Caribbean Beat — September/October 2017 (#147)

NEIGHBOURHOOD
pete oxford
Lethem, Guyana
Two hundred and sixty miles from Guyana’s
Atlantic coast, the border town of Lethem
has a raffish frontier charm — and serves as
the gateway to the Rupununi Savannah and
neighbouring Brazil
Streetscape
Sprawling across a small triangle
between the Takutu River, the airstrip,
and the Rupununi Road, Lethem has no
obvious centre and few major landmarks.
Red laterite earth and the vast Rupununi
sky may be the distinctive feature of
this small town of simple dwellings and
cashew trees, increasingly interspersed
with guesthouses and modest hotels,
eateries, and general goods stores
stocked with Brazilian products.
Portuguese is almost as common as
English, and watering-holes are as likely
to serve Brazilian Nova Schin beer as
Guyanese Banks. On Lethem’s northeastern
outskirts are the rodeo grounds,
home of the famous Easter Rodeo that
draws numerous vacqueiros — cowboys
— from near and far, to show off their
skills with bucking broncos and lariats.
History
Pre-dated by several Amerindian villages in the
vicinity and by the nearby Jesuit mission of
St Ignatius, the settlement of Lethem — named
for a former governor of British Guiana — began
in the early twentieth century as a border post
on the eastern bank of the Takutu River, which
serves as Guyana’s boundary with Brazil. By the
time of Guyanese independence in 1966, Lethem
boasted a district commissioner’s headquarters,
police station, and dirt airstrip.
In January 1969, Lethem was the epicentre of
the Rupununi Uprising, a short-lived but violent
rebellion by a small group of Rupununi ranchers
against the government in Georgetown. Five
policemen were killed before soldiers flown in
from the coast restored order. For most of the
following two decades, Lethem remained a
sleepy village, until in the late 1980s a dirt road
was carved through the forests and savannahs
of central Guyana, connecting Lethem to
Georgetown by land.
The road increased the number of travellers
between Guyana and Brazil — mostly
prospectors, tradesmen, and a few tourists —
until in 2009 a bridge across the Takutu became
the first land link between the neighbouring
countries. The bridge plus a gradual increase in
eco-tourism has brought a small population boom
to Lethem in the past decade.
pete oxford
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