Jonestown, Mahaica Explained

Official Name:Jonestown, Mahaica
Other Name:Voorzigtigheid
Settlement Type:village
Pushpin Map:Guyana
Pushpin Label Position:bottom
Pushpin Map Caption:Location in Guyana
Subdivision Type:Country
Subdivision Name: Guyana
Subdivision Type1:Region
Subdivision Name1:Demerara-Mahaica
Unit Pref:Imperial
Population As Of:2012
Population Footnotes:[1]
Population Total:572
Timezone:UTC-4
Coordinates:6.6844°N -57.9175°W[2]
Blank Name:Climate
Blank Info:Af

Jonestown is a village in the Demerara-Mahaica region of Guyana. The old name of the village was Voorzigtigheid.[3] The village is located 37.5 kilometres (24 miles) from Georgetown between Hand-en-Veldt and the Atlantic Ocean,[3] and near the town of Mahaica.[4] Therefore, it tends to be called "Jonestown, Mahaica" or "Jonestown, Mahaica, ECD", even today, although by current Guyanese administrative regions it is in Demerara-Mahaica.

Lewis Osborne Inniss, the Trinidadian writer and folklorist (a druggist, by profession), was born in Jonestown in 1848.[5]

Jonestown, together with nearby areas along the lower courses of the Mahaica and other rivers of northeastern Guyana, has suffered from flooding during the wet season in the early years of the 21st century.

This Jonestown is not to be confused with the Jonestown of the 1978 mass murder-and-suicide by members of the Peoples Temple. Although that short-lived Jonestown was also in Guyana, it was in a different part of the country. The two places share their name by happenstance and have no other ties.

Notes

  1. Web site: 2012 Population by Village. Statistics Guyana. 20 August 2020. Listed as Voorzigtigheid.
  2. Web site: Places of worship. Guyana Adventists. 20 August 2020. Listed as Voorzigtigheid in their church index.
  3. Web site: Jonestown. Stabroek News. 20 August 2020.
  4. Web site: Jonestown residents seek update on Lima bridge works. Stabroek News. 20 August 2020.
  5. Pierre, p.xv

References