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Mars posted:
Labba posted:
Mars posted:
Bibi Haniffa posted:

Victoria used to have a lot of Indos and Portuguese living there.  In the 1964 riots every single one of them was driven out.  Many of their homes and businesses burned to the ground.  There was the Sayroo family who had a huge bakery.  Giving food to many who couldn’t afford to buy.  Today they have survived and built another Sayroo bakery in Tampa, Fl.  The ashes of their home left far behind in Victoria.

Your story is not correct. I personally asked Sayroo about your story the last time you mentioned it. He said that you’re full of shyte.

Eh, eh...hey hey hey...yu know Miss Ivy too...wow dis GNI wurl is a small wurl...yuh defendin yuh PNC bais dem 

I was never a member of any political party in Guyana. I'm not like you and Uncle DG kissin PNC ass fuh lil wuk. So you runnin back home to the PPP this time around in a last ditch effort to get lil ministuh wuk? Yuh really desperate bhai, especially with oil money lying around. Miss Ivy is a serial liar like a few others here. Always making up some Anansi story and scandalizing people name. What is there to be gained from telling lies on a nondescript internet site? The last time she mentioned this, I was in Sayroo's bakery shortly afterwards. He told me that none of their property was ever burned. They moved to Enmore but it had nothing to do with a loss of property. The only thing he said that was burned was probably a few cheese rolls he left too long in the oven.

Hey hey hey...all dem bais know yuh want lil contracta contract so yuh can pay yuh kickback tax ... hey hey hey 

FM
ksazma posted:

Cheese is made from milk and although Guyana had cows that produced milk, even milk was scarce in the early 80's. Another boastful record of the PNC. 

Milk, but augmented with other non-dairy products that stretch the milk.  I got a pilot sample of the cheese planned to produce in Guyana.  It had a deep yellow to slight Orange tone due to the Palm Oil component. East Germany was going to build the processing plant close to Moblissa. But the power-grid collapsed as did the rest of the country!  And everybody Tek plane run get away!

Baseman
Last edited by Baseman
Mars posted:
Labba posted:
Mars posted:
Bibi Haniffa posted:

Victoria used to have a lot of Indos and Portuguese living there.  In the 1964 riots every single one of them was driven out.  Many of their homes and businesses burned to the ground.  There was the Sayroo family who had a huge bakery.  Giving food to many who couldn’t afford to buy.  Today they have survived and built another Sayroo bakery in Tampa, Fl.  The ashes of their home left far behind in Victoria.

Your story is not correct. I personally asked Sayroo about your story the last time you mentioned it. He said that you’re full of shyte.

Eh, eh...hey hey hey...yu know Miss Ivy too...wow dis GNI wurl is a small wurl...yuh defendin yuh PNC bais dem 

Miss Ivy is a serial liar like a few others here. Always making up some Anansi story and scandalizing people name. What is there to be gained from telling lies on a nondescript internet site? The last time she mentioned this, I was in Sayroo's bakery shortly afterwards. He told me that none of their property was ever burned. They moved to Enmore but it had nothing to do with a loss of property. The only thing he said that was burned was probably a few cheese rolls he left too long in the oven.

Hey hey hey...De man Sayroo na go give yu he political story if yuh turn up and buy lil buttaflap and salara. Nobady do dat. Me tink Miss Ivy gat de story right foh dis one...hey hey hey...

FM

My father was exporting "copra" to GT to making soap, toffee, and other products from coconuts. At home, he uses to make cassareep and cooking oil from the extracted water. Guyanese only know about cassava cassareep. I believe cheese should have made in Guyana rather than important cheese. Bread and cheese are two homemade products in hundreds of varieties. Egypt alone produced over 500 variety of cheese which I tasted about 50 right here in New York. Only Guyana seem like a country stuck in time. 

FM
Baseman posted:
ksazma posted:

Cheese is made from milk and although Guyana had cows that produced milk, even milk was scarce in the early 80's. Another boastful record of the PNC. 

Milk, but augmented with other non-dairy products that stretch the milk.

 I got a pilot sample of the cheese planned to produce in Guyana.  

It had a deep yellow to slight Orange tone due to the Palm Oil component. East Germany was going to build the processing plant close to Moblissa. But the power-grid collapsed as did the rest of the country!  And everybody Tek plane run away!

That's good idea.

Django
Baseman posted:
ksazma posted:

Cheese is made from milk and although Guyana had cows that produced milk, even milk was scarce in the early 80's. Another boastful record of the PNC. 

Milk, but augmented with other non-dairy products that stretch the milk.  I got a pilot sample of the cheese planned to produce in Guyana.  It had a deep yellow to slight Orange tone due to the Palm Oil component. East Germany was going to build the processing plant close to Moblissa. But the power-grid collapsed as did the rest of the country!  And everybody Tek plane run away!

Everything collapsed during the first PNC cursed rule. It happening again. The PNC is a scourge to Guyana.

FM
Prince posted:

My father was exporting "copra" to GT to making soap, toffee, and other products from coconuts. At home, he uses to make cassareep and cooking oil from the extracted water. Guyanese only know about cassava cassareep. I believe cheese should have made in Guyana rather than important cheese. Bread and cheese are two homemade products in hundreds of varieties. Egypt alone produced over 500 variety of cheese which I tasted about 50 right here in New York. Only Guyana seem like a country stuck in time. 

Soap and Detergents was produced in Guyana.

Django
Prince posted:

My father was exporting "copra" to GT to making soap, toffee, and other products from coconuts. At home, he uses to make cassareep and cooking oil from the extracted water. Guyanese only know about cassava cassareep. I believe cheese should have made in Guyana rather than important cheese. Bread and cheese are two homemade products in hundreds of varieties. Egypt alone produced over 500 variety of cheese which I tasted about 50 right here in New York. Only Guyana seem like a country stuck in time. 

You can go back to the 70's and find many things that Guyana could have produced rather than import or be deprived of had the PNC government been more concerned with developing the country rather consolidating their black power agenda pushing everyone else to the side. Eventually, those ignored talents shipped themselves out creating the brain drain that is so present all over the Guyana landscape.

FM
Django posted:
Prince posted:

My father was exporting "copra" to GT to making soap, toffee, and other products from coconuts. At home, he uses to make cassareep and cooking oil from the extracted water. Guyanese only know about cassava cassareep. I believe cheese should have made in Guyana rather than important cheese. Bread and cheese are two homemade products in hundreds of varieties. Egypt alone produced over 500 variety of cheese which I tasted about 50 right here in New York. Only Guyana seem like a country stuck in time. 

Soap and Detergents was produced in Guyana.

I was living in GT and know all the industrial sites and what they produce. I had one foot in Berbice and one in GT, later in life. My homemade experience was a great start with coconut oil and cassareep. Unfortunately, I wasn't known to produce "bush rum" that would have made me a millionaire today.   

FM
caribny posted:
ksazma posted:
Labba posted:

Bai after emancipation free black peopkle save money and buy nuff, nuff land all over de east coast and berbice. Nuff land...dis is know fact.

Okay. So dem buy land and Indos buy land tuh. So whah dem complaining about? Nobody tek dem land from dem.

In fact the authorities did take the land away from them and wanted them to FAIL.  Your lot were given well drained lands in land settlement schemes.

Now make yourself useful and go feed the swine!

Hey hey hey...me see dat loud mout TK deh write bout that. Dem Indoes get de drain land because de sugar people want dem foh stay in de plantation foh provide dem cheap labour. Only 12% Indos live pon well drain land. De free African dem buy nuff, nuff, nuff land in far place. De colonial did NOT always flood out African land deliberate. De place deh below sea level and dem days yuh had natural mud bank. Dis is why de colonial had to tek over responsible and dem put high tax foh drain dem village. Dis is de point that pot solt loud mout TK mek...stop blame wite man foh all abie trouble. Even Ronnie reflux stop blamin white man...hey hey hey...

FM
Django posted:
Labba posted:
ksazma posted:
Labba posted:

What Mr Granger seh is fine. Is true black peopkle use education foh leave dem village foh de urban city. What wrong wid dat? De labba go pepper dem though when dem seh Indoes didnt gat right foh move in city and Indoes tek dem land. Me wonder who tek Ronnie Reflux and green sali land? Hey hey hey...

Me doubt dem ever had any land in Guyana. Based on dem arguments, dem land wuz in Afrika and dem wuz forcefully taken from dem land to another person's land dat dem know nuttin about?

Bai after emancipation free black peopkle save money and buy nuff, nuff land all over de east coast and berbice. Nuff land...dis is know fact.

In April 1840 Buxton Village was established on the East Coast, Demerara,British Guiana by 128 Africans who had been freed from chattel slavery on August 1st, 1838. The Africans pooled their money and bought a 500-acre plantation, New Orange Nassau from its owner James Archibald Holmes, for $50,000. They named the village Buxton in honour of abolitionist Thomas Fowell Buxton. Buxton was the second village established by Africans in British Guiana.

Victoria Village, also on the East Coast of Demerara was purchased in November 1839, by a group of 83 formerly enslaved Africans.    

https://guyaneseonline.net/201...ast-demerara-guyana/

This is only two, there are more.

Django, quit wasting your time with calcified racist scum whose racism is surpassed only by their gross ignorance of Guyana's history and facts. No black person posting here would bother to respond to them, only laugh at the jackass.

The history of black people's rise from slavery to owners of land is well documented, as is the opposition of the British who flooded those lands trying to subjugate blacks again, and taxing them out of business. Blacks then entered the civil service because many were EDUCATED! The vast amount of Indians at that time were illiterate, but would soon emerge from the plantations to enter business and so on as their literacy grew.

In the annals of Guyana's history, the nurses, midwives, teachers etc. were black. They were an educated class who could perform civil service jobs!

Blacks stayed in teaching, nursing, civil service etc. while Indians gravitated more toward entrepenurship. Note - their rice lands etc. were never flooded out by the British, nor were their efforts to farm.

To suggest that any one group, Indians or blacks, is superior in their emergence from slavery/indentureship is gross ignorance. The genetically bigoted indian posting here attempting to paint blacks as inferior displays his pure ignorance of Guyana's history.

But what can one expect from a neva see cum fuh see backwater trash whose  biggest accomplishment in Guyana was moving to the outskirts of georgetown.

FM
Last edited by Former Member
Iguana posted:
Django posted:
Labba posted:
ksazma posted:
Labba posted:

What Mr Granger seh is fine. Is true black peopkle use education foh leave dem village foh de urban city. What wrong wid dat? De labba go pepper dem though when dem seh Indoes didnt gat right foh move in city and Indoes tek dem land. Me wonder who tek Ronnie Reflux and green sali land? Hey hey hey...

Me doubt dem ever had any land in Guyana. Based on dem arguments, dem land wuz in Afrika and dem wuz forcefully taken from dem land to another person's land dat dem know nuttin about?

Bai after emancipation free black peopkle save money and buy nuff, nuff land all over de east coast and berbice. Nuff land...dis is know fact.

In April 1840 Buxton Village was established on the East Coast, Demerara,British Guiana by 128 Africans who had been freed from chattel slavery on August 1st, 1838. The Africans pooled their money and bought a 500-acre plantation, New Orange Nassau from its owner James Archibald Holmes, for $50,000. They named the village Buxton in honour of abolitionist Thomas Fowell Buxton. Buxton was the second village established by Africans in British Guiana.

Victoria Village, also on the East Coast of Demerara was purchased in November 1839, by a group of 83 formerly enslaved Africans.    

https://guyaneseonline.net/201...ast-demerara-guyana/

This is only two, there are more.

Django, quit wasting your time with calcified racist scum whose racism is surpassed only by their gross ignorance of Guyana's history and facts. No black person posting here would bother to respond to them, only laugh at the jackass.

The history of black people's rise from slavery to owners of land is well documented, as is the opposition of the British who flooded those lands trying to subjugate blacks again, and taxing them out of business. Blacks then entered the civil service because many were EDUCATED! The vast amount of Indians at that time were illiterate, but would soon emerge from the plantations to enter business and so on as their literacy grew.

In the annals of Guyana's history, the nurses, midwives, teachers etc. were black. They were an educated class who could perform civil service jobs!

Blacks stayed in teaching, nursing, civil service etc. while Indians gravitated more toward entrepenurship. Note - their rice lands etc. were never flooded out by the British, nor were their efforts to farm.

To suggest that any one group, Indians or blacks, is superior in their emergence from slavery/indentureship is gross ignorance. The genetically bigoted indian posting here attempting to paint blacks as inferior displays his pure ignorance of Guyana's history.

But what can one expect from a neva see cum fuh see backwater trash whose  biggest accomplishment in Guyana was moving to the outskirts of georgetown.

Your problem is you make these bigots intemidate you. Retards and bigots come in all races. Do you also take to task the uneducated whites - dumb as a doornail yet pull rank on you because they happen to be white....

sachin_05
caribny posted:
ksazma posted:
Labba posted:

What Mr Granger seh is fine. Is true black peopkle use education foh leave dem village foh de urban city. What wrong wid dat? De labba go pepper dem though when dem seh Indoes didnt gat right foh move in city and Indoes tek dem land. Me wonder who tek Ronnie Reflux and green sali land? Hey hey hey...

Me doubt dem ever had any land in Guyana. Based on dem arguments, dem land wuz in Afrika and dem wuz forcefully taken from dem land to another person's land dat dem know nuttin about?

Based on whose arguments. There is a well known narrative that former slaved acquired failed plantations and built villages.   There is also another narrative that the colonial entities taxed them heavily and refused to provide drainage, and flooded out these villages, then refused to sell additional lands as the need for this was necessitated.  Indians did NOT go through this abuse.

So sit down, shut your swine mouth and learn something!

These claims are not documented. Where is the evidence that you are claiming. A flood is a flood water will eventually flood your area if you don't pretend floods in other areas.

Prashad
Last edited by Prashad
Prashad posted:
caribny posted:
ksazma posted:
Labba posted:

What Mr Granger seh is fine. Is true black peopkle use education foh leave dem village foh de urban city. What wrong wid dat? De labba go pepper dem though when dem seh Indoes didnt gat right foh move in city and Indoes tek dem land. Me wonder who tek Ronnie Reflux and green sali land? Hey hey hey...

Me doubt dem ever had any land in Guyana. Based on dem arguments, dem land wuz in Afrika and dem wuz forcefully taken from dem land to another person's land dat dem know nuttin about?

Based on whose arguments. There is a well known narrative that former slaved acquired failed plantations and built villages.   There is also another narrative that the colonial entities taxed them heavily and refused to provide drainage, and flooded out these villages, then refused to sell additional lands as the need for this was necessitated.  Indians did NOT go through this abuse.

So sit down, shut your swine mouth and learn something!

These claims are not documented. Where is the evidence that you are claiming. A flood is a flood water will eventually flood your area if you don't pretend floods in other areas.

Flooding neighboring with better equipment or drainage cannals is happening to this day. I can tell you there is fighting and killing to get water when there is drought or drainage when floods come around.

sachin_05
Prince posted:

My father was exporting "copra" to GT to making soap, toffee, and other products from coconuts. At home, he uses to make cassareep and cooking oil from the extracted water. Guyanese only know about cassava cassareep. I believe cheese should have made in Guyana rather than important cheese. Bread and cheese are two homemade products in hundreds of varieties. Egypt alone produced over 500 variety of cheese which I tasted about 50 right here in New York. Only Guyana seem like a country stuck in time. 

Prince is a youngster. Guyana had a cheese factory. It survived 6 months. It just could not compete with imported cheese from Holland and New Zealand. It was more expensive to produce cheese in Guyana than to import cheese.

When it comes to cottage cheese. That is a different ball game. Guyanese should make their own cottage cheese and use more cottage cheese rather than cheese.

Prashad
sachin_05 posted:
Iguana posted:
Django posted:
Labba posted:
ksazma posted:
Labba posted:

What Mr Granger seh is fine. Is true black peopkle use education foh leave dem village foh de urban city. What wrong wid dat? De labba go pepper dem though when dem seh Indoes didnt gat right foh move in city and Indoes tek dem land. Me wonder who tek Ronnie Reflux and green sali land? Hey hey hey...

Me doubt dem ever had any land in Guyana. Based on dem arguments, dem land wuz in Afrika and dem wuz forcefully taken from dem land to another person's land dat dem know nuttin about?

Bai after emancipation free black peopkle save money and buy nuff, nuff land all over de east coast and berbice. Nuff land...dis is know fact.

In April 1840 Buxton Village was established on the East Coast, Demerara,British Guiana by 128 Africans who had been freed from chattel slavery on August 1st, 1838. The Africans pooled their money and bought a 500-acre plantation, New Orange Nassau from its owner James Archibald Holmes, for $50,000. They named the village Buxton in honour of abolitionist Thomas Fowell Buxton. Buxton was the second village established by Africans in British Guiana.

Victoria Village, also on the East Coast of Demerara was purchased in November 1839, by a group of 83 formerly enslaved Africans.    

https://guyaneseonline.net/201...ast-demerara-guyana/

This is only two, there are more.

Django, quit wasting your time with calcified racist scum whose racism is surpassed only by their gross ignorance of Guyana's history and facts. No black person posting here would bother to respond to them, only laugh at the jackass.

The history of black people's rise from slavery to owners of land is well documented, as is the opposition of the British who flooded those lands trying to subjugate blacks again, and taxing them out of business. Blacks then entered the civil service because many were EDUCATED! The vast amount of Indians at that time were illiterate, but would soon emerge from the plantations to enter business and so on as their literacy grew.

In the annals of Guyana's history, the nurses, midwives, teachers etc. were black. They were an educated class who could perform civil service jobs!

Blacks stayed in teaching, nursing, civil service etc. while Indians gravitated more toward entrepenurship. Note - their rice lands etc. were never flooded out by the British, nor were their efforts to farm.

To suggest that any one group, Indians or blacks, is superior in their emergence from slavery/indentureship is gross ignorance. The genetically bigoted indian posting here attempting to paint blacks as inferior displays his pure ignorance of Guyana's history.

But what can one expect from a neva see cum fuh see backwater trash whose  biggest accomplishment in Guyana was moving to the outskirts of georgetown.

Your problem is you make these bigots intemidate you. Retards and bigots come in all races. Do you also take to task the uneducated whites - dumb as a doornail yet pull rank on you because they happen to be white....

I take to task bigots of any stripe. I remind you this racist clown posting his "black people are the scourge of the earth" shyte is the one who does so without referencing the person he is responding to because they are "worth nothing".

He is the one intimidated by a black man who can manners his dumb ass and expose the ignorant shyte he writes for hours every day! He has to take to the corner and mumble shyte and run away!

FM
sachin_05 posted:
 

Can you elaborate where or when coolies were given land?

Discuss all the land settlement schemes that Bookers had on offer.

 

http://www.guyana.org/features...story/chapter81.html

This written by a major PPP man so don't scream that he lied.

Now tell us when did the colonial government establish these settlement schemes for blacks.  In fact they over taxed the blacks (Buxton people stop train) and allowed the planters to flood the lands.  And after the major period of purchase by these black villagers they changed the rules to make further land purchases by them to be difficult. As a result over time the lands had to be increasingly subdivided and so became too small to be viable.

FM
Last edited by Former Member
caribny posted:
sachin_05 posted:
 

Can you elaborate where or when coolies were given land?

Discuss all the land settlement schemes that Bookers had on offer.

 

http://www.guyana.org/features...story/chapter81.html

This written by a major PPP man so don't scream that he lied.

Now tell us when did the colonial government establish these settlement schemes for blacks.  In fact they over taxed the blacks (Buxton people stop train) and allowed the planters to flood the lands.  And after the major period of purchase by these black villagers they changed the rules to make further land purchases by them to be difficult. As a result over time the lands had to be increasingly subdivided and so became too small to be viable.

These land settlements were established by using the return money owing to the Indians, it was not for Free. Sorry to say the Black slaves had no such deal, they were treated as cattle by the White Massa.

K

Indian & Portuguese Buxtonians

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 β€œwet-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 β€œMarket 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 β€œrepresentatives”. 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 β€œold-higue”, and an Indian mother would pay a penny to nominally β€œbuy” 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 3rdMay, 1835, forty indentured peasants arrived on the ship β€˜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 β€œMadeirenses”, 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 β€œMadeirenses.” 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 β€œbounty” 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, β€œChurch 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 19th 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 β€œRubber”. 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 β€œBottom 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 β€œRubber” 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 β€œMush” at Bottom Station. He later moved to Company Road, next to Clevie’s, but slightly aback the premises of shopkeeper/hardware store proprietor, β€œJojo” Rodrigues.

Mr. Rodrigues was of Portuguese and African ancestry. He was an accomplished Softatonic musician, singing bass. β€œJojo” 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.

FM
kp posted:
 

These land settlements were established by using the return money owing to the Indians, it was not for Free. Sorry to say the Black slaves had no such deal, they were treated as cattle by the White Massa.

It was used in lieu of sending them back to India.  Those who wished to return to India did so.  Those who wanted to remain in Guyana had a start that freed slaves didn't get. 

The former slaves had to use up all of their earnings to acquire the lands, had to face estates flooding their lands, had to pay taxes so that the planters could import indentures from Madeira and China, and then from India.  The plan of course was to prevent an independent class of successful black petty traders and small farmers developing, because they saw this as a threat at a political and economic level.  They wanted these villages to fail and passed all sorts of laws.

Now how about after working FREE for generations, and destroying their family structures, if these former enslaved peoples received what some Indo indentures did?

Btw when the former slaves were economically undermined they were used as scab labor when the Indo indentures began to rebel.  They also brought in Bajans for that purpose and at one estate the Indo workers assaulted the Bajans in their rage. The planters played each off against the other, beginning the zero sum game that we still play today. 

 

FM
Last edited by Former Member
caribny posted:
kp posted:
 

These land settlements were established by using the return money owing to the Indians, it was not for Free. Sorry to say the Black slaves had no such deal, they were treated as cattle by the White Massa.

It was used in lieu of sending them back to India.  Those who wished to return to India did so.  Those who wanted to remain in Guyana had a start that freed slaves didn't get. 

The former slaves had to use up all of their earnings to acquire the lands, had to face estates flooding their lands, had to pay taxes so that the planters could import indentures from Madeira and China, and then from India.  The plan of course was to prevent an independent class of successful black petty traders and small farmers developing, because they saw this as a threat at a political and economic level.  They wanted these villages to fail and passed all sorts of laws.

Now how about after working FREE for generations, and destroying their family structures, if these former enslaved peoples received what some Indo indentures did?

Btw when the former slaves were economically undermined they were used as scab labor when the Indo indentures began to rebel.  They also brought in Bajans for that purpose and at one estate the Indo workers assaulted the Bajans in their rage. The planters played each off against the other, beginning the zero sum game that we still play today. 

 

Blackman was not the only race who suffered separation of families. Indians suffer the same. 

Wasnt flooding the land had to do with making the land more rich. Guysuco does that all the time after every crop. 

BTW, what does Indias have to do with purchases of blacks as slave and separation of families. Ayo picking on the wrong people. Go to the British. Ayo claimed to have the best huducation and the best job in the public service. 

FM
seignet posted:

Before Madeira and China, it was the free Afro-Americans and Island Blacks. Why is your history so prejudiced. These things are written or you think cooolie ppl still stupid and can read.

The island blacks arrived with the Portuguese and the Madeirans and very few black Americans migrated to Guyana.  And the Islanders merely arrived.  They weren't recruited as indentures so the over taxed Guyanese blacks didn't pay for their arrival.  Their arrival in fact benefitted Guyanese blacks, given that the local black population was declining because of the bad conditions that so many lived under.

Check your own racism as you scream that black people should be cursed to remain impoverished.

FM
Last edited by Former Member
Dave posted:
 

Blackman was not the only race who suffered separation of families. Indians suffer the same. 

Wasnt flooding the land had to do with making the land more rich. Guysuco does that all the time after every crop. 

BTW, what does Indias have to do with purchases of blacks as slave and separation of families. Ayo picking on the wrong people. Go to the British. Ayo claimed to have the best huducation and the best job in the public service. 

If your weren't so blinded by your hatred of blacks you will see that I went DIRECTLY to the British.  Who do you think owned the estates that flooded the lands, or over taxed the black farmers, or passed laws that made it impossible for them to acquire more lands!

Oh I see. So when a plantation owner was bankrupt and wanted to raise quick cash he went to the slave quarters and sold off the parents, leaving the kids as orphans?  Preventing each from every seeing the other again, given that their movements were controlled.

Please point out when indentures were sold off like cattle.

Do you know that during slavery the balance sheets had black people listed along with farm animals as assets.  To them that it all we were FARM ANIMALS!

And yes I can see that when the sugar estates flooded the land and the water poured onto people's farms, flooding out their crops these farmers were so happy at the losses that they then controlled.  And given that malaria was rife more excess water breeding more babies who then died after contracting malaria was an event that they celebrated.

FM
Last edited by Former Member

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