Guyana

I

Introduction

Guyana, country on the northern coast of South America. It was formerly a British colony known as British Guiana. In 1966, after more than 150 years of colonial rule, British Guiana achieved independence and took the name Guyana, from a Native American word meaning “land of waters.” The country’s full name is Cooperative Republic of Guyana. Today, Guyana is a member of the Commonwealth of Nations, an association of nations that once formed the British Empire. It is the only English-speaking country in South America. Georgetown is its capital.

Although Guyana is a South American nation, it has more in common with the smaller islands of the West Indies, with which it shares certain cultural, historical, and economic characteristics. Like most of the smaller islands that dot the eastern Caribbean, Guyana was not settled by the Spanish and Portuguese. Guyana was originally a Dutch colony that came under British control in the late 18th century.

The cultivation of sugarcane dominated Guyana’s economy beginning in the early 18th century. The introduction of sugar production brought dramatic changes in the population. The European colonists imported large numbers of Africans to work the fields as slaves. Later, following Britain’s abolition of slavery in the 1830s, workers arrived from the Indian subcontinent to work as laborers on the plantations. By the end of the 20th century, Indians and Africans were the largest ethnic groups in Guyana.

Since independence, political parties have formed along ethnic lines, and moderately left-wing governments have ruled Guyana. African Guyanese dominated the government until the 1990s, when a political party associated with Guyanese of Indian descent gained control of the government.

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II

Land and Resources

Guyana is bounded on the north by the Atlantic Ocean, on the east by Suriname, on the south by Brazil, and on the west by Brazil and Venezuela. Guyana has an area of 214,969 sq km (83,000 sq mi), and its coastline is 459 km (285 mi) long.

Guyana can be divided into three major geographical regions: a swampy coastal plain, a belt of sandy hills, and an interior highland. A belt of alluvial mud, varying in width from about 8 to 65 km (about 5 to 40 mi) and mostly below sea level, extends along the coast. A system of dams and dikes protects the fertile coastal plain, and sugarcane plantations and rice paddies fill much of it. Most of Guyana’s people live on the coastal plain, and the capital is situated here, at the mouth of the Demerara River.

Beyond the plain are low, sandy hills covered with tropical forest. Bauxite is found in the hills to the east. Dense forest covers about four-fifths of the country, gradually rising toward the south onto an interior highland. The highland is part of the vast Guiana Highlands region that extends into Brazil. The highland includes Guyana’s maximum elevation, atop Mount Roraima, of 2,875 m (9,432 ft). A region of savanna lies beyond the forest in the southwestern part of the highland.

Guyana is a land of rivers and forests. Several important rivers—the Essequibo, Demerara, Courantyne (Dutch, Corantijn), and Berbice—cross the country from south to north, emptying into the Atlantic Ocean. Some of the rivers form spectacular waterfalls, notably Kaieteur Falls (226 m/741 ft high), on the Potaro River, one of the highest single-drop waterfalls in the world. Oceangoing freighters can travel up the rivers only about 100 to 160 km (about 60 to 100 mi) from the sea; farther inland, navigation is not possible because of rapids and falls.

A

Climate

Guyana has a tropical climate, with little seasonal temperature change. The climate of coastal Guyana, where most of the people live, is mild for a low-lying tropical area because of persistent trade winds blowing in from the Atlantic Ocean. The annual rainfall (about 1,525 to 2,030 mm/about 60 to 80 in) on the coast occurs mainly from April to August and November to January. The savanna region receives about 1,525 mm (60 in) of rain annually, mainly from April to September.

B

Natural Resources

The important mineral deposits of Guyana include bauxite, used for making aluminum; gold; and diamonds. Some petroleum is located offshore. However, ownership of the oilfields is disputed by neighboring Suriname. The country’s timber from its rain forests is also valuable, although there are environmental concerns about the way deforestation contributes to global warming by removing trees and plants that absorb carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas. About 80 percent of Guyana’s land mass, an area about the size of England, consists of an undisturbed rain forest, known as the Guiana Shield, one of only four pristine rain forests still in existence. In March 2008 Guyana announced that it was preserving 400,000 hectares (1 million acres) of a rain forest reserve in exchange for international aid.

The plants and trees of Guyana are noted for their great size; the giant water lily is common. The dense forests contain excellent woods, such as greenheart and mora. The animal life is varied and includes deer, anteaters, and two species of monkey. Among the birds are manakins, sugarbirds, and cotingas; the diversity of brilliantly colored birds and insects is considerable.

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