Forbes Burnham


Linden Forbes Sampson Burnham was a Guyanese politician and the Head of State of the Cooperative Republic of Guyana from 1964 until his death in 1985. During his tenure as Guyana's Head of State, he served as the nation's first Prime Minister from 1964 to 1980 then as its first Executive President from 1980 to 1985. He is often regarded as a strongman who embraced his own version of socialism based on autocratic and nationalistic policies. Throughout his presidency, he encouraged Guyanese to produce and export more local goods, especially through the use of state-run corporations and agricultural cooperatives. Despite being widely-regarded as one of the principal architects of the post-colonial Guyanese state, his presidency was nonetheless marred by repeated accusations of Afro-supremacy, state-sanctioned violence, electoral fraud, and corruption.

Personal life and education

Burnham, an Afro-Guyanese man, was born in Kitty, a suburb of Georgetown, East Demerara in Guyana, as one of three children. He attended the prestigious secondary school, Queen's College. In 1942, he won the Guiana Scholarship as the colony's top student. Burnham received a law degree from the London School of Economics in 1948. Burnham met many African and Caribbean students – including Abubakar Tafawa Balewa of Nigeria, Seretse Khama of Botswana and Kwame Nkrumah of Ghana as well as Michael Manley of Jamaica and Errol Barrow of Barbados – during his studies in London. He was married to Viola Burnham, who was also involved in politics. He has three children, Roxane, Annabelle, and Francesca from his first marriage to Bernice Lataste. His second marriage to Viola produced two daughters, Melanie and Ulele and later they adopted a son, Kamana.

Early years: The People's Progressive Party (PPP)

Burnham was one of the founders of the People's Progressive Party, which was launched on 1 January 1950. The Indo-Guyanese labour leader Cheddi Jagan became Leader of the PPP and Burnham became its chairman. In 1952, Burnham became the president of the party's affiliated trade union, the British Guiana Labour Union. In 1953, the PPP won 18 of 24 seats in the first election by universal suffrage permitted by the British colonial government, with both Burnham and his sister Jessie elected to the House of Assembly. In the short-lived PPP government that followed, Burnham served as Minister of Education.
In 1955, there was a split in the PPP between Burnham and Jagan. Jagan supported a socialist path, but Burnham believed that, given the geopolitical conditions of the era, communism would be a better alternative. As a result of foreign support, Burnham went on to form the People's National Congress in 1958 entering its first election under that name in 1961. Neither the USA nor Britain wanted a communist government controlling the small South American country. The powers, therefore, supported Burnham, leading to a disastrous economic situation in Guyana - the effects of which can still be felt today. Guyana obtained massive debts during Burnham's tenure, experience stagflation, suffered a massive rise in crime. Burnham's tenure was also marked by elections rigged by the PNC. The UK and USA would later formally apologize for this destabilization, albeit years later in the 2000s.

Leader of Guyana: The People's National Congress (PNC)

In the 1964 election Jagan's PPP won the highest percentage of the vote, but it did not win a majority. Burnham succeeded in forming a coalition with the United Force and became premier of British Guiana on 14 December. On 26 May 1966, British Guiana became an independent country and was renamed "Guyana".
Due to the radical views of Cheddi Jagan, Burnham was propped up by both the American and British Governments to assure the propagation of US/British control within the region At first, Burhnam pursued moderate policies, but in one of his first acts upon independence, he had passed a sweeping "National Security Act" giving the police the power to search, seize and arrest anyone virtually at will.
He won full power in 1968, although many condemned the elections as fraudulent because of a large number of irregularities. In 1970, he veered sharply to the left and established strong relations with Cuba, the Soviet Union, North Korea and other communist countries. On 23 February of that year, he declared Guyana a "co-operative republic". Adopting a policy of autarky, he banned all forms of imports into the country, including flour and varieties of rice that had been integral to the diet of ethnic Indian citizens. Burnham also nationalised the major industries that were foreign-owned and -controlled, reducing the private sector's share of the economy to 10 percent by 1979.
Burnham, after attending the 1970 summit of the Non-Aligned Movement in Lusaka, Zambia, paid official visits to several African countries—Zambia, Uganda, Kenya, Tanzania and Ethiopia—over the period 12–30 September 1970. The Guyanese government remained fully involved in the African liberation movement throughout the 1970s. Interestingly, although Guyana provided much-needed aid to African nations in their time of need - when Guyana was in its most dire times of need, none of these African nations offered aid to Guyana.
Burnham sent more than a hundred Guyanese public servants to various departments of the Zambian Government. Many Guyanese doctors, engineers, lawyers and secretaries worked in Southern African states throughout the 1970s. Current census data indicates that the majority of doctors, engineers, lawyers and secretaries currently working in Guyana originate from India, Sri Lanka, Cuba and China.
In 1974 Burnham declared the PNC to be paramount and socialist.) citation needed) He won a 1978 referendum which made it much easier for the government to change the constitution. Anecdotal evidence from hundreds of Indo-Guyanese claims that PNC enforcers aggressively denied PPP supporters of the opportunity to vote. Most notably, official figures showed the referendum passing with an implausible 97 percent of the vote. In 1980 the constitution was changed to make the presidency an executive post. Burnham won election as president that year.
Burnham introduced mass games to Guyana. They were first held in February 1980 to commemorate the founding of the Co-operative Republic of Guyana.
Burnham remained President of Guyana until his death. He died on 6 August 1985 after undergoing throat surgery in Georgetown Hospital.
Burnham remained President of Guyana through the process of rigging elections, and squirreling ballot boxes at the Army headquarters, after which they were destroyed, without the votes being counted. According to Dr. Walter Rodney, Burnham's "style of rule has many similarities with that of the late Nicaraguan dictator, Anastasio Somoza" - who not only oppressed the working class, but those in the upper echelons of the society who refused to go along with his domination. Walter Rodney was later assassinated, many believe because he stridently opposed Forbes Burnham and the PNC, who had a hand in his demise.