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A New Look at Jonestown from a Guyanese perspective, Eusi Kwayana, Jonestown Massacre, Jonestown/Guyana, Peoples Temple Church, Reverend Jim Jones, Revolutionary Suicide
Cover of A New Look at Jonestown: Dimensions from a Guyanese Perspective
by Eusi Kwayana
November 18 marked the thirty-seventh anniversary of the Jonestown Massacre in Guyana. On that fatal Saturday in 1978, over nine hundred members of the Peoples Temple died from ingestion of cyanide-laced Flavor-Aid. Their leader, the Reverend Jim Jones, died from gunshot wounds. Seven miles away, American Congressman Leo Ryan and four members of his party lay dead on the Port Kaituma airstrip.
After all these years, several questions about the tragedy remain unanswered. The then Guyanese Prime Minister of the socialist cooperative ruling party, declared the Jonestown Massacre “an American problem.” No Guyanese investigation was ever conducted. To fill this void, A New Look at Jonestown: Dimensions from a Guyanese Perspective by Eusi Kwayana will soon be released (see below for details of ordering copies).
Kwayana’s examination of the link between Reverend Jim Jones and the top ranks of the Guyana Government reveals that Jonestown was “a state within a state.” In his socialist utopia where whites, blacks, and brown-skin peoples could live together as equals, Jim Jones “enjoyed total freedom.” Unlike the scrutiny his church faced in the USA, the state-controlled Guyanese media were accomplices in promoting the government’s narrative. As Kwayana notes, Jim Jones “was in full control of truth. He embodied the media…”
At a time when Guyanese faced import bans on many essential items, the settlers at Jonestown were exempt from the country’s customs and immigration regulations. Even the District Commissioner in-charge of the region had no oversight over the settlement.
At a 1979 Jonestown presentation at the Stanford University in the USA, cited in the book, Walter Rodney – a Guyanese historian of African History and co-founder of the democratic socialist party, Working People’s Alliance – argued that Guyana’s social-political conditions provided the framework for the Jonestown Massacre. He examined the ways in which an economically-dependent, post-colonial Guyanese society, under a secretive and corrupt government with no accountability towards its people were central factors in enabling the tragedy.
After analyses of the social construct of the Jonestown settlement – promoted as a model for Guyana’s agricultural drive to “Produce or Perish” – Drs. Lear Matthews and George K. Danns, sociologists at the University of Guyana, present a different picture of Jim Jones’ socialist utopia. The Peoples Temple Agricultural Project operated as a modern-day slavery plantation.
In choosing Guyana as the location for their paradise on Earth, leading members of the Peoples Temple failed to take into account all the forces, known and unknown, that control our lives. Well-informed about Guyana’s political culture, their trusted leader Jim Jones colluded with government officials to pursue his goals. In controlling and contorting the information fed daily to his followers, he made it difficult for them to make sound decisions affecting their survival as a community.
Kwayana’s A New Look at Jonestown is revelatory. Given the political clout of a small billionaire class, growing inequality worldwide, government surveillance, endless wars, and media control of the masses, conditions are ripe for “revolutionary suicide” on a planetary scale.
EUSI KWAYANA
Eusi Kwayana, formerly Sydney King (born 1925), is a Guyanese politician and author of several books on Guyana. He founded the African Society for Cultural Relations with Independent Africa (ASCRIA), a Pan-African grassroots political group, which became part of the democratic socialist party, Working People’s Alliance (WPA). He worked closely with the late Walter Rodney, also a co-founder of the WPA.
To place your order for A New Look at Jonestown: Dimensions from a Guyanese Perspective, contact the publisher, Carib House, California, USA, at CaribHouse@Outlook.com.
Three Worlds One Vision 
Perhaps Jonestown was (is) the micro image of the macro earth condition at this time. If so then it’s up to Earthians to finally learn something from the lessons of history and actually do something about it. I doubt very much that’s going to happen. To live in denial; to ignore history and to cling to self-defeating societal mechanisms is the Earthian way of life. The people of Earth are happiest when being controlled, hamstrung and oppressed by Jim Jones type dictators. When offered freedom they choose slavery instead. Look at the demise of America’s labour unions – and the rapid downfall of wage earnings. People would rather believe Popish religious propaganda and economic “Reaganite” lies than look at the facts of the matter. Today’s Wal-Mart’s do so well because people have been systematically brainwashed to hate unions and these exploiters can operate with what amounts to slave labour. Subject man is always his own worst enemy. I think that when “man” was “invented” the creature was carefully engineered to entertain the mind of a slave.
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Thanks for your comments, Sha’Tara. At the time of the event, as to be expected, we focused on Jim Jones and what draws people to a cult.
When I read James P. Garrett’s summary of the social and political culture in the USA at the time, I heard the echoes of our own time with the Black Lives Matter Movement and our endless wars in the Middle East. In Kwayana’s book, Garrett (a former Minister of the Black Panther Party) traced the link between Congressman Ryan and the rise of the Peoples Temple Church within his District.
I agree with you that “man is always his own worst enemy.” It’s amazing how we keep making the same errors. We don’t learn from history. Maybe as a species we were indeed engineered to be slaves. Who knows? We are slaves to so many unhealthy habits and behavior.
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Reblogged this on Guyanese Online.
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Thanks for sharing my post, Cyril. Have a great week 🙂
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In my view, the late John Judge did the most impressive research about Jonestown, exposing some alarming links with the CIA and Naval Intelligence: http://www.ratical.org/ratville/JFK/JohnJudge/Jonestown.html
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Thanks for the link, Dr. Bramhall. From Guyana’s perspective, a lot of questions will remain unanswered. Kwayana noted in his book: “Former public servants and political survivors still silence themselves by public service rules or political loyalty or by fear of reprisals.”
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My interest in the story would involve matters outside the main event For instance, what happened to Lawrence Mann in his love affair with that young American cult member (forgot her name). She was the sole depositor of large bank funds. Believe she withdraw all and escape through Surinam. What happened to the money turned over yo the US Embassy in Guyana. There are other little matters never mention.
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Albert, Kwayana doesn’t mention Lawrence Mann. As I mentioned to Dr. Bramhall, lots of little and big matters will remain hidden. People with the answers are afraid to talk.
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What a pity. Lawrence was a brilliant young economist, (if memory holds) and part of Burnham ministry. He was crazy about this young cult blackwoman. I knew her personally…. she was beautiful and intelligent but dress shabbily. She had to have been one of the swindlers because she had control of large sums and lived in Gtown. As the rumors go Lawrence followed her to Chicago where she may have ditch him and he committed suicide…….it would have been an interesting side show.
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Albert, sounds like their love story would make an intriguing novel.
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I’m not expert on the subject of cults, but did watch “Going Clear,” the scientology documentary. If nothing else, that film demonstrates that even economically stable, apparently intelligent, superficially unremarkable people can be taken in by such enterprises. An old book on the subject of an end-of-the-world cult is called, “When Prophecy Fails.” The expected end didn’t happen and the cult members, who’d made plans to be transported elsewhere by people from outer space, were told by the cult leader that their fidelity had saved the world. If I recall correctly, none of this caused them to immediately sober-up to the ridiculousness of what had happened.
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Dr. Stein, Jim Jones also had a lot of educated people in his inner circle. Religious communities and cults bring peoples together, especially those who are marginalized in our society.
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I didn’t mean to suggest that the Jones cult was populated by people who weren’t intelligent. Sorry if I gave that impression.
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I know, Dr. Stein, but I emphasize the point because many people believe that they are too intelligent to be fooled by people like Jim Jones.
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Rosaliene, this is interesting.
Here in San Francisco, I still think about how something like this could happen. I did not move to San Francisco until the year after Jones’ atrocity, but I still bump into the residual of stories and conversation about it. I’ve spent some time looking into it, but it doesn’t last long because it is depressing and so outrageous. I’ve not thought much about this from Guyana’s perspective. I can’t get beyond the phenomenon of Jones, the people who fell into his trap and the Leo Ryan and the other Californians who flew down to investigate..
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Bruce, thanks for sharing. Yes, Jones is indeed a phenomenon, a larger than life personality of the dark side. Some years ago, I spent eight months researching and writing a short story about the event. It was a depressing and dark place to be. I was relieved when my project ended.
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It’s good to see this being brought up and discussed again. Though the questions may never be answered, the review, new knowledge will help us understand the event and ourselves – hopefully.
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I share your sentiments, Angela. Regrettably, some questions may never be answered.
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