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The history of Guyana begins about 35,000 years ago with the arrival of humans coming from Eurasia. These migrants became the Carib and Arawak tribes, who met Alonso de Ojeda's first expedition from Spain in 1499 at the Essequibo River. In the ensuing colonial era, Guyana's government was defined by the successive policies of the French, Dutch, and British settlers. During the colonial period, Guyana's economy was focused on plantation agriculture, which initially depended on slave labor. Guyana saw major slave rebellions in 1763 and 1823. Following the Slavery Abolition Act of 1833, 800,000 enslaved Africans in the Caribbean and South Africa were freed, resulting in plantations contracting indentured workers, mainly from India. Eventually, these Indians joined forces with Afro-Guyanese to demand equal rights in government and society. After the Second World War, the British Empire pursued policy decolonization of its overseas territories, with independence granted to British Guiana on May 26, 1966. Following independence, Forbes Burnham rose to power, quickly becoming an authoritarian leader, pledging to bring socialism to Guyana. His power began to weaken following international attention brought to Guyana in wake of the Jonestown mass murder suicide in 1978.
The Peoples Temple Agricultural Project, better known by its informal name "Jonestown", was a remote settlement in Guyana established by the Peoples Temple, an American cult under the leadership of Jim Jones. Jonestown became internationally infamous when, on November 18, 1978, a total of 918 people died at the settlement, at the nearby airstrip in Port Kaituma, and at a Temple-run building in Georgetown, Guyana's capital city. The name of the settlement became synonymous with the incidents at those locations.
Walter Anthony Rodney was a Guyanese historian, political activist and academic. His notable works include How Europe Underdeveloped Africa, first published in 1972. He was killed in Georgetown, Guyana, in 1980.
Cheddi Berret Jagan was a Guyanese politician and dentist who was first elected Chief Minister in 1953 and later Premier of British Guiana from 1961 to 1964. He later served as President of Guyana from 1992 to his death in 1997. In 1953, he became the first Hindu and person of Indian descent to be a head of government outside of the Indian subcontinent.
Leo Joseph Ryan Jr. was an American teacher and politician. A member of the Democratic Party, he served as the U.S. representative from California's 11th congressional district from 1973 until his assassination just prior to the Jonestown massacre in 1978. Before that, he served in the California State Assembly, representing the state's 27th district.
Hugh Desmond Hoyte was a Guyanese politician who served as Prime Minister of Guyana from 1984 to 1985 and President of Guyana from 1985 until 1992.
Linden Forbes Sampson Burnham was a Guyanese politician and the leader of the Co-operative Republic of Guyana from 1964 until his death in 1985. He served as Premier of British Guiana from 1964 to 1966, Prime Minister of Guyana from 1964 to 1980 and then as the first executive president of Guyana from 1980 to 1985. He is often regarded as a strongman who embraced his own version of socialism.
The People's Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) is a major political party in Guyana. As of 2020, the party holds 33 of the 65 seats in the National Assembly and forms the government. It has been the ruling party in the past as well, most recently between 1992 and 2015. In Guyana's ethnically divided political landscape, the PPP/C is a multi-ethnic organization.
The People's National Congress Reform (PNCR) is a social-democratic and democratic socialist political party in Guyana led by Aubrey Norton. The party currently holds 31 of the 65 seats in the National Assembly. In Guyana's ethnically divided political landscape, the PNCR is a multi-ethnic organization.
Eusi Kwayana, formerly Sydney King, is a Guyanese politician. A cabinet minister in the People's Progressive Party (PPP) government of 1953, he was detained by the British Army in 1954. Later he left the PPP to form ASCRIA, a Pan-Africanist grassroots political group that, after a brief flirtation with the People's National Congress (PNC) of Forbes Burnham, fused into the Working People's Alliance (WPA). Kwayana is also a playwright.
David Arthur Granger is a Guyanese former politician and retired military officer who served as the ninth president of Guyana from 2015 to 2020. A member of the People’s National Congress (PNC), he previously served as Commander of the Guyana Defence Force and as National Security Adviser from 1990 to 1992. He was leader of the Opposition in the National Assembly of Guyana from 2012 to 2015.
The Catholic Church in Guyana is part of the worldwide Catholic Church, under the spiritual leadership of the Pope in Rome. Bishops in Guyana are members of Antilles Episcopal Conference. Like most other nations that form the AEC, the Apostolic delegate to the bishops' conference is also the Apostolic nuncio to the country, currently American archbishop Thomas Edward Gullickson.
Frederick Kissoon is a Guyanese journalist who writes the daily "Freddie Kissoon Column", currently published on TBN Heat. He also hosts a talk show with Leonard Gildarie.
Religion in Guyana is dominated by various branches of Christianity, with significant minorities of the adherents of Hinduism and Islam.
The Constitution of Guyana is the highest governing document in the Republic of Guyana. It came into effect on October 6, 1980, replacing the constitution enacted in 1966 upon its independence from the United Kingdom. The current Constitution of Guyana contains 12 chapters that are further divided into 232 articles. It also contains a preamble and an oath. Since its 1980 enactment, it has gone through multiple amendments.
On 14 July 1979 Bernard Darke, a British-born, Guyana-based Jesuit priest and photographer for the Catholic Standard, was stabbed to death by members of the House of Israel, a religious cult closely tied to the People's National Congress, while photographing Working People's Alliance demonstrations of the PNC. Guyana's Stabroek News described the murder as "the low point of democracy in Guyana" and, for those in the media, "perhaps the most traumatic event of the [Forbes] Burnham regime."
The Catholic Standard is the weekly newspaper of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Georgetown, and the only religious newspaper in Guyana. Founded in 1905 by the Society of Jesus, it was the only independent newspaper in Guyana during the turbulent period of strongman President Forbes Burnham's rule, and it played a large role in the Guyanese struggle for democracy.
Peter Stanislaus D'Aguiar was a Guyanese-Portuguese businessman, conservative politician, and minister of finance from 1964 to 1967.
Socialism has been mentioned in several liberal democratic constitutions. It is referenced either in the form of denunciation or in form of construction, namely that the constitution of the state in question proclaim that it seeks to establish a socialist society. In these cases, the intended meaning of the term socialism can vary widely and sometimes the constitutional references to socialism are left over from a previous period in the country's history.
Joseph Linden Fitzclarence Hamilton is a Guyanese politician. Hamilton was born in Triumph, British Guiana. Between 1977 and 1987, Hamilton was a priest of the House of Israel. At the 2014 Walter Rodney inquiry, Hamilton testified that the House of Israel committed "oppressive and terrorizing acts on behalf of the People's National Congress (PNC)."
References
- 1 2 Nishani Frazier. "The "Other" Jim Jones: Rabbi David Hill, House of Israel, and Black American Religion in the Age of Peoples Temple". San Diego State University. Retrieved 23 November 2021.
- ↑ Conway, Frederick J. "Religion" (and subsections). A Country Study: Guyana (Tim Merrill, editor). Library of Congress Federal Research Division (January 1992). This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain.
- ↑ "Cult Leader Given 15-Year Sentence for Manslaughter". Los Angeles Times. 1 November 1986. Retrieved 23 November 2021.
- ↑ "Rabbi Dead at 77". Guyana Chronicle. 11 December 2005. Retrieved 23 November 2021.
- ↑ "Corbin delivered guns to House of Israel". Guyana Chronicle. 3 June 2014. Retrieved 23 November 2011.
- ↑ "House of Israel was hit squad - Rodney's brother". Stabroek News. 30 April 2014. Retrieved 23 November 2021.
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