Native Americans
At the heart of the group made up of Amerindians, there are six different ethnic groups: the Wayampi, the Emerillon, the Wayana, the Galibi or Kali'na, the Arawak and the Palikour. In French Guiana, their current number is estimated at about 9,000 individuals, mostly living apart from society, withdrawn to their respective villages in the forest or on the coast. Recently, the French authorities have recently created a restricted zone stretching south of a line connecting Maripasoula (on the Maroni) to Camopi (on the Oyapock), i.e. a good third of the territory. This initiative does not stem from a threat of physical disappearance of these indigenous communities, but rather from a desire to ensure the sustainability of their practices, which are threatened by the inevitable acculturation resulting from the settlement of Amerindians in large cities. The protection of the fauna and flora environment is also essential to the food balance of these ethnic groups, which is constantly threatened by the danger of gold panning. For several years now, the Amerindians of French Guyana have expressed the desire to see their children receive normal schooling, like other Guyanese children. Unfortunately, the distance that separates some villages from schools is often an obstacle to the proper pursuit of these studies, as the problem of accommodation close to the place of education tends to be recurrent.
Despite this isolation, the inhabitants of the reserved areas or coastal regions play an active role in the life of the country, and meeting these Amerindian peoples is a highly recommended experience. Moreover, their knowledge of the Amazonian forest and their way of life totally integrated into the environment make them particularly remarkable guides: when hiking or even hunting expeditions in the forest, their experience and knowledge prove to be extremely useful!
The Wayana. Nowadays, for example, you can visit Wayana villages, mainly on the Upper Maroni. Extremely sensitive to the most benign European diseases such as the common cold, these people have been isolated in order to ensure their own protection. Although they have been influenced by Western life (French education system, clothing, language), the identity and way of life of the Wayana have changed little. Although they no longer wear the kalimbé (red loincloth) every day, during festivities and other special occasions, they wear festive clothing (beautiful hand-sewn costumes and crowns of colourful feathers) and play their traditional musical instruments. The daily life of the Wayana is divided between agricultural work, hunting, fishing and gathering, all of which help to meet the community's food needs. Cassava, in the form of cassava (a kind of wafer) or couac (semolina), is the most common ingredient used in their cooking.
The Galibi. Of all the Amerindian peoples of Guyana, the Galibi are probably the most integrated into Guyanese social life due to the fact that, unlike other Amerindian communities, they live mostly on the coast, whether it is near Mana, in Saint-Laurent-du-Maroni, in Iracoubo or in Kourou and Cayenne. The Galibi fight on the social and political terrain to defend their interests and traditions. They thus obtained the creation of their own commune at the mouth of the Maroni, Awala-Yalimapo, entirely managed by them. Participating in the economy of French Guyana, they are quite dynamic in the tourism, agriculture and fishing sectors. Organized in communities, the Galibi recognize the authority of a "captain" who, generally speaking, acts as an interlocutor with the institutions. Recently, these communities have begun to turn to tourism, allowing visitors to share their everyday life for a day or a weekend.
The Palikour. Believed, like the Wayana, to be highly vulnerable to diseases imported from Europe, the Palikour live mainly in south-east Guyana, between the village of Saint-Georges and the mouth of the Oyapock River, in protected areas created for them by prefectoral decree. Traditionally practising barter, the Palikour have only recently become familiar with the use of money. Although the majority of their children now attend school, they are still far removed from modern civilization, maintaining very traditional customs and mores.
Black Maroons or Bushinengués
Black Maroons are thus designated for historical reasons: it was the descendants of African slaves who in the 18th century decided to "maroon", i.e. to flee the plantations - mainly Dutch plantations in Suriname, but also in Guyana - where they worked in often intolerable conditions, in order to regain their status as free men. The other name of these men and their descendants is "Bushinengué", a term forged from the English "bush negroes" (literally "negroes of the woods") because it was by isolating themselves in the forest, a land they tamed perfectly, that they managed to avoid being caught by the oppressor and to organize themselves into communities. Like the Amerindians, they are considered in Guyana as "river men"; their knowledge of rivers and the great ease with which they navigate them make them excellent pirogues. The Black Maroon communities are also known for their mastery of wood carving and painting, with Bushinengé craftsmanship largely based on African roots.
There are three groups of Bushinengue people in Guyana: the Bonis or Akulu (about 5,000 people) live mainly on the right bank of the Maroni (Apatou, Papaïchton and Maripasoula), the Ndjukas (between 6,000 and 10,000 members) also live along the Maroni and in Grand-Santi, Kourou and the suburbs of Cayenne, while the Saramacas (around 8,000 people) are spread throughout the territory (Saint-Laurent-du-Maroni, Kourou, on the banks of the Tampoc and Oyapock rivers). The common language used by the Black Maroons, regardless of their own language, is Sranan Tongo, which comes from Suriname. However, people in the interior use variants more closely related to their own culture. For example, the Saramaca use sranan tongo for their exchanges with other Bushinengés, but speak samaca
as soon as they are among themselves. As is still the case for the Amerindians, the traditional economy of the Black Maroons is based on agriculture in the forest, hunting, fishing and gathering. Men cut down and burn plots of forest land for slash-and-burn agriculture. Women mainly grow rice, cassava and some tubers. Like the Amerindians, they import a number of manufactured products from the coastal cities (dishes, clothing, fabrics...), which makes them relatively dependent on Western civilization. Since 1960, the black-brown poles have tended to break up. However, the means of communication between the coastal cities of Suriname and Guyana have improved, facilitating the exchange of goods and tourism.Creoles and Subways
The Creoles are the largest and most active community in French Guiana (about 40% of the population). The Guyanese Creoles are the result of a vast intermingling between African ancestors and various groups such as Chinese, Europeans or even Indians (from India), more commonly known as "Coolies". In addition, French Guiana has welcomed throughout its history a large number of Creole immigrants from the French West Indies (Guadeloupe and Martinique, about 12,000 people today) and the English West Indies (Saint Lucia and Dominica). The Guyanese Creole language(Kreyòl Gwiyanè) and the music embody the Creole identity, an exoticism that does not leave travellers indifferent. It is during the carnival that the Creole spirit manifests itself most strongly. Due to the effects of heavy immigration, the proportion of Creoles tends to decrease. Generally settled on the coast (Cayenne, Kourou, Saint-Laurent-du-Maroni and Mana), the Creoles nevertheless control most of the local political power, and only a minority of them live in the equatorial forest. The visitor may be struck by the antagonism that sometimes exists between the Guyanese and the West Indians. For political and administrative reasons, Guyana and the West Indies are grouped together in the same territorial entity, whereas the problems encountered in each of these geographical areas have absolutely nothing in common. The Guyanese often rightly consider their department, compared to those of the West Indies, to be a poor relation.
The French in mainland France, commonly referred to as the " Metros", represent about 12% of the Guyanese population. Unlike the West Indies, French Guiana does not have an ancient white community like the Békés of Martinique and Guadeloupe. The historical conditions of the arrival of white people in French Guiana differ radically from the situation in the West Indies. In the islands, the white man was initially a landowner, a master managing a plantation operated by Creoles who were often enslaved. In French Guiana, the Whites were first associated with the convicts who inhabited the territory from the middle of the 19th century. The Metro community is mainly employed in the administration, the army and the space industry. It is essentially a temporary population that renews itself regularly. As a result, this population is rarely involved in local social life and seeks, at best, to integrate into the Creole community. Some, however, have succumbed to the charm of French Guiana during a short stay and have settled there permanently.
Other Communities
Guyana's geopolitical environment is conducive to population movements. Indeed, the department is a real island of economic wealth in this part of the world, so much so that over the last ten years or so, the Guyanese population has been growing almost uncontrollably: Guyana is often considered an Eldorado, particularly by the Brazilian and Surinamese populations. Illegal immigration is, moreover, the battle horse of the authorities, although the presence of these populations has many economic and cultural advantages. Every year, the Guyanese authorities expel around 15 000 people in an irregular situation.
Among the large foreign communities in Guyana, the most dynamic is that of the Asians, who are the real driving force in the fields of trade and agriculture. The Chinese from the Canton region were brought to Guyana during the 19th century to make up for the labour shortage following the abolition of slavery. Their situation has changed over the years, and today they have mainly specialized in petty trade and organize their own immigration channel with Hong Kong. The Hmongs of French Guiana were settled from 1977 onwards by the French government following proposals from refugee aid associations and missionaries who had evangelised this population in Indochina. Originally from Laos, which they had fled in 1975 to go to the camps in Thailand after the communists came to power, they were the object of various resettlement projects in Western countries. Thus the first Hmong families arrived in Guyana, in the village of Cacao, where they cultivated rice. Today, they have mostly become market gardeners and play a decisive role in supplying fruit and vegetables to the urban markets of Guyana's large and medium-sized cities. A second village, Javouhey, 250 km from Cacao, was created in 1979, as well as a third in 1988, Rococoua. The Asian community present in French Guiana also includes the Javanese, in fact Indonesians who emigrated to Suriname (at the time of Dutch Guiana) and settled, at the end of their contract with the Dutch government, in the Sinnamary region of French Guiana, around 1955-1960. After a few trials of farming, they mostly turned away from agriculture to be hired on the major construction sites of the Guyana Space Centre (CSG).
Lebanese immigrants have been living in French Guiana for a very long time and are now fully integrated into the country. Their preferred activity is mainly the textile trade. But French Guiana also serves as a land of asylum in this troubled region of the world. In the fairly recent past, Haitians fleeing the totalitarian Duvalier regime and then the misery of their country, have found in French Guiana a French-speaking land of welcome. After the 2010 earthquake in Haiti, many students were invited to continue their studies in French Guiana while waiting for the reconstruction of their country. Generally speaking, Haitians live from small gardening or house maintenance jobs, as administrative or financial difficulties often force them to live in very modest houses, often in communities. Other refugees are those from the civil war in neighbouring Suriname. This conflict led to a massive influx of Surinamese, particularly in Saint-Laurent-du-Maroni, in 1986. At that time, camps had been set up in that region to accommodate them and to manage what was then considered a temporary situation. But the conflict lasted seven years, and when calm returned in 1993, few of them returned to their country. The work on the gold panning sites, on the other hand, attracted mainly Brazilians, whose families are integrated into Guyanese life and whose children are generally in school. Finally, a few thousand nationals from Saint Lucia, the Dominican Republic, Guyana and Indonesia complete this formidable patchwork of populations.
