Guyana marks 158th anniversary of indentured African immigrants
Monday marked the 158th anniversary of the arrival of Indentured African Immigrants to Guyana and the Ministry of Culture, Youth and Sport has saluted the descendants of the African labourers for their contributions to the nation over the years. A press release from the Ministry on Monday stated that the influx of latecomers into post-emancipation Guyana accounts for the strong Central African stamp on Afro-Guyanese culture today. The release recounted that between 1841 and 1865, approximately 1,300 Africans were brought to then British Guiana after the Colonial Office in 1840 had become less hostile to the idea of allowing liberated Africans to be brought to the West Indies including British Guiana. These Africans had been enslaved while en route to Cuba and Brazil, and were intercepted by British naval vessels and transported to either of two British Colonies of Sierra Leone in West Africa and the island of St Helena in the South Atlantic. Approximately 1,500 of these Africans were slaves who were liberated in Brazil and transferred to British Guiana by the British Navy. Another 1,000 were late African arrivals. The earliest migrants were long-term settlers in Sierra Leone's liberated African villages where they worked as farmers and craftsmen. Many of these early migrants were literate, spoke the English Language and were Christians. They were voluntary immigrants who had been promised higher wages in the overseas colonies. By the late 1840's, the plantocracy recognized that this scheme could not meet the labour needs of the colony and the focus was changed by bringing indentured labourers from India. Of the 24,848 immigrants who arrived in British Guiana during 1846 and 1848, some 11,025 were from India, 10,036 from Madeira and approximately 3,787 were West Indians and liberated Africans. From the post-emancipation period to 1917, with the newer arrival of the peoples from Madeira, Brazil, the Azores, Cape Verde, India, China and Sierra Leone, the foundation for the mosaic of what would become the Guyanese society was completed.
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