Albion, Guyana
Encyclopedia
Albion is a town in the country of Guyana
Guyana
Guyana , officially the Co-operative Republic of Guyana, previously the colony of British Guiana, is a sovereign state on the northern coast of South America that is culturally part of the Anglophone Caribbean. Guyana was a former colony of the Dutch and of the British...

.

Geography

It is located approximately 11 miles (17.7 km) east of the town of New Amsterdam, Guyana
New Amsterdam, Guyana
New Amsterdam , located in the East Berbice-Corentyne Region, 62 miles from the capital, Georgetown, is one of the largest towns in Guyana. It is located four miles upriver from the Atlantic Ocean mouth of the Berbice River, on its eastern bank, immediately south of the Canje River...

 along the one and only main road. Part of Albion is known as Albion High Reef.

Demographics

The small village has about three thousand inhabitants, 95% of which are Indians from India
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...

, whose ancestors came over on British ships from India beginning in 1838, in the capacity of indentured laborers, to work on the giant sugar plantations in British Guiana. The remaining 5% of the population in Albion is split between Blacks
Black people
The term black people is used in systems of racial classification for humans of a dark skinned phenotype, relative to other racial groups.Different societies apply different criteria regarding who is classified as "black", and often social variables such as class, socio-economic status also plays a...

, Amerindians (native indigenous tribes from South America
South America
South America is a continent situated in the Western Hemisphere, mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a relatively small portion in the Northern Hemisphere. The continent is also considered a subcontinent of the Americas. It is bordered on the west by the Pacific Ocean and on the north and east...

), and Chinese
Overseas Chinese
Overseas Chinese are people of Chinese birth or descent who live outside the Greater China Area . People of partial Chinese ancestry living outside the Greater China Area may also consider themselves Overseas Chinese....

.

Economy

Albion is home to the largest sugar manufacturer in the Caribbean
Caribbean
The Caribbean is a crescent-shaped group of islands more than 2,000 miles long separating the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean Sea, to the west and south, from the Atlantic Ocean, to the east and north...

 region. Electric and municipal water supplies were only first available beginning in about 1998. The people live entirely off the land, growing eggplant, tomatoes, squash, melons, spinach, eddoe (or taro leaf), okra, and a wide number of tropical fruits like guava, mango, coconut, banana, and star apple. Fish are also readily available in the many trenches that lead out to the Atlantic Ocean
Atlantic Ocean
The Atlantic Ocean is the second-largest of the world's oceanic divisions. With a total area of about , it covers approximately 20% of the Earth's surface and about 26% of its water surface area...

, as well as shrimp, crab, snails, and also many wild birds.

Flora and fauna

Albion, like all of Guyana, is heavily infested with several types of mosquitoes, though diseases like dengue and yellow fever, as well as malaria, have almost completely been eradicated in the Albion coastal areas. Still, the mosquitoes and flies are quite a constant harassment, and people must sleep under mosquito nets.

Cuisine

The cuisine is quite interesting, as it has retained very much of its East Indian quality. Curries cooked with garam masala and other Indian spices are very common, and Hindu
Hinduism
Hinduism is the predominant and indigenous religious tradition of the Indian Subcontinent. Hinduism is known to its followers as , amongst many other expressions...

 and Muslim
Islam
Islam . The most common are and .   : Arabic pronunciation varies regionally. The first vowel ranges from ~~. The second vowel ranges from ~~~...

 holidays are celebrated in much the same way as in India to this day.

Points of Interest

The Albion Sports Complex is an entertainment and sports venue in Berbice, Guyana. The venue plays host to the local team of Guyana. The stadium hosted its first international match on 16 March 1977. The match was played between West Indies and Pakistan which was won the hosts by four wickets. The venue has hosted five one-day games so far but it's been more than two decades now that an international game has been played at the Albion Sports Complex.
The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
x
OK