A trip to Mahaicony

By Michel Outridge

THIS week the Pepperpot Magazine visited Mahaicony, Region Five (Mahaica-Berbice), which is about six miles long and consists of a handful of villages from the public road that is, Central Mahaicony, from Farm/Zeskendren right down to the vast backlands, the home of rice farmers.

Mahaicony is a community that is made up several villages on the East Coast of Demerara. Region Five, Mahaicony’s physical boundaries on the coast start from De Hoop Village in the west, to Calcutta village in the east.

Fishing, farming and hunting are three of the oldest economic activities in the world. In Mahaicony, these are still the most popular ways of life for residents, although the area produces over 15,000 metric tonnes of paddy each year.

The activities of the community are usually affected by flooding during the rainy season and the drying up of ponds during the dry season.

There are two main secondary schools – the Mahaicony Secondary School and Novar Secondary School. In the surrounding areas primary schools are scattered around — from Mahaicony, Zeeland in the west, to Calcutta in the east, to Mora Point in the deep south.

Access to primary education is not a problem, but the culture of the community is that teens take to the agricultural fields at an early age; hence, fewer attend secondary school. The general idea among residents is that somebody has to do the farming.

In the village of L’ Enterprise we met Sampson Gibbons, who resides in the community of Hamlet/Chance, but he was at his brother’s place doing some chores and tending to his kitchen garden.

The 67-year-old told the Pepperpot Magazine that he would visit daily to tend to his kitchen garden of bora, calaloo, and Boulanger, among other crops.

He stated that he uses the waste of the meat birds from his next-door neighbour–who rears poultry on a large scale–as manure for his crops. Gibbons said he would use the vegetables for his own use and if villagers require he would sell to them.

Gibbons told the Pepperpot Magazine that he doesn’t really believe in superstition, but has hung the skull of a cow that once produced twins in his kitchen garden to ward off ‘bad eye.’

“The cow was a blessed cow named Lucille and some years after giving birth to twins, she died of old age; and it was the first birth of twins for me and I was happy and in her honour, I took the head and hung it up on a golden apple tree to ward off ‘bad eye.’ In the countryside we all know about that and also to scare off birds,” he said.

He explained that Lucille lived for eight years after having twins and her sister is still alive and a part of his herd.

Gibbons added that he has no minors since all his children are grown and leading their own lives, but oversee his brother’s property where he was and another sibling, who lives there and is mentally unstable.
Before retiring, he used to work with the Mahaica/Mahaicony/Abary (MMA) scheme for 25 years as a heavy-duty operator and comes from a family of 10 boys and three girls.

Apart from his kitchen garden, he is also a cattle farmer with about 40 cows and cultivates a 30-acre plot of land with rice.

He explained that the rice takes about three months before it can be reaped and he would sell the paddy to rice mills within the area.

There are two large rice mills in Branch Road, Mahaicony.

Gibbons is also a part-time security guard with Integrated Security Service (ISS) and is attached to the #10 health centre; he however isn’t pleased about them having to work a full two months before they can get a month’s salary; and that is a real issue for single parents.

The ex-councillor related that some single parents, especially women, depend heavily on the ISS salary to provide for their children and a resolution is in order.