MELANIE Damishana is one of those villages that just can’t go unmentioned among the interesting places in Guyana. The name Melanie is popularly known to have been given by former president Forbes Burnham, being named after one of his daughters. Whereas the word ‘Damishana’ is Swahili for simply ‘village’. The development of Melanie was unique. It was implemented by the then government and president. But it was built by the everyday man’s blood, sweat and tears.
In places like Rodrick’s Lane, on the North side of Melanie, the houses were built by the villagers. It began with a team of 10 men and two women, who worked together to build house after house, eventually cultivating a community. Melanie’s village is unique in how it was developed and the idea of what it would become. The village of Melanie could be found immediately after the Nonpareil turn. The village is made up of the north and south sides.
The south side was developed first and the village later crossed the road into the north side. Melanie lies among villages like Enterprise and Bachelor’s Adventure. But the community feel could be felt and seen in the very people. Anne Roberts was among many to build via ‘self-help’. This term may not be common to many of today’s people. But to Anne and the folks of her time, it was one of the few, cooperative ways of acquiring a house.
It was a creative way of developing neighbourhoods. It was a system in which all the members would build a number of houses, one after the other. And then the houses would be given to each participant. “Soldiers came here first,” Anne told the Pepperpot Magazine. She described how the land was allocated and shared out to who were considered public servants, saying, “Then public servants, like nurses and people who worked in offices and so on.”
The houses built in Melanie in the early years were flat houses. Looking around the village today, many of those original houses could still be found. “It hasn’t changed,” Anne stated. “Only the paint may have been changed. People do over their houses, but here it was just those three-bedroom houses and flat houses.” The process of building a community was an arduous task. Most of the people that originally came to reside in Melanie came from far and wide. Anne herself hailed from Georgetown.
Several buses were the means of transportation for the people involved in the self-help movement. These large buses were often so crowded one couldn’t sit and they would traverse the streets to collect people in the wee hours of the morning. Anne remembers these days when she and other persons would get up to take the bus that would take them to begin the day’s hard work, saying, “About two or three trucks would drive around and pick up the self-help persons.”
“They had areas that had trucks. At that time, I was living on Durban Street. And I would come out at the corner of Durban and Vlissingen Road and wait for the truck.” Anne further shared. The self-help initiative was very developed and incredibly organised. It valued time and effort. And as Anne explained, a number of houses had to be completed by a particular time. “We had 28 houses to finish at one time.” Anne stated. That was the quota the group had, and, like any good worker, the team worked overtime. ‘We had to work from in the mornings when we reached up here to ten in the night to complete those 28 houses for the opening day,” Anne said.
Hearing from the people of Melanie it would seem as though cooperation, especially on a large scale was much easier to find some forty years ago. “There were days when we had to go to Hope estate to volunteer,” Anne stated. She went on to explain that they would be given ration for their hard work and effort. “We would get a little ration. We would go to the office and collect the ration. But it was a must we had to go and collect it,” Anne said.
Its collaborative and cooperative past still has a very prominent impact on the Melanie of today. Many of them are proud of the fact that Melanie was built by its people. When asked how she felt about her community, Anne simply said, “Living in Melanie nice.” Anne expressed that the people, peace and quite are some of the things she loves about her community. “But Melanie change now. It’s not Melanie anymore. The place is neglected and the behaviour of the youths. It was more peaceful,” Anne said. But whether today or five decades ago, Melanie is a beautiful and happy place. And home to a strong, beautiful and happy people.
