ABSTRACT
The republic of Guyana is one of three former colonies originally known as the Guianas, which lie side by side on the northeastern coast of South America. The Arawak word guaianá ‘land of many waters’ (Tremblay 1988:58) was the name given the area, sighted by Columbus in 1498 and comprising today’s Guyana, Surinam (formerly Dutch Guiana), French Guiana, and parts of Brazil and Venezuela. Guyana (bordered by Surinam to the east, Brazil to the south, Venezuela to the west, and the Atlantic Ocean to the north), is the only English speaking-country on the South American continent. The British divided Guyana into three counties: Essequibo, Demerara, and Berbice. In 1982, through a process called regionalism, the country was politically divided into ten regions. Most of its eight hundred thousand inhabitants live in the coastal regions, and most of its 215,000 square kilometers are covered by tropical forests.
