BV 165th anniversary supplement
Edited by Michelle Nurse
Stories compiled by Wendella Davidson
Sources - Emancipation Magazine, National Library, Walter Roth Museum, BV 1966 Independence Publication, May Eighth Village Movement
Guyana Chronicle
May 9, 2004
Better Expectations!
ONE hundred and sixty five years ago, 62 ex-slaves pooled their earnings and handed it over to a trusted soul who stored the money in a hole at the bottom of a tamarind tree.
When they had pooled the princely sum of $52 000, they handed it over to their colonial master, Baron Von Gronigen on May 8, 1839, in exchange for the once blooming cotton plantation, Beterverwagting, which sat on 70 acres of land about eight and a half miles east of Georgetown.
By the time the ex-slaves bought the plantation, Beterverwagting had paled into near insignificance. There were no more cotton trees; the fields were overrun by bushes; the drains and dams were in a state of neglect to the extent that the plantation was threatened by flooding from the sea to the North and from the conservancy to the South. The manager's house and a few other buildings were in a state of disrepair.
That a thriving village emerged from the proverbial `ashes' of the former plantation is a tribute to the vision and fortitude of those who made the purchase and persevered in the face of daunting challenges.
Following the purchase of the land, the new landlords selected a few of their best men to manage the village. But the scheme failed.
One setback was the ex-slaves' lack of knowledge of administrative matters, and the wanton destruction of their lands by European sugar plantation owners who were finding it difficult to attract labour. The Europeans, in retaliation, flooded the village, and eventually, the salt water destroyed the villagers' mainly ground provision and sugar cane farms.
To earn a living, many of the men in the village had to return to the very sugar estates run by the European owners, and young villagers travelled to neighbouring estates to learn engineering, carpentry and masonry. Yet others turned to rearing livestock and cattle.
Better expectation
Beterverwagting was the second village to be established in British Guiana after freed slaves bought Victoria, also on the East Coast Demerara. BV formally became a village on August 31, 1857 when 40 male proprietors met at the BV train station to establish the first, fully elected village council in British Guiana. The first elected overseer was a signatory to the 1939 transport, Wolfe Assuri, who was said to be illiterate, but who nevertheless possessed wide knowledge of village affairs. He was noted for delivering his reports orally and punctually, Chairman of the village's Eighth of May Committee, Mr. Leyland Harcourt, said.
Another senior village official, Canterbury Sammy, in a gesture that was presumably aimed at assisting the youths to empower themselves and, ultimately, change their status, lent the Christian Church $30 000 to begin construction of the St. Mary-ye-Virgin Anglican Church. The church building was completed in 1858.
Older villagers still refer to their community as `Baron' - in honour of the colonial master who villagers say was the last Dutch planter left in the colony - and their compatriots as `Baronians'. Loosely translated, the more colourful, formal Dutch name, `Beterverwagting', means `Beter' - better and `verwachting' - prospect' or, as the villagers say, `Better for Waiting' or `Better Expectation'. It is oftentimes shortened to simple `BV'.
Villagers jocularly told the Chronicle that more likely the name means "better to walk in" considering that prior to the construction of road on the railway embankment which passes through the village, access to the southern section of the community was by way of a quarter-mile trek along the main thoroughfare, stretching from the East Coast Public Road. Other villagers slyly noted that outsiders, particularly men-folk, who found love in the village and settled there, discovered that it was "better fuh walk in" than to walk out!
1904 Amalgamation
With the amalgamation of neighbouring community to the East, Triumph, in 1904, the village grew to 488 acres, its boundaries changed and its population transformed from being mainly Black to mixed race. The population is now about 25 000.
The village was subsequently divided into sections. Section `A' commencing from the foreshore to about four rods north of the Railway line. This section was reserved for a playground ground, cemetery and pasture land for grazing cattle. It was also the site of a reservoir during the period when the old drainage engine operated.
Then there was Section `B' which was for housing purposes, while a portion of reserve land located between Section `B' and the Conservancy, known as Section `C' was rented for farming.
The boundaries of Beterverwagting/Triumph are the Atlantic to the North, the Conservancy to the South, Mon Repos to the East, and La Bonne Intention to the West.
Today, Beterverwagting/Triumph is home to HGP Television Station, Channel 16, the first television station to be established in an East Coast village. The station is owned by Guyanese singer, Omar Farouk, formerly Terry Nelson, famous for hits such as `We welcome independence to Guyana', `Love on a Saturday Night' and `Stranger on this land'.
The community also has its own Police Station, a Post Office, a Health Centre and a Guyana Telephone and Telegraph (GT&T) Company Branch. The village also has its fair share of eating houses (mainly Chinese) grocery and hardware stores, hairdressing salons and mechanic shops. There are also internet cafes and taxi services. The community's cinema no longer functions, but there are ambitious plans to convert it into a concert hall.
BV is also on record as having had the country's first industrial site set up there. The site was established on the northern side of the village by Aubrey Barker whose father was a Baronian. The younger Barker felt then that he should repay the community by giving back something.
Reports are that initially the plan was to have the site set up in neighbouring Le Ressouvenir, but following a meeting with the village fathers, it was proposed that the site be in BV instead.
The industrial site was the home of several thriving enterprises, some of which folded because of economic constraints.
Businesses there included Windsor Shirt Factory, IDI Engineering; Shoe World; Bata; Wieting and Richter Limited Biscuit Factory, and the Guyana Furniture Manufacturing Limited (GMFL).
Of those businesses, only Shoe World and GFML remain in operation, but on a relatively low scale. The new entities include Atlantic Tele-Centre Inc, an off-shore call centre, and others outfits producing mosquito repellant (coil) and bleach.
According to Oginga Osafo, a member of the committee established to mark the anniversary, the village also boasts of 27 houses of worship, including mosques and mandirs.