WHETHER private or public hospital, people around the world know that waiting and hospitals are synonymous. So I took a book with me while my wife waited for eye treatment at the newly established Optique Eye Hospital last Wednesday. The book I chose was “A Proxy Africa: Guyana, African Americans and the Radical 1970s” by historian, Russell Rickford.
Please see my review of the book for Sunday, June 21, 2026, titled “Book Review: The Black Panther who solicited outside Banks DIH.” In that review, I made two observations. One – it is one of the best books written on this country. I stand by that, and after reading large sections again, I am even more convinced it is a great book that Guyanese should read to learn about their country.
The second observation was that it was the most heavily footnoted book I have read. Rickford is a competent historian whose research effort in this book is almost impeccable. I chose Rickford’s book to take to the hospital because the book fascinated me when I first read it and it told me more about Forbes Burnham than I did not know and it revealed an esoteric side to Burnham.
For those who both love and hate Burnham, please read Rickford because he wrote about a fascinating period in Guyanese contemporary history. My personal attachment to Rickford’s publication is because my political temperament was shaped by that period. Secondly, Rickford mentioned a tragic case of an American fugitive in Guyana who became my friend.
In the second reading of Rickford, questions swirled in my mind that evaded me in my first reading. At the hospital, I didn’t even speak to my wife sitting near me because I was engrossed. Some things I never thought of about Burnham came rushing into my mind.
Three pictures about Burnham I faced (I don’t know about other readers) on reading Rickford a second time. One – Burnham could have become one of the great heads of state among the peoples of the world if he could have steadied the ship. Two- he couldn’t steady the ship and Rickford either missed the reason why or felt he didn’t want to be harsh on Burnham. Three – why Burnham took such a globally embarrassing step by denying Walter Rodney, a university job.
I will now discuss those three dimensions but space constraints will prevent elaboration. Rickford documents with compelling evidence that Burnham was generous to Afro-Americans fleeing sadistic oppression from the American establishment and looking for a place in the sun.
Burnham provided that place. Burnham made sure that the lives of the Black American liberators were not uncomfortable. The state treated them well. Because of his welcoming gestures, Burnham faced the wrath of the American government. As the years wore on, a subtle but not so subtle chasm began to develop between the freedom fighter and Burnham. What happened? I now come to the second picture.
Burnham became a prisoner of his own psychic contradictions. I believe, and until I see evidence to the contrary, that he was sincere in reaching out to the fleeing American freedom fighters. But he couldn’t temper his own power instincts and that contradiction confused the freedom fighters.
Burnham was not a deep philosophical thinker. If he was he would have known that freedom fighters that flee into the arms of a patron expect that patron to be as freedom-loving as they are. Rickford’s book brilliantly describes the psychic confusion that befell Burnham. He wanted to accommodate the freedom fighters but he couldn’t control his power instincts.
Burnham did not know and should have known that persecuted freedom fighters naturally embody an anti-oppression ideology. As Burnham became more authoritarian, the mental confusion of the American freedom fighters deepened. They couldn’t understand why their patron was autocratic. The climax was reached with the denial of employment to Walter Rodney at the University of Guyana.
It was clear as a sunny day reading Rickford that every one of the Black Americans that fled persecution and were accommodated by Burnham were Africa-oriented and saw the continent as a future haven for Africans of the USA. In that context, all the fugitives in Guyana had some admiration for Rodney. Burnham committed political suicide when he denied Rodney the UG job.
Finally, the third picture. Rickford left this one out. Rickford did not touch on why Burnham denied Rodney employment because there is no written document on the issue. The only explanation so far is what Hamilton Green told me in a published Kaieteur News interview. Green said the Tanzanian state authorities advised Burnham not to accommodate Rodney because he would create trouble. That is an unmitigated lie. It was the CIA that warned Burnham about Rodney. And Burnham accepted the CIA’s advice.
DISCLAIMER: The views and opinions expressed in this column are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the Guyana National Newspapers Limited.