Victoria is located on the
Atlantic coast 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 ...
, east of
Georgetown and bordered by
Cove and John
Cove and John is located on the Atlantic coast of Guyana (East Coast of Demerara), 18 miles east of Georgetown and bordered by Nabacalis to the west and Victoria to the east. It has a population of 494 people as of 2012. This village has the Gu ...
to the west and
Belfield to the east. It was the first village
in Guyana to be bought by the combined resources of Africans who had recently won their freedom from slavery.
History
The community was initially established as a
plantation called Fort Wellington. In November 1839, 83 ex-slaves from five nearby estates (Douchfour, Ann's Grove, Hope,
Paradise and
Enmore) pooled their resources and bought Plantation Northbrook for 30,000 guilders, or $10,283.63. Each of the 83 owned one lot of land. After its purchase it was renamed Victoria, presumably in honor of England's
Queen Victoria, although some suggest it may have been named as such in honor of the freed slaves' victory.
It is credited with one of the first codes of
local government in Guyana, established in 1845. The village grew up to become one of the leading exporters of products made from
coconut
The coconut tree (''Cocos nucifera'') is a member of the palm tree family ( Arecaceae) and the only living species of the genus ''Cocos''. The term "coconut" (or the archaic "cocoanut") can refer to the whole coconut palm, the seed, or the ...
s and
cassava.
The first church built there, a Congregationalist church, named after
William Wilberforce, the abolitionist, was erected in 1845.
A memorial tablet was placed in the church honoring
William Africa Baptiste
William is a male given name of Germanic origin.Hanks, Hardcastle and Hodges, ''Oxford Dictionary of First Names'', Oxford University Press, 2nd edition, , p. 276. It became very popular in the English language after the Norman conquest of Engl ...
, known as 'Boss Africa', who became accepted as the Father of the village. Baptiste, who died in 1881, was the first village schoolmaster.
Wilberforce Congregational Church at Victoria still stands today.
Pioneering Guyanese playwright,
Bertram Charles
Bertram Israel Augustus Charles (4 September 1937 – 11 November 1994) was an influential Caribbean playwright who, with the theatre company he founded, Related Arts Group, wrote and produced plays in Georgetown, Guyana. Between 1963 and 1971 he ...
was born in Victoria and in 1963, organized a series of Creole Breakfasts in order to stimulate artistic and cultural life in the area. .
William Nicholas Arno's ''History of Victoria Village'' gives an account of the origins and development of the village.
Notes
Guyana Jottings reprinted at Land of Six Peoples
References
{{Authority control
Populated places in Demerara-Mahaica
History of Guyana