Kamarang is an Amerindian community situated on the confluence of the Kamarang and Mazaruni rivers. These days the community of around 700 people serves as a key trading post for the Middle Mazaruni, which comprises about ten villages peopled mostly by Arecuna and Akawaio Indians. Kamarang is one of two villages that enjoy scheduled flights from Ogle on Mondays, Thursdays and Saturdays. The other is Imbaimadai. Gold has accounted for this. Coastlanders have found their way to Kamarang working either as miners or shopkeepers.
For all its economic significance, Kamarang remains a relatively threadbare community. It has a police station, a cottage hospital, a post office, an airstrip, a guest house, bars and an administrative office. For all the gold that is mined there, Kamarang, the community, like other gold-mining communities in Guyana, runs the risk of being stripped of its resources without securing any reciprocal returns.
Some of the traditional social and economic ways of the community have persisted, gold notwithstanding. Farming remains a way of life for villagers, who cultivate ground provision and fruit and vegetables on their modest farms. Honey, homemade bread and sewing are among the other cottage industries in evidence at Kamarang.
Sewing and craft groups have been set up to help supplement family incomes. The commodities produced by the groups include hammocks and traditional Amerindian artifacts. These are sold to visitors, or else, sent to craft shops elsewhere.
Amrita Thomas is an Akawaio Indian from Waramadong. She belongs to a family that is steeped in the politics and culture of the Middle Mazaruni. Thomas is the Regional Vice Chairperson for Region Seven. Her father and her sister preceded her in the job.
On the surface it seems that business is booming at Kamarang, but Thomas has a different view. She is concerned that the ‘high-rollers’ are predominantly gold miners from the coast. A handful of villagers own dredges, but most of them who are ‘in gold’ work as cooks, divers and general labourers. “The goldfields may be doing brisk business but little of the wealth is being left behind,” she said.
The villagers at Kamarang have also been afflicted by the consequences of a ‘gold economy.’ Prices are set to suit the pockets of the miners. Chicken retails at $800 per pound; fuel at $3,000 per gallon; bread at $800 per loaf; rice and sugar at between $250 and $300 per pound; fish, which is brought from Georgetown or from Tamakay can fetch up to $1,500 per pound.
It seems also that some villagers are paying for their superficial ‘gold economy’ with their social and cultural values. Thomas says family life has been impacted significantly by the growth of the gold economy. Many young men find it more profitable to go to the goldfields than to complete their basic formal education. Employment for women in the sector ranges from working as cooks or ‘Bahir’ at mining camps to vending. Prostitution is an inviting option.
Some villagers appear to have “made it in mining” though Thomas is concerned that many of them appear to be more concerned with “living it up” than with looking after their families. In those instances, women must subsidise family incomes.
Poverty persists in the midst of the gold frenzy. Young girls opt for the relative security of their own families rather than complete their schooling. The upshot of this is a largely unskilled female population. The Kamarang Sewing Group is an option but there are not many more.
Children who live close to mining camps are confronted with the permanent temptation to quit school. Compared with subsistence farming the pay is good. Thomas says she spends time talking to some parents about the value of an education but the lure of gold invariably outdoes her entreaties.
She is, herself, a single mother of five. This puts her in a position to appreciate the plight of other women in her community. For several years, she has been buying and selling footwear, kitchen utensils and clothing to support her family. Her son, who works in the goldfields helps to keep the wheels of the family turning. Gold may not always be working to the advantage of the people of Kamarang but Thomas concedes that her son’s income has become the financial backbone of the family.
She worries about the use of mercury and its impact on local water supply and fishing. She recalls that in 2000 mercury tests done in the Middle Mazaruni area revealed that high levels of mercury had been deposited and the level of mercury tested in persons was alarming as it stood at 89-96%.
Stabroek News of June 28, 2009 quoted Rickford Vieira, the Regional Goldmining Pollution Abatement Coordinator at the Guyana Office of the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) as explaining that that studies have proved that mining activities have released mercury into the environment. He referred to a Guyana Environmental Capacity Development Project (GENCAPD) study in 2000, which found that 89%-96% of the population surveyed in Isseneru Village in Region Seven (Cuyuni/Mazaruni) had dangerous levels of mercury contamination. Residents of the community are involved in gold mining and the study found that no one in the village owned a retort, and many kept mercury at home, near sleeping and cooking areas. They also ate more fish than another community that was surveyed. Vieira said tests on persons, who trade in gold and work in an enclosed environment, have revealed high mercury levels. He admitted that it was more of an occupational and safety issue but pointed to another study done in the North-West District, where persons hardly ate any fish, which were largely absent because of the turbidity levels of the rivers, and were only exposed to the mercury through mining.
With increased mining in the area and more villagers opting to enter the “gold fields” Thomas is calling for another test to be done to determine the level of mercury in persons.
She said that while the Kamarang River may not be overly polluted there is growing disquiet in the community over the likelihood that mercury pollution may one day rob the residents of access to fish from the river. Already, there is much evidence that both land and water pollution is impacting negatively on fishing and hunting in much of the Middle Mazaruni.
School-leavers from Kamarang who opt for careers in the health sector attend the Linden School of Nursing. Thomas’s daughter is one of current batch of trainees. The costs are astronomical. The return journey from Kamarang to Ogle by air costs alone costs $27,000. None of the resources earned from mining gold at Kamarang is invested in strengthening training for the health sector though nurses are encouraged to return to the community after they have been trained. Thomas said that at the very least some of the returns from the gold industry should be used to improve conditions at the local hospital, which is often inundated with cases of malaria among miners.
The nature of the ‘gold economy’ often results in the abuse of women. Men are the major earners and women, in their condition of dependence, are vulnerable. In areas like Kamarang the abuse of women is often seen as “an economic reality.”
Working people at Kamarang face other difficulties; like the fact that the closest office of the National Insurance Scheme, geographically, is situated at Bartica. Again, there are considerable costs associated with getting there.
As the ‘gold economy’ secures a tighter grip on hinterland communities more negative consequences emerge. Thomas says some men are migrating long distances away from their original homes, abandoning their families and starting new ones in mining communities that appear to hold greater promise. She has advised Toshaos to seek to determine whether a new entrant into the community has a family before allowing him to settle in the community.
Thomas is not averse to the mining sector and its potential to improve lives and enhance the country’s economy. She is, however, concerned that gold may be turning out to be a poisoned chalice for hinterland communities like Kamarang. Apart from the fact that little of the wealth secured from the goldfields is being left behind, the transformation that is occurring does not, in far too many instances, redound to the advantage of the people who must live and die in those communities.
