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| ], is a small village in ]. It stands on Guyana's low coastal plain, whereon the county's population and agriculture are concentrated, at a place roughly 30 km southeasterly from ] and near the lower reaches of the ]. This is within the historical bounds of ], one of the original, smaller colonies that were joined to become ], which became Guyana on gaining its independence. More narrowly, traditional geographic terms put Jonestown in the Mahaica district of (the) East Coast (of) Demerara (ECD, for short, in either case meaning that part of Demerara east of the ] and facing the ocean). Thus even today the village tends to be called "Jonestown, Mahaica" or "Jonestown, Mahaica, ECD", although by current Guyanese administrative regions it is in ]. | ], is a small village in ]. It stands on Guyana's low coastal plain, whereon the county's population and agriculture are concentrated, at a place roughly 30 km southeasterly from ] and near the lower reaches of the ]. This is within the historical bounds of ], one of the original, smaller colonies that were joined to become ], which became Guyana on gaining its independence. More narrowly, traditional geographic terms put Jonestown in the Mahaica district of (the) East Coast (of) Demerara (ECD, for short, in either case meaning that part of Demerara east of the ] and facing the ocean). Thus even today the village tends to be called "Jonestown, Mahaica" or "Jonestown, Mahaica, ECD", although by current Guyanese administrative regions it is in ]. | ||
| Jonestown has existed since the ], at the latest. Probably it was one of the many country villages that grew up in British Guiana in the wake of the step-wise freeing of the slaves there, between ] (when the slavery was |
Jonestown has existed since the ], at the latest. Probably it was one of the many country villages that grew up in British Guiana in the wake of the step-wise freeing of the slaves there, between ] (when the slavery was abolished throughout the ]) and ] (when the transitional "apprenticeship" period of obligatory but paid servitude ended), as part of the resulting breakdown in the the plantation economy and its patterns of settlement and livelihood. | ||
| ], the ] writer and folklorist (and druggist, by profession), was born in Jonestown in ]. | ], the ] writer and folklorist (and druggist, by profession), was born in Jonestown in ]. | ||
Revision as of 18:48, 11 October 2006
Jonestown, Demerara, is a small village in Guyana. It stands on Guyana's low coastal plain, whereon the county's population and agriculture are concentrated, at a place roughly 30 km southeasterly from Georgetown and near the lower reaches of the Mahaica River. This is within the historical bounds of Demerara, one of the original, smaller colonies that were joined to become British Guiana, which became Guyana on gaining its independence. More narrowly, traditional geographic terms put Jonestown in the Mahaica district of (the) East Coast (of) Demerara (ECD, for short, in either case meaning that part of Demerara east of the Demerara River and facing the ocean). Thus even today the village tends to be called "Jonestown, Mahaica" or "Jonestown, Mahaica, ECD", although by current Guyanese administrative regions it is in Demerara-Mahaica.
Jonestown has existed since the 1840s, at the latest. Probably it was one of the many country villages that grew up in British Guiana in the wake of the step-wise freeing of the slaves there, between 1834 (when the slavery was abolished throughout the British Empire) and 1838 (when the transitional "apprenticeship" period of obligatory but paid servitude ended), as part of the resulting breakdown in the the plantation economy and its patterns of settlement and livelihood.
Lewis Osborne Inniss, the Trinidadian writer and folklorist (and druggist, by profession), was born in Jonestown in 1848.
Jonestown has suffered from flooding in recent years, together with nearby areas along the lower courses of the Mahaica and other rivers of northeastern Guyana.
This Jonestown must not to be confused with the Jonestown where the mass murder-and-suicide by members of the Peoples Temple cult occurred in 1978. It has no links with that erstwhile cult, whose communal settlement was in an altogether different part of Guyana. The sharing of a name by the two places is pure happenstance. Moreover, the one in Demerara can fairly be called Guyana's true Jonestown, given its long and on-going existence under that name, and notwithstanding that it is as little-known as the short-lasting cult settlement of the same name is notorious.