BV celebrates 185 years as a 'free' village
Stabroek News
April 7, 2004
The 8th of May Village Movement is embarking on a programme to celebrate the 165th anniversary of the purchase of Beterverwagting.
The group has put together a programme of activities for the weekend of May 7-9 as a means of showcasing the talent produced by the community and fostering a feeling of camaraderie among villagers. Teams and businesses from the neighbouring village of Triumph are also invited to take part.
This is according to Chairman of the Movement, Leyland Harcourt along with Secretary Fairbairn McDonald who spoke with Stabroek News yesterday.
The events are scheduled to begin with a church service on Friday at the BV Community Centre at 6:30 pm. On Saturday an exhibition and cultural presentation will be held with booths/presentations by business enterprises in the community including GT&T, Fibre Tech, Melsha, the Guyana School of Agriculture and companies located at the BV and Triumph Industrial Sites. Henry Rodney and Howard Lorrimer, who are both members of the BV community, are co-ordinating the cultural presentation.
On Sunday the finals of various sports events would be held including inter-ward tape ball cricket and football. A basketball competition co-ordinated by Wycliff Jackman is also in the works. The movement has also planned a clean up campaign in the form of a best zone competition which was scheduled to begin during the first week in March with the judging during the last week of April.
Harcourt gave Stabroek News a brief history of the village recalling that 62 former slaves bought the village for $52,000 from Baron Van Gronigen, who was the last remaining Dutch planter in then British Guiana. According to Harcourt the baron was in a position to maintain his estate because he was one of the better slave-owners. Villagers were prompted to honour him thereby coming up with the village's call-name Baron, hence people from BV are sometimes referred to as Baronians.
The Dutch name Beterverwagting means "better for waiting" or great expectation.