The Musée des cultures guyanaises presents a new exhibition on cassava.

Cassava, poisonous plant native to South America, has been cultivated for over 6,000 years by Native Americans who made the basis of their diet. Expertise original to make it edible or immaterial aspect that this plant can take (rituals, beliefs, oral heritage), cassava is a Native American heritage that has attracted other ethnic groups. 

This "shared heritage" has first of all a global dimension via the migration of the plant in the sixteenth century through the Portuguese navigators who established in Africa then in Asia and Australia. Half a billion people consume it today!

But it is also Native American heritage in local share: it is integrated with the Creole and Bushinenge culture. These populations have become major consumers of cassava products. Cassava has been integrated with these other cultures both at food level, tangible and intangible. 

The exhibition cassava into four main parts:

- A botanical presentation

- The Guyanese context

The fundamental role of cassava in Guyana Agriculture (half of all arable land) and local history.

- Food

The two major types of manioc (bitter and sweet), gestures of transformation once the stage of peeling past (“grager”, squeeze, strain), derivatives (dry and liquid), culinary traditions in each ethnic group .

- Non-food uses and the immaterial aspect

Pharmacopoeia and crafts, rituals in different groups, tales and myths, songs and folk dances, literature ...

 An exhibition where all the public can learn, understand and convey the story of cassava in Guyana!