For about a week leading up to the annual Emancipation anniversary, before thousands of Guyanese, Brazilians and visitors from the Caribbean and the North American diaspora converge in the National Park to celebrate, the Main Street Avenue comes alive.
Craft producers, seamstresses and vendors specializing in afro-centric clothing and accessories set up tents between Church and Quamina streets to sell clothing, beaded jewellery, African-Guyanese food and indigenous beverages.
Seamstresses come with already treated (starched) pieces to create intricate head wraps to match or contrast with the distinctly patterned fabrics on sale. They attract sizeable crowds every day. In recent years they added makeshift dressing rooms to their temporary tents to body-wrap and otherwise dress a growing number of women and girls in styles specific to Ghana, Nigeria and Senegal mainly. Others just wing it and create their own distinctive styles.
Colourful displays of beaded jewellery and scarves dot this one-block landscape and attract a steady flow of patrons, some of whom are in search of specific colours of earrings, necklaces and arm bands to match or contrast with their chosen fabrics.
When Stabroek Business visited on Emancipation eve, the avenue was teeming with early afternoon shoppers and models fully attired in African regalia. Some people were looking for advice on wrapping techniques. Others wanted to purchase matching outfits for their husbands and sons who would join them in the National Park the following day.
Business was bright and vendors were pleased that the effort was not in vain. They were generally satisfied with the revenue they earned. They planned to return to the location during the morning hours of Emancipation Day to cater to the customers who needed help with body and head wrapping and the