Historical And Cultural Background Of The Guyanese...

According to the Guyanese Statistic Bureau British Guiana (Guyana) consists of a rich historical and cultural background. It is a country which today is over 83,000 square miles in size with its capital located on the Demerara River. ‘British Guiana is located in northern South America, with approximately 90% of its square miles undeveloped and the vast majority of its inhabitants living along a ten-mile strip of the coast, this coastal area mainly inhabited by and containing the highest population of Creole speakers’(Holbrook 2001) . According to Holbrook, â€Å"The social situation in British Guiana is complex due to several factors, these being the colonial history of the country, the importation of African Slaves, the political history, and even government policies’. British Guiana’s population made up of indigenous American Indians, descendents of European colonizers, African Slaves, East Indians, Chinese and Indonesian indentured servants. All of which have all resulted in several languages being spoken within in this country; however the two which are most widely used are English and Guyanese Creole English which is a Creole language spoken by over 700,000 people. According to research done within the last five years, ‘this country is characterized as having a multiracial population with those of Indian decent representing 43% of the population, African decent over 30 %, Amerindians decent over 9% , and people of ‘mixed heritage’ rounding up at over 16%’ . However,