#makushi

There is something simple and hardy about a tuma pot. It is a traditional broth made in a clay pot, and sometimes in a metal pot, by many indigenous peoples in Guyana, South America. The broth is made with hot water, casreep, lot of hot peppers, and any catch of the day – fish and or wild and domestic meat. Casreep is a syrup made from boiling bitter cassava juice for a long time until it turn…

The Kanukus, sometimes called ‘Blue Mountains’ by locals because of their deep blue colour on the horizon line, are a stretch of mountains running East to West between the Rupununi and Takutu river in the Southern part of Guyana. When driving on the main road from the predominantly Makushi-populated North Rupununi, passing these mountains means entering into the historical land of the mighty Wapishanas, made of endless savannahs surrounded by mountains, rivers and deep forests on the East. 

One of these mountains, in fact a rocky hill located close to the village of Shulinab, holds an archaeological treasure of human fragments and ancient ceramic pots that earned it the bone-chilling nickname of “Skull Mountain”.

The place is not easily accessed without local guides, it is located hours away from the village, surrounded by dozens of other mountains. The hill itself is only a 30-minutes ascension but it presents steep slopes of a black rock that turns into soap when humid. We had the unpleasant occasion to test it as a gentle rain started falling while we were in the middle of our ascension. In an effort to adapt to the changing weather conditions we removed our shoes and finished the ascension in socks to have a better grip. Needless to say, it was a rather tense moment. Any a mistake would have resulted in a 20 meters slide ending, at best, in a bush of cactus. Once arrived on top of these slopes, we discovered what seemed to be a shelter in the rocks, at the foot of which a dozen of ancient ceramic pots of all sizes, some of which were in pieces. The main one, which had a diameter of around 80 cm, was full of human bones of all sizes, including children’s skulls... Behind, under the rock, a jaguar nest, empty of course. In the rocks, some human made storage holes indicating they may have held weaponry such as arrows. Above, on the rock, on a surface of approximately 20 square meters, a faded but still clearly visible red paint presenting patterns and symbols drawn by it’s ancient occupiers.

The local story of this site, told by a Makushi elder, is fascinating: an ancient Makushi group fleeing combats with other tribes and settling on this fortress-like mountain with women and children. An alcohol-tainted dispute between some of the men that turned into a bloodshed, and during which no one made it out alive, apart from the killer, an enigmatic watchman. When did it happen? No one really knows. The site was only discovered 15 years ago with all the skulls and bones and ceramic pots placed in a ceremonial way. Unfortunately, pillages have been on-going since, people took pots and bones away, or displaced them, irremediably altering the historical message left by this ancient tribe…

During that visit, and the long discussions that followed with our local guides who happily shared tales and legends on the environment that surrounded us, I was struck by the strength of the mutual relationship between these communities’ identity and their historical land. It may be hard for an outsider to see at first, but local knowledge and traditions have shaped this environment over the centuries. It was just done in a more subtle way, in a more balanced fashion than what industrial civilisations have done on their lands. What appears to be thousands of hectares of wild savannah, forests and mountains is in fact the result of this mutual relationship, where human beings shape their environment and their environment shapes who they are.