Mist swirls around the tops of the three hills of Rupertee and the cold breeze streaming from the nearby Pakaraima Mountains, makes a memory – at least for a while – of the heat that can sear the Rupununi savannahs.
The view is of hills and mountains, tiny houses nestled in the shadows of the mountains and people – the height and distance making them seem like little dolls walking or riding on bicycles. The cracked granite rocks on the top of the three hills make a perfect seat for relaxing, feeling the breeze and listening to the silence. Experiences like that can happen in Rupertee.
Rupertee is a village, so quiet that one can be forgiven for forgetting that it is there. One Saturday last month, out of the 350 souls that call the North Rupununi community their home, hardly anyone was around. Even the vehicles that pass on the Linden-Lethem road that bisects the community seemed to be somewhere else that day.
which is done by many visitors
to the community
Aloysius Daniels, 36, the treasurer for the Village Council was one of the few making his rounds in the community’s minibus that is used to transport children to school. He came to Rupertee from Crashwater when he was eight years old and
stayed. “I just fall in love with my village cos is my village,” he said. “I started school here in Annai so there is nowhere I could go.”
Rupertee is one of the five Macushi Amerindian communities that comprise the Annai Amerindian territory. The others are Annai central, Wowetta, Surama and Kwatamang.
transportation at Annai
The name of the community comes from a type of bamboo called ‘rapoye’ which grows close to a mountain, Daniels said. “That’s the only mountain where you could find the wood,” he noted. The bamboo is said to have been used to make arrow points which would be dipped into the poison, curare. The wood, Daniels said, is nice and “when it raw you could even light fire with it.” The village had set aside that part of the land as the Paurine conservation area and had established a nature trail for tourism.
But the project lagged and they are trying to revive it, Daniels said. With a $1.5 million grant from the government, the community has built a craft centre, a rest house and a village office as they prepare to engage in more tourism-related activities to develop their community.
Most of the residents engage in fishing and farming for their livelihoods, Daniels said. The village has also started a cassava processing project to make farine, cassava bread and tapioca and has planted a four-acre cassava field to support this. He said that the council employs residents on a rotational basis to ensure that everyone benefits.
The community has a nursery school and the primary school is located at Annai. It has an Anglican and a Baptist church and the telephone company GTT has established a cellular tower in Rupertee’s backyard. The village is progressing but losing their indigenous culture, Daniels said. “Nowadays, you can’t find a little child speaking Macushi… just the older ones speaking it,” he related. He said that while he would like to see improvements in the people’s lives, he would also like to see them maintain their culture.
A number of Rupertee’s residents were not born in the community. Jude Rogers moved there 10 years ago following his sweetheart and they now have five children. He likes the community, he said. “It near to the main road and so and you get easy access to anything that you want,” he said. Residents are very interested in sports and usually have games every weekend, he said, adding that he wants to start a hardball cricket tournament.
Leslie Robertson was born in the community. Now 78, he spoke Macushi which was translated by his grandson, Mohamed Robertson. The man married Elvie Robertson when he was 23 and had 15 children, seven of whom are alive. He has many grandchildren who have spread out to places including Brazil to get jobs.
The elder Robertson was a successful farmer, cultivating crops such as peanuts and watermelon. But prior to that, he worked for 19 years as a balata bleeder at Apoteri. When the company closed down, he returned to farming.
Robertson said that he likes some of the changes in the community. He is half-paralyzed and said that he is grateful for the government’s pension, but added that it is not enough to meet his needs and no one is looking out for people like him. Moving slowly, he and his wife still farm at the side of the mountain close to his home and sell bananas. “Sometimes they take their time to go… spend whole day there, sleep there cos he can’t move about as fast as he like,” Mohamed said.
However, the burden of getting to the farm has him hoping that he can farm closer to home just outside his yard. He said that if the community could assist with the ploughing he could plant bananas, cassava and watermelon. He already has several banana suckers in his yard. “They are willing to do that, produce food. They could do it but need a little help,”
Mohamed said while noting that his grandfather was a well-known farmer whom visitors were directed to when they wanted to buy produce.
Robertson does not want to sit down all the time. He said that the pension is too little and things are getting more expensive in the area so he has to get more produce to sell and earn money so he can be more comfortable. “When I know I don’t have money, I can make craft and get an income,” he added.
