FORBES BURNHAM Forbes Burnham

The Life and Times of the Comrade Leader

LINDEN F. LEWIS

It is virtually impossible to understand the history of modern Guyana without understanding the role played by Forbes Burnham. As premier of British Guiana, he led the country to independence in 1966 and spent two decades as its head of state until his death in 1985. An intensely charismatic politician, Burnham helped steer a new course for the former colony, but he was also a quintessential strongman leader, venerated by some of his citizens yet feared and despised by others.

238 pp 7 b/w images, 1 table 6.125 x 9.25 978-1-9788-3751-5 cloth $44.95AT

January 2024

Biography • History

Table of Contents

List of Acronyms

Introduction

Chapter 1: Forbes Burnham: The Making of a Postcolonial Caribbean Leader

Chapter 2: British Guiana: The Genesis of the Postcolonial Struggle

Chapter 3: Imperial Obstruction and Burnham’s Design on Political Leadership

Chapter 4: The Consolidation of Power

Chapter 5: Frontiers of Dystopia and the Crisis of Charisma

Chapter 6: The Demise of the Comrade Leader

Chapter 7: An Ambivalent Legacy

Acknowledgments

Notes

Bibliography

Index

Forbes Burnham: The Life and Times of the Comrade Leader is the first political biography of this complex and influential figure. It charts how the political party he founded, the People’s National Congress, combined nationalist rhetoric, socialist policies, and Pan-Africanist philosophies. It also explores how, in a country already deeply divided between the descendants of African slaves and Indian indentured servants, Burnham consolidated political power by intensifying ethnic polarizations. Drawing from historical archives as well as new interviews with the people who knew Burnham best, sociologist Linden F. Lewis examines how his dictatorial tendencies coexisted with his progressive convictions. Forbes Burnham is a compelling study of the nature of postcolonial leadership and its pitfalls.

LINDEN F. LEWIS is a professor emeritus of sociology at Bucknell University. Coauthor of the book Caribbean Masala: Indian Identity in Guyana and Trinidad, he has also edited the collections Color, Hair and Bone: Race in the Twenty-First Century, The Culture of Gender and Sexuality in the Caribbean, and Caribbean Sovereignty, Development and Democracy in an Age of Globalization

Critical Caribbean Studies