by ~samcoe
Words from a white boi
Your project is Santa Rosa
My letter said in May
That sounds a bit Spanish
Where is it anyway?
Region 1, Guyana will host you for your stay
You will be leaving in August though
that’s 3 months to the day
So now I am here
Gone a hundred days or more
You know, I’ve really like it here
Since I first walk thought the door
Sam come teach English
HM said first day
You got to be joking I said
It was a total fluke that A!
What would you like to teach then
He said to me in reply
Science or maths please
And he gave a little sigh
Well Science is all sored
So I don’t need help with that
How about a maths class
I nodded and that was that
So entrusted I was to maths
And entrusted I will be
To make sure that these children
Are better at maths than me.
Mourca is my new home
for the next year at least I am sure
with 4 months done
its just begun
I've still got 8 months more
The weather here is quite a change
from bliteys dull and rain
But all the same
Its quite a pain
To have brought a sweater
In vain
The food out here is full of spice
But surprisingly its rather nice
The food back home is dull and plane
And to be honest it all tastes the same
so When I got here I had a shock
When I tried a spicy pepper pot
The cassava bread was nice to try
But oh my god I nearly died
What I did I’ll share with you
I swallowed too quickly and forgot to chew!
So after that
I wont forget
Make sure your cassava breads nice and wet!
Soca songs all sound the same
Tick tac and one nation get stuck in my brain
But there are more songs out there to get
I just don’t know the names yet!
I’ll be sure to find out before I go
And be king of the dance hall before you know!
Mi creoles is still pretty poor
Must get dem teacher to tell mi more
Just now mi hungry bad
Right now mi belly full
That was just a start you know
Soon I’ll be a fluent as you!
I think that, thats me finished
my poetic juices dry
I'll just have to wait till next time
to have another try
So in closing
I'll just say
thanks for listening
good morning, good night, good day.
http://samcoe.deviantart.com/art/Words-from-a-White-Boy-26250889?q=&qo=
Wednesday, December 29, 2010
Monday, December 27, 2010
The Rupununi Rebellion, 1969
The rebellion that erupted forty years ago on Thursday, January 2, in the Rupununi District has been the single most serious threat to the national security and territorial integrity of the state. Occurring only thirty-two months after Guyana’s independence from Great Britain, it also constituted the country’s earliest and severest test of statehood and social solidarity.
Edward 'Teddy' Melville MBE, former Member of the Legislative Assembly
It has always been an error to assume that colonial subjects yearn to become citizens of an independent state. In the case of British Guiana, the so-called independence struggle was more problematic than elsewhere in the anglophone Caribbean. On much of the coastland, the rivalry for political office aggravated ideological, social and racial differences and left deep wounds which never healed completely. In the hinterland, the Rupununi District’s remote location, quaint socialisation and poor communication contributed to its low level of integration with the rest of the country. Dangerous delusions and feelings of exclusion festered there.
The regional context
Prior to independence, the Rupununi District’s spatial, settlement and land use patterns and under-populated and under-resourced conditions set it aside as a ‘frontier society’ in significant ways.
Sand Creek, an Amerindian Village in the Rupununi in the late 1950s.
Geographically, the Rupununi is different to anywhere else in Guyana. Located in the southernmost and remotest part of the country, it was the country’s largest district of nearly 58,000 km² or over a quarter of the national territory. Its most prominent feature is the savannah but its economy is precarious. Cattle-ranching had been introduced in the 1860s and, a century later, by the 1960s, there were about fourteen major ranches with 18,000 head of cattle scattered over the north and south savannahs. The huge Rupununi Development Com-pany based at Dadanawa had about 25,000 head.
Mamai Mary, matriarch of the Melville-Hart clan
In the colonial era, the land was ‘Crown’ land. The Rupununi Development Com-pany operated an enormous ranch of 6,734 km² (about 2,600 square miles) under a 21-year lease. Individual ranchers were leased blocks of about 130 km² (50 square miles). After five years, tenants were eligible to obtain 21-year leases with renewable rights, provided that stipulated stocking and building requirements were met. But conditions were always marginal. The soils are loose, low in nutrients and unsuitable for intensive farming. Grazing no more than six head per square kilometre (or about 15 cattle per square mile), stock management could be cursory yet costly. Transportation was also expensive; market cattle slaughtered at the Lethem abattoir had to be carried by air to Georgetown.
The district, nevertheless, had started to evince encouraging signs of progress by 1968. It possessed an abattoir; aerodrome; hospital with government medical officer and nurses and a dispensary supplemented by missionary medical services; police stations; primary schools; sections of the Public Works and Lands and Mines Departments; trade store; electrical generating plant and a reliable air and mail service from the coastland. A useful livestock station functioned at St Ignatius. The Easter rodeo, a hotel and a few nightspots provided entertainment.
The GDF Task Force lands in the Rupununi (an artist’s impression by Barrington Braithwaite)
The Rupununi District was home to three indigenous ethnic groups − Makushi in the north savannahs; Wapishana in the south savannahs; and Wai-Wai in the forested deep south beyond the savannahs. Public health measures to control tuberculosis and eradicate malaria triggered a population surge from 3,500 in 1945 to 12,000 in 1968 − relatively sparse in relation to the area.
Non-Amerindian settlement started about 1860 when a trader of Dutch ancestry named de Rooij established a homestead near the Rupununi River, not far from Dadanawa, and bought some cattle from Brazil. Next came Harvey Prideaux Colin (HPC) Melville, of Scottish ancestry but Jamaican birth, who by the 1890s bought the small herd of 300 after de Rooij’s death. Melville took two Wapishana wives − later known as Mamai Mary and Mamai Janet − and with them fathered ten children. Thus started a large clan of mixed Amerindian and European ancestry located first in the south.
The next prominent personality was Basil Lawrence ‘Ben’ Hart, an American who arrived in the Rupununi in 1913. Ben Hart met and married Harvey Melville’s eldest daughter, Amy, fathering six sons and a daughter. This had the effect of enlarging the class. Harvey Melville, Ben Hart’s father-in-law, established him at the Good Luck ranch at Pirara in the north savannahs. Four of Melville’s sons married Brazilian women of mixed blood and the fifth married a Wapishana woman, each offspring receiving land and cattle as a wedding gift. In time, a large cattle-owning caste of related families with common occupational, political, religious and social interests and lifestyle, and accustomed to holding sway over a vast domain, rose to prominence in the Rupununi.
The Christian church was well entrenched. Broadly, the Roman Catholics were strong in St Ignatius and the south and the Anglicans in the north, but several other missionaries, such as the Unevangelised Field Mission, were influential. Party politics came when the Rupununi District was designated as a separate electoral constituency and with the establishment of the United Force party in 1960. In the elections of August 1961, Edward (Teddy) Melville, MBE, was elected to the Legislative Assembly as member for Rupununi. Political mobilisation led to ethnic polarisation. The evidence suggests that resentment against coastlanders, in particular Africans and East Indians, had been fomented over a long period. Fantastic stories were widespread. Especially after independence, wild rumours circulated that the ranchers’ land would be taken away and given to African-Caribbean settlers from Barbados and Jamaica and the whole way of life in the Rupununi would be turned upside down.
The savannah oligarchy was able to live comfortably by 1968. Many of their children were educated on the coastland and ranchers and Amerindians together constituted an influential political constituency. Even before the rebellion, certain cultural characteristics had become evident. Describing the oligarchy, Michael Swan, in his The Marches of El Dorado, wrote:
“They now have money for the first time, they have jeeps, good clothes and can fly to Georgetown when they wish… Civilisation has brought them to a pleasant point of prosperity; they do not wish the savannahs to be settled by outsiders – perhaps the Negro from the coast; they do not want progress and development – perhaps a township where the Indians will learn all that is worst in modern civilisation.”
The significance of such a reactionary mindset and in such a social context was amplified sharply in the months after national independence in 1966.
The criminal conspiracy
What were the real causes of the conspiracy? Several factors – economic, ethnic, political, legal and strategic – might have motivated the ranchers’ fateful decision. During the rebellion, Valerie Hart, the self-appointed “President of the Essequibo Free State,” suggested that there was a racial factor. She told United Press International in Caracas, Venezuela, that the rebels were seeking “racial independence” from the “despotic policies” of the central government of Premier Forbes Burnham. James ‘Jimmy’ Hart, also in Caracas, explained that the decision to rebel was taken after the government refused the ranchers’ request for a 25-year lease of the land they were occupying and their fear that farmers from Jamaica and Barbados would be brought in thereby “forcing white settlers and Amerindians out.”
On the legal side, the land question had become an important national issue after independence. Honouring its commitments to the indigenous community, the administration had convened the Amerindian Lands Commis-sion under the chairmanship of Patrick Forte in August 1967 in accordance with the Amerindian Lands Commis-sion Ordinance 1966. Charged with determining the areas of residence and recommending rights to tenure and other issues, the commission’s recommendations were confidently expected to collide with the conventional lax land use patterns in the Rupununi. It soon became clear to all that Amerindian land rights could be determined and defended only to the detriment of the companies, churches and ranchers who had already established themselves in what until then they regarded as ‘empty’ Crown lands with little real concern for the economic interests of the indigenous people.
On the economic side, ranchers had been slow to adopt efficient, intensive animal husbandry practices which could have supported larger herds on smaller acreages. The short-term nature of the land leases, the prospect of an unfavourable ruling by the commission and the fear of competition for limited labour and land resources combined to heighten the ranchers’ insecurity. The ranchers saw themselves as an exclusive class who had transformed the district from a wilderness. Just when prosperity seemed within their grasp, they felt threatened by the possibility of having their privileges diminished.
On the political side, from the time that party politics came to the district, the oligarchy and the indigenous peasantry were regarded as supporters of the United Force party. One of their own, Edward Melville, had been elected to the Legislative Assembly in August 1961 and, in the elections of December 1968, Valerie Hart was that party’s unsuccessful candidate. After the elections of December 1964, the United Force entered a coalition administration with the People’s National Congress but, when it was excluded from the administration after the PNC claimed an outright victory in December 1968, the ranchers feared the worst.
On the strategic side, relations with Venezuela over the territorial controversy had deteriorated since independence. The Rupununi District was located wholly within Venezuela’s zona en reclamación and the ranchers must have felt that their hacienda lifestyle and social pretensions would have been tolerated under Venezuelan governance. In a clearly treasonable statement during the course of the rebellion, Valerie Hart urged the Venezuelan government to assert its “rightful claim” not only to the Rupununi but to the entire Essequibo region.
There was no evidence to substantiate the assumption that support for rebellion among the indigenous population was widespread. There was no apparent intention or effort to win their hearts and minds or to convince them that the rebel cause was worth fighting for. Some of the indigenous ‘foot soldiers’ recruited into the rebels’ ranks seemed to believe that they would be taken to Georgetown and had left their homes nine days before the hostilities.
Others would later claim to have been misled or intimidated into going to Venezuela for military training. The ranchers, and not the rank and file, had a clear political objective and military mindset and were prepared to seek the support of a foreign state to promote the secession of part of Guyana’s territory.
The rebel offensive
For an undertaking as serious as secession, the ranchers seemed strangely unready. There was little indication that they had tried to win over the indigenous population. Propaganda, such as it was, came only after the outbreak of the rebellion and was aimed at Venezuelan official and public opinion rather than winning support and sympathy in Guyana. Hence, the rebellion unfolded, exploded and imploded all in a matter of ten days.
On December 23, 1968, several ranchers met at Harry Hart’s ranch at Moreru where a plan for capturing the main government outposts and declaring the secession of Rupununi from Guyana unfolded.
The next day, some of them and their vaqueiros were flown to Venezuela and lodged in a military camp for seven days training in the use of weapons. The group was flown back to Pirara on January 2, 1969 and the same morning set out for their objectives. Valerie Hart was taken by the same aircraft back to Venezuela where she would present herself as “President of the Essequibo Free State” in revolt against the Government of Guyana, and claim that the inhabitants of the region had been “attacked without provocation.”
On arriving at Lethem, the rebels opened fire on the police station with the man-portable M-9 Anti-Tank Rocket Launcher (the so-called bazooka) and automatic weapons. Policemen rushing out of the building were shot dead. The rebels then entered the station and shot and killed one civilian employee, Victor Hernandez. The police inspector who was at the district commissioner’s office at the time of the attack was shot and killed there. The government dispenser who rushed to the police station when the firing began was shot at and wounded. The station’s radio communication with polïce headquarters in Georgetown ceased immediately after the attack began and before any messages about it could be sent. In all, six persons were killed at Lethem The rebels then rounded up the residents including the district commissioner and held them prisoner in the abattoir, blocked the airstrip and set up machine gun posts at tactical positions around the township.
Elsewhere in the district, other sections of the rebel force were despatched to block the airstrips at Good Hope, Karasabai, Karanambo and Annai; seize the small police stations at Annai and Good Hope; and shut down radio communications. This left open only the airstrip at Manari about 9 km ( 6 miles) from Lethem. Apart from the mayhem in Lethem, the rebel offensive had the effect of forcing hundreds of Amerindians to flee. About 300 crossed the Takutu River at St Ignatius to seek refuge in Bom Fin, Brazil. Others fled to the hills or hid in the bush. About 95 fugitives, probably members of the Melville-Hart clan, initially arrived at Santa Elena where they were granted asylum and promised land and employment by the Venezuelan government.
The rebellion seemed destined to fail. The small company of combatants received only about a week’s worth of military training on unfamiliar weapons in a foreign country. They squandered their superior knowledge of the terrain and failed to adopt field tactics to dominate the countryside beyond the seizure of a few centres and stations or to resort to irregular warfare to harass the Guyana Defence Force when it eventually arrived. Transportation by British Mini-Moke light utility vehicles was limited to poor roadways and little use was made of the light aircraft at their disposal. Communications and coordination were weak, the offensive collapsed in disarray and the rebels fled.
The military campaign
The military operation to suppress the rebellion was commanded personally by the Chief of Staff of the Guyana Defence Force Colonel Ronald Pope, a member of British Army Staffing, Administration and Training Team in Guyana at that time. The task force was drawn from the 2nd Battalion under the command of Lieutenant Colonel Cecil Martindale and comprised three companies – No. 2 Company under Captain Vernon Williams; No. 4 Company under Captain Desmond Roberts; and No. 6 Company under Lieutenant Joseph Singh.
The earliest warning of disorder seems to have come from Guyana Airways pilot Captain Roland da Silva. On leaving Lethem in a Guyana Airways DC-3 Dakota aeroplane with a load of beef destined for Georgetown, he heard a radio transmission about disturbances over a missionary radio which was passed on to the government, Guyana Airways, Civil Aviation Department, Guyana Defence Force and Guyana Police Force.
At that time, the security forces possessed no transport aeroplanes and only Guyana Airways could mount a major airlift of a large number of soldiers over such a great distance. Three senior pilots – Michael Chan-A-Sue, Roland da Silva and Philip Jardim – and their co-pilots were ‘invited’ to volunteer to transport troops and supplies in a nearly 90-minute flight to the Rupununi. After the rebellion was quelled, Prime Minister Forbes Burnham commended them for their courage, commitment and skill.
Military mobilisation began at mid-afternoon on January 2 at the GDF’s 2nd Battalion Head-quarters at Atkinson Field (now Timehri) in response to Captain da Silva’s report. By nightfall, the advance guard of the military task force had been transported to Manari. During the night at Atkinson Field, more troops assembled and the next morning, January 3, task force headquarters and the main body landed. Orders were issued for the operation to be conducted in three phases: first, the capture of Lethem; second, the capture of rebel positions in the north and south savannahs; and, third, the restoration of central government authority throughout the district.
In the first phase, the attack to capture Lethem was led by two rifle companies. No. 4 Company was given responsibility for the western sector with the task of securing the administrative buildings and other structures along the Takutu River which formed the Guyana-Brazil border at that point. No. 2 Company was given responsibility for the eastern sector with the task of retaking the airstrip, abattoir and nearby structures. No 6 Company, which comprised the advance guard that had been flown into the area the previous evening, was initially given the responsibility to maintain the security of the airhead at Manari.
The month of January in the Rupununi is sunny and dry; visibility is good and the ground is firm. Under these conditions, the task force began its advance on Lethem on Friday, January 3, across open terrain. The task force met no opposition from the rebel force even though the latter possessed several tactical advantages − better knowledge of the ground; prepared positions; superior weapons; good fields of fire and vision; and vehicle mobility. The rebels, however, chose to get into their vehicles and drive off to Brazil.
Both companies secured their objectives. No. 4 Company, which came upon the sun-baked cadavers of the policemen, was given responsibility for Lethem area after it was retaken. No. 2 Company, which took the airstrip and abattoir, was able to free dozens of government officials and foreigners who had been held hostage. By 18:00 hours, the first phase of the task force’s mission was accomplished.
The second phase started from Saturday, January 4, as No. 2 Company was sent to secure the north savannahs and No. 6 Company was called up from Manari and sent similarly to secure the south savannahs. In general, the population had fled across the Takutu River to Brazil or into the bush and settlements were empty. Several of the abandoned ranch houses owned by the rebels were razed.
In the final phase, after across-the-border negotiation with Brazilian officials, refugees were encouraged to return home. By this time, border security had become the military responsibility of the Brazilian army’s Grupamento de Elementos de Fronteira which established control points to prevent unauthorised entry into that country. The Brazilian military authorities, however, refused to hand over rebel fugitives on their territory. Those still in Guyana who were suspected of involvement in the rebellion were arrested by the police for interrogation. Military patrols continued and peace and order were restored.
The political sequel
Despite the Rupununi’s relative remoteness from the coastland, the rebellion made waves at several levels in the country. The United Force party had many reasons to be embarrassed by the tragic fiasco. The rebel Valerie Hart had been one of that party’s candidates to contest the December 1968 general elections only a few weeks earlier but had failed to win a seat in the National Assembly. Her claims in Venezuela that the inhabitants of the district had been attacked “without provocation” and that the government was treating them in the most barbaric fashion were quite untrue. Her appeal to the Venezuelan government to intervene militarily to help the rebels and take over the district and to assert its “rightful claim” not only to the Rupununi but to the entire Essequibo was taken as treasonous.
Five days after the rebellion, the party was obliged to expel her “for acting in a manner inimical to the territorial integrity of Guyana and the aims and objectives of the United Force.”
In addition, evidence suggested that the party leader Peter d’Aguiar and his wife Kathleen had paid a visit to the Rupununi on December 28, soon after the general elections. They held an hour-long meeting with Harry and Valerie Hart and others but were in London when the rebellion broke out. The next month, denying knowledge of the conspiracy, Peter d’Aguiar announced his resignation from the National Assembly and his intention to quit politics.
The People’s Progressive Party opposition, mistakenly assuming that the rebellion was an indigenous insurrection, took the opportunity just one day after the rebellion to blame the People’s National Congress administration for what it called “the grave dissatisfaction among the Amerindian inhabitants” and for the “widespread and growing discontent.”
The People’s National Congress, together with its arms – the Young Socialist Movement and Women’s Auxiliary – held a huge rally on January 12 at Independence Park in Georgetown. Wearing black armbands, speakers condemned Venezuelan involvement in the rebellion and called for the expulsion of foreign missionaries; the trial of “traitors” in a military court; mass military training and the acquisition of weapons from China, Cuba and Russia “as a matter of survival to defend our fatherland from warlike neighbours.”
The central government reacted in several ways. At the security level, strict controls were imposed immediately on the entry of visitors to the district. Some foreign-born Roman Catholic priests were refused permission to return and officials of the United Force were banned from entering. At the administrative level, the Department of the Interior was transferred from the Ministry of Local Government to the Office of the Prime Minister. The month after the rebellion, 170 Amerindian toshaos were invited to a four-day conference in Georgetown. Apart from agreeing to a raft of community projects, the significant outcome of the conference was the unanimous passage of a resolution. In a staged show of support, the toshaos pledged their loyalty to the government, rejected Venezuela’s territorial claims; deplored the actions of “misguided persons who conspire with foreigners to the detriment of the state”; and condemned those who sought to overthrow the government by force, among other things.
A useless war
The police arrested a few hundred mainly Amerindians in the district on suspicion of having been involved in the rebellion, but only 22 were brought to Georgetown to answer charges for murder in the magistrates’ court on January 10. Warrants were issued for the arrest of several members of the Melville-Hart clan – the masterminds – but, by this time, they had all been granted asylum in Brazil and Venezuela. The following year, charges against the suspects who were remanded for trial in the high court were dismissed.
The rebellion had its roots in the peculiar geographical, historical and racial pattern of development of a remote region. Citizens in other parts of the country who were influenced by the plantation economy, populist politics, ideological diversity, intellectual ferment, racial rivalries, educational change and mass communication, had come to a sort of tense modus vivendi.
The Rupununi oligarchy, however, did not. The ranchers languished in paranoid isolation − hidebound and enmeshed in a web of obsolete, semi-feudal social relations.
In the final analysis, the rebellion was all about the meaning of national independence to different groups. The rebels did not have a single progressive objective and resorted to violence in a desperate attempt to preserve an irrelevant social order in changing times. Paradoxically, however, by destroying itself, the oligarchy removed the major impediment to the social integration of the indigenous Rupununi population in the emergent nation.
History of Guyana
Set like a gem in the crown of South America, nestled on the North-Eastern shoulder, defying the raging Atlantic Ocean, Guyana's many waterways reflect the source of its name "The Land of Many Waters" Guyana was discovered in 1498 by the Europeans, its history; therefore stretches back a bit more than 500 years. Guyana's past is punctuated by battles fought and won, possessions lost and regained as the Spanish, French, Dutch and British wrangled for centuries to own this land. Guyana gained its independece on the 26th of May 1966.
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[edit]Pre-colonial Guyana and first contacts
The first humans to reach Guyana belonged to the group of people that crossed into North America from Asia perhaps maybe as much as 35,000 years ago. These first inhabitants werenomads who slowly spread south into Central America and South America. Although great civilizations later arose in the Americas, the structure of Amerindian society in the Guianasremained relatively simple. At the time of Christopher Columbus's voyages, Guyana's inhabitants were divided into two groups, the Arawak along the coast and the Carib in the interior. One of the legacies of the indigenous peoples was the word Guiana, often used to describe the region encompassing modern Guyana as well as Suriname (former Dutch Guiana) andFrench Guiana. The word, which means "land of waters", is highly appropriate, considering the area's multitude of rivers and streams.
Historians speculate that the Arawak and Carib originated in the South American hinterland and migrated northward, first to the present-day Guianas and then to the Caribbean islands. The peaceful Arawak, mainly cultivators, hunters, and fishermen, migrated to the Caribbean islands before the Carib and settled throughout the region. The tranquility of Arawak society was disrupted by the arrival of the bellicose Carib from the South American interior. Carib warlike behavior and violent movement north made an impact still discussed today. By the end of the 15th century, the Carib had displaced the Arawak throughout the islands of the Lesser Antilles. The Carib settlement of the Lesser Antilles also affected Guyana's future development. The Spanish explorers and settlers who came after Columbus found that the Arawak proved easier to conquer than the Carib, who fought hard to maintain their freedom. This fierce resistance, along with a lack of gold in the Lesser Antilles, contributed to the Spanish emphasis on conquest and settlement of the Greater Antilles and the mainland. Only a weak Spanish effort was made at consolidating Spain's authority in the Lesser Antilles (with the arguable exception of Trinidad) and the Guianas.
[edit]Early colonization
Although Columbus sighted the Guyanese coast in 1498, during his third voyage to the Americas, the Dutch were the first Europeans to settle what is now Guyana. The Netherlands hadobtained independence from Spain in the late 16th century and by the early 17th century had emerged as a major commercial power, trading with the fledgling English and French colonies in the Lesser Antilles. In 1616 the Dutch established the first European settlement in the area of Guyana, a trading post twenty-five kilometers upstream from the mouth of theEssequibo River. Other settlements followed, usually a few kilometers inland on the larger rivers. The initial purpose of the Dutch settlements was trade with the indigenous people. The Dutch aim soon changed to acquisition of territory as other European powers gained colonies elsewhere in the Caribbean. Although Guyana was claimed by the Spanish, who sent periodic patrols through the region, the Dutch gained control over the region early in the 17th century. Dutch sovereignty was officially recognized with the signing of the Treaty of Munsterin 1648.
In 1621 the government of the Netherlands gave the newly formed Dutch West India Company complete control over the trading post on the Essequibo. This Dutch commercial concern administered the colony, known as Essequibo, for more than 170 years. The company established a second colony, on the Berbice River southeast of Essequibo, in 1627. Although under the general jurisdiction of this private group, the settlement, named Berbice, was governed separately. Demerara, situated between Essequibo and Berbice, was settled in 1741 and emerged in 1773 as a separate colony under direct control of the Dutch West India Company.
Although the Dutch colonizers initially were motivated by the prospect of trade in the Caribbean, their possessions became significant producers of crops. The growing importance of agriculture was indicated by the export of 15,000 kilograms of tobacco from Essequibo in 1623. But as the agricultural productivity of the Dutch colonies increased, a labor shortage emerged. The indigenous populations were poorly adapted for work on plantations, and many people died from diseases introduced by the Europeans. The Dutch West India Company turned to the importation of African slaves, who rapidly became a key element in the colonial economy. By the 1660s, the slave population numbered about 2,500; the number of indigenous people was estimated at 50,000, most of whom had retreated into the vast hinterland. Although African slaves were considered an essential element of the colonial economy, their working conditions were brutal. The mortality rate was high, and the dismal conditions led to more than half a dozen slave rebellions.
The most famous slave uprising, the Berbice Slave Uprising, began in February 1763. On two plantations on the Canje River in Berbice, slaves rebelled, taking control of the region. As plantation after plantation fell to the slaves, the European population fled; eventually only half of the whites who had lived in the colony remained. Led by Cuffy (now the national hero of Guyana), the African freedom fighters came to number about 3,000 and threatened European control over the Guianas. The freedom fighters were defeated with the assistance of troops from neighboring French and British colonies and from Europe.
[edit]Transition to British rule
Eager to attract more settlers, in 1746 the Dutch authorities opened the area near the Demerara River to British immigrants. British plantation owners in the Lesser Antilles had been plagued by poor soil and erosion, and many were lured to the Dutch colonies by richer soils and the promise of landownership. The influx of British citizens was so great that by 1760 the English constituted a majority of the population of Demerara. By 1786 the internal affairs of this Dutch colony were effectively under British control.
As economic growth accelerated in Demerara and Essequibo, strains began to appear in the relations between the planters and the Dutch West India Company. Administrative reforms during the early 1770s had greatly increased the cost of government. The company periodically sought to raise taxes to cover these expenditures and thereby provoked the resistance of the planters. In 1781 a war broke out between the Netherlands and Britain, which resulted in the British occupation of Berbice, Essequibo, and Demerara. Some months later, France, allied with the Netherlands, seized control of the colonies. The French governed for two years, during which they constructed a new town, Longchamps, at the mouth of the Demerara River. When the Dutch regained power in 1784, they moved their colonial capital to Longchamps, which they renamed Stabroeck. The capital eventually would become known asGeorgetown.
The return of Dutch rule reignited the conflict between the planters of Essequibo and Demerara and the Dutch West India Company. Disturbed by plans for an increase in the slave tax and a reduction in their representation on the colony's judicial and policy councils, the colonists petitioned the Dutch government to consider their grievances. In response, a special committee was appointed, which proceeded to draw up a report called the Concept Plan of Redress. This document called for far-reaching constitutional reforms and later became the basis of the British governmental structure. The plan proposed a decision-making body to be known as the Court of Policy. The judiciary was to consist of two courts of justice, one serving Demerara and the other Essequibo. The membership of the Court of Policy and of the courts of justice would consist of company officials and planters who owned more than twenty-five slaves. The Dutch commission that was assigned the responsibility of implementing this new system of government returned to the Netherlands with extremely unfavorable reports concerning the Dutch West India Company's administration. The company's charter therefore was allowed to expire in 1792 and the Concept Plan of Redress was put into effect in Demerara and Essequibo. Renamed the United Colony of Demerara and Essequibo, the area then came under the direct control of the Dutch government. Berbice maintained its status as a separate colony.
The catalyst for formal British takeover was the French Revolution and the subsequent Napoleonic Wars. In 1795 the French occupied the Netherlands. The British declared war on France and in 1796 launched an expeditionary force from Barbados to occupy the Dutch colonies. The British takeover was bloodless, and local Dutch administration of the colony was left relatively uninterrupted under the constitution provided by the Concept Plan of Redress.
Both Berbice and the United Colony of Demerara and Essequibo were under British control from 1796 to 1802. By means of the Treaty of Amiens, both were returned to Dutch control. Peace was short-lived, however. War between Britain and France resumed in less than a year, and the United Colony and Berbice were seized once more by British troops. At theLondon Convention of 1814, both colonies were formally ceded to Britain. In 1831, Berbice and the United Colony of Demerara and Essequibo were unified as British Guiana. The colony would remain under British control until independence in 1966.
[edit]The early British colony and the labor problem
Political, economic, and social life in the 19th century was dominated by a European planter class. Although the smallest group in terms of numbers, members of the plantocracy had links to British commercial interests in London and often enjoyed close ties to the governor, who was appointed by the monarch. The plantocracy also controlled exports and the working conditions of the majority of the population. The next social stratum consisted of a small number of freed slaves, many of mixed African and European heritage, in addition to somePortuguese merchants. At the lowest level of society was the majority, the African slaves who lived and worked in the countryside, where the plantations were located. Unconnected to colonial life, small groups of Amerindians lived in the hinterland.
Colonial life was changed radically by the demise of slavery. Although the international slave trade was abolished in the British Empire in 1807, slavery itself continued. In what is known as the Demerara rebellion of 1823 10-13,000 slaves in Demerara-Essequibo rose up against their masters.[1] Although the rebellion was easily crushed,[1] the momentum for abolition remained, and by 1838 total emancipation had been effected. The end of slavery had several ramifications. Most significantly, many former slaves rapidly departed the plantations. Some ex-slaves moved to towns and villages, feeling that field labor was degrading and inconsistent with freedom, but others pooled their resources to purchase the abandoned estates of their former masters and created village communities. Establishing small settlements provided the new Afro-Guyanese communities an opportunity to grow and sell food, an extension of a practice under which slaves had been allowed to keep the money that came from the sale of any surplus produce. The emergence of an independent-minded Afro-Guyanese peasant class, however, threatened the planters' political power, inasmuch as the planters no longer held a near-monopoly on the colony's economic activity.
Emancipation also resulted in the introduction of new ethnic and cultural groups into British Guiana. The departure of the Afro-Guyanese from the sugar plantations soon led to labor shortages. After unsuccessful attempts throughout the 19th century to attract Portuguese workers from Madeira, the estate owners were again left with an inadequate supply of labor. The Portuguese had not taken to plantation work and soon moved into other parts of the economy, especially retail business, where they became competitors with the new Afro-Guyanese middle class. Some 14,000 Chinese came to the colony between 1853 and 1912. Like their Portuguese predecessors, the Chinese forsook the plantations for the retail trades and soon became assimilated into Guianese society.
Concerned about the plantations' shrinking labor pool and the potential decline of the sugar sector, British authorities, like their counterparts in Dutch Guiana, began to contract for the services of poorly paid indentured workers from India. The East Indians, as this group was known locally, signed on for a certain number of years, after which, in theory, they would return to India with their savings from working in the sugar fields. The introduction of indentured East Indian workers alleviated the labor shortage and added another group to Guyana's ethnic mix.
[edit]Origins of the border dispute with Venezuela
When Britain gained formal control over what is now Guyana in 1814, it also became involved in one of Latin America's most persistent border disputes. At the London Convention of 1814, the Dutch surrendered the United Colony of Demerara and Essequibo and Berbice to the British, a colony which had the Essequibo river as its west border with the Spanish colony of Venezuela. Although Spain still claimed the region, the Spanish did not contest the treaty because they were preoccupied with their own colonies' struggles for independence. In 1835 the British government asked German explorer Robert Hermann Schomburgk to map British Guiana and mark its boundaries. As ordered by the British authorities, Schomburgk began British Guiana's western boundary with Venezuela at the mouth of the Orinoco River, although all the Venezuelan maps showed the Essequibo river as the east border of the country. A map of the British colony was published in 1840. Venezuela protested, claiming the entire area west of the Essequibo River. Negotiations between Britain and Venezuela over the boundary began, but the two nations could reach no compromise. In 1850 both agreed not to occupy the disputed zone.
For two years, the tribunal consisting of two Britons, two Americans, and a Russian studied the case. Their three-to-two decision, handed down in 1899, awarded 94 percent of the disputed territory to British Guiana. Venezuela received only the mouth of the Orinoco River and a short stretch of the Atlantic coastline just to the east. Although Venezuela was unhappy with the decision, a commission surveyed a new border in accordance with the award, and both sides accepted the boundary in 1905. The issue was considered settled for the next half-century.
[edit]Pre-independence government, 1953–66
[edit]The PPP's first government, 1953
Once the new constitution was adopted, elections were set for 1953. The PPP's coalition of lower-class Afro-Guyanese and rural Indo-Guyanese workers, together with elements of both ethnic groups' middle sectors, made for a formidable constituency. Conservatives branded the PPP as communist, but the party campaigned on a center-left platform and appealed to a growing nationalism. The other major party participating in the election, the National Democratic Party (NDP), was a spin-off of the League of Coloured Peoples and was largely an Afro-Guyanese middle-class organization, sprinkled with middle-class Portuguese and Indo-Guyanese. The NDP, together with the poorly organized United Farmers and Workers Party and the United National Party, was soundly defeated by the PPP. Final results gave the PPP eighteen of twenty-four seats compared with the NDP's two seats and four seats for independents.
The PPP's first administration was brief. The legislature opened on May 30, 1953. Already suspicious of Jagan and the PPP's radicalism, conservative forces in the business community were further distressed by the new administration's program of expanding the role of the state in the economy and society. The PPP also sought to implement its reform program at a rapid pace, which brought the party into confrontation with the governor and with high-ranking civil servants who preferred more gradual change. The issue of civil service appointments also threatened the PPP, in this case from within. Following the 1953 victory, these appointments became an issue between the predominantly Indo-Guyanese supporters of Jagan and the largely Afro-Guyanese backers of Burnham. Burnham threatened to split the party if he were not made sole leader of the PPP. A compromise was reached by which members of what had become Burnham's faction received ministerial appointments.
The PPP's introduction of the Labour Relations Act provoked a confrontation with the British. This law ostensibly was aimed at reducing intraunion rivalries, but would have favored the GIWU, which was closely aligned with the ruling party. The opposition charged that the PPP was seeking to gain control over the colony's economic and social life and was moving to stifle the opposition. The day the act was introduced to the legislature, the GIWU went on strike in support of the proposed law. The British government interpreted this intermingling of party politics and labor unionism as a direct challenge to the constitution and the authority of the governor. The day after the act was passed, on October 9, 1953, London suspended the colony's constitution and, under pretext of quelling disturbances, sent in troops.
[edit]The interim government, 1953–57
Following the suspension of the constitution, British Guiana was governed by an interim administration consisting of small group of conservative politicians, businessmen, and civil servants that lasted until 1957. Order in the colonial government masked a growing rift in the country's main political party as the personal conflict between the PPP's Jagan and Burnham widened into a bitter dispute. In 1955 Jagan and Burnham formed rival wings of the PPP. Support for each leader was largely, but not totally, along ethnic lines. J.B. Lachmansingh, a leading Indo-Guyanese and head of the GIWU, supported Burnham, whereas Jagan retained the loyalty of a number of leading Afro-African radicals, such as Sydney King. Burnham's wing of the PPP moved to the right, leaving Jagan's wing on the left, where he was regarded with considerable apprehension by Western governments and the colony's conservative business groups.
[edit]The second PPP government, 1957–61, and racial politics
The 1957 elections held under a new constitution demonstrated the extent of the growing ethnic division within the Guianese electorate. The revised constitution provided limited self-government, primarily through the Legislative Council. Of the council's twenty-four delegates, fifteen were elected, six were nominated, and the remaining three were to be ex officiomembers from the interim administration. The two wings of the PPP launched vigorous campaigns, each attempting to prove that it was the legitimate heir to the original party. Despite denials of such motivation, both factions made a strong appeal to their respective ethnic constituencies.
The 1957 elections were convincingly won by Jagan's PPP faction. Although his group had a secure parliamentary majority, its support was drawn more and more from the Indo-Guyanese community. The faction's main planks were increasingly identified as Indo-Guyanese: more rice land, improved union representation in the sugar industry, and improved business opportunities and more government posts for Indo-Guyanese. The PPP had abrogated its claim to being a multiracial party.
Jagan's veto of British Guiana's participation in the West Indies Federation resulted in the complete loss of Afro-Guyanese support. In the late 1950s, the British Caribbean colonies had been actively negotiating establishment of a West Indies Federation. The PPP had pledged to work for the eventual political union of British Guiana with the Caribbean territories. The Indo-Guyanese, who constituted a majority in Guyana, were apprehensive of becoming part of a federation in which they would be outnumbered by people of African descent. Jagan's veto of the federation caused his party to lose all significant Afro-Guyanese support.
Burnham learned an important lesson from the 1957 elections. He could not win if supported only by the lower-class, urban Afro-Guyanese. He needed middle-class allies, especially those Afro-Guyanese who backed the moderate United Democratic Party. From 1957 onward, Burnham worked to create a balance between maintaining the backing of the more radical Afro-Guyanese lower classes and gaining the support of the more capitalist middle class. Clearly, Burnham's stated preference for socialism would not bind those two groups together against Jagan, an avowed Marxist. The answer was something more basic—race. Burnham's appeals to race proved highly successful in bridging the schism that divided the Afro-Guyanese along class lines. This strategy convinced the powerful Afro-Guyanese middle class to accept a leader who was more of a radical than they would have preferred to support. At the same time, it neutralized the objections of the black working class to entering an alliance with those representing the more moderate interests of the middle classes. Burnham's move toward the right was accomplished with the merger of his PPP faction and the United Democratic Party into a new organization, the People's National Congress (PNC).
Following the 1957 elections, Jagan rapidly consolidated his hold on the Indo-Guyanese community. Though candid in expressing his admiration for Joseph Stalin, Mao Zedong, and, later, Fidel Castro Ruz, Jagan in power asserted that the PPP's Marxist-Leninist principles must be adapted to Guyana's own particular circumstances. Jagan advocated nationalizationof foreign holdings, especially in the sugar industry. British fears of a communist takeover, however, caused the British governor to hold Jagan's more radical policy initiatives in check.
[edit]PPP reelection and debacle
The 1961 elections were a bitter contest between the PPP, the PNC, and the United Force (UF), a conservative party representing big business, the Roman Catholic Church, and Amerindian, Chinese, and Portuguese voters. These elections were held under yet another new constitution that marked a return to the degree of self-government that existed briefly in 1953. It introduced a bicameral system boasting a wholly elected thirty-five-member Legislative Assembly and a thirteen-member Senate to be appointed by the governor. The post of prime minister was created and was to be filled by the majority party in the Legislative Assembly. With the strong support of the Indo-Guyanese population, the PPP again won by a substantial margin, gaining twenty seats in the Legislative Assembly, compared to eleven seats for the PNC and four for the UF. Jagan was named prime minister.
Jagan's administration became increasingly friendly with communist and leftist regimes; for instance, Jagan refused to observe the United States embargo on communist Cuba. After discussions between Jagan and Cuban revolutionary Ernesto "Che" Guevara in 1960 and 1961, Cuba offered British Guiana loans and equipment. In addition, the Jagan administration signed trade agreements with Hungary and the German Democratic Republic (East Germany).
From 1961 to 1964, Jagan was confronted with a destabilization campaign conducted by the PNC and UF. Riots and demonstrations against the PPP administration were frequent, and during disturbances in 1962 and 1963 mobs destroyed part of Georgetown.
Labor violence also increased during the early 1960s. To counter the MPCA with its link to Burnham, the PPP formed the Guianese Agricultural Workers Union. This new union's political mandate was to organize the Indo-Guyanese sugarcane field-workers. The MPCA immediately responded with a one-day strike to emphasize its continued control over the sugar workers.
The PPP government responded to the strike in March 1964 by publishing a new Labour Relations Bill almost identical to the 1953 legislation that had resulted in British intervention. Regarded as a power play for control over a key labor sector, introduction of the proposed law prompted protests and rallies throughout the capital. Riots broke out on April 5; they were followed on April 18 by a general strike. By May 9, the governor was compelled to declare a state of emergency. Nevertheless, the strike and violence continued until July 7, when the Labour Relations Bill was allowed to lapse without being enacted. To bring an end to the disorder, the government agreed to consult with union representatives before introducing similar bills. These disturbances exacerbated tension and animosity between the two major ethnic communities and made a reconciliation between Jagan and Burnham an impossibility.
Jagan's term had not yet ended when another round of labor unrest rocked the colony. The pro-PPP GIWU, which had become an umbrella group of all labor organizations, called on sugar workers to strike in January 1964. To dramatize their case, Jagan led a march by sugar workers from the interior to Georgetown. This demonstration ignited outbursts of violence that soon escalated beyond the control of the authorities. On May 22, the governor finally declared another state of emergency. The situation continued to worsen, and in June the governor assumed full powers, rushed in British troops to restore order, and proclaimed a moratorium on all political activity. By the end of the turmoil, 160 people were dead and more than 1,000 homes had been destroyed.
In an effort to quell the turmoil, the country's political parties asked the British government to modify the constitution to provide for more proportional representation. The colonial secretary proposed a fifty-three member unicameral legislature. Despite opposition from the ruling PPP, all reforms were implemented and new elections set for October 1964.
As Jagan feared, the PPP lost the general elections of 1964. The politics of apan jhaat, Hindi for "vote for your own kind", were becoming entrenched in Guyana. The PPP won 46 percent of the vote and twenty-four seats, which made it the majority party. However, the PNC, which won 40 percent of the vote and twenty-two seats, and the UF, which won 11 percent of the vote and seven seats, formed a coalition. The socialist PNC and unabashedly capitalist UF had joined forces to keep the PPP out of office for another term. Jagan called the election fraudulent and refused to resign as prime minister. The constitution was amended to allow the governor to remove Jagan from office. Burnham became prime minister on December 14, 1964.
[edit]Independence and the Burnham era
[edit]Burnham in power
In the first year under Burnham, conditions in the colony began to stabilize. The new coalition administration broke diplomatic ties with Cuba and implemented policies that favored local investors and foreign industry. The colony applied the renewed flow of Western aid to further development of its infrastructure. A constitutional conference was held in London; the conference set May 26, 1966 as the date for the colony's independence. By the time independence was achieved, the country was enjoying economic growth and relative domestic peace.
The newly independent Guyana at first sought to improve relations with its neighbors. For instance, in December 1965 the country had become a charter member of the Caribbean Free Trade Association (Carifta). Relations with Venezuela were not so placid, however. In 1962 Venezuela had announced that it was rejecting the 1899 boundary and would renew its claim to all of Guyana west of the Essequibo River. In 1966 Venezuela seized the Guyanese half of Ankoko Island, in the Cuyuni River, and two years later claimed a strip of sea along Guyana's western coast.
Another challenge to the newly independent government came at the beginning of January 1969, with the Rupununi Rebellion. In the Rupununi region in southwest Guyana, along the Venezuelan border, white settlers and Amerindians rebelled against the central government. Several Guyanese policemen in the area were killed, and spokesmen for the rebels declared the area independent and asked for Venezuelan aid. Troops arrived from Georgetown within days, and the rebellion was quickly put down. Although the rebellion was not a large affair, it exposed underlying tensions in the new state and the Amerindians' marginalized role in the country's political and social life.
[edit]The cooperative republic
The 1968 elections allowed the PNC to rule without the UF. The PNC won thirty seats, the PPP nineteen seats, and the UF four seats. However, many observers claimed the elections were marred by manipulation and coercion by the PNC. The PPP and UF were part of Guyana's political landscape but were ignored as Burnham began to convert the machinery of state into an instrument of the PNC.
After the 1968 elections, Burnham's policies became more leftist as he announced he would lead Guyana to socialism. He consolidated his dominance of domestic policies throughgerrymandering, manipulation of the balloting process, and politicalization of the civil service. A few Indo-Guyanese were coopted into the PNC, but the ruling party was unquestionably the embodiment of the Afro-Guyanese political will. Although the Afro-Guyanese middle class was uneasy with Burnham's leftist leanings, the PNC remained a shield against Indo-Guyanese dominance. The support of the Afro-Guyanese community allowed the PNC to bring the economy under control and to begin organizing the country into cooperatives.
On February 23, 1970, Guyana declared itself a "cooperative republic" and cut all ties to the British monarchy. The governor general was replaced as head of state by a ceremonialpresident. Relations with Cuba were improved, and Guyana became a force in the Nonaligned Movement. In August 1972, Burnham hosted the Conference of Foreign Ministers of Nonaligned Countries in Georgetown. He used this opportunity to address the evils of imperialism and the need to support African liberation movements in southern Africa. Burnham also let Cuban troops use Guyana as a transit point on their way to the war in Angola in the mid-1970s.
In the early 1970s, electoral fraud became blatant in Guyana. PNC victories always included overseas voters, who consistently and overwhelmingly voted for the ruling party. The police and military intimidated the Indo-Guyanese. The army was accused of tampering with ballot boxes.
Considered a low point in the democratic process, the 1973 elections were followed by an amendment to the constitution that abolished legal appeals to the Privy Council in London. After consolidating power on the legal and electoral fronts, Burnham turned to mobilizing the masses for what was to be Guyana's cultural revolution. A program of national service was introduced that placed an emphasis on self-reliance, loosely defined as Guyana's population feeding, clothing, and housing itself without outside help.
Government authoritarianism increased in 1974 when Burnham advanced the "paramountcy of the party". All organs of the state would be considered agencies of the ruling PNC and subject to its control. The state and the PNC became interchangeable; PNC objectives were now public policy.
Burnham's consolidation of power in Guyana was not total; opposition groups were tolerated within limits. For instance, in 1973 the Working People's Alliance (WPA) was founded. Opposed to Burnham's authoritarianism, the WPA was a multiethnic combination of politicians and intellectuals that advocated racial harmony, free elections, and democratic socialism. Although the WPA did not become an official political party until 1979, it evolved as an alternative to Burnham's PNC and Jagan's PPP.
Jagan's political career continued to decline in the 1970s. Outmaneuvered on the parliamentary front, the PPP leader tried another tactic. In April 1975, the PPP ended its boycott of parliament with Jagan stating that the PPP's policy would change from noncooperation and civil resistance to critical support of the Burnham regime. Soon after, Jagan appeared on the same platform with Prime Minister Burnham at the celebration of ten years of Guyanese independence, on May 26, 1976.
Despite Jagan's conciliatory move, Burnham had no intention of sharing powers and continued to secure his position. When overtures intended to bring about new elections and PPP participation in the government were brushed aside, the largely Indo-Guyanese sugar work force went on a bitter strike. The strike was broken, and sugar production declined steeply from 1976 to 1977. The PNC postponed the 1978 elections, opting instead for a referendum to be held in July 1978, proposing to keep the incumbent assembly in power.
The July 1978 national referendum was poorly received. Although the PNC government proudly proclaimed that 71 percent of eligible voters participated and that 97 percent approved the referendum, other estimates put turnout at 10 to 14 percent. The low turnout was caused in large part by a boycott led by the PPP, WPA, and other opposition forces.
[edit]Jonestown tragedy
Main article: Jonestown
Peoples Temple Agricultural Project ("Jonestown", Guyana)
Burnham's control over Guyana began to weaken when the Jonestown massacre brought unwanted international attention. In the 1970s, Jim Jones, leader of the People's Temple of Christ, moved more than 1,000 of his followers from San Francisco to form Jonestown, a utopian agricultural community near Port Kaituma in western Guyana. The People's Temple of Christ was regarded by members of the Guyanese government as a model agricultural community that shared its vision of settling the hinterland and its view of cooperative socialism. The fact that the People's Temple was well-equipped with openly flaunted weapons hinted that the community had the approval of members of the PNC's inner circle. Complaints of abuse by leaders of the cult prompted United States congressman Leo Ryan to fly to Guyana to investigate. The San Francisco-area representative was shot and killed by members of the People's Temple as he was boarding an airplane in Port Kaituma to return to Georgetown. Fearing further publicity, Jones and more than 900 of his followers died in a massive communal murder and suicide. The November 1978 Jonestown massacre suddenly put the Burnham government under intense foreign scrutiny, especially from the United States. Investigations into the massacre led to allegations that the Guyanese government had links to the fanatical cult.
Although the bloody memory of Jonestown faded, Guyanese politics experienced a violent year in 1979. Some of this violence was directed against the WPA, which had emerged as a vocal critic of the state and of Burnham in particular. One of the party's leaders, Walter Rodney, and several professors at the University of Guyana were arrested on arson charges. The professors were soon released, and Rodney was granted bail. WPA leaders then organized the alliance into Guyana's most vocal opposition party.
As 1979 wore on, the level of violence continued to escalate. In October Minister of Education Vincent Teekah was mysteriously shot to death. The following year, Rodney was killed by a car bomb. The PNC government quickly accused Rodney of being a terrorist who had died at the hands of his own bomb and charged his brother Donald with being an accomplice. Later investigation implicated the Guyanese government, however. Rodney was a well-known leftist, and the circumstances of his death damaged Burnham's image with many leaders and intellectuals in less-developed countries who earlier had been willing to overlook the authoritarian nature of his government.
A new constitution was promulgated in 1980. The old ceremonial post of president was abolished, and the head of government became the executive president, chosen, as the former position of prime minister had been, by the majority party in the National Assembly. Burnham automatically became Guyana's first executive president and promised elections later in the year. In elections held on December 15, 1980, the PNC claimed 77 percent of the vote and forty-one seats of the popularly elected seats, plus the ten chosen by the regional councils. The PPP and UF won ten and two seats, respectively. The WPA refused to participate in an electoral contest it regarded as fraudulent. Opposition claims of electoral fraud were upheld by a team of international observers headed by Britain's Lord Avebury.
The economic crisis facing Guyana in the early 1980s deepened considerably, accompanied by the rapid deterioration of public services, infrastructure, and overall quality of life. Blackouts occurred almost daily, and water services were increasingly unsatisfactory. The litany of Guyana's decline included shortages of rice and sugar (both produced in the country), cooking oil, and kerosene. While the formal economy sank, the black market economy in Guyana thrived.
In the midst of this turbulent period, Burnham underwent surgery for a throat ailment. On August 6, 1985, while in the care of Cuban doctors, Guyana's first and only leader since independence unexpectedly died. An epoch had abruptly ended. Guyana was suddenly in the post-Burnham era.
[edit]Hoyte to present
Despite concerns that the country was about to fall into a period of political instability, the transfer of power went smoothly. Vice President Desmond Hoyte became the new executive president and leader of the PNC. His initial tasks were threefold: to secure authority within the PNC and national government, to take the PNC through the December 1985 elections, and to revitalize the stagnant economy.
Hoyte's first two goals were easily accomplished. The new leader took advantage of factionalism within the PNC to quietly consolidate his authority. The December 1985 elections gave the PNC 79 percent of the vote and forty-two of the fifty-three directly elected seats. Eight of the remaining eleven seats went to the PPP, two went to the UF, and one to the WPA. Charging fraud, the opposition boycotted the December 1986 municipal elections. With no opponents, the PNC won all ninety-one seats in local government.
Revitalizing the economy proved more difficult. As a first step, Hoyte gradually moved to embrace the private sector, recognizing that state control of the economy had failed. Hoyte's administration lifted all curbs on foreign activity and ownership in 1988.
Although the Hoyte government did not completely abandon the authoritarianism of the Burnham regime, it did make certain political reforms. Hoyte abolished overseas voting and the provisions for widespread proxy and postal voting. Independent newspapers were given greater freedom, and political harassment abated considerably.
Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter visited Guyana to lobby for the resumption of free elections, and on October 5, 1992, a new National Assembly and regional councils were elected in the first Guyanese election since 1964 to be internationally recognized as free and fair. Cheddi Jagan of the PPP-Civic was elected and sworn in as President on October 9, 1992, the first time the PPP had won power since independence, reversing the monopoly Afro-Guyanese traditionally had over Guyanese politics. The poll was marred by violence however. A newIMF Structural Adjustment programme was introduced which led to an increase in the GDP whilst also eroding real incomes and hitting the middle-classes hard.
When President Jagan died of a heart attack in March 1997, Prime Minister Samuel Hinds replaced him in accordance with constitutional provisions, with his widow Janet Jagan as Prime Minister. She was then elected President on fifteenth December 1997 for the PPP. Desmond Hoyte's PNC contested the results however, resulting in strikes, riots and 1 death before a Caricom mediating committee was brought in. Janet Jangan's PPP government was sworn in on 24 December having agreed to a constitutional review and to hold elections within three years, though Hoyte refused to recognise her government.
Jagan resigned in August 1999 due to ill health and was succeeded by Finance Minister Bharrat Jagdeo, who had been named Prime Minister a day earlier. National elections were held on March 19, 2001, three months later than planned as the election committees said they were unprepared. Fears that the violence that marred the previous election led to monitoring by foreign bodies, including Jimmy Carter. In March incumbent President Jagdeo won the election with a voter turnout of over 90%.
Meanwhile tensions with Suriname were seriously strained by a dispute over their shared maritime border after Guyana had allowed oil-prospectors license to explore the areas.
In December 2002, Hoyte died, with Robert Corbin replacing him as leader of the PNC. He agreed to engage in 'constructive engagement' with Jagdeo and the PPP.
Severe flooding following torrential rainfall wreaked havoc in Guyana beginning in January 2005. The downpour, which lasted about six weeks, inundated the coastal belt, caused the deaths of 34 people, and destroyed large parts of the rice and sugarcane crops. The UN Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean estimated in March that the country would need $415 million for recovery and rehabilitation. About 275,000 people — 37% of the population — were affected in some way by the floods.
In May 2008, President Bharrat Jagdeo was a signatory to the The UNASUR Constitutive Treaty of the Union of South American Nations. Guyana has ratified the treaty.
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