Customer Reviews

Metegee: The History and Culture of Guyana

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

In a nutshell, Metegee is a treasure chest of Guyana's who, why, when, where, what and how. Abrams covers Guyana in all aspects of our history and culture. On a scale of one to ten, Metegee is a big, fat ten. A must have for every Guyanese or anyone else who may wish to know as much of Guyana as they possibly can.

Roxanne De Cruiz-Shung(...)

Required reading by all Guyanese Children, and by the children of Guyanese resident abroad.

Ovid paints a factual, accurate, enthralling, entertaining and enlightening picture of Guyana, our Eldorado.

An easy book to read, well researched and written.

Metegee is a metaphor for the people of Guyana, and for this book by Ovid Abrams, both are a mix. Mr Abrams has a very lucid and plane spoken style, and his collection has much to offer. I did find it enjoyable and informative, and would certainly recommend it.
I do take issue with a few things Mr Abrams said.

(1)Secondary education was readily available in Georgetown, and was not so costly as to be exclusive. It was also better, or at the very least as good as anything I've seen in both Canada and the US.
(2) I don't think that the British ever considered the "indentured" Portuguese their equals. The Portuguese came mostly from the little island of Madeira, either because of famine or political instability, I don't really know, however I do know that both commerce and agriculture were well developed there, and I'm sure that when they came their intention was to work out their contract and go into bussiness for themselves. This is what they did, and they prospered.
(3) As far as Obeah is concerned I never knew it as a religion, but rather as something akin to witchcraft. In fact in the late forties there was a famous case in which three people were tried and hanged, because they had sacrificed a young child in an Obeah ceremony.

Evidently Mr Abrams is very keen on language and folklore, and that's fine, but there's too much. I didn't find the proverbs and saying so interesting, and many of the customs, beliefs, superstitions I wasn't familiar with. I do wish he had spent more time saying something about other ethnic groups like the Portuguese and Chinese. I also wish he had said something about the cattle ranchers in the Rupunnuni District.
Lastly though I know there was nothing altruistic about it,it should have been mentioned that but for Dutch engineering, Georgetown and the entire Atlantic coast would have been uninhabitable. Further though British colonialism was thoroughly detestable, it is worth noting as Mr Abrams points out that the exchange rate on the BG$ was 2 per US$ in 1960, and that after the Jagan-Burnhasm nightmare it stood at 140 BG$ per US $.

The book badly needs editing, but that is a minor distraction

Ovid Abrams did a super job with this piece of writing. It takes discipline to work very hard. In my opinion, in general, Guyanese people should support writers. Writing requires courage. Metegee is now a powerful asset and resource for the aspiring writers in Guyana. I enjoyed this book thoroughly. Thank You Mr. Ovid Abrams.

Exceptional! A metegee is a traditional Guyanese dish with everything included and that's exactly what this is. As a daughter of Guynana, I was blown away. This will be my gift to all family members for the next year. Metegee includes culture, politics, sayings and was a fascinating study of life in a British post-colony. I was never bored reading it and suggest not only that all Guyanese families own one, but all Caribbeans. For a self-publishing volume, this book was very well done. I would love to take a class with the creative and gifted author.

The author Ovid Abrams did an excellent job incorporating Folklore and facts into this book. Metegee is a must have for anyone that would like to get a peak into Guyana's rich culture and History. It is very easy and entertaining work to read. A must have!

I bought this book with great expectations of sharing it with non-Guyanese friends, and then keeping it in my personal library. I was sorely disappointed........The colonial history and more recent political history are long on factual details, but superficially analyzed....and the "culture" element of the book is more about folklore than culture in a pure anthropological sense, with dozens and dozens of pages of local sayings and idioms, but no story to hold them together.... But my greatest horror about the text itself is the absolutely abysmal quality of the proofreading and editing....EVERYWHERE there are typos, and mis-spellings, and incomplete ungrammatical sentences, and parts of sentences repeated in successive paragraphs, etc. etc.....to the point where it is so totally distracting that I put the book away in disgust.....it was disappointing to think that this text could have been cleared before printing by the author who is a professional journalist. For shame!!!!!

The book Metegee gives a detailed history of guyana. I contains brilliant stories and is very easy and fun to read. I love it because you don't even have to be from Guyana to enjoy it.

The author Ovid Thomas description of guyana and its people and culture is very trivial and fictional. It appears that Mr. Thomas spent most of his time researching guyanese folk lore in lieu of researching the rich history of the Guyanese people.

The historical events recorded in Metegee will enghten those who do not know the history of Guyana during that period. This book is a classic piece of information for scholars. Gus Corbin, vp, Guyana Friends Association, Boston, MA.