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Camopi (Municipality, French Guiana, France)

Flag of Camopi - Image by Ivan Sache, 6 April 2021

Presentation of Camopi
Flag of Camopi

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Presentation of Camopi

The municipality of Camopi (1,834 inhabitants in 2018; 100,300 ha; therefore France's 3rd biggest municipality by its area) encompasses the south-eastern part of French Guiana. The municipality, established in 1969, is composed of two main villages located on river Oyapock, which forms the border with Brazil: Camopi-Bourg (658 inh.) and Trois Sauts (374 inh.), located 120 km upstream.

Camopi was surveyed from 1720 to 1742 for wild cocoa trees. The explorers spread infectious diseases that nearly suppressed the native population, estimated at 15,000 around 1675. Two centuries later, the 13 known tribes of the Oyapock basin were lost. Camopi is inhabited today by Émerillon (Camopi-Bourg) and Wayampi (Camopi-Bourg and Trois-Sauts) people. Émerillon are among the oldest native people to have settled Guiana; descending from Teko peoples, they constitute Guiana's smallest people. Wayana are a Tupi-Guarani-speaking people, which were expelled from Lower Xingu in the 18th century by the Portuguese colonists and settled in Middle and Upper Oyapock in the 19th century.
[J. Barret (Ed.). Atlas illustré de la Guyane, 2001]

Ivan Sache, 6 April 2021

Flag of Camopi

The flag of Camopi (photo) is white with the municipalcoat of arms.
The left part of the arms represents the Wayampi inhabitants of Camopi, in the upper party, a fighting club, in the lower part, a "couleuvre". The right part of the arms represents the Émerillon inhabitants of Camopi, in the upper part, a festival head-dress and a pair of maracas, in the lower part, a piranha fish.
[J. Barret (Ed.). Atlas illustré de la Guyane, 2001]

A "couleuvre" is a basketry mesh traditionally used to process cassava root. After cassava roots have been crushed, the pulp has to be pressed through the "couleuvre" to expurgate the toxic juice, which is required to produce edible flour.
[Parc Amazonien de Guyane]

Valentin Poposki & Ivan Sache, 6 April 2021