The Marcus Garvey Queenstown Essequibo connection

Feb 26, 2017 Countryman, Features / Columnists

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By Dennis Nichols
Aback of the village of Queenstown on the Essequibo Coast lies a bushy tract of land with

a history linked to one of the most renowned and controversial of Caribbean personalities – Marcus Garvey. Until recently I was unaware of its existence or its history as the touted ‘breadbasket of Essequibo’ less than a hundred years ago, or as a horse-racing locale attracting large crowds of spectators, and more. As Black History Month winds down, it should be worth the while to reflect on a piece of history maybe not generally known or appreciated by many Guyanese.
Queenstown itself has a few superlatives with respect to Guyanese post-slavery villages. Approximately one square mile in area, it is not only the largest village on the Essequibo Coast, but reputedly the largest in the country, as well as being the oldest in the Cinderella County. It was established when former African slaves bought lots from a planter named Carberry, who had in 1840 bought and merged the adjoining estates of Mocha, Westfield, and Dageraad into a small town. It was christened with its present name in September 1841.
Fast forward almost 100 years to Marcus Garvey’s British Guiana visit in October 1937. By then many locals (particularly Afro-Guyanese) would have been well-acquainted with, and gained great admiration for, his efforts to improve the lot of Black people everywhere. This included his Back-to-Africa movement, the Universal Negro Improvement Association, (UNIA) the Black Star shipping line, the Negro Factories Corporation, and his weekly newspaper, Negro World.
The B.G. visit elicited tremendous response and anticipation, as there existed at the time a local branch of the UNIA as well as several Black-improvement groups including the British Guiana Afro-improvement Association, the Negro Progress Convention, and the League of Coloured Peoples. And among those chafing at the bit was a group of Essequibo residents who had formed themselves into a body called the Marcus Garvey Association, and they had a plan.
I recently spoke with several residents of the village including Verna Walcott and Maurice Walcott, as well as members of the current Queenstown Development Association (QDA), about the vision their ancestors had for a community to be named Garvey Town, now referred to more commonly as Garvey Bush.

As its name suggested, the MGA, established in the late 1930s, drew strength and inspiration from Garvey. It isn’t clear if Marcus Garvey actually visited Essequibo or not as some claim; however members of the association did in fact seek his intervention with colonial authorities to establish and cultivate a residential and farming community on the tract of land bounded on the west by picturesque Lake Capoey, which they did successfully according to Kenroy Semple, Winston Christiani, and Cromwell Mentis, all of whom are members of the Queenstown Development Association, a group established in 1991 to commemorate the 150th anniversary of the founding of the village.
They explained that a sideline dam leading to the area had been transformed into a more navigable road allowing several individuals and families access to Garvey where they began to farm, raise livestock, and process charcoal. Ground provisions, cash crops, and fruits (especially pineapples) were widely cultivated, with cassava being one of the staples. As a result, large quantities of ground provisions, vegetables, fruits, and products such as cassava bread, cassareep, starch, and charcoal, were regularly transported out of Garvey for supply to areas along the Essequibo Coast, and as far away as Georgetown.
Semple elaborated, “During the second world war when goods could not come to Guyana, the Marcus Garvey Association provided the country with food; the Georgetown and Suddie Hospitals, and the Prisons, among other areas, with cassava bread made on a commercial scale, and ground provisions, which were sold by donkey cart throughout the coast. This was partly due to the shortage of flour and peas among other things … thus Garvey Bush was considered the breadbasket of the Essequibo Coast.”
Mentis added that produce from the settlement was also taken by ‘a fleet of donkey carts to the market at Hampton Court (another coastal village) because at that time Hampton Court had a grinding sugar factory which was a hub of activity in Essequibo; also there was a market at Zorg Dam’ referring to another village also supplied with Garvey produce. Christiani then explained that apart from those involved in farming and charcoal manufacture, some Garvey/Queenstown entrepreneurs left the area and went into mining in areas like Cuyuni and the North West District.
An overriding idea was for the settlement to be made into a small town. Thus in 1950 when then Governor Gordon Lethem visited Essequibo, he entertained a plan put forward by the MGA to have a medical outpost built there as residents had to travel by donkey cart to Suddie for medical treatment. This would have been a step towards elevated status for Garvey, but although the governor made some proposals, they ‘fell through’ and it remained basically a non-residential community.
What had materialized, however, was a track fashioned earlier from a piece of ‘savannah-like’ land where horse racing was held during the colonial period. Known as the Talligin Race Course, it was said to feature a number of races organized by local authority figures including the District Commissioner, and for a while was the main recreational activity on the Essequibo Coast. Thousands of sugar workers were said to attend these colourful events and there is even speculation that they may have attracted international competition.
But with time, as the old breed of ‘backdam entrepreneurs’ passed on, so too did the main activities of farming and charcoal-making, (The racecourse was subsequently closed in 1938) and by the late nineteen-sixties, the land fell into relative disuse due to lack of interest by the younger generations. However, according to Christiani, the original cultivators were replaced by persons representing ‘a mixture of people from outside the association’ who squatted and did some farming – a venture that was no doubt facilitated by the lack or permanent residential buildings.
At present there is a move to reoccupy Garvey Bush; in fact a few descendants of the original settlers have gone back and started recultivating it through farming and livestock rearing. This is part of a bigger movement being proposed by the QDA to reclaim ancestral lands in Queenstown, and includes a housing project hopefully in partnership with Food for the Poor Guyana Inc. Christiani said this is however dependent on the presentation of a plan with documentation to show ownership by the ancestors of those who will benefit from the project; however, he added, it will be open to other inhabitants of Queenstown.
To the extent that Garvey is a part of Queenstown, it is also part of a community which, although identified as an African village in the mid-19th century, now boasts a multi-cultural ambience. This is evidenced by its accommodation of the descendants of East Indian indentured labourers as well as other ethnicities, and the existence of religious places of worship that include churches, a mosque, and a temple. Interestingly the first mosque was built by African Fulani tribesmen, while a Christian church, St. Bartholomew’s, was built under European direction by slave labour and was reportedly fashioned in the symbolic shape of an upside-down slave ship. Diversity!
Weather permitting, and with access to 4-wheel drive transportation, I hope to visit Garvey Bush shortly, maybe along with some Garveyite descendants. Whether or not the dream of a town that was birthed nearly 80 years ago will ever be realized is left to be seen. But it is clear that those who embrace it are intent on recapturing at least some elements of the vision their fore parents had back then. And if the ghost of Marcus Garvey could somehow give utterance to some form of sentiment, it certainly would be one of approving acknowledgment, and heartfelt appreciation.

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