Georgetown boasts several excellent museums worth exploring, but a simple stroll through the city limits will also provide you with striking glimpses into Guyana’s past. I already gave an overview of Georgetown’s most famous wooden buildings in my previous post; let’s now look at the series of monuments, museums and historical structures peppered among these wooden buildings that will enhance your understanding of what molded this capital city into what it is today. It should also be noted that everything I will recommend in this post is completely free. You don’t have to spend a lot of money to enjoy Georgetown (but you do need to bring a pair of good walking shoes!).
Guyana National Museum
Before I delve into Guyana’s history, let me warn you about the photography situation inside Georgetown’s museums. In most cases, photography is (rather strictly) prohibited. At the National Museum, you are permitted to take pictures, but you or your face must be present in each photo and the workers will check your phone to make sure you have followed the rules.
What is the reason for all this? Well, it seems these organizations believe that if photographs of their exhibits are released out into the public sphere, it will decrease interest in visiting the museums in person. Why travel to Georgetown to visit the Walter Roth Museum if you can see it all online, right? I’m not quite sure how they came to this conclusion, but it didn’t make much sense to me. There are photos of the Mona Lisa and Sistine Chapel all over the internet, and yet people from all over the world still flock to see these works in person everyday. If anything, when I research a museum and preview some of the exhibits online, it only makes me more excited to visit- not less. I also assume most people only take photos as personal keepsakes from their vacations, but alas, these are the rules in Guyana and it’s best to accept them.
The Guyana National Museum was founded in 1868 and has resided in its current location since 1951. The exhibits have not been given a modern, technological makeover, but they do provide an introductory history lesson for the uninitiated. (Entry is free, but all foreign visitors are required to show their passports at the front desk and sign in with security.)
The museum’s most famous feature is the life-size replica of a giant sloth, once common in Guyana’s tropical jungles. Now extinct, this enormous beast was easily three times my height, as you can see in the photo above. A worker guards the sloth at all times, but will happily take a photo of your next to it.
A bit of trivia before jumping into Guyana’s history: Georgetown produced the world’s rarest (most expensive) postage stamp in history, and the museum displays the printing press upon which it was created. In the 1850s, Guyana ran out of stamps and before more could be shipped over from the UK, Georgetown’s postmaster contacted a local printing press to produce some temporary stamps in the meantime. The postmaster initialed these stamps to deter counterfeiters and the sets became exceedingly hard to find over the years.
In 1940, a single one of these stamps was sold for $45,000; when it was sold again in 1970, the stamped fetched $280,000, which in turn ballooned to $935,000 when sold for a third time in 1980. In 2010, the stamp was sold at auction for a whopping 9.5 million dollars, making it the highest-priced stamp sold in history.
History Begins
There were two main group of indigenous peoples who inhabited the land now known as Guyana for centuries before the first European explorers arrived in 1499. The Arawak people controlled the coastal region while the Carib established their territory deep in the southern rainforests. The Spanish were the first to make contact with these native tribes, but they did not build any permanent settlements in Guyana. Despite ostensibly being under Spain’s dominion, it was the Dutch West India Company who, in 1616, built the first permanent European outpost in the colony, from which vantage point they were able to wrest control of area from the Spanish. (To make a distinction, this Dutch colony was technically “owned” by a private company and not the Dutch government until many years later.)
The Dutch attempted to enslave the Arawak people to work their ever-expanding plantations, but 50,000 Arawak were able to escape into the jungles with the Carib, where many of their descendants still live today. Unlike many Caribbean and South American nations, the indigenous people of Guyana largely survived enslavement and extinction by finding an escape route south. The Dutch still desired slaves, causing them to turn their attention to West Africa and the triangle trade. In 1746, the Dutch decided to open plantation ownership to British citizens and the Brits arrived in droves, bringing their African-born slaves with them. By 1760, a majority of the plantations along the Demerara River were owned by the British.
The 1763 Slave Uprising
In 1763, the slave Coffy (sometimes spelled Kofi) led one of the largest uprisings in Guyana’s history. In the Berbice district, Coffy organized 3,800 slaves to revolt against their plantation owners. Houses were burned and Coffy’s “military” of 600 slaves captured many of their transgressors, imprisoning some and executing others. The rebellion was launched in February of 1763, but by October Coffy and other leaders of the revolt had succumbed to infighting. Coffy committed suicide and the Dutch took advantage of the movement’s instability by retaking the plantations with the help of the British and French. By April 15, 1764, the rebellion had been crushed slavery’s status quo had been restored in the colony.
February 23 is now celebrated as Republic Day in Guyana and in 1976, to commemorate the 10th Anniversary of Guyana’s independence, the 1763 Monument was unveiled at the Square of the Revolution. It was designed by Philip Moore and stands 4.6m (15ft) tall. Coffy tops the monument and in each hand he is shown strangling an animal: a dog to represent covetousness and a pig to represent ignorance.
Colonial Musical Chairs
The Dutch West India Company’s inability to hold their land exposed weaknesses in their military prowess. Post-rebellion, the Dutch also began raising taxes and tariffs on all exported goods from the British plantations. This caused rifts between the two groups and in 1781, the British seized control of Guyana. The Dutch begged the French for help, who were only too happy to comply: after defeating the British, the French decided to keep the colony for themselves rather than return it to the Dutch. In 1782, the French moved the capital to Longchamps, which was renamed Stabroek when the Dutch once again came back to power in 1784.
The Dutch West India Company went belly up in the 1790s and the government of The Netherlands assumed official control of the Colony. Napoleon’s conquest of Europe threw Guyana’s status into turmoil and the Brits once again emerged victorious. Stabroek was re-christened Georgetown in 1812 and in 1814, British Guiana was official formed. The colony remained part of the UK until independence was finally granted in 1966.
Demerara Rebellion of 1823
The slave trade was officially abolished in 1807, but this only prevented the import of any new slaves into British Guiana. All current slaves were still considered property of their plantation owners by colonial law. In 1823, Nearly 13,000 slaves led a non-violent rebellion, demanding their freedom. The colonial governor at the time, John Murray, killed 250 slaves during the two-day protest and later sentenced another 51 organizers to death. Their bodies were displayed around Georgetown for month to act as a deterrent against other acts of disobedience. It was not until 1838 when all 84,915 African slaves were finally emancipated and allowed to purchase land in the colony.
In 2013, Ivor Thom designed the Monument of 1823, which can be found along the coastal seawall. Quamina, the rebellion’s leader, stands atop the sculpture; figures representing defiance, no retreat and no surrender defend the podium’s base.
Unfortunately, the end of slavery only meant the beginning of indentured servitude as the British shifted focus to the Asian continent, bringing over 14,000 Chinese and Indian workers to the colony between 1853-1912. The Europeans cycled through as many ethnic groups to exploit for manual labor as the colony changed hands from Spanish to Dutch to French to British control.
Turbulent Times
The British were determined to turn their Guiana into one the most powerful trading seaports along the northern coast of South America. In 1830, they built the white and red-striped lighthouse that still stands today. You are able to climb the 138 stairs of the 31m (103ft) structure, but only in good weather. The skies can change from bright blue to dark and stormy in a matter of minutes; both times I attempted to climb the lighthouse the winds were deemed too strong to attempt the ascent. According to the some of the other people at my hostel, on a clear day the views are spectacular and allow you to see the entire capital.
Georgetown was built on drained marshland and is kept dry by a series of dykes and canals. Periodic flooding still plagued the capital and the British set about constructing a seawall that would span the entire coastline of the colony. Completed in 1882, the seawall runs 450km (280 miles) from end to end. Georgetown’s portion of the wall has a jogging/bike path with areas to set up food stalls in the evenings.
On the morning I decided to walk the seawall, I got caught in a terrible thunderstorm and had to take refuge under a bandstand. A local walker waited out the rain with me and lo and behold I found out he was a city planner! I had a great conversation with him about the difficulties Georgetown faces keeping both the rain water and ocean surges at bay and the challenges he sees luring visitors to the city (the government doesn’t do enough to promote the wooden architecture that he thinks would attract intrepid tourists). The Guyanese are quite friendly and very quick to strike up a conversation with you about their country.
Despite some of the advancements the British brought to the city, unrest grew with overworked and unpaid workers in the non-European population. In 1905, a longshoreman strike lead to the Ruimveldt Riots. Urban and rural workers marched on Georgetown in protest, forming unions and demanding legal protections from their employers. On November 30, now known as Black Friday, the colonial forces fired on the protestors and riots ensued.
Only descendants of the British and Dutch were allowed to vote and hold office. The African, Indian and Chinese populations could own land, but not do much else. As the calls for independence began to grow, the 1940s also saw a growing divide between the Indo-Guyanese and the Afro-Guyanese. These two groups, lead by their leaders Cheddi Jagan and Linden Forbes Burnham, respectively, both craved independence and would control the political narrative in Guyana throughout the 20th Century.
Cheddi Jagan vs. Linden Forbes Burnham
Cheddi Jagan was born in 1918 to Indian farmers. The Indo-Guyanese tended to live in the more rural areas while the Afro-Guyanese population were typically urban dwellers in Georgetown. Jagan received in a degree in dentistry from Northwestern University in the United States before marrying and returning to Guyana in 1940.
Linden Forbes Burnham was born in 1923 to parents of African descent and, like Jagan, attended university abroad; he returned to Georgetown with a London law degree. Burnham and Jagan originally worked together to form the People’s Progressive Party (PPP), but the union split along racial lines in the 1950s.
Jagan marched sugar workers into Georgetown in 1964, demanding autonomy from the British. They were met by colonial forces who killed 160 and burned over 1000 homes in the capital. Jagan was a marxist and Burnham a capitalist, making the latter more appealing to the Brits. He was elected Prime Minister and when British Guiana was granted independence in 1966 (changing the name to Guyana), Burnham became the new nation’s first president.
Burnham initially worked with the West and allowed capitalism to remain in place. He brutally put down an Amerindian uprising in 1969, ironically not allowing the indigenous people to gain freedoms that he fought so hard to achieve from the British. Burnham also grew weary and leery of his allies in the West. In 1970 he declared Guyana a “cooperative republic” and completely cut ties with the UK.
Burnham joined the Nonalignment Movement and hosted the 1972 Conference of Foreign Ministers of Non-Aligned Countries. A monument honoring the event still sits in downtown Georgetown, featuring the busts of the heads of state who attended and befriended Burnham: Gamal Nasser from Egypt, Kwame Nkrumah from Ghana, Pandit Nehru from India and Josip Broz Tito from Yugoslavia. (Having visited both Nkrumah’s mausoleum in Accra and Tito’s House of Flowers in Belgrade, I had this lightbulb-going-off moment, with the pieces of world history coming together and making even more sense to me now.) The four stones in front of the monument are Jasper Rocks, native to Guyana and taken from the Orinduik Falls farther inland.
Although the Indo-Guyanese people outnumbered the Afro-Guyanese population, Burnham held sham elections that, through fraud and intimidation, allowed him to consolidate all power for himself. He banned all political parties, except his own, and cut off diplomatic relations with most of the outside world. He became an authoritarian ruler and grew increasingly paranoid and mistrustful of those around him.
Burnham did allow an American by the name of Jim Jones to bring around 1000 followers to Guyana and establish a settlement called Jonestown. Jones was running a doomsday cult and in 1978, when US Congressman Leo Ryan attempted to visit Jonestown, he was shot and killed. Before the Guyanese military could descend on the camp, Jones and his leaders poisoned the Kool-Aid and 900 of the members who drank it died by murder/suicide. This incident, known as the Jonestown Massacre, exerted tremendous political pressure on Burnham to step down, or at least hold fair elections. Burnham refused, but when he had to undergo surgery in 1985, complications arose and he died on the operating table.
After an interim government took over, the first free elections took place in Guyana since 1966 and Cheddi Jagan was elected president in 1992. He passed away in 1997, when his wife Janet was subsequently elected president. Today, neither the Indo- nor Afro-factions of the government control more than 50% of the National Assembly. Coalitions must be formed with the other minority parties to pass laws and elect leaders. When I visited, the government was at a standstill and Guyana had been president-less for over five months because the National Assembly could not form a majority to decide who to elect.
Place of the Seven Ponds/Place of Heroes
In a section of the Botanical Gardens you will find the Place of the Seven Ponds, also known as the Place of Heroes. Designed in 1969 by George Henry, the seven pools and center sculpture create an “X” when viewed from above. The monument has become a tribute to past prime ministers and presidents of Guyana; National Poet Martin Carter is the only non-politician to be buried here.
The monument has become a favorite spot for weddings on the weekends. Hang around long enough and you might even get invited to the reception!
Burnham’s Mausoleum
Next to the Place of the Seven Ponds, you’ll find Burnham’s tomb encircled by fantastic brutalist stone cravings. When Burnham died, his body was shipped to the USSR, where he was supposed to be embalmed and displayed in a glass casket for public viewing like Lenin, Mao and Ho Chi Minh. The corpse was not properly frozen and by the time it reached Moscow, the body had deteriorated beyond saving. The remains were returned to Georgetown and interred in this closed, stone coffin instead. Burnham was a complicated man and his legacy is just as tricky to pin down. Despite essentially being a dictator, he is not hated by the populace today. When I asked a local about Burnham she laughed and said his rule was all a part of the growing pains of Guyana’s “teenage years.”
Amerindian Cultural Resurgence
Coming full circle, in recent years there has been a concerted effort to honor and legitimatize the indigenous Carib and Arawak people who still live within Guyana’s borders. The Walter Roth Museum not only contains anthropological exhibitions detailing the culture of the Amerindians, but also acts as a research and teaching institute for those looking to delve further into their heritage.
There is a strict no-photo policy, but the museum has several insightful exhibits, including how cassava is grown and processed (the juices are poisonous and the root must be carefully drained before it can be consumed by humans), how canoes are carved and hollowed out and how pottery is molded and decorated. If you’re interested in learning some Amerindian languages, various Carib and Arawak languages are also taught here.
If you want to see some indigenous architecture without leaving the capital, then you must visit the Umana Yana near the Seawall. Derived from the Wai Wai word for hut, this style of building is used as a tribal meeting place or benab. The shelter is made from leaves, branches and palms that are all supported by an inner network of poles. The circular roof is built out from the largest center pole. It took sixty Wai Wai Amerindians eighty days to complete this Umana Yana.
As long as a meeting isn’t in session, visitors are free to enter and tour the Umana Yana. The workers were friendly and eager to explain how the structure was put together.
Right next to the Umana Yana is the African Liberation Monument, erected in 1974 by the same George Henry who designed the Place of the Seven Ponds. This monument has since been incorporated into the grounds of Umana Yana and speaks to the freedom of all the Guyanese people. The five wooden poles are made from local greenheart trees and cast in local quartz stones.
Despite some of the divisions that still exist amongst the different ethnic groups in Guyana, the locals I spoke with only hoped for unity in the future. The drama playing out in the National Assembly was not a reflection of what the average citizen felt about their neighbors. I found both Black and Indian residents noshing at the Chinese-operated restaurant two blocks from my hostel and Stabroek Market was a blur of various skin tones, the waft of spices from India and West Africa commingling in the air. The Guyanese suffered under colonial rule for centuries before gaining their independence only to find themselves under the thumb of an authoritarian leader. I would like to believe that a new phase of Guyana’s history has begun, one of togetherness that I witnessed throughout the Independence Day celebrations that took place on my visit. It is not only the past you will discover walking through the streets of Georgetown, but its present and future as well.
