The route from the border to Georgetown consists of almost continuous housing, constructed upon wooden stilts to keep the properties from flooding. The housing is intermittent with mosques and other places of religion, which typifies the ethnic mix in this country. This mix originates from the abolition of slavery in 1834, when Africans refused to work on the plantations for wages, and many established their own villages in the bush. Plantations closed or consolodated because of the labour shortage. A British company, Booker Bros, resurrected the sugar industry by importing indentured labour from India, drastically transforming the nation´s demographic and laying the groundwork for fractious racial politics that continues to be a problem today. Georgetown still bears the scars of the elections of 2001 when entire blocks of Georgetown were set ablaze. The capial still has
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