The Indo-Guyanese Contribution to the Development of Buxton-Friendship - By Harry Hergash

Harry Hergash, a graduate of the University of Guyana, taught at the Annandale Government Secondary from 1964 to 1969. He immigrated to Canada in 1974.

In this column I would like to share my recollections of the village of Buxton-Friendship, East Coast Demerara. Historically, after starting out as separate villages that were purchased and built by freed African slaves, they were amalgamated into one around 1841. By the beginning of the nineteen sixties, Buxton-Friendship was possibly the most progressive and prosperous village in Guyana. It was known for its highly educated sons and daughters, civic minded citizens, hard working farmers and fisherman, skilled tradesmen, and prosperous business people, where citizens of African and Indian origins lived together peacefully.

Indians, who started arriving in the village in the 1890s, emulated the Africans in striving for education and social betterment in the country. By the 1950s they were scattered throughout the village with concentrated enclaves in the area along the seashore, referred to as Buxton Front, where there were some of the most renowned sea-fishermen in the country; on both sides of the railway embankment around the railway station where they worked as pawnbrokers and jewellers, and operated clothing and hardware stores; and in the area along Brush dam where they raised cattle and grew rice in adjoining estate lands. Most if not all of them adhered to Indian cultural traditions, and Buxton could boast of having some of the most educated and finest Indian musicians and singers of Chowtaals, Ramayan and Bhajans.

I remember Saturdays and Mondays as prime market days at the municipal market next to the Post Office, just off Company Road, a stone’s throw from the railway station. The interaction and relationships between Africans and Indians were based on mutual respect and trust, befitting two peoples who depended on the fruits of each other’s labour. Indians from the estate areas of Lusignan Pasture and Annandale Sand Reef to the West and Vigilance to the East would bring their produce of garden vegetables (ochro, bora, calaloo, etc.) to sell to the African villagers who would sell them fruits, plantains and ground provisions (cassava, eddoes, sweet potatoes, etc.). Both groups would then patronise the fishermen and the butchers who operated their stalls in a corner of the market where the odour was quite distinct. Before noon, the efficient Mr. Brown would have already completed his rounds and collected from vendors all market fees.

During my childhood in the 1950s, I traversed every street and cross street in the combined village in the company of my grandparents and uncles who sold feed to the many self-employed villagers who farmed the back-lands and raised chicken and pigs in their yards. Every Sunday morning we travelled around the village in a dray cart hauled by three donkeys laden with paddy, broken rice and bhoosi (pulverized rice shells produced during milling) which was sold to customers to be used as chicken and pig feed. By midday, with our task completed after serving the last customer along Friendship Middle Walk, we would stop at the Esso station, the first petrol station to be built on the East Coast of Demerara, where I would get a treat of Brown Betty ice-cream or Fudgsicle while the elders collected the “wet-cell” battery that had been left the week before for recharging.. In those days, radio sets of that period with names such as KB, Grundig, Phillips and Pye, were operated in the rural areas with current from a battery similar to a motor-car’s battery that had to be recharged periodically at a gas station.

Regrettably, the madness of racial discord and intolerance raised its ugly head in the country in 1963 and by 1964 Buxton-Friendship, like other parts of the country, was consumed. As Indians hurriedly relocated from the predominantly African villages to the safety of predominantly Indian areas, Africans did the same in the reverse. Even then, many good people on both sides risked their lives and property to help those on the other side, but it was not enough to stem the mass migration from villages and the formation of segregated communities. This was the beginning of squatting areas or shantytowns in Guyana. Overnight pastures and swamplands were cramped with makeshift houses and places like Lusignan East and West, Haslington, Logwood, etc. came into being.

Sadly, Buxton-Friendship never recovered from this restructuring. With Independence coming shortly thereafter and government jobs becoming readily available, many African villagers deserted the self- sufficiency of independent occupations – carpentry, cabinet making, blacksmith, guttersmith, farming and the raising of livestock, opting instead for the apparent security of salaried occupations.  As the village tax base deteriorated, critical infrastructural work on roads, drainage and irrigation was neglected, and by the time the oil crisis and world-wide economic downturn hit us, both citizens and the village as a whole found it difficult to cope which resulted in the serious political repercussions of later years.

Buxton-Friendship’s loss of Indian fishermen and business people was the gain of Annandale and Lusignan. Almost overnight, in the midst of the turmoil and agony of 1964, a market developed in Annandale North’s Centre Street, rechristened “Market Street”. It quickly replaced Buxton’s municipal market as the commercial centre for the surrounding areas, and by 1965, African Buxtonians were also patronizing the vendors in Annandale. Likewise many of the hardware and clothing stores relocated to Annandale.  And the fishermen formerly of Buxton Front became the enterprising fishermen of Lusignan East where the fishing industry was taken to new heights as the importation of salted cod and canned fish was banned during the period of economic hardship of the 1980s.

Now more than four decades later, as I reflect on the deaths and destruction of 1964 and the havoc wreaked on the communities of Buxton and Annandale, I cannot help but recall that it was the ordinary citizens, not the external forces that combined to destabilise the country, and certainly not those individual politicians of both major parties in whose names the so many horrendous acts were perpetrated, who were the victims and losers in all the madness and mayhem. It was these ordinary folks who became homeless, and it was their children who became motherless, fatherless or orphans. And when it came to healing and restoring some semblance of peace and harmony, it was community leaders who had to pick up the pieces. It was Eusi Kwayana as the respected leader of Buxton, and Pandit Ramsahai Doobay as the respected leader of Annandale, who met with then British Colonial Secretary, Duncan Sandys, on the Annandale Side-line dam (then referred to as the Maginot line, a term used by the French in the Second World War) to discuss and work out arrangements that played their own part in establishing an uneasy peace in the villages.

I am now an emigrant from the land of my birth. As I follow developments of recent years in the communities of Buxton-Friendship and neighbouring areas, I am saddened that lessons of the past seem to have been forgotten. Ordinary citizens of these communities have once again been the victims and they are the ones who once again have to start rebuilding the good inter-personal relationships and trust, sorely damaged by needless strife and violence. The time has surely come for people to realize that while politicians remain unscathed and continue to enjoy the perquisites of office, it is they the poor folks who will always have to bear the consequences of actions by their “representatives”. It is they who have to live side by side as neighbours and interact with each other. As we look to the future, let us be guided by the actions and teachings of the elders of our communities. Let us remember a time not so very long ago, when an African grandmother would give a special bath of blue water to an Indian child to protect that child from the mythical “old-higue”, and an Indian mother would pay a penny to nominally “buy” an African child so that child could grow up to be healthy and strong. Let us remember our history.

The Portuguese of Buxton-Friendship - By Fitzroy (Rollo) Younge (2011)

Late 1834, a small group of Portuguese was recruited from the poverty-stricken island of Madeira, off the West Coast of Africa, to work on a sugar plantation in Demerara. On 3^rdMay, 1835, forty indentured peasants arrived on the ship ‘Louisa Baillie’. Not only did they bring their agricultural expertise, especially sugar cane farming, but their faith as well. They were profoundly religious and this brought new life into the Catholic Church in British Guiana. By the end of the year, about 553 others had arrived; they were contracted to various sugar plantations.

These “Madeirenses”, as they were called, rarely remained on the sugar plantations after they completed their period of indentureship. As soon as their two or four-year contracts ended, they moved off the plantations and onto their small plots of land, as well as into the huckster and retail trade. Many were employed by white merchants in Georgetown and adapted very quickly to Commerce. By 1851, in Georgetown, 173 of the 296 (58.45%) shops belonged to Portuguese. In the villages they held 283 of the 432 (65.51%) shops. About 55 years ago, the center of gravity for business in Georgetown was along Water and Lombard Streets. The biggest and largest number of businesses were owned by the “Madeirenses.” Firms such as D’Aguiar’s Imperial House, G. Bettencourt & Company, Demerara Pawnbroking & Trading Company, D.M. Fernandes Ltd., The Eclipse, J.P. Santos, Ferreira & Gomes, Guiana Match, Central Garage and Rodrigues & Rodrigues dominated the waterfront area. They are all gone now. Elsewhere, Portuguese owned many bakeries, pawnshops, retail and rum shops.

Between 1835 and 1882, over 30,645 persons of Portuguese descent were brought to British Guiana from Madeira, the Azores, the Cape Verde Islands and Brazil.

One of the few remaining families in the community today is the Vieiras of Noble Street, Friendship. The head of this family is Lionel Vieira who was born on 15th August, 1929 at his mother’s house on Brickdam, Georgetown. His mother, Celisse Lucas, hailed from Plaisance while his father, Victor Vieira, was born in Buxton and had worked for G. Bettencourt’s in Georgetown. His grandparents had come from Madeira. His mother died when he was three and his father followed her two years later. He was thus entrusted to the care of his uncle, Mannie Gonsalves, who was married to his mother’s sister. They lived on Company Road.  Mannie was also a cousin of Benedict Correia. Lionel attended St. Anthony’s Roman Catholic School under the headship of Mr. Stanley Thierens. He still remembers Mr. Thierens’ red tie and cork hat. He also recalled other headmasters who served the school and they include Messrs. Philadelphia, Cheeks and Durant.

Lionel related that the Madeiran-Portuguese became capable farmers since they were born and bred on a small and mountainous island where every square inch of soil was precious. Their recruitment was part of a migration scheme based on a “bounty” system. Under this system, public money, which was made available by the British Government, was used to pay planters for every immigrant transported to the Colony. The early Portuguese settled along the East Bank of Demerara at Meadow Bank, Ruimveldt and Agricola. At Meadow Bank, Bishop Haynes established the first centre for Roman Catholicism in British Guiana.

On East Coast Demerara, Plaisance became a main centre, between the 1840’s and 1860’s, with the establishment of the railway. As the track extended to Mahaica, “Church Stations” mushroomed along the coast. Many Catholic Churches were constructed near to the railway stations which suggests that the train was an integral means of transportation then.

Erection of the churches in the villages was financed and supported mainly by the Portuguese. The Catholic Church in Friendship was opened on 19^th November, 1871; the Church of St. John the Baptist in Plaisance was opened in 1877. The Plaisance parish became noted for its boisterous festivals.

George Cleveland VasConcellos (Clevie) is the son of the late George Christian VasConcellos from Vryheid's Lust. His mother, Cecelia, also now deceased, hailed from Beterverwagting. He was born at 51 Company Road, Friendship, one yard south of where he now operates a retail store. His current location previously housed the old Trade School, Singh’s Drug Store and Allan Chanderband’s Drug Store, respectively.

Clevie recounted the significant contributions made to the Buxton-Friendship economy by Portuguese inhabitants:

• The Olympic Cinema, which was located on Buxton Middle Walk, was built in 1916 by the Correia family .
• Rubber Rum Shop, also located on Buxton Middle Walk, was  first owned by the Willie Correia family and later by Henrique Correia, also known as “Rubber”. A busy corridor of roadside vendors, selling mauby, shaved ice, black pudding, peanuts and other popular delicacies, sprouted around the two thriving Correia enterprises on Buxton Middle Walk.
• Vieira’s Store was located at the corner of Buxton Middle Walk and Barnwell Street. The owner, Vibert Vieira, occupied the house later owned by Postmaster Scott along Barnwell Street.
• Macedo Shop was at “Bottom Station”.
• Esso Gas Station on Friendship Public Road was once owned by Benedict Correia.

In 1936, Julio Gomes Perreira arrived on the scene and bought out the old post office site to establish the largest, most equipped and well stocked general store on  East Coast of Demerara. This edifice was called Times Store.

According to Lionel Vieira, the Perreira enterprise made the most significant economic contribution to the community and it increased Buxton’s standing as a major shopping destination in the region.

• Found Out / New Found Out Store was a 3-in-1 shopping outlet owned by the Gomes’ Family. It housed a rum shop, a dry goods store and salt goods shop.

Other Portuguese business establishments and prominent private residences in the village included:

•  VasConsellos Rum Shop on Company Road
•  Seebou Shop at the corner of Friendship Middle Walk and Noble Street, where the Castellos now reside.
• Gomes Shop on Friendship Middle Walk, later owned by Mr. M.C. Moses
• Flying House Rum Shop owned by a set of Gomes and located in the back area of Friendship
• Santos Salt Goods Shop in the back of Friendship
• The Ogle’s home on Ogle Street was previously owned by a Mr. Vieira who was a diamond seeker. He had a daughter named Agnes.

Two prominent Portuguese men, who lived over Buxton Middle Walk Line’ were another Mr. Correia (John Zing), supposedly a cousin of Henrique “Rubber” Correia, and a Mr. Marques who had owned the property later bought by Teacher Seaton Griffith. He might have been a coconut oil producer. The Correias were also related to the parliamentarian, Eugene Correia.

Another notable descendant was Antonia Rodney, also called Dear Aunt Rodney. She resided next to the Seventh-Day Adventist Church on Buxton Middle Walk, and was my mother’s aunt and also great-aunt of the late Agnes Phillips, former cake shop proprietress on Buxton Public Road.

Two other prominent descendants of Portuguese were the DeSantos brothers, Louis and Francis. They originated from Strathspey. Louis was mainly employed as a drainage pump attendant at Strathspey. He had emigrated to England, but later returned and settled in Buxton. Francis was the more popular one. He was the barber, known as “Mush” at Bottom Station. He later moved to Company Road, next to Clevie’s, but slightly aback the premises of shopkeeper/hardware store proprietor, “Jojo” Rodrigues.

Mr. Rodrigues was of Portuguese and African ancestry. He was an accomplished Softatonic musician, singing bass. “Jojo” was also one of three specialists in the repair of gas lamps, both Tilley and Coleman. (The other two experts were Nicky Martin and Burgan Watson).

Another outstanding member of the community was Father Emmanuel DaSilva, the second Guyanese and third Diocesan priest who served at St. Anthony’s R.C. Church for more than thirty-five years.