Republic on the northeastern coast of South America with an area of 215,000 km2 and a population of 874,000 (2000 estimate). Formerly named British Guiana, it gained independence from the United Kingdom in 1966 and became a member of the British Commonwealth. Though on the mainland, Guyana is a part of the circum-Caribbean culture area and its heterogeneous musical traditions are most similar to those of other Caribbean poly-ethnic or plural societies (see Suriname and Trinidad and tobago). The music of Guyana comprises three distinct traditions: that of the Amerindian tribes (5% of the population in 1975), of the East Indian community (51%) and of the African-derived blacks and Creoles (31%). However, by the beginning of the 21st century, little musicological research had been conducted there.
GEWM, ii (‘Guyana’, O. Ahyoung)
W.H. Brett: The Indian Tribes of Guiana (London, 1868), 133, 154, 349
E.F. Im Thurn: Among the Indians of Guiana: Being Sketches Chiefly Anthropologic from the Interior of British Guiana (London, 1883/R), 308, 310
W.E. Rot: Additional Studies of the Arts, Crafts, and Customs of the Guiana Indians, with Special Reference to those of Southern British Guiana (Washington DC, 1929), 88
G. Chase: A Guide to Latin American Music (Washington DC, 1945, enlarged 2/1962/R as A Guide to the Music of Latin America)
A. Butt Colson: ‘Halleluja among the Patamona Indians’, Anthropológica, xxviii (1971), 25–58
P. Manuel: Caribbean Currents (Philadelphia, 1995)