[[quoteright:300:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/Guyana_map_7550.gif]]

Guyana, officially the Co‑operative Republic of Guyana, is a culturally-[[UsefulNotes/TheCaribbean Caribbean]] country in northern UsefulNotes/SouthAmerica. It is one of only four non-Hispanophone territories in South America (the others being UsefulNotes/{{Brazil}}, UsefulNotes/FrenchGuiana, and UsefulNotes/{{Suriname}}). A British colony until 1966, this country's culture is more like that of the West Indies than of South America. It is 43% East Indian, 30% Afro-Guyanese, 16.7% mixed heritage, and 10% Amerindian. There is also a small Portuguese population in Guyana (which [[UsefulNotes/MajorLeagueBaseball New York Yankees]] first baseman Mark Teixeira is descended from) and a Chinese population that, though tiny, has had a massive influence on Guyanese cuisine (as a result, Guyana has its own distinctive version of chow mein).

Most non-West Indians know Guyana for being the place where American pastor UsefulNotes/JimJones and the members of the People's Temple from {{UsefulNotes/California}} [[DrinkingTheKoolAid drank cyanide poisoned Kool-Aid]] in 1978 (909 people died in total). It should be noted, however, that average Guyanese civilians had no idea that the Jonestown settlement was even there. The People's Temple had moved to Guyana from California in order to evade investigation by the US government. The Guyanese dictator at the time, Forbes Burnham, allowed Jones and his followers to quietly form their settlement, but again, the average Guyanese civilian was unaware of this until after the mass suicide made headlines.

Over the years, there has been much racial tension between the Indo-Guyanese (descendants of [[IndenturedServitude indentured servants]] brought by the British from {{UsefulNotes/India}}) and the Afro-Guyanese descendants of African slaves (although this tension has lessened somewhat in recent years), with most of the Indo-Guyanese voting for the People's Progressive Party and most of the Afro-Guyanese voting for the People's National Congress. In TheSixties and TheSeventies, Guyana was ruled by the authoritarian grip of the economically socialistic PNC leader Forbes Burnham. Burnham, an Afro-Guyanese, was extremely racist towards the Indo-Guyanese, and was greatly resented by them. After Burnham died, another PNC leader, Desmond Hoyte took the reins throughout TheEighties.

Finally, in the [[TheNineties early 1990s]], fair elections were restored, and the PPP won the election, putting an Indo-Guyanese (Cheddi Jagan) in the Presidency for the first time. The PPP has won national elections ever since, except for between 2015 and 2020, during which the PNC returned to power.

In the late 1990s, a Jewish-American, Janet Jagan (nee Rosenberg) became President for a short time after her husband, President Cheddi Jagan, died in office. Janet Rosenberg had met Cheddi Jagan when he had been studying dentistry in the UsefulNotes/UnitedStates, married him, and moved to Guyana with him. The next President was Bharrat Jagdeo, Jagan's former finance minister, from 1999 to 2011.

As the culture is a Caribbean-based culture, soca, [[{{ChutneyMusic}} chutney (a popular musical form created when Caribbean nationals of Indian descent blended Indian and Caribbean styles)]], calypso, and {{Reggae}} are popular in Guyana. UsefulNotes/{{Cricket}} is the national sport; Guyana is represented at Test level through the West Indies team.

Foods popular in Guyana include roti, dhal, chicken curry, and (at least among the Christian Guyanese, who have no restrictions on eating beef) pepperpot, a spicy beef dish.

One of the most fun and distinctive cultural traits of Guyanese people is their accent. They speak English, but with a VERY distinct dialect. The dialect is formally referred to as Guyanese English, or sometimes simply as Guyanese (occasionally it may be referred to as Creole, or Creolese). Basically it's a very deep Caribbean accent, although with a different, faster cadence than the Jamaican accent. The speech is usually peppered with a few surviving Hindi/Bhojpuri words (particularly if the Guyanese person is descended from Indians) and/or African words (particularly if the Guyanese person in question is Black), although there is overlap. It should be noted that almost nobody in Guyana speaks fluent Hindi/Bhojpuri (except for the Hindu priests) or any African languages, but again, some words have survived from those languages to get passed on into modern Guyanese speech. Guyanese English also tends to be '''VERY''' fast-paced, and can be quite confusing for outsiders.

Many Guyanese-Americans and Guyanese-Canadians, despite being raised in the United States and UsefulNotes/{{Canada}}, have consciously chosen to continue speaking Guyanese English at home and among relatives (and among other Guyanese friends) in order to preserve their cultural heritage. In public however, they generally speak in American or Canadian accents unless they want to amuse their non-Guyanese friends.

It should be noted that Guyana (along with Suriname) is '''NOT''' considered part of UsefulNotes/LatinAmerica, since it has a different culture (basically, that of the Anglophone Caribbean), and most Guyanese people tend to get rather annoyed when people mistakenly assume that it is.

The most populous religions in Guyana and among the Guyanese diaspora are UsefulNotes/{{Christianity}}, UsefulNotes/{{Hinduism}}, and UsefulNotes/{{Islam}}, in that order. The majority of Indo-Guyanese are Hindu, with roughly ten percent following Islam, while a minority of Indo-Guyanese and virtually all Afro-Guyanese are Christian.

There is a large diaspora of Guyanese people living in [[{{BigApplesauce}} New York]] (particularly in the Richmond Hill section of Queens), [[{{Joisey}} New Jersey]], and Toronto, as well as Britain.

Guyana in many ways can be considered a sister nation to UsefulNotes/TrinidadAndTobago, as the two nations are located very close to each other, share cultures that are almost identical, have the same religious and ethnic demographics, listen the same music, and the fact that there is significant intermarriage between Guyanese and Trinidadians.
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!!Famous People who are Guyanese or part Guyanese:
* Mark Teixeira, who played 14 seasons in [[UsefulNotes/MajorLeagueBaseball Major League]] UsefulNotes/{{Baseball}}, most notably with the New York Yankees, is Portuguese-Guyanese from his father's side.
* Music/LeonaLewis, whose father is Guyanese and mother is British.
* Music/{{Rihanna}}, whose mother is Guyanese and father is from Barbados.
* [[Franchise/{{Batman}} William Austin, a white Anglo-Guyanese and British actor whose appearance inspired the iconic design for Alfred Pennyworth, Batman's loyal butler.]] Prior to Austin's appearance in the 1943 Batman serial, Alfred had been drawn as pudgy and with no facial hair. After Austin's portrayal of the character, the now-familiar image of Alfred as a tall man with a thin mustache became the norm.
* The late Norman Beaton, famous for the titular role in the sitcom ''[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Desmond%27s Desmond's]]''
* Guitarist Dave Baksh of the Canadian band Sum 41 is Indo-Guyanese.
* E.R. Braithwaite, the real-life teacher whose memoirs formed the basis for Sidney Poitier's character in "To Sir with Love" is Afro-Guyanese.
* Danish international footballer Martin Braithwaite has a Guyanese father; neither is likely related to the above.[[note]]His father's birth surname was ''Brathwaite'', but when he arrived in the US before later moving to Denmark, American authorities changed it.[[/note]]
* Creator/RaymondAblack, who plays Sav Bandhari in ''Series/DegrassiTheNextGeneration'', is Indo-Guyanese.
* Melinda Shankar, who plays Alliah Bhandari in ''Degrassi'' is also Guyanese.
* Model Shakira Caine (the wife of British actor Michael Caine) is Indo-Guyanese.
* Cricketer Shivnarine Chanderpaul is Guyanese, and was former captain of the West Indies cricket team.
* [[ProfessionalWrestling Pro Wrestler]] [[Wrestling/TheNexus Ezekiel Jackson]].
* RAndB singer Melanie Fiona.
* Canada's Drag Race season 1 winner Priyanka (Mark Suknanan) is Indo-Guyanese.
* ''Series/BigBrother Canada'' contestant Aneal.
* Actress Creator/CCHPounder.
* Actress Creator/LetitiaWright is a Guyanese native, emigrating to the United Kingdom as a child.
* Actor Creator/PeterDavison; his father was Guyanese.

!! Guyana in fiction

[[foldercontrol]]

[[folder:Film -- Live Action]]

* ''Film/GuyanaCrimeOfTheCentury'' is an ExploitationFilm released less than a year after the Jonestown tragedy. It was the first work of fiction to portray the incident, but it takes several liberties regarding how the events happened, and [[RomanAClef all the involved people's names were changed]].
* ''Film/GuyanaTragedyTheStoryOfJimJones'' tells the story of Jim Jones' life from his birth to the murder-suicide of his Jonestown cult in Guyana.
* ''Film/{{Jonestown}}'' is a documentary film conceived as a more tactful, true-to-facts retelling of what happened in 1978.

[[/folder]]

[[folder:Video Games]]

* In ''VideoGame/PokemonRedAndBlue'', the journals found in the Pokémon Mansion state that the scientists involved in cloning Mewtwo from Mew found the latter in Guyana.
* ''VideoGame/RedWorld'', taking place in an AlternateTimeline where the Soviet Union won the Cold War, has Guyana unite with French Guiana and Suriname to become the Marxist-Leninist Guyanese Union.
* George from ''VideoGame/MetalGearRisingRevengeance'' is Guyanese.

[[/folder]]
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[[foldercontrol]]

[[folder: The Guyanese flag ]]

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/guyana_flag_3262.png
->Called the "Golden Arrow" for its design, the flag's green, yellow and red colors symbolize the forests and agriculture, mineral wealth, and zeal and dynamism, respectively, while the white and black fimbriations symbolize the waters and endurance, respectively.
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[[/folder]]

[[folder: The Guyanese national anthem ]]


->Dear land of Guyana, of rivers and plains
->Made rich by the sunshine, and lush by the rains,
->Set gem-like and fair, between mountains and seas,
->Your children salute you, dear land of the free.

->Green land of Guyana, our heroes of yore,
->Both bondsmen and free, laid their bones on your shore.
->This soil so they hallowed, and from them are we,
->All sons of one Mother, Guyana the free.

->Great land of Guyana, diverse though our strains,
->We're born of their sacrifice, heirs of their pains,
->And ours is the glory their eyes did not see,
->One land of six peoples, united and free.

->Dear land of Guyana, to you will we give,
->Our homage, our service, each day that we live;
->God guard you, great Mother, and make us to be
->More worthy our heritage, land of the free.
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[[/folder]]

[[folder: Government ]]

* Unitary presidential constitutional republic
** President: Irfaan Ali
** Prime Minister/First Vice President: Mark Phillips
** Vice President: Bharrat Jagdeo
** National Assembly Speaker: Manzoor Nadir
** Chief Justice: Roxane George-Wiltshire
** Opposition Leader: Aubrey Norton
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[[/folder]]

[[folder: Miscellaneous ]]

* '''Capital and largest city:''' Georgetown
* '''Population:''' 743,700
* '''Area:''' 214,970 km
(83,000 sq mi) (83rd)
* '''Currency:''' Guyanese dollar ($) (GYD)
* '''ISO-3166-1 Code:''' GY
* '''Country calling code:''' 592
* '''Highest point:''' Mount Roraima (2772 m/9,094 ft) (78th)
* '''Lowest point:''' Atlantic Ocean (3,646 m/11,962 ft) (-)