Stabroek News
May 11, 2001

Prime Minister Sam Hinds and Minister of Local Government and Regional Development Harripersaud Nokta during a visit to East Coast villages on Tuesday, were intrigued by the name of the relatively young community - Bare Root.

Residents were quick to point out that it was Bare Root and not 'Beirut' as in the Lebanese capital. They said when they first moved into the area to live after weeding there were many roots; bare root in local dialect. They used axes, cutlasses and other cutting implements and in some instances their "bare hands" to get the roots out to start building.

During an earlier visit to the community, Stabroek News had also asked the same question and received a similar explanation from Negla Garroway, head of the local community action group.

It transpired that the place had already had a name, albeit one ignored by the residents. The older members of Bachelor's Adventure, however, still refer to it by its original name - 'Cotton Piece'.

Local 'historian' and village councillor Cleveland Glasgow had a story about the origin of that name too. "When the English came here they decided to plant cotton first. This whole place was known as Plantation Bachelor's

Adventure... including all at the back there. When the cotton

failed they turned it into a sugar plantation. After the slaves bought over the place, most of them moved up front there. You know 'bout cotton? Cotton is a thing is stay long in de soil. After the slaves move up front, the cotton at the back there start shooting up back..."

During the Prime Minister's visit, he and Nokta both remarked at a cotton tree in full bloom, probably an indication of the yields in previous times, growing at the side of a fence.

Bare Root has been in the news recently as a result of unrest on the East Coast of Demerara and tension between its residents and those of neighbouring Enterprise.