Gilbakka posted:@Former Member
In 1992, I wrote an article on the history of the rice industry in Guyana. It appeared in "Farm World" magazine published by the Alesei Group of Companies. My research showed that rice cultivation was introduced by the Dutch in Essequibo in the 18th century. The original seed paddy was imported from North Carolina. The Dutch used African slave labour for rice cultivation in their Essequibo plantations.
Later, after slavery ended, after East Indians had completed their indentured contracts and got their own land, rice cultivation accelerated and made Guyana a rice EXPORTING colony.
In a nutshell, Afro labour started the local rice industry; Indos produced a surplus for export.
Gilly, I am not disputing that Afro labor was used to plant rice in limited quantities, after all they were slaves and did their masters bidding. What I question is which group really proliferated rice production to its current importance as an export crop today in Guyana. You will acknowledge that it was the Indo's that did this as evidence by the dearth of rice farmers today in Guyana. The ronans and caibjs will shout all day about how Blacks was responsible for man going to the moon and the cure for cancer, but history will tell a different story.