Hi all, as most know I'm going to French Guiana for a few months, 7 at the beginning (16 September), so I decided to tell my adventures in the land in this blog. First, although many already know, most people who tell me where I am responding with a "what's that?" "So where is it?" "Guayana what?" and then you say "aaah yes" as if he knows where he is or what it is, many do not know it exists or think is in France. So I will illustrate a little with some data (mostly stolen from Wikipedia), but first I will put a picture of a map so you can see where it (the country in green)
As you can see the border with Brazil, Suriname (formerly Dutch Guiana) and the Atlantic Ocean. It is an overseas department of France, so it is part of the European Union and its currency is the euro. Has una extensión de 86504 Km2 casi igual de grande que Andalucía, pero tiene solamente 210.000 habitantes, 65.000 de los cuales se encuentran en la capital, Cayena. La ciudad a la que voy yo se llama Saint Laurent du Maroni y tiene unos 25.000 habitantes, está pegada al río Maroni y a la frontera con Surinam (os pongo una foto del pueblo).
Saint Laurent es la segunda ciudad más grande después de Cayena. El resto de habitantes de la Guayana se distribuyen a lo largo de la franja de costa y luego hay unos cuantos en la selva, que viven en ciudades a las que se llega por río.
Francia colonizó la Guayana en 1604 sending thousands of settlers, but most died from disease and unsanitary living conditions or Indian attacks, so there were several attempts at colonization. But it was in the late eighteenth s consolidated as a colony. In 1852 he began to be used as a penal colony, this is one of the things that is famous for Guyana, "the dreaded and infamous penal colony" where almost all died due to the harsh conditions of life, be sent to the Guyana amounted practically a death sentence. In 1951 the penal colony was closed. Henri Charrière narrated in his book "Papillon" his adventures in Guyana as a prisoner, his attempts to escape, etc ... but this novel will devote a later entry.
As for the people of Guyana, ethnically speaking, we can find various kinds:
* The maroons noirs (dark maroon) who are the descendants of former black slaves French Guiana and Suriname who rebelled and fled the plantations between the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries to take refuge in the forests and rivers and build communities that were similar to those in Africa before slavery. They have a monopoly on the business of crossing the Maroni River in a canoe. (There are about 10,000)
* The Creoles (Creole) who are the descendants of former black slaves, are the majority ethnic group in Guyana, about 38% of the population.
* The Metropolitains (metropolitan) which is the population of European origin, either immigrants or descendants of prisoners or staff of the penal colony (they are about 12%)
* The Hmong , who arrived in 1977 and come from Laos, are about 3000
* American Indians, the original inhabitants of Guyana, there are about 6 different tribes, each with their own language, and is not many left prevented access to some of these tribes, you need a special permission.
* Then there are many Brazilians also engaged mostly in the service sector and the search for gold.
* And finally I put all I have left that many, (Guyana is a mezclijo of people!) Indian, Chinese, Javanese, West Indian, Lebanese, Syrians, Peruvian ...
So we can count about 20 different languages \u200b\u200bspoken in Guyana, and although the majority is French Creole (all variants), they also have enough Sranan-Tongo speakers (also called taki taki that would be a native Dutch) Chinese, Portuguese, English, Creole and Hindustani.
I hope the majority can speak French too, because otherwise I will take clear, then there is the matter of accent, because the French speaking black cost me a lot catch them, but I guess you get used .
Well for today's data is good, I say goodbye for now, until next post!
As you can see the border with Brazil, Suriname (formerly Dutch Guiana) and the Atlantic Ocean. It is an overseas department of France, so it is part of the European Union and its currency is the euro. Has una extensión de 86504 Km2 casi igual de grande que Andalucía, pero tiene solamente 210.000 habitantes, 65.000 de los cuales se encuentran en la capital, Cayena. La ciudad a la que voy yo se llama Saint Laurent du Maroni y tiene unos 25.000 habitantes, está pegada al río Maroni y a la frontera con Surinam (os pongo una foto del pueblo).
Saint Laurent es la segunda ciudad más grande después de Cayena. El resto de habitantes de la Guayana se distribuyen a lo largo de la franja de costa y luego hay unos cuantos en la selva, que viven en ciudades a las que se llega por río. Francia colonizó la Guayana en 1604 sending thousands of settlers, but most died from disease and unsanitary living conditions or Indian attacks, so there were several attempts at colonization. But it was in the late eighteenth s consolidated as a colony. In 1852 he began to be used as a penal colony, this is one of the things that is famous for Guyana, "the dreaded and infamous penal colony" where almost all died due to the harsh conditions of life, be sent to the Guyana amounted practically a death sentence. In 1951 the penal colony was closed. Henri Charrière narrated in his book "Papillon" his adventures in Guyana as a prisoner, his attempts to escape, etc ... but this novel will devote a later entry.
As for the people of Guyana, ethnically speaking, we can find various kinds:
* The maroons noirs (dark maroon) who are the descendants of former black slaves French Guiana and Suriname who rebelled and fled the plantations between the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries to take refuge in the forests and rivers and build communities that were similar to those in Africa before slavery. They have a monopoly on the business of crossing the Maroni River in a canoe. (There are about 10,000)
* The Creoles (Creole) who are the descendants of former black slaves, are the majority ethnic group in Guyana, about 38% of the population.
* The Metropolitains (metropolitan) which is the population of European origin, either immigrants or descendants of prisoners or staff of the penal colony (they are about 12%)
* The Hmong , who arrived in 1977 and come from Laos, are about 3000
* American Indians, the original inhabitants of Guyana, there are about 6 different tribes, each with their own language, and is not many left prevented access to some of these tribes, you need a special permission.
* Then there are many Brazilians also engaged mostly in the service sector and the search for gold.
* And finally I put all I have left that many, (Guyana is a mezclijo of people!) Indian, Chinese, Javanese, West Indian, Lebanese, Syrians, Peruvian ...
So we can count about 20 different languages \u200b\u200bspoken in Guyana, and although the majority is French Creole (all variants), they also have enough Sranan-Tongo speakers (also called taki taki that would be a native Dutch) Chinese, Portuguese, English, Creole and Hindustani.
I hope the majority can speak French too, because otherwise I will take clear, then there is the matter of accent, because the French speaking black cost me a lot catch them, but I guess you get used .
Well for today's data is good, I say goodbye for now, until next post!
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