Mana

Mana was founded in the 1820s by Anne-Marie Javouhey, a Burgundian nun who established a settlement where freed slaves could live and work before abolition, an experiment that made the town unlike anything else on the coast. Wooden Creole houses stand around a grid of quiet streets by the river, and rice fields spread across the coastal plain outside, worked in big flat polders toward the sea.

History

A first settlement of people from the Jura failed through alcohol and disease, and on 16 August 1828 Sister Anne-Marie Javouhey, sent by the Ministry of the Navy and Colonies, founded Mana; she built a farming community open to black traders rather than the white colony the ministry had in mind, and when 20 escaped slaves settled in the area she bought them from their owners. Governor Jean Jubelin visited in 1833, approved of the progress and sent orphans and a leper colony at Acarouany, but in 1838 the colony was short of labour, the government refused to fund Javouhey's plan to educate 3,000 children of slaves, and she left in 1843. On 31 December 1988 about 3% of Mana's territory was detached to form the commune of Awala-Yalimapo, and the town is now French Guiana's main rice producer (Wikipedia, Mana, French Guiana).

What to look for

• The Javouhey foundation - a town built as a settlement for freed slaves before abolition.
• The Creole grid - wooden houses along quiet planned streets.
• The rice polders - the flat fields spread between the town and the sea.
• The river front - the Mana running past toward the Maroni mouth.

When to go

July to November is the dry season. The rice fields flood and green with the cropping cycle. The wet season peaks April to June.

Good to know

The town is very quiet and most services are basic. The rice fields have declined from their peak and parts lie fallow. It works best combined with Awala-Yalimapo and the turtle beaches.

Nearby

Awala-Yalimapo is northwest, and Saint-Laurent is south.

Key facts