Tomlins estimates that 48% were indentured. About 75% of these were under the age of 25, the age of adulthood for men was 24 years, those over 24 generally came on contracts lasting about 3 years. Not all European servants were sent willingly, several instances of kidnapping for transportation to the Americas are recorded. An illustrative example is that of Peter Williamson, one spirit named William Thiene was known to have spirited away 840 people from Britain to the colonies in a single year. Historian Lerone Bennett, Jr. notes that Masters given to flogging often did not care whether their victims were black or white. Indentured servants could not marry without the permission of their master, were subject to physical punishment, to ensure uninterrupted work by the female servants, the law lengthened the term of their indenture if they became pregnant. But unlike slaves, servants were guaranteed to be released from bondage. At the end of their term they received a payment known as freedom dues, one could buy and sell indentured servants contracts, and the right to their labor would change hands, but not the person as a piece of property. The American Revolution severely limited immigration to the United States, but economic historians differ on the long-term impact of the Revolution
14.
Slavery
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A slave is unable to withdraw unilaterally from such an arrangement and works without remuneration. Many scholars now use the chattel slavery to refer to this specific sense of legalised. In a broader sense, however, the word slavery may also refer to any situation in which an individual is de facto forced to work against his or her will. Scholars also use the generic terms such as unfree labour or forced labour. However – and especially under slavery in broader senses of the word – slaves may have some rights and/or protections, Slavery began to exist before written history, in many cultures. A person could become a slave from the time of their birth, capture, while slavery was institutionally recognized by most societies, it has now been outlawed in all recognized countries, the last being Mauritania in 2007. Nevertheless, there are still more slaves today than at any point in history. The most common form of the trade is now commonly referred to as human trafficking. Chattel slavery is still practiced by the Islamic State of Iraq. An older interpretation connected it to the Greek verb skyleúo to strip a slain enemy, there is a dispute among historians about whether terms such as unfree labourer or enslaved person, rather than slave, should be used when describing the victims of slavery. Chattel slavery, also called traditional slavery, is so named because people are treated as the chattel of the owner and are bought, although it dominated many societies in the past, this form of slavery has been formally abolished and is very rare today. Even when it can be said to survive, it is not upheld by the system of any internationally recognized government. Indenture, otherwise known as bonded labour or debt bondage is a form of labour under which a person pledges himself or herself against a loan. The services required to repay the debt, and their duration, debt bondage can be passed on from generation to generation, with children required to pay off their parents debt. It is the most widespread form of slavery today, debt bondage is most prevalent in South Asia. This may also include institutions not commonly classified as slavery, such as serfdom, conscription, Human trafficking primarily involves women and children forced into prostitution. And is the fastest growing form of forced labour, with Thailand, Cambodia, India, Brazil, in 2007, Human Rights Watch estimated that 200,000 to 300,000 children served as soldiers in current conflicts. A forced marriage may be regarded as a form of slavery by one or more of the involved in the marriage
15.
Mulatto
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Mulatto is a term used to refer to persons born of one white parent and one black parent or to persons born of a mulatto parent or parents. In English, the term is generally confined to historical contexts. English speakers of mixed white and black ancestry seldom choose to identify themselves as mulatto. Some residents of Latin America, Spain America, the Caribbean, in Latin America, most mulattoes have descended from multi-ethnic relationships dating to the slavery period, rather than from recent ethnic mixing. This is especially true in Brazil, Colombia, the Dominican Republic, Cuba, Haiti, Cape Verde, Puerto Rico and Venezuela. The etymology of the term is believed to derive from the Spanish and Portuguese mulato, which comes from mula, meaning mule, the hybrid offspring of a horse. Some dictionaries and scholarly works trace the origins to the Arabic term muwallad. Muwallad literally means born, begotten, produced, generated, brought up, with the implication of being born and raised among Arabs, Muwallad is derived from the root word WaLaD, and colloquial Arabic pronunciation can vary greatly. Walad means, descendant, offspring, scion, child, son, boy, young animal, in al-Andalus, Muwallad referred to the offspring of non-Arab/Muslim people who adopted the Islamic religion and manners. Notable examples of this include the famous Muslim scholar Ibn Hazm. Thus, in context, the term Muwalad has a meaning close to the adopted. According to the source, the term does not denote being of mixed-race but rather being of foreign-blood. In English, printed usage of mulatto dates to at least the 16th century and this earliest usage regarded black and white as discrete species, with the mulatto constituting a third separate species. According to Julio Izquierdo Labrado, the 19th-century linguist Leopoldo Eguilaz y Yanguas, as well as some Arabic sources muwallad is the origin of mulato. The Real Academia Española casts doubt on the muwallad theory, Scholars such as Werner Sollors cast doubt on the mule etymology for mulatto. In the 18th and 19th centuries, racialists such as Edward Long and they projected this belief back onto the etymology of the word mulatto. Sollers points out that this etymology is anachronistic, The Mulatto sterility hypothesis that has much to do with the rejection of the term by some writers is only half as old as the word Mulatto. Of São Tomé and Príncipes 193,413 inhabitants, the largest segment is classified as mestiço. or mixed race, 71% of the population of Cape Verde is also classified as such
16.
Dutch West India Company
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Dutch West India Company was a chartered company of Dutch merchants. Among its founding fathers was Willem Usselincx, the area where the company could operate consisted of West Africa and the Americas, which included the Pacific Ocean and the eastern part of New Guinea. The intended purpose of the charter was to eliminate competition, particularly Spanish or Portuguese, the company became instrumental in the Dutch colonization of the Americas. When the Dutch East India Company was founded in 1602, some traders in Amsterdam did not agree with its monopolistic politics, however, he failed to find a passage. One of the first sailors who focused on trade with Africa was Balthazar de Moucheron, the trade with Africa offered several possibilities to set up trading posts or factories, an important starting point for negotiations. It was Blommaert, however, who stated that in 1600 eight companies sailed on the coast of Africa, competing with each other for the supply of copper, pieter van den Broecke was employed by one of these companies. In 1612, a Dutch fortress was built in Mouree, along the Dutch Gold Coast, Trade with the Caribbean, for salt, sugar and tobacco, was hampered by Spain and delayed because of peace negotiations. Spain offered peace on condition that the Dutch Republic would withdraw from trading with Asia, Spain refused to sign the peace treaty if a West Indian Company would be established. At this time the Dutch War of Independence between Spain and the Dutch Republic was occurring, grand Pensionary Johan van Oldenbarnevelt offered to only suspend trade with the West in exchange for the Twelve Years Truce. The result was that during a few years the company sailed under a flag in South America. However, ten years later, Stadtholder Maurice of Orange, proposed to continue the war with Spain, in 1619, his opponent Johan van Oldenbarnevelt was beheaded, and when two years later the truce expired, the West Indian Company was established. Some historians date the origins of the firm to the 1500s with arrivals of settlers in what is now called New York long before the English at Jamestown. The WIC was organized similarly to the Dutch East India Company, the board consisted of 19 members, known as the Heeren XIX. The validity of the charter was set at 24 years, only in 1623 was funding arranged, after several bidders were put under pressure. The States General of the Netherlands and the VOC pledged one million guilders in the form of capital, unlike the VOC, the WIC had no right to deploy military troops. When the Twelve Years Truce in 1621 was over, the Republic had a hand to re-wage war with Spain. A Groot Desseyn was devised to seize the Portuguese colonies in Africa, when this plan failed, privateering became one of the major goals within the WIC. The arming of merchant ships with guns and soldiers to defend themselves against Spanish ships was of great importance, on almost all ships in 1623,40 to 50 soldiers were stationed, possibly to assist in the hijacking of enemy ships
17.
Atlantic slave trade
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The Atlantic slave trade or transatlantic slave trade took place across the Atlantic Ocean from the 15th through the 19th centuries. This was crucial to those western European countries which, in the late 17th and 18th centuries, were vying with each other to create overseas empires, the Portuguese were the first to engage in the New World slave trade in the 16th century. In 1526, the Portuguese completed the first transatlantic voyage from Africa to the Americas. The first Africans imported to the English colonies were classified as indentured servants, like coming from England. By the middle of the 17th century, slavery had hardened as a caste, they and their offspring were legally the property of their owners. As property, the people were considered merchandise or units of labour, the major Atlantic slave trading nations, ordered by trade volume, were, the Portuguese, the British, the French, the Spanish, and the Dutch Empire. Several had established outposts on the African coast where they purchased slaves from local African leaders and these slaves were managed by a factor who was established on or near the coast to expedite the shipping of slaves to the New World. Slaves were kept in a factory while awaiting shipment, current estimates are that about 12 million Africans were shipped across the Atlantic, although the number purchased by the traders is considerably higher, as the passage had a high death rate. Near the beginning of the century, various governments acted to ban the trade. In the early twenty-first century, several governments issued apologies for the slave trade. The Atlantic slave trade arose after trade contacts were first made between the continents of the Old World and those of the New World, between 1600 and 1800, approximately 300,000 sailors engaged in the slave trade visited West Africa. In doing so, they came into contact with societies living along the west African coast, historian John Thornton noted, A number of technical and geographical factors combined to make Europeans the most likely people to explore the Atlantic and develop its commerce. That leadership later gave rise to the myth that the Iberians were the leaders of the exploration. Slavery was practiced in parts of Africa, Europe, Asia. There is evidence that people from some African states were exported to other states in Africa, Europe. The African slave trade provided a number of slaves to Europeans. The Atlantic slave trade was not the slave trade from Africa, although it was the largest in volume. As Elikia M’bokolo wrote in Le Monde diplomatique, The African continent was bled of its resources via all possible routes
18.
Canje River
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The Canje River, located in northeastern Guyana, is the main tributary of the Berbice River. It runs roughly parallel to the Atlantic Ocean coast, the Dutch established an outpost, Concordia Post, on the river. In 1763 a slave revolt began on two plantations on the Canje River, the Canje River supplies water to the Guyana Sugar Corporations Skeldon Estate, Albion Estate, and Rose Hall Estate. The Manarabisi Rice Cultivation and Black Bush Polder also depend on this river, pumps have been placed along the Canje River that lead to the cultivation area. There are two pumps at Skeldon and these push the water to the 8-mile long Sandaka Canal then into the sugarcane cultivation area. At the 7-mile long Manarabisi Canal there are two pumps and three pumps at the 7 mile long Black Bush Polder. When all these pumps are in operation during the season, the level of water in the Canje River drops. At this point, the gate on the Berbice River end of the Torani Canal is opened to allow for flow into the Canje Creek, the hoatzin is known in Guyana as the Canje pheasant, relating to its presence in the river
19.
Slave Trade Act 1807
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The original act is in the Parliamentary Archives. Many of the Bills supporters thought the Act would lead to the death of slavery, the Quakers had long viewed slavery as immoral, a blight upon humanity. By 1807 the abolitionist groups had a sizable faction of like-minded members in the British Parliament. At their height they controlled 35–40 seats and these dedicated Parliamentarians had access to the legal draughtsmanship of James Stephen, Wilberforces brother-in-law. They often saw their personal battle against slavery as a divinely ordained crusade, on Sunday,28 October 1787, Wilberforce wrote in his diary, God Almighty has set before me two great objects, the suppression of the slave trade and the reformation of manners. Their numbers were magnified by the position of the government under Lord Grenville. Other events also played a part, the Act of Union brought 100 Irish MPs into Parliament, the Bill was first introduced to Parliament in January 1807. It went to the House of Commons on 10 February 1807, on 23 February 1807, twenty years after he first began his crusade, Wilberforce and his team were rewarded with victory. By an overwhelming 283 votes for to 16 against, the motion to abolish the Atlantic slave trade was carried in the House of Commons, the debate lasted ten hours and the House voted in favour of the Bill. The Bill received Royal Assent on 25 March 1807, Britain used its international strength to put pressure on other nations to end their own slave trade. The United States acted to abolish its Atlantic slave trade the same month on 2 March, article 1, Section 9, Clause 1 of the United States Constitution forbade the closing of the slave trade for ten years, until 1808. In 1805 a British Order-in-Council had restricted the importation of slaves into colonies that had captured from France. The Act created fines for captains who continued with the trade and these fines could be up to £100 per enslaved person found on a ship. Captains would sometimes dump captives overboard when they saw Navy ships coming in order to avoid these fines, the Royal Navy declared that ships transporting slaves were the same as pirates. Action was also taken against African leaders who refused to agree to British treaties to outlaw the trade, for example against the usurping King of Lagos, anti-slavery treaties were signed with over 50 African rulers. In the 1860s, David Livingstones reports of atrocities within the Arab slave trade in Africa stirred up the interest of the British public, the Royal Navy throughout the 1870s attempted to suppress this abominable Eastern trade, at Zanzibar in particular. In 1890 Britain handed control of the important island of Heligoland in the North Sea to Germany in return for control of Zanzibar. Amazing Grace, a film that portrays the campaign to pass the Act, Act Against Slavery, equivalent Act of the Parliament of Upper Canada in 1793
20.
Demerara rebellion of 1823
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The Demerara rebellion of 1823 was an uprising involving more than 10,000 slaves that took place in the Crown colony of Demerara-Essequibo. The rebellion, which place on 18 August 1823 and lasted for two days, was led by slaves with the highest status. Instigated chiefly by Jack Gladstone, a slave at Success plantation, the rebellion also involved his father, Quamina and its English pastor, John Smith, was implicated. The largely non-violent rebellion was crushed by the colonists under governor John Murray. They killed many slaves, estimates of the toll from fighting range from 100 to 250, after the insurrection was put down, the government sentenced another 45 men to death, and 27 were executed. The executed slaves bodies were displayed in public for months afterwards as a deterrent to others, Jack was deported to the island of Saint Lucia after the rebellion following a clemency plea by Sir John Gladstone, the owner of Success plantation. John Smith, who had been court-martialed and was awaiting news of his appeal against a death sentence, news of Smiths death strengthened the abolitionist movement in Britain. Quamina, who is thought to have been the leader of the rebellion, was declared a national hero after Guyanas independence. Streets and monuments have been dedicated to him in the capital of Georgetown, Demerara was first colonised by the Dutch in the 17th century under the auspices of the Dutch West India Company. The economy, initially based on trade, began to be superseded in the 18th century by sugar cane cultivation on large plantations, the Demerara region was opened to settlement in 1746, and new opportunities attracted British settlers from nearby Barbados. By 1760, they had become the largest contingent in Demerara, the British were a major external threat to Dutch control over the colonies from 1781 until 1796, when Britain obtained de facto control. Following a raid by privateers in February 1781, British occupation lasted until January 1782, the British transferred rule of Demerara to the Dutch in 1802 under the terms of the Peace of Amiens, but took back control of it a year later. In 1812, the British merged Demerara and Essequibo into the colony of Demerara-Essequibo, the colonies were ceded to Britain by treaty between the Netherlands and Britain on 13 August 1814. Stabroek, as the capital was known under the Dutch, was renamed as Georgetown in 1812. The colonial powers appointed a governor to rule in their stead, the mainstay of its economy was sugar, grown on cane plantations worked by slaves. The sale of the crop in Britain enjoyed preferential terms, there were 2,571 declared slaves working on 68 plantations in Essequibo, and 1,648 slaves in Demerara in 1762. These numbers were known to be understated, as the slave headcount was the basis of taxation. By 1769, there were 3,986 declared slaves for Essequibos 92 plantations and 5,967 for Demeraras 206 plantations, the slave labour was in short supply and expensive due to the trading monopoly of the DWIC, and smuggling from Barbados was rife
21.
Demerara-Essequibo
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The colony of Demerara-Essequibo was created on 13 August 1814 when the British combined the colonies of Demerara and Essequibo. On 20 November 1815 the colony was ceded to Britain by the Netherlands. The colony continued to use Dutch denominations of currency even though under British control, the issued coins ranging from 3 bits up to 3 Guilder. These coins were minted with the name on it, and were minted from 1809 to 1835. On 18 August 1823, there was a rebellion involving more than 10,000 slaves. On 21 July 1831 Demerara-Esequibo united with Berbice as British Guiana, john Murray Sir Benjamin dUrban Demerara rebellion of 1823
22.
Madeira
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Madeira is a Portuguese archipelago situated in the north Atlantic Ocean, southwest of Portugal. Its total population was estimated in 2011 at 267,785, the capital of Madeira is Funchal, located on the main islands south coast. The archipelago is just under 400 kilometres north of Tenerife, Canary Islands, since 1976, the archipelago has been one of the two Autonomous regions of Portugal. It includes the islands of Madeira, Porto Santo, and the Desertas, the region has political and administrative autonomy through the Administrative Political Statue of the Autonomous Region of Madeira provided for in the Portuguese Constitution. Madeira was claimed by Portuguese sailors in the service of Prince Henry the Navigator in 1419, the archipelago is considered to be the first territorial discovery of the exploratory period of the Portuguese Age of Discovery, which extended from 1415 to 1542. Today, it is a popular resort, being visited every year by about one million tourists. The region is noted for its Madeira wine, gastronomy, historical and cultural value, its flora and fauna, landscapes which are classified as a UNESCO World Heritage Site and embroidery artisans. Its annual New Year celebrations feature the largest fireworks show in the world, Madeira is the second richest region of Portugal by GDP per capita, only surpassed by Lisbon. They are called the Isles of the Blessed, archeological evidence suggests that the islands may have been visited by the Vikings sometime between 900-1030. During the reign of King Edward III of England, lovers Robert Machim and they were driven off their course by a violent storm and their ship went aground along the coast of an island, that may have been Madeira. Later this legend was the basis of the naming of the city of Machico, knowledge of some Atlantic islands, such as Madeira, existed before their formal discovery and settlement, as the islands were shown on maps as early as 1339. The following year, an expedition, under the captaincy of Zarco, Vaz Teixeira. Subsequently, the new settlers observed a black cloud suspended to the southwest. Their investigation revealed it to be the island they called Madeira. The first Portuguese settlers began colonizing the islands around 1420 or 1425, grain production began to fall and the ensuing crisis forced Henry the Navigator to order other commercial crops to be planted so that the islands could be profitable. The planting of sugarcane, and later Sicilian sugar beet, allowed the introduction of the salt into Europe. These specialised plants, and their associated industrial technology, created one of the major revolutions on the islands, the expansion of sugar plantations in Madeira began in 1455, using advisers from Sicily and financed by Genoese capital. The accessibility of Madeira attracted Genoese and Flemish traders, who were keen to bypass Venetian monopolies, by 1480 Antwerp had some seventy ships engaged in the Madeira sugar trade, with the refining and distribution concentrated in Antwerp
23.
Forbes Burnham
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Linden Forbes Sampson Burnham was a Guyanese political leader and leader of Guyana from 1964 until his death, as the 1st Prime Minister from 1964 to 1980 and as 2nd President from 1980 to 1985. He is widely regarded as a strongman who fought for nationalism and encouraged Guyanese to manufacture, Burnham, an Afro-Guyanese man, was born in Kitty, a suburb of Georgetown, East Demerara in Guyana, as one of three children. He attended the prestigious and the colonys elite Queens College, in 1942, he won the Guiana Scholarship as the colonys top student. Burnham received a law degree from the London School of Economics in 1948 and he was married to Viola Burnham, who was also involved in politics. He has three children, Roxane, Annabelle, and Francesca from his first marriage to Bernice Lataste and his second marriage to Viola produced two daughters, Melanie and Ulele and later they adopted a son, Kamana. Burnham was one of the leaders of the Peoples Progressive Party. The Indo-Guyanese labor leader Cheddi Jagan became Leader of the PPP, in 1952, Burnham became the president of the partys affiliated trade union, the British Guiana Labour Union. In 1953, the PPP won 18 of 24 seats in the first election by Universal Adult Suffrage/Franchise permitted by the British colonial government, in the short-lived PPP government that followed, Burnham served as Minister of Education. In 1955, there was a split in the PPP between Burnham and Jagan, Jagan supported a socialist path, but Burnham believed that, given the geopolitical conditions of the era, a more moderate approach was needed. Neither the USA nor Britain wanted a communist government controlling the small South American country, as a result, Burnham went on to form the Peoples National Congress in 1958 entering its first election under that name in 1961. In the 1964 election Jagans PPP won the highest percentage of the vote, Burnham succeeded in forming a coalition with the United Force and became premier of British Guiana on 14 December. On May 26,1966, British Guiana became an independent country and was renamed Guyana and he won full power in 1968, although many condemned the elections as fraudulent because of a large number of irregularities. In 1970, he veered sharply to the left and established relations with Cuba. On February 23 of that year, he declared Guyana a co-operative republic, adopting a policy of autarky, he banned all forms of imports into the country, including flour and varieties of rice. Burnham also nationalized the major industries that were foreign-owned and -controlled, the Guyanese government remained fully involved in the African liberation movement throughout the 1970s. Burnham sent more than a hundred Guyanese public servants to various departments of the Zambian Government, many Guyanese doctors, engineers, lawyers and secretaries worked in Southern African states throughout the 1970s. In 1974 Burnham declared the PNC to be paramount and socialist and he won a 1978 referendum which made it much easier for the government to change the constitution, but there was wide evidence that the referendum was tainted by fraud. Anecdotal evidence from hundreds of Indo-Guyanese claims that PNC enforcers aggressively denied PPP supporters of the opportunity to vote, most notably, official figures showed the referendum passing with an implausible 97 percent of the vote
24.
David A. Granger
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Brigadier David Arthur Granger is a Guyanese politician and retired military officer who has been President of Guyana since 2015. He served for a time as Commander of the Guyana Defence Force and he was Leader of the Opposition in the National Assembly of Guyana from 2012 to 2015. Granger stood as the coalitions presidential candidate in the November 2011 general election. He was elected as President in the May 2015 general election and he trained in Britain, then Brazil, then Nigeria, and eventually became commander of the Guyana Defence Force in 1979, he was promoted to the rank of brigadier. Granger was appointed as National Security Advisor to the President in 1990, Granger founded the Guyana Review news magazine in 1992 and served as its Managing Editor. David A. Granger spent the 1995–1996 academic year as a Hubert H. Humphrey/Fulbright Fellow at the Philip Merrill College of Journalism at the University of Maryland, College Park. In 2010, he made a bid to be elected as the presidential candidate of the People’s National Congress–Reform for the November 2011 general election. Standing as the coalitions presidential candidate, Granger was defeated by Donald Ramotar. He was unanimously elected as Leader of the Opposition in the National Assembly on 16 January 2012, Granger stood again as the presidential candidate of the opposition coalition, APNU – AFC, in the 11 May 2015 general election. The coalition secured the majority of votes, and Granger was sworn in as President of Guyana on 16 May 2015, Granger attended Queens College, before he pursued his tertiary education. Granger was Commander of the Guyana Defence Force and National Security Adviser to President Hoyte and he was a member of several defence and security agencies. David Granger has served in several public organisations and he was elected to the presidencies of the History Society, the Guyana Heritage Society, the University of Guyana Guild of Graduates, and the Guyana Chess Federation. Granger has written extensively on national defence and public security issues and he was co-editor, with Winston McGowan and James Rose, of Themes in African–Guyanese History, and was publisher of the Guyana Review and Emancipation magazines. He also holds three national awards, the Military Efficiency Medal, the Military Service Medal, and the Military Service Star for distinguished military service, Granger is married to Sandra and has two daughters
25.
Eddy Grant
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Edmond Montague Eddy Grant is a Guyanese British musician. He was a member of The Equals, one of the United Kingdoms first racially integrated pop groups. He is also known for a solo career that includes the platinum single Electric Avenue. He also pioneered the genre ringbang, Grant was born in Plaisance, British Guiana, later moving to Linden. His father, Patrick, was a trumpeter who played in Nello, while at school, his parents lived and worked in the United Kingdom, sending back money for his education. In 1960, he emigrated to join his parents to London and he lived in Kentish Town and went to school at the Acland Burghley Secondary Modern at Tufnell Park, where he learned to read and write music. He became a big fan of Chuck Berry, and after seeing him play at the Finsbury Park Astoria decided on a career in music. The tune also topped the UK Singles Chart in 1994, when covered by Pato Banton featuring Robin, the Equals had five further top 40 hits in the UK up to the end of 1970. The Baby Come Back album featured a song by Grant titled, willie Nile released his cover of Police on My Back on his Streets of New York CD. The Equals song Green Light co-written by Grant from their 1968 album Supreme, was covered by The Detroit Cobras, on their 2007 album, Tied & True. He produced The Pioneers 1976 album Feel the Rhythm, as well as recordings by his younger brother Rudy. A self-titled solo album released in 1975 made little impact, nor did the proto-soca Message Man, completed and released in 1977, on which Grant played all the instruments himself. His breakthrough as a solo artist came two years later with the album Walking on Sunshine, which spawned the UK top 20 hit Living on the Frontline. He returned to the charts in 1980 with the top 10 hit Do You Feel My Love, the track of Cant Get Enough. The album included two hit singles, Cant Get Enough of You and I Love You, Yes I Love You. 2 in both the UK and the US and he also began producing and promoting local artists such as David Rudder, Mighty Gabby, Tamu Hibbert, and Grynner. A lean period followed, his 1984 theme song for Romancing the Stone was cut from the film and stalled outside the UK top 50 when released as a single, although it fared better in the US. His albums Going for Broke, Born Tuff, and File Under Rock failed to chart and he returned to the charts in 1988 with the anti-apartheid single Gimme Hope Joanna, a no.7 hit in the UK, his last hit to date
26.
Desmond Hoyte
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Hugh Desmond Hoyte was a Guyanese politician. He served as Prime Minister of Guyana from 1984 to 1985, Hoyte was born in Guyanas capital, Georgetown. He was educated at St Barnabas Anglican School and Progressive High School, before studying law in London, back in British Guiana in 1960 he set up private practice and became one of the leaders of the Guyana Bar Association. He entered Parliament as a member of the Peoples National Congress in 1968 and he was home affairs minister from 1969 to 1970, finance minister from 1970 to 1972, works and communications minister from 1972 to 1974, and economic development minister in 1974 to 1980. Hoyte concentrated on economic affairs during his political career and his brilliance was not just seen politically. As an influential role model, he demonstrated how to handle his duties during adversity, with obligation to family and his country, Hoyte masterfully navigated a personal and emotional minefield in May 1985. His entire family, traveling in advance to hear him deliver the May Day address in the town of Linden and their vehicle crashed, killing his only two children, Amanda and Maxine, his sister-in-law and his driver. Fraught with grief and tragedy, Desmond Hoyte always continued to lead his countrymen. He simultaneously mustered the strength to discharge his duty. Guyanese remembered listening to the live broadcast on the radio, describing it as an inspiring, yet somber speech which gushed from his mountain of anguish, in August 1984 he was made first vice-president and prime minister. President Burnham died suddenly on 6 August 1985, and Hoyte became President, at a time when Guyana was undergoing prolonged economic, Hoyte announced his willingness to continue the dialogue, but also announced that a general election would be held on 9 December. Responding to criticisms of previous elections as fraudulent, he agreed to certain reforms, Hoyte was also foreign minister from 1990 until 1992. The October 1992 election was won by the Peoples Progressive Party, led by Cheddi Jagan, Hoyte remained leader of the PNC until his death. He also was the PNC candidate in the elections of 1996 and 2001. He received second place both times, the PNC never regained the power that it had under the Burnham administration and his own administration. He died in Georgetown, Guyana, aged 73, Desmond Hoyte 1929-2002 New York Times, Desmond Hoyte,73, Former President of Guyana, Dies
27.
Sam Hinds
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Samuel Archibald Anthony Hinds is a Guyanese politician who was Prime Minister of Guyana almost continuously from 1992 to 2015. He also briefly served as President of Guyana in 1997 and he was awarded Guyanas highest national award, the Order of Excellence in 2011. He first became Prime Minister under Cheddi Jagan in 1992, following the October 1992 election, when Jagan died in March 1997, Hinds became President himself, and appointed Jagans widow Janet as Prime Minister. For the December 1997 General Elections, the PPP/C nominated Hinds as candidate for Prime Minister while Janet Jagan was the candidate for the Presidency, following the election, Jagan was elected President and re-appointed Hinds as Prime Minister. Prior to this Hinds worked for Alcan as head of chemical engineering, by education, Hinds is a licensed and qualified chemical engineer, having graduated from the University of New Brunswick. After the re-election of the government in the 28 August 2006 election and he was re-nominated as the 2011 prime ministerial candidate for the PPP in October 2011, although there were suggestions that he might step aside. After PPP/C candidate Donald Ramotar was elected President, Hinds was sworn in as Prime Minister again on 5 December 2011, following the oppositions victory in the May 2015 general election, Hinds was succeeded as Prime Minister by Moses Nagamootoo on 20 May 2015
28.
Ezekiel Jackson
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Rycklon Ezekiel Stephens is a retired Guyanese professional wrestler best known for his tenure in WWE under the ring name Ezekiel Jackson. Within that organization, Stephens was a one time and last ECW Champion and he has also worked for Lucha Underground and Total Nonstop Action Wrestling. Stephens signed a contract with World Wrestling Entertainment in March 2007. In his debut match on June 27, he teamed with Keith Walker to defeat Kofi Kingston and he continued to compete in the promotion in both tag team and singles matches. On May 6,2008, Stephens wrestled his final match in FCW before being called up to WWEs main roster, after being trained in FCW, Stephens debuted on the July 18,2008 episode of SmackDown under the name Ezekiel, as The Brian Kendricks bodyguard. On the August 8,2008 edition of SmackDown, his name was tweaked to Ezekiel Jackson. He then began interfering in Kendricks matches against Jeff Hardy, Finlay, on the October 17 episode of SmackDown, Jackson made his official in-ring debut by quickly defeating Super Crazy, after replacing a supposedly sick Kendrick. In late 2008, Jackson began teaming with Kendrick and both began feuding with the Tag Team Champions The Colóns, although Kendrick and Jackson failed to win the championship. He suffered his first defeat on the February 13,2009 episode of SmackDown, Jackson made his final appearance on the SmackDown brand in a losing effort against Jeff Hardy on the April 3,2009 episode. On April 15,2009, Jackson was drafted to the ECW brand as part of the 2009 Supplemental Draft, therefore breaking up the team of himself, Jackson returned to FCW for further training, however, without making an immediate appearance for the brand. He made his ECW debut defeating Jack Meridol on the July 9,2009 episode, Kozlov and Jackson aided Regal in his feud with Christian over the ECW Championship, but Regal was unable to capture the title. On the November 24 episode of ECW, Jackson attacked both Regal and Kozlov after Kozlov accused Jackson of costing Regal a match, the following week, Jackson once again betrayed Kozlov and Regal by walking out on Kozlov during a tag team match against Christian and Shelton Benjamin. Jackson, however, realigned himself with Regal, when he was aided by Regal in defeating Kozlov on an episode of ECW, on the January 12,2010 episode of ECW, Jackson won the ECW Homecoming battle royal to earn a match for the ECW Championship. He faced Christian for the ECW championship at the Royal Rumble pay-per-view but was unsuccessful, on the final episode of ECW on February 16, Jackson defeated Christian to win the ECW Championship in an Extreme Rules match. Upon winning the title, WWE credited Jackson as the final ECW Champion, on the February 19 episode of SmackDown, a video package aired, promoting Jacksons return to the brand. He made his return on the March 5 episode of SmackDown without Regal, who instead joined Raw, during his injury, Jackson was drafted to the Raw brand as part of the 2010 WWE Supplemental Draft. Jackson made his return to the ring on September 13,2010 and he returned to television on the October 18 episode of Raw, where he was revealed as a member of Team Raw for the Bragging Rights pay-per-view. At Bragging Rights, Jackson was one of the two remaining members of Team Raw, but they lost to Team SmackDown
29.
Lincoln Lewis
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Lincoln Clay Lewis is an Australian actor. He is best known for his roles in Tomorrow, When the War Began, Home and Away, Lewis was born in Brisbane, Queensland. He is the son of Wally Lewis, a former Australian rugby league football captain, Lewis has two siblings, an older brother called Mitchell and a younger sister called Jamie-Lee. He attended St Anthonys Catholic Primary School in Alexandra Hills and Carmel Catholic College in Thornlands, Lewis began acting at the age of thirteen. Lewis has since continued to appear in shows such as H2O, Just Add Water, The Sleepover Club, Rescue, Special Ops. In 2005 Lewis made his debut in a bit role in the film Aquamarine. That same year Lewis starred in the low budget Australian Horror film Voodoo Lagoon as Aaron, the film starred John Noble, Natalie Blair and Erika Heynatz and followed a group of college students who take a deadly vacation to a remote exotic island. In 2007, Lewis was cast in the Seven Network soap opera Home, Lewis made his debut on the series in June 2007 and it is considered his breakout role. In 2008, Lewis won the Most Popular New Male Talent award at the 2008 Logie Awards, in June 2009, Seven announced Lewis would be one of the eleven celebrity contestants in ninth series of Dancing with the Stars. Lewis was eliminated on the 23 of August 2009, finishing in place in the competition. In September of that year, Lewis announced he was leaving Home, Lewis made his final appearance on 12 February 2010. To date he has appeared in 567 episodes of the show, mid-September of 2009 Lewis was cast in the Paramount Pictures Action Adventure film Tomorrow, When the War Began. The film, which is an adaptation of the series of the same name. Lewis portrayed the character Kevin Holmes and the centres on a group of teenagers waging a guerrilla war against an invading foreign power in their fictional hometown of Wirrawee. The film was released in September 2010 to a response from critics. A sequel has been rumoured to be in the development stages, early 2010 Lewis starred in Nine Network drama Rescue, Special Ops playing Sam Marchello, son of Vince Marchello, played by veteran Australian actor Peter Phelps. Lewis also starred in the Independent Drama film 33 Postcards alongside Guy Pearce, the film went on to be the biggest release of an Australian film in China to date, and receiving critical acclaim. Lewis also received the inaugural Male Star of Tomorrow Award at the 2011 Australian International Movie Convention on the Gold Coast, in July 2010, Lewis once again joined the Nine Network to star in Crime Drama television series Underbelly, Razor as Bruce Higgs
30.
Clive Lloyd
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Clive Hubert Lloyd CBE AO is a former West Indies cricketer. In 1971 he was named Wisden Cricketer of the Year and he captained the West Indies between 1974 and 1985 and oversaw their rise to become the dominant Test-playing nation, a position that was only relinquished in the latter half of the 1990s. He is one of the most successful Test captains of all time, during his captaincy the side had a run of 27 matches without defeat and he was the first West Indian player to earn 100 international caps. Lloyd captained the West Indies in three World Cups, winning in 1975 and 1979 while losing the 1983 final to India, Lloyd was a tall, powerful middle-order batsman and occasional medium-pace bowler. In his youth he was also a cover point fielder. He wore his famous glasses as a result of being poked in the eye with a ruler and his Test match debut came in 1966. Lloyd scored 7,515 runs at Test level, at an average of 46.67 and he hit 70 sixes in his Test career, which is the 14th highest number of any player. He played for his nation of Guyana in West Indies domestic cricket. He is a cousin of spin bowler Lance Gibbs, since retiring as a player, Lloyd has remained heavily involved in cricket, managing the West Indies in the late 1990s, and coaching and commentating. He was an ICC match referee from 2001–2006, in 1971–72 Lloyd suffered a back injury while playing for a Rest of the World team at the Adelaide Oval. He was fielding in the covers when Ashley Mallett hit a drive towards his area. He made an effort to take the catch but it bounced out of his hands when he hit the ground awkwardly. When he went to get up, he felt a pain in his back. He spent the few weeks in an Adelaide hospital flat on his back. In the 1975 Cricket World Cup Final against Australia, the West Indies were deep in trouble at 3/50 when Lloyd strode to the crease and he duly made 102 from 88 balls, the only limited overs international century of his career. With Rohan Kanhai he added 149 for the West Indies to win by 17 runs, play ended at 8, 40pm London time and was the longest days play ever at Lords. In 2005, Lloyd offered his patronage to Major League Cricket for their inaugural Interstate Cricket Cup in the United States and his son, Jason Clive Lloyd, is a goalkeeper for the Guyana national football team. In 2007, Lloyds authorised biography, Supercat, was published and it was written by the cricket journalist, Simon Lister
This article incorporates public domain material from the Library of Congress Country Studies website http://lcweb2.loc.gov/frd/cs/.
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