Afro-Guyanese are generally descended from the enslaved people brought to
Guyana from the coast of West Africa to work on sugar plantations during the era of the
Atlantic slave trade
The Atlantic slave trade, transatlantic slave trade, or Euro-American slave trade involved the transportation by slave traders of enslaved African people, mainly to the Americas. The slave trade regularly used the triangular trade route and ...
. Coming from a wide array of backgrounds and enduring conditions that severely constrained their ability to preserve their respective cultural traditions contributed to the adoption of Christianity and the values of British colonists.
History
Slavery
The
Dutch West India Company
The Dutch West India Company ( nl, Geoctrooieerde Westindische Compagnie, ''WIC'' or ''GWC''; ; en, Chartered West India Company) was a chartered company of Dutch merchants as well as foreign investors. Among its founders was Willem Usselincx ( ...
turned to the importation of
African slaves
Slavery has historically been widespread in Africa. Systems of servitude and slavery were common in parts of Africa in ancient times, as they were in much of the rest of the ancient world. When the trans-Saharan slave trade, Indian Ocean sl ...
, who rapidly became a key element in the colonial economy.
[.] By the 1660s, the slave population numbered about 2,500; the number of indigenous people was estimated at 50,000, most of whom had retreated into the vast hinterland.
Although African slaves were considered an essential element of the colonial economy, their working conditions were brutal.
The mortality rate was high, and the dismal conditions led to more than half a dozen slave rebellions.
The most famous slave uprising, the
Berbice Slave Uprising, began in February 1763.
On two plantations on the
Canje River in Berbice, slaves rebelled, taking control of the region.
As plantation after plantation fell to the slaves, the European population fled; eventually only half of the whites who had lived in the colony remained.
Led by
Cuffy (now the national hero of Guyana), the African freedom fighters came to number about 3,000 and threatened European control over the Guianas.
The freedom fighters were defeated with the assistance of troops from neighboring French and British colonies and from Europe.
Colonial life was changed radically by the demise of slavery.
[.] Although the international slave trade was
abolished in the
British Empire
The British Empire was composed of the dominions, colonies, protectorates, mandates, and other territories ruled or administered by the United Kingdom and its predecessor states. It began with the overseas possessions and trading post ...
in 1807,
slavery itself continued in the form of "apprentice-ship".
In what is known as the
Demerara rebellion of 1823
The Demerara rebellion of 1823 was an uprising involving more than 10,000 enslaved people that took place in the colony of Demerara-Essequibo ( Guyana). The rebellion, which began on August 18, 1823, and lasted for two days, was led by slaves ...
10–13,000 slaves in
Demerara-Essequibo
The Colony of Demerara-Essequibo was created on 28 April 1812, when the British combined the colonies of Demerara and Essequibo into the colony of Demerara-Essequibo. They were officially ceded to Britain on 13 August 1814. On 20 November 1815 the ...
rose up against their masters.
Although the rebellion was easily crushed,
the momentum for abolition remained, and by 1838 total emancipation had been effected.
The system of apprentice-ship was established to create a buffer period for plantation owners; to keep former slaves as labor but providing payment.
Emancipation
Even though there was still a demand for plantation labor, the labor conditions were no better post-emancipation, so former slaves were less inclined to work in the plantation system, favoring self-reliance or skilled work. Some ex-slaves moved to towns and villages, feeling that field labor was degrading and inconsistent with freedom, but others pooled their resources to purchase the abandoned estates of their former masters and created village communities.
Establishing small settlements provided the new Afro-Guyanese communities an opportunity to grow and sell food, an extension of a practice under which slaves had been allowed to keep the money that came from the sale of any surplus produce.
The emergence of an independent-minded Afro-Guyanese peasant class, however, threatened the planters' political power, inasmuch as the planters no longer held a near-monopoly on the colony's economic activity.
Emancipation also resulted in the introduction of new ethnic and cultural groups into British Guiana,
such as Chinese and Portuguese indentured laborers, who upon completing their contracts, became competitors with the new Afro-Guyanese middle class. The largest group of indentured laborers came from India, and would later grow into a thriving and competitive class. Unlike future immigrant groups, former slaves were not granted land or passage to their home country, and this, in addition to other race-based treatment and favoritism, created tension among the ethnic groups.
20th century
By the early twentieth century, the majority of the urban population of the country was Afro-Guyanese.
[.] Many Afro-Guyanese people living in villages had migrated to the towns in search of work.
Until the 1930s, Afro-Guyanese people, especially those of
mixed descent, comprised the bulk of the non-white professional class.
During the 1930s, as Indo-Guyanese began to enter the middle class in large numbers, they began to compete with Afro-Guyanese for professional positions.
Culture
Slavery had a devastating impact on family and social structure, as individual family member were bought and sold with little regard to kinship or relation. Marriage was not legally recognized for slaves, and even after emancipation, weddings and legal marriages were cost-prohibitive. Household compositions vary, and can be
matriarchal or a
nuclear family
A nuclear family, elementary family, cereal-packet family or conjugal family is a family group consisting of parents and their children (one or more), typically living in one home residence. It is in contrast to a single-parent family, the la ...
unit.
Although the greatest numbers of Afro-Guyanese are Christian, there are also followers of obeah, a folk religion of African origin, which incorporates beliefs and practices of all the immigrant groups.
Afro-Guyanese make up a significant portion of the public sector workforce. Afro-Guyanese face challenges to private sector involvement, such as access to financing. In politics, Afro-Guyanese make up a large portion of
A Partnership for National Unity
A Partnership for National Unity (APNU) is a left-wing political alliance in Guyana.
History
The APNU was formed in July 2011 in order to contest the 2011 general elections,Commonwealth Secretariat (2012)l. ''Guyana National and Regional Elec ...
party voters.
In 2017, a
United Nations
The United Nations (UN) is an intergovernmental organization whose stated purposes are to maintain international peace and security, develop friendly relations among nations, achieve international cooperation, and be a centre for harmonizi ...
expert group determined that Afro-Guyanese face discrimination in law enforcement, employment, and education.
Notable Afro-Guyanese
See also
*
Afro-Caribbean people
*
Guyanese people
*
Guyanese in the United Kingdom
References
Works cited
*
{{African diaspora
Afro-Guyanese
Guyanese
Ethnic groups in Guyana