This day sixty years ago Martin Carter, Eusi Kwayana (then Sydney King), Rory Westmaas, Bally Latchmansingh and Adjoda Singh were detainees at Atkinson Field, now the Cheddi Jagan International Airport, Timehri. Arrested first on October 24 at Plantation Blairmont by the police for spreading dissention, they were moved quickly to the US airfield, where they remained until their release in January 1954.
When Lawrence and Wishart advertised Poems of Resistance from British Guiana in their 1954 catalogue, it told what is a now familiar story in Caribbean poetry and politics: “Martin Carter, the foremost poet of the Caribbean people, is a true people’s leader. A Minister in the democratically elected government of British Guiana,
