WITH the annual Emancipation celebrations looming just ahead, we decided to visit a village rich with ancestral roots; flourishing Guyanese heritage, and is, of course, a location with great historical standpoints and is alive with the jolly bustling about of residents.

So here I was, one afternoon, in the village of Bagotville, on the West Bank of Demerara, nestled nicely between the villages of La Grange to the east and Nismes to the west, some sixty-five kilometres from the city of Georgetown.

The Arrival
We arrived there at about 14:00 hours to meet a village alive with activity. There was the constant chatter of young men operating taxis by the roadside, while the shrill laughter of young girls pierced the air constantly as they strolled around with flashing smiles, mouthing the latest gossips or plotting on ways to get even with a malicious rival.

Some girls were rushing about getting household supplies for their impatient mothers, or just smiling coyly at the young men who followed them around, trying their best to see which girl would be an easy conquest.

Groups of young men were perched on the rails of bridges, their raucous guffaws renting the afternoon air as they argued politics or boasted of their latest ‘bedroom exploits’ on the many ‘hard-to-get females’ milling around. There were older men playing dominoes under mango trees, while little girls stood at small stalls rigged up by their fathers to sell tamarind balls, sugar cake, metai or plantain chips, which seemed to be the popular afternoon snacks in the village.

It was very evident that liming was a favourite pastime, as could be decided by the large number of young men just sitting around chatting, surfing on their cell phones, or just making miserable the lives of young girls as they passed by.
Smiling mothers beckoned at us cheerily as they urged us to sample their cassava pone, black pudding, polouri, salara, bun and mauby that were displayed quite nicely for sale in ‘kittle clean’ glass cases.

The Bagotville of Yesteryear

The quiet village of Bagotville
was one of the first villages to be bought by freed Africans on the west side of the river, and is today home to just over 1,000 people. It was also the home of Guyanese World War I veteran Gershom O. B. Browne, who passed away in 2002.

This location was actually a coffee plantation, and was named Bagotville by ex-slaves in honour of the man who made the land available to them.

After the era of slavery, many folks went into farming as a profession, and some sought their fortunes in the goldfields to obtain ‘fast riches’ with which to purchase many of the properties that are owned by residents of the village today.

After the era of slavery, many bought plots of land and the makings of the village began.
In those days, the roads were made of burnt clay bricks that lent a somewhat colonial aura to the slowly developing village. While maybe just a sprinkling of these roads remain today, many of them have disappeared, since squatters have built temporary and even sturdy homes on them. Amongst such roads is David Rose Street, which was Victoria Road back then. This road was built in honour of Queen Victoria, who ruled in that era.

Bagotville once had a Post Office, but it has since been relocated to the neighbouring village of La Grange.

With the passage of time, residents of the village learnt to survive through the means of peasant farming, especially those around Victoria Road; and some 160 rods of fertile land was reserved for farming purposes. In those days, ground provisions and a few cash crops (vegetables) were the order of the day.

After slavery, farming reached its peak in prominence, and some of the produce from the village was actually exported to countries around the Caribbean. As a matter of fact, the plantains coming from this village are popular on the market, but they were being exported to Barbados in 1848.

Bagotville was home to many churches, since villagers were God-fearing, and amongst the popular places of worship were St. Thomas Anglican, Nismes Methodist, Rotary Memorial, The Scots Church, and the Moravian Church. Today, however, the Seventh-Day Adventist Church has sprung up among the churches at Bagotville, and is quite popular with the faithful.

This village had no proper facility to house visiting dignitaries, and when King Ezzie of Africa visited Guyana in the late 1950s, villagers were forced to erect a large tent to entertain him and his company. This prompted villagers, through self-help efforts, to build a community centre, which still stands today as an historical masterpiece.
This very structure was also used as home to the then Infant Maternity Welfare Group; and is a library for villagers, a village office, and also a section was dedicated to the operations of the Community Development Committee (CDC).

East of the Community Centre, villagers secured a plot of land which they made a recreational park for leisure-time activities. This land was, however, leased to the West Indian Oil Company (Shell & Texaco) and Sir Lindslay Parkinson, who was at that time laying down the conservancies in the Bagotville canal. So, naturally, the existence of that park dwindled and disappeared.

Women in the village are very industrious, and they branched into the cottage industry business. In the late 1950s and early 1960s, the females of the village travelled up the Demerara River to various locations, where they gathered the tibisiri straw to plait and place to dry quite nicely in the tropical sun. This was then stitched together to make quite fashionable and colourful bags, purses, and hats of every imaginable nature, and sold on a large scale. These items were once must-have items at the Stabroek Market in Georgetown.

Today the village is somewhat more developed, and has taken on a modern ambience that is accentuated with the coming of the L. A. Meat Centre, Rakesh Nauth Lotto Shop, New Look and Professional Clipperz barber shops, Perfect Results Beauty Salon, Nature Point Snackette, Hong Fa Chinese Restaurant, and a few other businesses.

During the good old days, although Bagotville was not as bright as it is today, there was never a gloomy face there, as every villager seemed to be always caught up in the constant festive atmosphere of the area.

Recollecting on those ‘good old days’, village elder Ashton Crawford noted that there was only one butcher in the village, and he was nicknamed ‘Ibrahim’; and there was just a single baker’s shop (Ferrier’s Bakery). Older folks in the village would remember the existence of the Foo Rum Shop and the Chung Variety Shop, where crowds always gathered to get their groceries and, of course, to “tek a tupps” at weekends.

The villagers were certainly into the theatrical and creative arts, and the Apollo Hall was the location for hosting and rehearsals of theatrical plays and folk dances.

And villagers certainly had choices then, since one could have chosen to make purchases at the Harangi Shop, Jessema Shop, or at Brother Wills Shop, which was quite famous for the production of ceramic pieces.
The housewives would often bicker over prices, and would vent their anger by leaving the goods at a proprietor who chose to hike his prices. And they had choices, since there was Nedd Shop, Lall Shop and Samaroo Shop also to choose from.

On Saturday in the village, according to Mr. Crawford, everyone seemed to be “up and fussing about”. At this time, an area that stretched from the Bagotville Bridge way up to Harangie Shop was turned into a market place, and villagers swarmed the area in a melee as they fussed about and fretted in making their final purchases.

Sturdy, buxom women with flashing white teeth tumbled into the streets setting up their little food stalls, and the village was filled with the succulent aroma of cow face souce, black pudding, puri and curry, cassava pone and other items. Coal pots were kept ablaze as each woman tried her best to keep her snack items warm and ready for her eager customers.

And there was no bickering among the women; it was all jovial laughter as they enjoyed jolly and friendly sales competition.

And sales in those days were excellent, since the employees of the Versailles and Wales Sugar Plantations would come out in large droves, quite hungry and thirsty as ever. In no time at all, the food items would disappear and the women would returned to their homes quite happy, with their apron pockets bulging with tinkling coins and crisp notes, as always.

Everyone would rush in the afternoons to Miss Nelson’s Mauby Shop, where she turned out ice cold jugs of the delicious liquid. It was a sight to see thirsty men gleefully gulping down mug after mug of mauby, and burping in pleasant satisfaction. And there was Miss Nelson as always, smiling in delight, with her hands on her lush hips as her wooden ‘money chest’ filled up with the hard earned coins and dollars. She, too, sold snack items.

Some shoppers would branch off to Miss Shurie Shop if their taste buds called for a little ‘sweet mouth food’ that was highly spiced, as they loved it. Miss Margaret was quite infectious with her bubbly laughter and girlish tittering as she, too, used her endearing personality to bring in the customers.

But, of course, she had to compete with the dominating presence and mirthful semi-scowls of Aunty Zeffa, who loved to admonish ‘her boys’ for over eating with that special twinkle in her eyes that divulged she was only teasing, and really wanted them to buy more of her snacks.

All this time, Mr. Foo’s large juke box would be blasting the latest folk songs and the hit songs that were in then, and the rum shops just overflowed with celebratory crowds, everybody having a blast after a week of hard toil.

Entertainment
Banquets and dancers were quite popular in the village in years gone by, and everyone looked forward to these activities with much excitement and anticipation.

Every church kept a banquet of some kind in their open yard spaces, and it was a sight to see the little damsels dressed in their ruffled skirts, stockings, and frilled dresses, with colourful ribbons and other adornments accentuating hair styles that were well groomed with coconut or crab oil. The boys would wear trousers with crisp seams, and their shoes were always shiny and quite pleasant to the eyes.

Some activities of this nature were also promoted at the then St. Thomas Anglican School, which has now been renamed Bagotville Primary School.

Today still keeping connected to their roots, villagers would come out in huge numbers to enjoy their annual Emancipation celebrations in August month, and there is always much fun, frolic, and revelry.

The Bagotville present-day
Society seems to have disintegrated somewhat today, and according to Mr. Crawford, the village is rapidly losing its respectful aura and high level of discipline, which had been made a highpoint by its elders.

“Today things have changed greatly, and the high level of good manners and discipline that was instilled in our youths long ago has been badly damaged by the transcending hands of modernisation. With this evolvement have come a decline in the level of respect youths have for the elderly, and there is an appalling increase in the lawlessness and vulgarity that is now invading our streets.

“These unwelcome new issues, I think, have been fuelled by the strange and rather raucous music that is allowed in our society and the appalling genres of fashion that are taking over. I think the type of movies and television programmes allowed in our homes have quite a lot to do with the disintegration of our society,” he scolded.

Mr. Crawford informed that, in past times, there was great expectancy among residents when examinations were taken; and when children excelled, the entire village celebrated their success. He noted that, today, not much emphasis is placed in this area, and the moral ideals of many residents are dwindling.

He highly praised Mr. J. A. Croaker, a stalwart in the village who installed excellent values among residents, and left a legacy that still see many villagers holding on to their roots and traditions.

Croaker was the one who had spearheaded the very first ‘Guyana Celebration’ to be hosted in the village, and he had also formed the Bagotville Song Circle, which was popular for its entertainment exploits. He was the son of the soil who made it possible for many traditional African dignitaries to visit the village, and ensured the African traditions, music, and drums are kept alive today.

Gershom Onesimus Browne, another village icon, (deceased) saw active service in the Middle East, and was one of Guyana’s last known surviving veterans of the First World War. He had been a member of the British West Indies Regiment, and had also written a book – The History of Bagotville – about his home village, of which he became Village Overseer

Early in the 1970s, when a Nigerian warship visited Guyana and a party came to the village, residents were well equipped and ready to sing lustily the Nigerian National Anthem, taking the organizers of the tour who were not villagers of Bagotville completely by surprise.

Bagotville was the first village in Guyana to host the now popular Emancipation Celebrations, and this exercise was later taken up and expanded by other locations across the country. The wild celebrations and thanksgiving and praise to the ancestral spirits are normally done at the Bagotville sluice during the month of August.

Challenges
Despite the few challenges Bagotville residents face, they still find time to smile; indulge in merry chatter; frolic in the sun; and make the extra effort to make their visitors feel well at home.

Some folks there are peeved about the drainage and irrigation system in the village, which they claim is not up to the best of standards. This, they claim, often causes excessive flooding in certain areas in the village during heavy rainfall.

However, some residents may want to blame themselves for the flawed drainage system, which has become so entirely through their mindless and inconsiderate disposal of garbage. And this could have been easily confirmed with the large amount of plastic bottles, Styrofoam boxes, tins, plastic bags and other refuse that was seen floating in their main irrigation canal in the vicinity of the Bagotville Bridge.

Most residents dispose of their garbage by burning, but some admitted that there are some souls in their midst who are in the habit of just dumping trash wherever they seem pleased.

That aside, villagers are pleading to have a sophisticated playfield for their many sports-oriented youths, and for the community centre to have a much needed facelift. Several housewives deem the Bagotville Primary School much too small for the volume of youths attending it, since the population is increasing; and they are urging the relevant authorities to increase the size of the structure or build a new facility altogether.

There are also calls for repairs to be done to the road that leads into the areas of La Parfaite Harmonie and Dairy, since it is way too narrow for the volume of vehicular transport; and already, sections are badly deteriorating.

Employment Problems
Of all the villages visited, Bagotville seemed to be actually suffocating in the vice grip of a severe employment problem. And this was evident in the large number of young males and females just aimlessly milling around, lamenting the lack of any particular scope for employment there.

Many have sought odd jobs outside the village, and a small number are employed at the Wales Sugar Estate. However, those with jobs at the estate complained that work there is seasonal, according to cane harvesting, and that there is just really nothing left to do when that period passes.

Conclusion
Let’s set aside the few challenges faced by residents, since it’s customary to encounter problems in almost every Guyanese village. But folks, let’s look at the appealing ambience of this location, with its Old World countryside charm that oozes into the very soul on the first visit.

That is why I encourage you to spend some time there, and melt into the infectious laughter and welcoming smiles of the inhabitants. Do some sightseeing along the dusty dams, and sample some of the fresh fruits from the many over-burdened trees; or
sample the many rich traditional foods there, or get lost in the pulsating tempo of the African drums.

Just make sure you do not pass up the opportunity to visit this village with its historical significance and traditional customs, which are still alive and vibrant as ever.
Written By Alex Wayne