toshao

plural toshaos · alternative toshau

1. GuyanahistoricalThe elected leader or head of an Indigenous Amerindian community in Guyana, responsible for representing the village and managing its affairs, particularly in dealings with the government.

   toshao – elected tribal leader of an Amerindian village or community (miscellaneous references)

   2022, Ulrike Schröder, Milene Mendes de Oliveira, Adriana Maria Tenut, editors, Metaphorical Conceptualizations: (Inter)Cultural Perspectives (Applications of Cognitive Linguistics; 45), illustrated edition, Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG, page 118

   2 more examples

   Membership representation on the board has recently been changed to include 16 community leaders, one other elected community member from each village, a youth group leader, the toshao (village leader) for Annai District, an elder and one woman leader.

   2006, Sharon Ousman, Duncan Macqueen, Grace Roberts, Stronger by Association: Lessons from Guyana's Forest-based Associations (IIED small and medium forest enterprise series; 16), International Institute for Environment and Development, page 64

   I witnessed a similar concern in 2018 in Guyana, where the election of leaders has been introduced in the late 1950s (when they were called "captains") and formalized by the Amerindian Act of 2006 (under the name of toshaos): some villagers suggested that the village toshao had been elected only thanks to the votes of people who had recently arrived from Venezuela and whose legitimacy as Village residents was therefore questionable.

   2024, Casey High, Luiz Costa, editors, The Lowland South American World (Routledge Worlds), illustrated edition, Taylor & Francis, page 786