Guyana

 

People, Culture, and History of Guyana

 

Guyana is often referred to as the land of six peoples, reflecting the multi-ethnic composition of its population. The largest ethnic group is the East Indians (about 5l percent), descendants of indentured labourers from India, followed by the Africans (38 percent). The other ethnic groups are the Chinese, the Europeans (mostly Portuguese) and the Amerindians. The Portuguese came as indentured labourers from Madeira, the Azores and the Cape Verdes. During the colonial era, they were regarded as a separate group from the other Europeans (mainly British), no doubt because of their origins as indentured labourers. This practice underlines the notion of six peoples. There is also a large racially mixed group.
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"We have been living together for 150 years. There was some geographical separation, the Indians staying mainly in the rural areas, the Africans going to the cities. There was also functional separation, the Indians remaining on the plantation as sugar workers and dominating the rice industry, the African going into the civil service and the professions and as workers in urban industries and bauxite, the Portuguese and the Chinese in commerce, the Amerindian mainly in the interior. But in the last thirty years, there has been increasing integration. Large numbers of Indians have settled in the cities, entered the civil service and the professions, taken clerical jobs. Indeed, as has been argued before, the increasing integration may paradoxically have created new stresses as there is more direct competition and the races mix more intimately and freely."