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May 12, 2014 News
The Village of Victoria, located on the East Coast of Demerara, will be celebrating 176 years of being in existence. To commemorate this historic occurrence, the 5000 plus residents are anticipating a grand festivity.
Friends of Victoria Diaspora Incorporated has taken up the mantle of hosting several spectacular events in honour of the first village to be bought by slaves from their British colonial masters.
Victoria, which was originally established in 1839 as Plantation Northbrook, lies some 18 miles east of Georgetown on the Atlantic coast.
History has it that 83 ex-slaves from the five neighboring estates such as Dochfour, Ann’s Grove, Hope, Paradise and Enmore, pooled their resources and bought the plantation. They paid 30,000 guilders, or $10,283.63, and each ex-slave owned one plot of land.
After being purchased, the buyers renamed their property Victoria, presumably in honour of the Queen of England. A few of the current residents, however, believe that their village got its name in light of the ‘victory’ of the freed slaves.
Speaking with this newspaper on Saturday, Joseph Barlow said that the commemoration of activities got underway from as early as March, with an interfaith ceremony, followed by the Kite Flying competition held in April and continued with yesterday’s activity to honour three of the oldest mothers in the village with hampers and tokens of appreciation.
In celebration of Guyana’s Independence on May 26, the villagers are expected to partake in a grand Maypole fair. The Friends of Victoria Committee will also be hosting competitions in Metem-gee cooking, Football, Dominoes, Drumming and Masquerade.
An award ceremony would also be held to honour the village’s children who are successful at this year’s major examinations. This will be followed by a ‘Victoria Pageant’ scheduled for October 27th, and a dramatization of the purchase of Victoria village on November 8th.
Barlow, who is 73-years-old, told Kaieteur News during a brief interview that “History, being mischievous as it is, loves to repeat itself but loathes reinventing itself. It holds on to the number 83 but…some records say 63, with the 63 names mentioned. The survey plan shows 86 though.”
Nonetheless, Barlow said that his village has a love affair with religion and now boasts of 18 churches with sizeable number of believers.
“The village population swelled and running out of farm lands, many Victorians moved over to Nabaclis and set up homes. The land portions were larger …shares instead of Lots and lower taxation. It is for this reason that there is such closeness between the people of Nabaclis and Victoria, resulting in much intermarriage and so on.”
Barlow wasted no time in boasting that Victoria produced many stalwarts and notables, including sculptor of the 1823 rebellion monument, Ivor Thom.
Reflecting on some of the changes in the village, Barlow said that these are as a result of the generation gap.
“As time changes, everything changes, and for me to talk about some of the changes, it will be bias. You see, as I don’t like the changes now, the generation before me didn’t like the changes in my generation.”
One regret that Barrow said that he now has though, is the fact that the village, which was once self sufficient, is no longer this way.
“Like the cattle farming and coconut industries. We followed the white people and we abandoned those industries. They provided employment and so, but now people are going out of the village to seek employment…but then again, it goes back to all the changes that are happening everywhere,” Barlow said.
Speaking on sports and entertainment in Victoria Village, the man said that residents utilize the Lady Sendall Park, which is the only operational community centre ground.
“The ground is mostly used to play football. First, was cricket, but football is taking over now. In its heyday, the ground was a well manicured cricket ground and hosted many agricultural fairs. The last such fair was held in 1960, but we’re looking to hold one in 2014,” Barlow noted.
He said with regret that today, most of “the cooperative spirit has disappeared. There is a mass of school drop-outs… the scourge of drugs is omnipresent and the village is in need of a massive dose of moral rearmament .Can this be reversed to bring back this once stellar, economically viable hamlet to a semblance of its glory days? Time and history will tell.”
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