History

Guyana

Guyanese people are people from Guyana, officially named the Co-operative Republic of Guyana, which is located on the northern coast of South America and borders the Atlantic Ocean. Geographically, Guyana is part of the South American mainland, however it is much more similar to the nearby island nations of the Caribbean such as Trinidad and Tobago, Barbados, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines and Grenada with respect to culture. In fact, Guyana is considered a Caribbean country even though it is not an island nation located in the Caribbean Sea, as are most Caribbean nations.

Caricom

Guyana is also a founding member of the Caribbean Community CARICOM. However, Guyana does share some of the Latin American customs and traits that are characteristic of its South American neighbors, and it is also a founding member of the Union of South American Nations which formed in 2008.

In addition to some Latin American and a great deal of Caribbean influence, Guyana’s culture also reflects its European history as it was originally a Dutch, then British colony. Guyana (known as British Guiana under British colonial rule) only gained its independence from the United Kingdom in 1966 and subsequently became a republic in 1970.

Because of Guyana’s long, 170-year history as a British colony, today it is a part of the Anglophone Caribbean – a subregion of the Caribbean consisting of independent, English-speaking nations that were once British colonies (also known as the Commonwealth Caribbean). While Guyana is the only country in South America with English as the official language, the majority of people in Guyana actually speak Guyanese Creole which is a creole language that is largely based on English and contains some minor influences from the Arawakan, Dutch and Caribbean languages