Story and photos by Dacia Whaul
Like many of its sister villages on the West Coast of Demerara, De Kinderen was “bare bush” when locals and foreigners began to cultivate the land. The village of about 700 residents is located between Meten-Meer-Zorg to the east and Zeelugt to the west, and is about 12 miles away from Vreed-En-Hoop.
“Barbadians, St Lucians… came here,” 77-year-old Eileen Alleyne, a native of the community recounted.
Alleyne said that her Barba-dian grandparents came to Guyana in the early 1900s in search of a better life than they were afforded in their own country. “They worked on the estate [De Kinderen sugar estate],” Alleyne told Sunday Stabroek.
“Life was different in those days,” Alleyne recalled; “men use to dig drains and burn mud” to repair streets in the village. According to her, those were the days when everyone cooperated. “People had more morals and discip-line,” she said, and “when you saw big people on the streets, you dare not curse…”
