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Friday 15 May 2015

Guyana

The country of British Guiana gained independence from the United Kingdom on May 26, 1966 becoming Guyana. Its flag (see below) was adopted the same day.


Guyana officially became a republic within the Commonwealth of Nations in 1970.

Arthur Chung, who served as the first President of Guyana from 1970 to 1980, was the first ethnic Chinese head of state in a non-Asian country.

The name Guyana means "land of many waters" in a native American language referring to the many rivers running through the country.

The original Demerara sugar cane grew in the region of the Demerara River in Guyana.

Guyana's national dish is pepperpot, which is made of stewed meat with cinnamon, peppers, and a sauce called cassareep, made from cassava root.

Guyana is the only country in South America to have English as its official language. The majority of the population, however, speak Guyanese Creole, an English-based creole language with slight Dutch, Arawakan and Caribbean influences.

Guyanese cricketers are eligable to play for the West Indies. In the great Windies teams of the 1960s and 1970s, Rohan Kanhai and Clive Lloyd were Guyanese.

Guyana’s only Olympic medal was won in 1980 when Michael Anthony took bronze in the men’s bantamweight boxing.

Guyana is the only Commonwealth state on mainland South America.


The capital of Guyana is Georgetown. Ascension Island also has a capital called Georgetown while George Town is the capital of the Cayman Islands.

In 1978 an American congressman, Leo Ryan, visited the "Reverend" Jim Jones' religious community, Jonestown, in Guyana to investigate alleged human rights abuses. On November 18, 1978 Jones had Ryan and his party killed, then ordered his 918 followers to perform ritual suicide by drinking from a tub of Kool Aid laced with a deadly cocktail of cyanide and tranquilizers. Jones himself put a bullet through his head. It was the largest mass suicide in modern history.

Guyana is ranked as the country with the highest suicide rate in the world. It has a mortality rate of 44.2 per 100,000 inhabitants.

The Kaieteur Falls in Guyana is the world’s widest single-drop waterfall.

Kaieteur Falls. By Sorenriise at English Wikipedia, 

Guyana is one of the most sparsely populated countries in the world (735,554 live inside its 214,970 km2  of area).

More than 80 per cent of Guyana is covered by rain forest.

They drive on the left in Guyana. The only other South American country to do so is Suriname.

Source Daily Express

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