Guyana

This country, located in the northeast of South America, was initially settled by the Dutch and then was a British colony for around 200 years until its independence on May 26, 1966. It has long been claimed by Venezuela, although an [Page 710]international tribunal held in 1899 ruled in favor of the then British rulers. There are still many descendants of the local indigenous peoples, who make up 9.1 percent of the population, with 30.2 percent of the population descendants of African slaves who were brought to Guyana to work in slave plantations by the British. With the abolition of slavery in the British Empire, many of the ex-slaves preferred to work on family smallholdings, and the British tried to bring over Portuguese indentured laborers ...