THE discovery of coffins with skeletal remains along the Corentyne foreshore at No 71 Village might not have sent shockwaves across Guyana but has certainly raised more questions than answers. While I suspect the police and forensic team will continue to investigate the situation and might provide some answers, I am puzzled as to whom the remains belonged and why they have surfaced now.

To explore these questions, I have used my “advantageous” position of being born and raised in No. 72 Village, not too far from No. 71 Village foreshore, and my regular visits to the Corentyne foreshore from No. 64 Beach to No. 74 village, about five miles long. Nevertheless, I have never seen, heard or engaged in any discussion of any coffins discovered at No. 71. Village foreshore until recently.

Geographically, No 71. Village is located about five miles from the town of Corrivertion and is home to about 1,500 inhabitants, mostly Indians. These individuals began to settle in the area in the late 1870s through a colonial government policy of offering them pieces of land to remain in British Guiana in exchange of their entitled return passage to India. Today, life revolves around working on the sugar cane and rice fields as well as fishing on the Corentyne River. Most people practise Hinduism and Christianity.

Perceptually, from the east is Suriname, then the Corentyne River, followed by the beach, then the mangrove and eventually a sea dam trench, supported by a few kokers, that was built in the 1940s- from No. 69 to 76 Village — to protect the villages from rising tides. After the sea dam trench are bushes, farms and houses as well as the main public road that runs from New Amsterdam to Corriverton, about 45 miles long. Beyond the main public road, commonly known as the “low side over” are more houses, coconut farms and large acres of rice fields.

Given the geography of the village, one would expect the discovered cemetery to be found anywhere else other than by the shoreline area. The colonial government would not have allowed a cemetery so close to the shoreline because the then government realised that the area would have been subject to erosion, supported by the fact that it went at great length to protect the mangrove which served as a natural barrier to sand and soil erosion.

The location of the discovered cemetery then seems odd when considering that the No. 66 and No. 74 cemeteries have been in the area dating back to at least 75 years. These cemeteries are located away from the Corentyne River foreshore, adding to confusion as to the location of the found coffins and remains at No. 71 Village. This might have been an illegal grave site.

I will offer three assessments of the discovery of the coffins and the remains, although I must admit, at this point, they are not facts. First, I think this cemetery or the burial site was privately owned because the colonial state would not have allowed a burial site to be so close to the shore, as explained above. Because it was privately owned, one can say that the site belonged to an upper class rather than a lower class of people. The entire area might have been a private compound owned by the upper class, and, as revealed in historical writings, this class preferred to reside along the breezily coast of the Caribbean. Guyana was no exception. The people of this area might have had a close relationship with the colonial state, and might have not been subject to close scrutiny regarding burial requirements.

Second, I think the coffins and remains belonged to the middle or upper class because the coffins were made of pinewood which is not produced in Guyana. The wood had to be imported which was costly, revealing that the lower class would not have afforded the import costs. Moreover, the individuals who imported the pinewood might have used it for other decorative purposes such as furniture. We know from research that Europeans living in the Caribbean developed a culture to import items when the local quality did not meet their expectations. Africans and Indians were not in an economic position to do so; their ‘taste” of import things was also different.

For instance, Indians in the area did import religious items from India. We know, too, that during the period when the bodies were buried, perhaps around 125 to 150 years ago, that Indians were living in thatched huts and did not use pinewood for any purpose. It would seem strange that they would use pinewood to bury their dead only, and not use the pinewood to build stronger houses, a needy area of concern. There is a lack of consistency. Furthermore, Indians would have most likely cremated their dead using local woods, according to Hindu customs.

Third, the deaths might have been caused by a contagious waterborne disease such as cholera which was sweeping through the region, as evidenced by reports on public health in British Guiana. The size of the coffins reveals that many children suffered, and suggests further that these children died within a short period of time, which is consistent when contagious diseases strike. In conclusion, and while we need more archeological and forensic investigations, I think the graves belonged to people of European extraction either from Dutch or British background, and might be closely related. They were driven, and like areas of colonial life, by the desire to bury their dead in private rather public cemetery, which was probably in their own backyard in a compound secluded from the rest of society (lomarsh.roopnarine@jsums.edu).