A Proxy Africa: Guyana, African Americans, and the Radical 1970s

This meticulous study from historian Rickford (We Are an African People) spotlights a dramatic time in Guyana, when the nation held a heightened international profile as a hub of pan-Africanism. During the 1970s, the South American nation formed a deep web of connection to activists in the U.S. and Africa. Explaining that the ways Guyana eluded easy political classification are part of why it offered radical thinkers reasons for optimism, Rickford traces how Guyana’s status as a “cooperative republic” with a “distinctive brand of socialism” drew expatriates from the U.S., including militant Stokely Carmichael, writer Julian Mayfield, artist Tom Feelings, and dancer Lavinia Williams—only to frustrate many of them as the government, headed by Forbes Burnham, grew more authoritarian. The 1980 assassination of academic and activist Walter Rodney was the culmination of the country’s shift into a less welcoming place for dissident voices. Along the way, Rickford’s account examines the relations between Guyana’s various ethnic groups, among them a sizable Black community as well as residents of South Asian descent, the latter of whose experiences led to a gulf between Guyana’s promise and its lived reality—Rickford bluntly writes that some expatriates from the U.S. found themselves in the position of supporting “a regime that subjugated South Asians.” Wide-ranging and evenhanded, this offers a fascinating overview of a dynamic time and place. (May)