Georgetown - Post Report Question and Answers
Are there problems with ethnic, race/racial minorities or religious prejudices? Gender equality?
Religious tolerance is the one exceptional thing here, it's the one thing that Guyana could show the world how to do. There is no gender equality, there are still extremely archaic ideas about what women in the work place with an undercurrent of disrespect. As for ethnicity, there is a huge divide in the indo and afro communities, it's very apparent and then even within the Indian communities there is left over caste stuff and also colonization leftovers on top of all of that, then the HUGE China influence as well. As I've mentioned before, the culture IS chaos. That's the culture here. - Apr 2024
There are six races and all religions in Georgetown. Neighborhoods are often single race. The political parties are by race so government action is often seen as benefitting or excluding a race. It is acceptable for men to cat call women. Women report casual harassment. - Jun 2022
Guyana prides itself on it's multi-ethnic diversity and calls itself the land of seven peoples. - Sep 2020
Generally speaking, race and ethnicity don’t cause a lot of trouble here. Guyanese often speak more roughly about racial/ethnic differences than Americans do (i.e., political correctness doesn’t really exist here), but many Guyanese are of mixed racial/religious heritage, and all of the ethnic groups usually get along with one another just fine. Guyanese take particular pride in celebrating everyone else’s religious holidays along with their own, and all of the big Christian, Islamic, and Hindu holidays are national events. On the other hand, domestic violence and child abuse are major issues in Guyana, and sexism and gender biases are often deeply entrenched in local communities. For expat women, this issue is largely confined to catcalls and street harassment, but (as noted elsewhere) it’s best to avoid traveling anywhere alone. - Aug 2019
There are there major ethnic groups- Indo-Guyanese, Afro-Guyanese, and Amerindians. You won't find many Amerindians in the main cities and they keep to themselves. You will find distinct Indo and Afro neighborhoods and regions. There are some tensions between the two but these mostly exist around elections which are racial. - Apr 2014
None that I have personally experienced; however, I am told it is fairly common among the locals. - Nov 2013
It appears that racially, between the Guyanese, there seems to be some tension most noted during election years. There are a variety of religions present in the country including people of the Muslim, Hindu, and Christian faiths. - May 2012
Guyana is a mixture of races and religions. For the most part, they all seem to get along pretty well. Christmas is big here, with Hindus and Muslims putting up lights and decorations. We just had Phagwah (Hindu) and everyone in the city had colored powder on them. Eid is celebrated with feasting as well. An officer who just came from India commented that it was really nice to be in a place where people from different religions got along. That said, there is not a lot of social mixing in the general population, with people tending to marry within their own group. - Mar 2012
One kudos to the people of Guyana is their religious tolerance. The majority of the population is Christian, Muslim, and Hindu and they all get along great. There is intermarriage between the faiths, although it's not very common. The real divide comes with race. There are three prominent races (four if you count the huge influx of Chinese immigrants). Afro-Guyanese (who were brought here as salves, much like the rest of the Caribbean), Indo-Guyanese of Indian descent (they came after the abolition of slavery as indentured servants), and Amer-Indians (the real natives of Guyana). Racial tensions exist between these and political parties are divided among racial lines. The ruling party in Government tends to be Indo-Guyanese while the Defense Force and Police force tend to be Afro-Guyanese. There is a strange balance of power between these two groups and the result is relative peace. - Feb 2012
Some racial prejudices between the two main ethnic groups - those descended from India and those descended from Africa. Mostly everyone gets along very well, though. High marks for religious diversity and tolerance, too. - Feb 2010
