– Residents share how East Coast Village ‘Nabaclis’ got its name
LAST week the Pepperpot Magazine visited Nabaclis Village, East Coast Demerara, to highlight the way of life of the locals.

At first glance, going through the main access road, Middle Walk, it is safe to say it is the home of mangoes, sapodillas and many other fruits which were in almost every yard along this pot-holed road filled with large puddles of water in which some men were fishing, the day the team visited.

The people of Nabaclis Village are very friendly and accommodating and even took the team around the village to walk around and meet ordinary people, who had a lot to say about the condition of the main access road, the most pressing issue highlighted and the need for it to be upgraded.

As you enter the village via the main access road, Middle Walk has canals on both sides of the road which go all the way down to the “backdam” area.

There are houses on both sides of the road and there are many small alleyways, mud dams and tracks leading to dwelling houses in this community, which can be considered fairly large in size.

It is indeed a ‘green village’ with a rich history and is set in a legacy left by the ancestors, who made farming a priority and were self-sufficient.

The village has one main access road and several internal streets and cross streets connecting it to neighbouring villages via bridges.

Nabaclis is sandwiched between the villages of Golden Grove and Cove and John (Plantation John) and it is a place where the locals find many things to do to earn, and it has a few roadside small businesses.

Freshly baked pastries, black pudding and other local dishes can be sourced from this community and it is one of those villages where you simply cannot go hungry, because of the abundance of fruit and vegetables grown there.

The story behind the name
Residents shared quite an interesting story behind the origin of the village’s name. According to local recollection, the village was named after residents opposed a list comprising the names of leaders who were in charge of it in the colonial days.

In expressing their resentment towards the list, residents chose to encourage each other to “nah back de list,” hence the eventual name, Nabaclis.

More about the village
The village comprises a population of more than 1,000 people, mostly of African descent and a handful of East Indians and people of mixed races.

The main economic activities are small businesses, farming, and employees from both the private and public sectors, members of the Disciplined Services, nurses, a doctor, teachers and some self-employed folk.

Almost everyone in Nabaclis is related either through blood or kinship and the village was once a cotton plantation, but villagers also used to cultivate sugarcane in the ancient days.

The quietness and the fact that the village is virtually crime-free were the two features most residents alluded to as the reasons they were happy living there.

The community is served by the Dr CC Nicholson Hospital. The hospital was established as a medical centre in 1994 with funds from the London-based Cyril Charles Nicholson Foundation. The government began upgrading it in 2003 to give residents of Nabaclis and nearby communities an alternative to going into Georgetown for treatment.

The artist Emerson Samuels was born and brought up here and attended the Golden Grove Methodist School.  Also born here was conductor Rudolph Dunbar.

There are many shops, roadside snackettes, and stalls selling fresh fruit juices, foods, snacks and other eatables and it is highly agriculture-based with many farmers of cash crops, poultry and livestock.

Nabaclis Village is a lovely place to live and it is in that village you can see cows, ducks, chickens, pigs, sheep, and goats walking freely on the road going from one place to the next with no apparent care or fear of anything.

The ducks made use of the rain that day and were observed swimming in the canals as people went about their daily routine depicting the true country life.