A proxy Africa : Guyana, African Americans, and the radical 1970s / Russell Rickford.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Rickford, Russell John, Author.

Series:

InterConnections http://id.loc.gov/resources/hubs/fcf7f663-9a2d-22a9-a0f3-fceda1c0cb61

InterConnections: The Global Twentieth Century

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

African American radicals--Guyana--History--20th century.

African American radicals.

African Americans--Guyana--20th century.

African Americans.

Pan-Africanism--History--20th century.

Pan-Africanism.

African diaspora--History--20th century.

African diaspora.

Guyana--Politics and government--20th century.

Guyana.

Guyana--Emigration and immigration--History--20th century.

African diaspora--History.

Pan-Africanism--History.

Physical Description:

1 online resource : illustrations.

Place of Publication:

Chapel Hill : The University of North Carolina Press, [2026]

Summary:

"Nestled between Brazil, Venezuela, and Suriname, Guyana is the third-smallest sovereign state in mainland South America, and one of its youngest. Originally a Dutch colony, Guyana remained under British rule from the late eighteenth century until gaining independence in 1966 and becoming a republic in 1970. Apart from the 1978 mass murder-suicide of cult leader Jim Jones's followers in Jonestown, Guyana has been mostly peripheral to mainstream geopolitics. Yet for a generation of Black revolutionaries from around the world, Guyana was a vibrant site of pan-African activism. The country was particularly attractive to veterans of the US civil rights movement who sought alternative places to construct flourishing postcolonial, pan-African nation-states. In this first, comprehensive history of Guyana's core role in anticolonial, Black internationalist movements in the 1960s and 1970s, historian Russell Rickford traces the history of African Americans who traveled to the country to work with, learn from, and teach Guyanese politicians, activists, and other international figures in the long fight for Black freedom. With encouragement from Prime Minister Forbes Burnham, they eagerly accepted the invitation to move to Guyana to establish new cooperative settlements. Rickford compellingly narrates Guyana's allure and promise for Black Americans, along with the limitations they faced when ideology clashed with lived realities, especially political ones, once there"-- Provided by publisher.

Contents:

Neo-Pan-Africanism and embodied solidarity

African Americans and Guyana's anticolonial struggle

The politics of self-exile

Guyana as diasporic homeland

Guyana and embodied solidarity

African American expatriates in Guyana

Guyana and African American fugitivity

Walter Rodney and Black America

Jonestown, Rodney, and the new society.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Online resource; title from PDF title page (JSTOR, viewed May 29, 2026).

Other Format:

Print version : Rickford, Russell John. proxy Africa,

ISBN:

9781469690834

1469690837

OCLC:

1592352015

Publisher Number:

CIPO000360516

Access Restriction:

Restricted for use by site license