Top Qs
Timeline
Chat
Perspective
Afro-Guyanese
Guyanese people of African descent From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Remove ads
Afro-Guyanese, also known as Black Guyanese, is a Creole ethnic group[1] that primarily lives in the South American country of Guyana. Generally, they descend from enslaved Africans taken to Guyana from West and Central Africa, and the Lesser Antilles during the Atlantic slave trade. Following the abolition of slavery, an estimated 45,000 Barbadian Creoles migrated to Guyana from 1835 to 1928, many of whom assimilated into the pre-existing creole population. Although Guyana is geographically located in South-America, Afro-Guyanese are considered Afro-Caribbean due to their cultural and ancestral roots in the Caribbean islands.[2][3]
Remove ads
History
Summarize
Perspective
Slavery
Sometime in the 1620s, the Dutch West India Company (WIC) began operating in the Guiana region in South America. And in 1627, they established the Colony of Berbice with the aim of supplying it with "as many blacks as possible".[4] As a result, enslaved Africans became a key element in the colonial economy.[5] By the 1660s, the slave population numbered about 2,500.[5] Initially, most Africans in the Guianas were taken against their will from the Slave Coast and the Loango–Angola region. From 1675 to 1737, half of them were from the Gold Coast.[4]
Many Guyanese slaves initially worked on Caribbean plantations in the Lesser Antilles.[6] In 1745, the Dutch established the colony of Demerara and invited British planters from nearby colonies to start plantations. Many planters from the Lesser Antilles (and a small amount from Carolina) settled in Demerara and Essequibo, bringing enslaved Africans with them. Most of the enslaved from the Caribbean came from Barbados, Saint Kitts, and Antigua.
White supremacist planters owned Africans as private property and systematically robbed them of any human rights or freedom. Black people were considered racially and culturally inferior which led many enslaved to develop internalized shame and stigma toward their ancestral traditions. Even though Black people were considered an essential element of the colonial economy, their working conditions were brutal.[5] It's estimated African slaves moved 100 million tons of clay to create the irrigation system for the plantations.[7] They produced coffee, cut sugarcane, and picked cotton for the Dutch market.[3] The mortality rate was high, and the dismal conditions led to more than half a dozen slave rebellions.[5]
The Berbice Slave Uprising began on 23 February 1763.[5] On two plantations on the Canje River in Berbice, slaves rebelled, taking control of the region.[5] As plantation after plantation fell to the slaves, the European population fled; eventually only half of the whites who had lived in the colony remained.[5] Led by Cuffy (now the national hero of Guyana), the African freedom fighters came to number about 3,000 and threatened European control over the Guianas.[5] The freedom fighters were defeated with the assistance of troops from neighbouring French and British colonies and from Europe.[5]
Control of the Guyanese colonies alternated between the Dutch, French, and British Empires. The British Empire abolished the international slave trade in 1807.[8] And in 1814, Essequibo, Demerara, and Berbice were officially ceded to them from the Netherlands. Colonial life was changed radically by the demise of slavery.[8] In what is known as the Demerara rebellion of 1823 10–13,000 slaves in Demerara-Essequibo rose up against their masters, although the rebellion was easily crushed.[9]
In 1833, the Slavery Abolition Act 1833 was passed. Slavery itself continued in the form of "apprentice-ship"[10] which was established to create a buffer period for plantation owners; to keep former slaves as labour but providing payment. In 1838, total emancipation had been effected.[8]
Emancipation
Even though there was still a demand for plantation labour, the labour conditions were no better post-emancipation, so former slaves were less inclined to work in the plantation system, favouring self-reliance or skilled work.[citation needed] Some ex-slaves moved to towns and villages, feeling that field labour was degrading and inconsistent with freedom, but others pooled their resources to purchase the abandoned estates of their former masters and created village communities.[8][10] Establishing small settlements provided the new Afro-Guyanese communities an opportunity to grow and sell food, an extension of a practice under which slaves had been allowed to keep the money that came from the sale of any surplus produce.[8] The emergence of an independent-minded Afro-Guyanese peasant class, however, threatened the planters' political power, inasmuch as the planters no longer held a near-monopoly on the colony's economic activity.[8]
In 1841, Creoles held the first ever workers strike in British Guiana. Later, Creole men started forming mobile task gangs and would visit plantations to examine working conditions before committing to agreements with employers. If demands weren't met, creoles would go on strike around harvest time. To weaken the bargaining power of Black workers, the white ruling class used their political power to import new bound-labor to the colony. Most of the new labor came from the Indian subcontinent.[11]
Unlike future immigrant groups, former slaves were not granted land or passage to their home country, and this, in addition to racial prejudice, created tension among the ethnic groups.[12][13]
20th century
By the early twentieth century, the majority of the urban population of the country was Afro-Guyanese.[14] Many Afro-Guyanese people living in villages had migrated to the towns in search of work.[14] Until the 1930s, Creoles—especially those of mixed descent—comprised the bulk of the non-white professional class.[14] During the 1930s, as Indo-Guyanese began to enter the middle class in large numbers, they began to compete with Afro-Guyanese for professional positions.[14]
Remove ads
Culture
Summarize
Perspective
Creole identity
Black people born in the colonies (of what eventually became British Guiana) were dubbed "Creole" and African born slaves where known simply as "Africans". Creole slaves often had mixed African ancestry and didn't identify with any one ethnic group. As generations advanced, Creole lineage's became progressively multi-ethnic. As a result of cultural mixing, a unique creole culture that blended European customs and African traditions was formed.[15] Mixed-race Guyanese of African descent are also considered Creole. Although the term is a historic identity, it is not always used in the modern day, but is still referenced in certain contexts.
Languages
Afro-Guyanese formed several Creole languages such as:
Guyanese Creole – The lingua-Franca of Guyana. It developed during slavery and has similarities with Bajan Creole and Saint Kitts Creole.
Berbice Creole Dutch – Now extinct older Creole that is considered the most African creole language in the Americas. 38% of its vocabulary is derived from African languages and the other 60% from Dutch and English.
Skepi Creole Dutch – Now extinct Dutch based Creole language that was spoken in Essequibo. Most of the dictionary has been lost.
Creole cuisine
Many Afro-Guyanese dishes originated in Ghana. Some examples are:
Metemgee (Twi: metem = plantains or bananas; gye = to delight (delighted bananas))
Cou-cou (Twi: nkuku)
Cookup Rice (Waakye in Ghana)
Sorrel may be influenced by Zobo/Sobolo.
Marriage
A popular element of Afro-Guyanese culture is the Kwe-Kwe. The Kwe-Kwe is a pre-wedding dance of West African origin that is done before the wedding and is unique to the Afro-Guyanese. It is a dance with heavy West African influence and uniting of the 2 families with friends as well.
Remove ads
Religion and folklore
Summarize
Perspective
Although the greatest numbers of Afro-Guyanese are Christian. There are also believers in obeah.[16]
Obeah is a catch-all term for any African magic, medicine, sorcery, and all other Creole folk practices the colonial power could not comprehend. Although, the term also extends to later South Indian spiritual traditions.
From 1855 to 1970, the colonial government outlawed African spiritual practices. During this period Obeah practitioners went into secrecy. Creoles practitioners would ritually mix their blood with grave dirt to administer an oath of secrecy or purgation.[17]
Cosmology
Some traditionalists claim the Universe is full of many spirits and every person has two spirits: A good spirit, and an evil spirit. Ancestral spirits are close at hand to give guidance and protection when called upon.[18]
There are several spiritual entities within creole folklore that have roots in Africa.
Ole Higue
Ole Higue is a spirit who moves through the night as a ball of fire. She thrives off sucking the blood from babies and animals. During the day, she looks like a regular old woman. But before going out at night, she removes her skin and hides it. Wearing the color blue wards off her attacks.[19] She is said to have an obsession with counting small things. Therefore if sand or rice is thrown outside one’s door, she will waste her night counting it. If she doesn’t return to her skin before sunrise, she will turn to ash.
The Bacoo
Bacoo spirits are little Black men with fiery red eyes. Usually, Bacoos cannot be seen. They are said to generate immense wealth for their owners. However, if they are not fed with bananas, milk, or honey, they will create mischief. If lights are turned on and off, furniture is wrecked, houses stoned, then one knows they are around. To obtain a Bacoo, one must travel to Suriname to acquire them. Large businesses are said to have a Bacoo working for them.[19]
Social experience
Slavery had a devastating impact on family and social structure, as individual family member were bought and sold with little regard to kinship or relation. Marriage was not legally recognized for slaves, and even after emancipation, weddings and legal marriages were cost-prohibitive. Household compositions vary, and can be matriarchal or a nuclear family unit.[20]
Afro-Guyanese make up a significant portion of the public sector workforce.[21] Afro-Guyanese face challenges to private sector involvement, such as access to financing.[22] In politics, Afro-Guyanese make up a large portion of A Partnership for National Unity party voters.[23]
In 2017, a United Nations expert group determined that Afro-Guyanese face discrimination in law enforcement, employment, and education, despite that Afro-Guyanese make up 90% of the workforce in these named areas.[24]
Remove ads
Notable Afro-Guyanese
See also
References
Works cited
Wikiwand - on
Seamless Wikipedia browsing. On steroids.
Remove ads