GUYANA, FLAG OF

national flag consisting of a green field incorporating a red hoist triangle and a central yellow arrowhead, separated by black and white borders. The width-to-length ratio of the flag is 1 to 2 at sea and 3 to 5 on land. When independence was being planned by British Guiana in the early 1960s, a competition elicited many proposals for a new national flag, including one developed by an American, Whitney Smith, who later became a prominent vexillologist (flag historian). His pattern combined a red background, green hoist triangle, and stylized yellow arrowhead. The Guyanese reversed the green and red and added a black fimbriation (narrow border) to the triangle and one of white to the arrowhead. The five colours have symbolic attributions: the green stands for the jungles and fields that cover most of the country, as reflected in the national anthem, Green Land of Guyana. White suggests the many rivers, which provide the basis for the indigenous name guyana (land of waters or great waters). Red represents zeal and sacrifice in nation-building, while black symbolizes perseverance. The Golden Arrowhead is a nickname for this national flag, officially hoisted for the first time on Independence Day, May 26, 1966. The arrowhead recalls the original Amerindian population of the area but also represents the golden future that citizens are committed to building on the basis of national mineral resources. The flag, previously adopted by the Guyanese parliament and approved by the College of Arms, supplanted the typical British flags that flew over the colony of British Guiana. Whitney Smith Government and social conditions Government Guyana became an independent member of the Commonwealth in 1966 and in 1970 became a cooperative republic, involving citizens' organizations in government. Under the constitution of Oct. 6, 1980, executive power is vested in the president, who leads the majority party in the unicameral National Assembly and holds office for the assembly's duration. The president appoints the Cabinet, which is responsible to the National Assembly. The minority members of the assembly elect an opposition leader. The assembly is elected by universal adult suffrage for a term of five years. The right to vote belongs to all Guyanese citizens 18 years of age or older. Voting is carried out by secret ballot under a system of proportional representation. Votes are cast for lists of candidates compiled by the political parties, and seats are allocated proportionally among the lists. Since independence in 1966, Guyana has been ruled by one party, the People's National Congress. Initially identified with the urban black populace, the PNC essentially established a one-party state under the direction of its first leader, Forbes Burnham. The PNC won power in an election marked by numerous reports of irregularities, many of which were related to the Guyana Defence Force (GDF), a military unit established in 1965 with strong ties to the PNC. Both the GDF and the police force are overwhelmingly black. The People's Progressive Party (PPP), the PNC's official opposition, is the traditional party of the rural East Indians; smaller parties include the Working People's Alliance (WPA), a newer party founded by the historian Walter Rodney and headed by black labour leaders and intelligentsia allied against alleged PNC corruption. Local government is administered principally through the Regional Democratic Councils, each led by a chairman; they are elected for terms of up to five years and four months in each of the country's 10 regions. Guyana has two legal traditions, the British common law and the Roman-Dutch code, the latter now largely relegated to matters of land tenure. The constitution is the supreme law of the land. The court structure consists of magistrate courts for civil claims of small monetary value and minor offenses, the High Court, with original and appellate jurisdiction in civil and criminal matters, and the Court of Appeal, with appellate authority in criminal cases. The Court of Appeal and the High Court together constitute the Supreme Court. Education Education is free and compulsory. Primary and secondary instruction are separate, although the lack of facilities makes it necessary to hold some secondary classes in primary schools. In 1976 the government assumed full responsibility for education from nursery school to university. Government authority was extended over all church and private primary schools. Teachers are expected to teach loyalty to both the PNC and socialist objectives. The principal university is the University of Guyana, founded in 1963 and subsequently housed at Turkeyen, in the eastern part of Greater Georgetown. The school has also become politicized, attendance there being contingent upon prospective students completing a year of national service, usually at camps in Guyana's interior. Thus many Guyanese seek education and training abroad. There are also a number of other colleges, including technical and teacher-training schools. History The first human inhabitants of Guyana probably came into the highlands during the first millennium before Christ. The Warrau Indians may have arrived first, followed by Arawak and Carib tribes. The early communities practiced shifting agriculture supplemented by hunting. Christopher Columbus sighted the Guyana coast in 1498, and Spain subsequently claimed, but largely avoided, the area between the Orinoco and Amazon deltas, a region long known as the Wild Coast. It was the Dutch who finally began European settlement, establishing trading posts upriver in about 1580. By the mid-17th century they had begun importing slaves from West Africa to cultivate sugarcane. In the 18th century the Dutch, joined by other Europeans, were moving their estates downriver toward the fertile soils of the estuaries and coastal mud flats. Laurens Storm van's Gravesande, governor of Essequibo from 1742 to 1772, coordinated these development efforts. Guyana changed hands with bewildering frequency during the wars (mostly between the British and the French) from 1780 to 1815. During a brief French occupation, Longchamps, later called Georgetown, was established at the mouth of the Demerara; the Dutch renamed it Stabroek and continued to develop it. The British took over in 1796 and remained in possession, except for short intervals, until 1814, when they purchased Demerara, Berbice, and Essequibo, which in 1831 were united as the colony of British Guiana. The slave trade was abolished in 1807, when there were about 100,000 slaves in Berbice, Demerara, and Essequibo. After full emancipation in 1838, black freedmen left the plantations to establish their own settlements along the coastal plain. The planters then imported labour from several sources, the most successful group being indentured workers from India. Indentured labourers who had earned their freedom settled in their own coastal villages near the estates, a process that became established in the late 19th century during a serious economic depression caused by competition with European sugar beet production. Settlement proceeded slowly, but gold was discovered in 1879, and a boom in the 1890s helped the colony. The North Western District was organized in 1889 and was the cause of a dispute in 1895 when the United States supported Venezuela's claims to the territory. Venezuela revived its claims on British Guiana in 1962, an issue that went to the United Nations for mediation in the early 1980s but which remains unresolved. The British inherited from the Dutch a complicated constitutional structure. Changes in 1891 led to progressively greater power being held by locally elected officials, but reforms in 1928 invested all power in the governor and the Colonial Office. In 1953 a new constitutionwith universal adult suffrage, a bicameral elected legislature, and a ministerial systemwas introduced. From 1953 to 1966 the political history of the colony was stormy. The first elected government, formed by the People's Progressive Party led by Cheddi Jagan, seemed so procommunist that the British suspended the constitution in October 1953 and dispatched troops. The constitution was not restored until 1957. The PPP split along racial lines, Jagan leading a predominately East Indian party and Forbes Burnham leading a party of African descendants, the People's National Congress. In the elections of 1957 and 1961, the PPP was returned with working majorities. From 1961 to 1964 severe rioting involving bloodshed between rival blacks and East Indians and a long general strike led to the return of British troops. To answer the PNC allegation that the existing electoral system unduly favoured the East Indian community, the British government introduced for the elections of December 1964 a new system of proportional representation. Thereafter the PNC and a smaller, more conservative party formed a coalition government, led by Burnham, which took the colony into independence under its new name, Guyana, on May 26, 1966. The PNC gained full power in the general election of 1968, which was characterized by questionable rolls of overseas voters and widespread claims of electoral impropriety. On Feb. 23, 1970, Guyana was proclaimed a cooperative republic within the Commonwealth. A president was elected by the National Assembly, but Burnham retained executive power as prime minister. Burnham declared his government to be socialist and in the later 1970s sought to reorder the government in his favour. In 1978 one of the most bizarre incidents in modern history occurred in Guyana when some 900 members of a religious cult in a commune known as Jonestown committed mass suicide at the behest of their leader, Reverend Jim Jones. In 1980, under a new constitution, Burnham became executive president, with still wider powers, after an election in which international observers detected widespread fraud. In the following years Burnham was faced with an economy shattered by the depressed demand for bauxite and sugar and a restive populace suffering from severe commodity shortages and a near breakdown of essential public services. Burnham enforced austerity measures, and he began leaning toward Soviet-bloc countries for support. Burnham died in 1985 and was succeeded by the prime minister, Hugh Desmond Hoyte, who pledged to continue Burnham's policies. In elections held that year Hoyte won the presidency by a wide margin, but once again charges of vote fraud were raised. In the late 1980s the administration, facing worsening financial and economic problems, moved to liberalize the economy. The economy Since independence Guyana has remained locked into a typical colonial economic dependency on agricultural and mined products, most notably sugarcane and bauxite. Independence brought economic reforms under a socialist-leaning government, but the effect on the old economic cycle has been minimal. Although the government permits a three-sector economyprivate, public, and cooperativethe public sector remains heavily dominant. Government management of the economy has become direct and significant. During the 1970s the government nationalized U.S. and Canadian bauxite holdings; in 1976 it nationalized the vast holdings of the Booker McConnell companies in Guyana, which included coastal sugarcane plantations as well as an array of light manufacturing and commercial enterprises. By the mid-1980s it was estimated that the government controlled directly more than 80 percent of Guyana's economy. All nationalized businesses have been reorganized under the Guyana State Corporation. The state-owned Guyana Sugar Corporation controls the sugarcane plantations, and the Guyana Mining Enterprise Ltd. was established to oversee local mineral production. The Guyanese economy has deteriorated under government management policies. Members of the ruling People's National Congress (PNC) political party have been placed in managerial positions, leading to the exodus of former managers and clerical workers. Declining output, a reliance on volatile external commodity markets, and a reduced tax base have all increased financial deficits. External debt has risen precipitously, and a devalued currency has been eroded by speculation in the local black market. Reduced fuel imports have led to widespread power outages, and a government austerity program all but eliminated imported food and consumer goods. Guyana's per capita income (estimated at about $600 in the late 1980s) places it among the world's poorest countries. Improvements in economic conditions became dependent upon foreign aid and a variety of regional and reciprocal trade agreements. Trade associations have an important influence in Guyanese government. The Trade Union Congress is an association of major unions, among which are the Guyana Mine Workers' Union, which is composed almost exclusively of black workers, and the Guyana Agricultural and General Workers' Union is a predominantly East Indian association. Resources The most important mineral resource is the extensive bauxite deposits between the Demerara and Berbice rivers. There are also significant deposits of manganese at Matthews Ridge in the northwest, about 30 miles east of the Venezuelan frontier. Diamonds occur in the Mazaruni and other rivers of the Pacaraima Mountains. Gold is found in both alluvial and subsurface deposits. Other minerals include copper, iron ore, molybdenite (the source of molybdenum), nickel, white sand (used in glass manufacture), kaolin (china clay), and graphite. The government has encouraged oil exploration, but no significant reserves have been found. The main biological resource consists of the hardwoods of the tropical rain forest and especially the greenheart tree, which is resistant to termites, decay, and marine erosion. The shrimps off the coast and a few inland fishes form the basis of the nation's fishing industry, and the grasses of the savanna regions are used for cattle grazing. Most of Guyana's energy must be imported; domestic electricity is produced largely by thermal generation and is available only on the coastal plain and along the lower reaches of the rivers. Hydroelectric potential in Guyana is considerable, especially at Tiger Hill on the Demerara River and Tiboku Falls on the Mazaruni. Development is hampered, however, by the remoteness of the falls and the large amounts of capital needed for generation and transmission facilities. The land Relief The narrow plain that extends along the country's Atlantic coast has been modified considerably by humans. Much of the area, which measures only about 10 miles (16 kilometres) at its widest point, has been reclaimed from the sea by a series of canals and some 140 miles of dikes. The coastal plain's inland border is generally marked by canals that separate the plain from interior swamps. South of the coastal zone the forested land rises gently and has sandy soils. About 40 miles inland from the coast is a region of undulating land that rises from 50-foot (15-metre) hills on the coastal side of the region to 400-foot (120metre) ones on the western side. The area is between 80 and 100 miles wide and is widest in the southeast. It is covered with sands, from which it takes its name as the white-sands (zanderij) region. A small savanna region in the east lies about 60 miles from the coast and is surrounded by the white-sands belt. The sands partly overlie a low crystalline plateau that is generally less than 500 feet in elevation. The plateau forms most of the country's centre and is penetrated by igneous rock intrusions that cause the numerous rapids of Guyana's rivers. Beyond the crystalline plateau, the Kaieteurian Plateau lies generally below 1,600 feet above sea level; it is the site of the spectacular Kaieteur Falls, noted for their sheer 741-foot initial plunge. The plateau is overlain with sandstones and shales that, in the south, form the extensive Rupununi Savanna region. The Acarai Mountains (Serra Acara), which rise to about 2,000 feet, rim the plateau on the southern border, and it is crowned on the western frontier by the Pakaraima Mountains, which rise to 9,094 feet (2,772 metres) in Mount Roraima. The Rupununi Savanna is bisected by the eastwest Kanuku Mountains, which rise to almost 3,000 feet. The people The indigenous peoples of Guyana are collectively known as Amerindians and constitute about 4 percent of the population. Indian groups include the Warao (Warrau), Arawak, Carib, Wapisiana (Wapishana), Arecuna, the mixed Spanish Arawak of the Moruka River, and many more in the forest areas. The Makus (Macuss or Macush) are the most prominent of the savanna peoples. Sizable concentrations of Amerindians inhabit the far west along the border with Venezuela and Brazil. They are rarely seen in the populated coastal areas, although a few have interbred with blacks and East Indians. Since 1970, traditional Amerindian lands near the international borders have come under government control, although Amerindians continue to hold village lands informally throughout Guyana's interior. The other major elements in the population are predominantly coastal dwellers. Descendants of African slaves form the oldest group; they abandoned the plantations after full emancipation in 1838 to become independent peasantry or town dwellers. The Afro-Guyanese constitute about one-third of the population. The East Indians came mostly as indentured labour from India to replace Africans in plantation work. They form the largest racial group in the countryabout half the populationand have been increasing more rapidly than the others. The East Indians are the mainstay of plantation agriculture, and many are independent farmers and landowners, have done well in trade, and are well represented among the professions. The Chinese and Portuguese also entered originally as agricultural labourers but are now rarely found outside the towns. They are active in business and the professions, and their influence is disproportionate to their numbers; they have not been increasing, however, and together they constitute only a tiny percentage of the population. Europeans other than Portuguese are few, and most are short-term inhabitants. While every kind of racial mixture may be found, mulattoes (persons of mixed white and black ancestry) are by far the most common. Most of them live in towns, and a high proportion are in clerical or professional work. The major religions are Christian (chiefly Anglican and Roman Catholic) and Hindu. Fundamentalist Protestantism has made inroads in the 20th century, mainly in Georgetown. There is also a sizable minority of Muslims. Animistic religions are still practiced by some of the Amerindian peoples. The official and principal language is English, but a creole patois is spoken throughout the country. Hindi and Urdu are heard occasionally among older East Indians. Immigration is no longer important, and by the late 20th century the number of foreign-born, long-term residents was insignificant. Emigration has been a drain on the country's human resources as thousands of persons have left annually, going mainly to the United States, Canada, England, and Caribbean islands. Many of the emigrants have been skilled and professional people whose loss has intensified the country's severe economic problems. East Indians have emigrated in large numbers to flee what they consider political persecution, a number of them having sought part-time work across the Courantyne River in western Suriname.