Guyanese culture reflects the influence of African, Indian, French, Amerindian, Chinese, British, Dutch, Portuguese, Caribbean, American and Nepalese culture.

Cultural events

• Mashramani (Mash)
• Phagwah (Holi)
• Deepavali (Diwali)
• Easter
• Christmas

Literature and Theater

Popular Guyanese authors include Wilson Harris, Jan Carew, Denis Williams and E. R. Braithwaite. Braithwaite’s memoir To Sir With Love details his experiences as a black high school teacher in a white London slum.

An early Guyanese born author was Edgar Mittelholzer, who became more well known while living in Trinidad and England. His more well known works include Corentyne Thunder and a three novel set known as the Kaywana Trilogy, the latter focusing on one family through 350 years of Guyana’s history.

Although the beginning of theatre in 19th century Georgetown was European, in the early 20th century a new African and Indian Guyanese middle-class theatre emerged. In the 1950s there was an explosion of an ethnically diverse and socially committed theatre.

Despite an economic depression, there was a struggle to maintain theatre post-1980. Serious repertory theatre was highlighted by Carifesta and the Theatre Guild of Guyana. Wordsworth McAndrew has been prominent in Guyanese theatre since the 1960s.

Visual Arts

Visual Art takes many forms in Guyana, but its dominant themes are Amerindian, the ethnic diversity of the population and the natural environment.

Modern and Contemporary visual artists living in, or originally from, Guyana include Stanley Greaves, Ronald Savory, Philip Moore, Donald Locke, Frank Bowling, Hew Locke, Roshini Kempadoo and Aubrey Williams.

Film

Guiana 1838, a film by Guyanese-born director Rohit Jagessar that depicts the arrival of indentured Indian servants to the Caribbean in 1838 following the 1834 abolition of slavery in the British Empire, was released in 2004. A trailer can be seen at.

The story of the cinema in Guyana goes back to the 1920s when the Gaiety, probably British Guiana’s first cinema, stood by the Brickdam Roman Catholic Presbytery in Georgetown, and showed Charlie Chaplin-type silent movies.

After the Gaiety burnt down around 1926, other cinemas followed, such as the Metro on Middle Street in Georgetown, which became the Empire; the London on Camp Street, which became the Plaza; and the Astor on Church and Waterloo Streets, which opened around 1940.

The Capitol on La Penitence Street in Albouystown had a rough reputation. The Metropole was on Robb and Wellington Streets; the Rialto, which became the Rio, on Vlissengen Road; the Hollywood was in Kitty; and the Strand de Luxe on Wellington Street, was considered the luxury showplace.

Cinema seating was distinctly divided. These divisions in the cinema roughly represented the different strata existing in colonial society.

Closest to the screen, with rows of hard wooden benches, was the lowly Pit, where the effort of looking upwards at the screen for several hours gave one a permanent stiff neck.

The next section, House, was separated from the Pit by a low partition wall. House usually had individual but connected wooden rows of seats that flipped up or down.

Above House was the Box section, with soft, private seats and, behind Box, Balcony, a favourite place for dating couples.

Architecture

Much historic architecture reflects the country’s British colonial past. Many of these buildings in Georgetown and New Amsterdam were built entirely of local woods.

Sports

The major sports in Guyana are cricket (Guyana is part of the West Indies as defined for international cricket purposes), softball cricket (beach cricket) and football (soccer). Minor sports include netball, rounders, lawn tennis, basketball, table tennis, boxing, squash and a few others.

Guyana played host to international cricket matches as part of the 2007 Cricket World Cup. The new 15,000-seat Providence Stadium, also referred to as Guyana National Stadium, was built in time for the World Cup and was ready for the beginning of play on March 28. At the first international game of CWC 2007 at the stadium, Lasith Malinga of the Sri Lankan team performed a helmet trick or double hat-trick (four wickets in four consecutive deliveries).

For international football (soccer) purposes, Guyana is part of CONCACAF.

Folklore

The Guyanese folklore is similar to the Caribbean folklores, mixed with afro-american and indian beliefs.

Religion

Christianity and Hinduism are the dominant religions in Guyana. Data from a 2002 census on religious affiliation indicates that approximately 57 percent of the population is Christian. The composition of that population is:

• Pentecostal, 17%
• Roman Catholic, 8%
• Anglican, 7%
• Seventh-day Adventist, 5%
• other Christian groups, 20%

Approximately 28 percent is Hindu, 7 percent is Muslim (mostly Sunni), and 2 percent practice other beliefs, including the Rastafari movement and the Baha’i Faith. An estimated 4 percent of the population does not profess any religion.

The country is ethnically diverse, reflecting East Indian, African, Chinese, and European ancestry, as well as a significant indigenous population.

Members of all ethnic groups are well represented in all religious groups, with two exceptions: most Hindus are Indo-Guyanese, and nearly all Rastafarians are Afro-Guyanese. Foreign missionaries from many religious groups are present.

Christianity’s status as Guyana’s dominant system of values is a consequence of colonial history. To the European planters, colonial administrators, and missionaries, the profession of Christian beliefs and observance of Christian practices were prerequisites to social acceptance.

Even though the planters discouraged the teaching of their religion to the slaves, Christianity eventually became as much the religion of the Africans as of the Europeans. Indeed, after abolition, Christian institutions played an even more important role in the lives of the former slaves than in the lives of the masters.

By the time the East Indians and other indentured groups arrived in Guyana, a new syncretic Afro-Guyanese culture in which Christianity played an important part had already been established.

Only since the mid-20th century, with the growth of the Indo-Guyanese population and the efforts of their ethnic and religious organizations, have Muslim and Hindu values and institutions been recognized as having equal status with those of Guyana’s Christians.