!st of August in Guyana is a national holiday to commemorate
the abolition of slavery in 1834. It is also an opportunity for the Guyanese of
African decent to remember their origin from many parts of West Africa by
wearing their traditional outfits and presenting African cultural shows. It was
very interesting for us to see people wearing their traditional dress as we
have seen many times when we were in Africa 30 years ago. Lots of
people, lots of family with kids, vendors, music, etc…we even made it on TV.
After an hour in the National Park someone asked us if we would like to give
our impressions on the festivities. This must have been live since on our way
out, not more than an hour later, people would recognize us in the street “…hey,
you are the couple who was just on TV!”. We really “stand out” here.
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| The National Park in town, site of the main festivities near where we live |
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| Water lilies in the pond at the entrance of the Park |
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| The exhibition field with stalls |
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| Card and dice games: "we have a winner!" |
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| A steel band...Guyanese's culture is closer to the Caribbean than South America |
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| Traditional dress from Africa. People do not dress like this here but today they commemorate their African origins |
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| Some men were dressed-up but mostly women and kids |
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| elaborate "hair do" like in Africa |
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