Jacklow is a village in the

Pomeroon-Supenaam Pomeroon-Supenaam (Region 2) is a region of Guyana. Venezuela claims the territory as part of Guayana Esequiba. It borders the Atlantic Ocean to the north, the region of Essequibo Islands-West Demerara to the east, the region of Cuyuni-Mazaruni ...

Region of

Guyana Guyana ( or ), officially the Cooperative Republic of Guyana, is a country on the northern mainland of South America. Guyana is an indigenous word which means "Land of Many Waters". The capital city is Georgetown. Guyana is bordered by the ...

. The village is mainly inhabited by

Indo-Guyanese Indo-Guyanese or Indian-Guyanese, are people of Indian origin who are Guyanese nationals tracing their ancestry to India and the wider subcontinent. They are the descendants of indentured servants and settlers who migrated from India beginnin ...

and Amerindian people. Jacklow is situated on the

Pomeroon River The Pomeroon River (also ''Río Pomerón'' ''or Pomaron'') is located in Guyana, South America, situated between the Orinoco and the Essequibo rivers. The area has long been inhabited by Lokono people. The Pomeroon River is also one of the deepe ...

History

From 1838 onwards,

indentured servants Indentured servitude is a form of labor in which a person is contracted to work without salary for a specific number of years. The contract, called an "indenture", may be entered "voluntarily" for purported eventual compensation or debt repayment, ...

from India were brought to British Guiana to work on the plantations. They were contracted to serve for five years, however many discovered that it was difficult to return home. In the mid-19th century, many sugar estates went out of business, leading to unemployment and homelessness. The

had been settled in the Dutch colonial times, however the upstream area was a

swamp A swamp is a forested wetland.Keddy, P.A. 2010. Wetland Ecology: Principles and Conservation (2nd edition). Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK. 497 p. Swamps are considered to be transition zones because both land and water play a role in ...

y area which was never cultivated. The Tacoordeen family were the first to settle in Jacklow. In 1860, the

Anglican Anglicanism is a Western Christian tradition that has developed from the practices, liturgy, and identity of the Church of England following the English Reformation, in the context of the Protestant Reformation in Europe. It is one of th ...

pastor Jacklowe built a shed in the village for missionary purposes. Mohamed Sarafraz, an indentured labourer, settled in Jacklow and started to construct a ''

masjid A mosque (; from ar, مَسْجِد, masjid, ; literally "place of ritual prostration"), also called masjid, is a place of prayer for Muslims. Mosques are usually covered buildings, but can be any place where prayers ( sujud) are performed, i ...

'' (mosque) in the village. In 1912, the Jacklow Masjid opened measuring by and was constructed using manicole wood. The mosque served a large area, and developed into a tourist destination for visiting muslims. In 2019, the mosque was renovated and recommissioned. In 2021, Jacklow and surrounding area was affected by severe flooding of the Pomeroon River.

Overview

Boat Building - Upper Pomeroon - panoramio

The economy of Jacklow is based on farming and boat construction. The village has a primary school, but secondary education and health care is offered in

Charity Charity may refer to: Giving * Charitable organization or charity, a non-profit organization whose primary objectives are philanthropy and social well-being of persons * Charity (practice), the practice of being benevolent, giving and sharing * Ch ...

. The village has access to free

Wi-Fi Wi-Fi () is a family of wireless network protocols, based on the IEEE 802.11 family of standards, which are commonly used for local area networking of devices and Internet access, allowing nearby digital devices to exchange data by radio wave ...

. Jacklow has no road connection and can only be reached via the Pomeroon River from Charity.

Notable people

Isahak Basir Isahak Basir CCH (sometimes Bashir, 18 September 19351 February 2019) was a Guyanese historian who was a member of the National Assembly of Guyana from 1977 to 1991. Basir was nicknamed "Uncle Tabrak" and was of Indian descent. Life Basir ...

(1935–2019), historian and member of parliament.

References

{{Settlements in Guyana, state=expanded Indian diaspora in Guyana Populated places in Pomeroon-Supenaam