The Sugar Corporation of Guyana

Guyana is a large tropical land with big sugar plantations and small rice farms.  Guyana is one of the world's biggest sugar producers.  Most of the people in Guyana earn their living by working on the Sugar Estates.  There are seven Sugar Estates in Guyana; six of them are major ones.
Men do the hard work on the estates.  The women's work is to plant the sugar cane from which we get sugar.  After it is time to harvest,  the men have to do all the hard work.  They have to cut the sugar cane.  These men are called cane cutters.  The cane is cut and then loaded into punts like iron boats.  Then it is hauled by tractors in the trucks to the sugar estates to be ground and made into sugar.
When all the cane is ground out there is an out of crop which means "out of job".  When the Sugar Estates are out of crops all the cane cutters are out of work.  Some try to get a job at a sawmill.  Some can't get jobs because there are no vacancies.  If the canes take two months to grow then there will be two months of "out of crop".  When there is work, the workers buy a lot of groceries and meats.  They save a lot of money in order to survive.  Some of the people raise cattle, plant farms, or grow  rice. When the sugar cane is ready to be cut again the work starts again.  As we can see these sugar estates are very important to Guyana.  They are what keeps the country going.  If there were no sugar estates in Guyana many people would die because about 60% of the population are cane cutters.  People can't afford to get an education or send their kids to school.  The sugar that is produced is used and most of it is exported to other countries like the USA and Canada.  These countries export other products such as garlic, onions, potatoes, tin, heavy duty machines and cars to Guyana.

By Ricardo
source: WorldBook 99
 
 

Sugar being carried by punts and tractor

An early 19th century painting of the Cane Grove Sugar Plantation
 THE  HISTORY  OF  GUYANA
The territory that is now Guyana was first charted by Spanish explorers in 1499.During the years of British rule, the native Amerindian population was reduced to a tiny minority by large influxes of African and East Indian people. Guyana received its first constitution under the British Administration in 1928 .In 1961Guyana achieved full internal self-government under the leadership of Dr.Cheddy Jagan. The first people believed to have live in Guyana were the Amerindians. When the Spanish came to Guyana in search of the golden city, ELDORADO, they did not find it. They realized that they had been tricked. Some went back to Spain and some started industrial growth. They started to plant sugar cane. They needed workers .So they decided to force the Amerindians to work as slaves .The slaves were treated brutally. They were forced to do the hard work. Some of the Amerindians became very weak. Most of them died .The plantation owners did not have enough to work as slaves. Because of this they had to bring slaves (Negroes) from Africa. They brought thousands to work on the plantations. They were also treated with a lot of violence. Many escaped to the forest, some died. They were called ‘maroons’. This was a very big problem on the plantations .the owners decided to go to India and bring slaves from there which were called ‘East Indians’. Guyanese in Guyana believes that their ancestors were East Indians from India
               Guyana was the scene of the biggest suicide and murder in 1978, which is called Jonestown. More than 900 members of a religious cult from the USA poisoned themselves on order of there deranged leader, James (Jim) Warren Jones
                In these modern days we still have a lot of sugar plantation and sugar industries in Guyana. They are very important to our country and the people of Guyana.

The Amerindians inhabit South America, and the legend of El Dorado is born.

A golden mask.
Was it found at El Dorado???