Dear Editor,
Over the decades, when Guyana was mentioned in international circles, confusion often arose in the minds of the uninformed, and our dear land of Guyana was mistaken for Ghana. Then would come the explanation that Guyana was in South America not Africa, and almost immediately thereafter, that unlike most of the latter continent, we speak English, not Spanish.
A more infamous ignominy arose after 1978 when mention of Guyana regurgitated global television images of Jonestown. The conversation would go something like this: Me: “I’m from Guyana”. Them: “Guyana…Guyana, where have I heard that country before…oh yes, Jonestown, right?”
Thankfully, we have been experiencing a reset of our image overseas, as Guyana becomes more recognized as a “small” or “tiny” (have these Western journalists fact-checked the area of England, or The Netherlands!?) oil rich developing country, or “the fastest growing economy in the Western Hemisphere”; some even go as far as “the Dubai of the Caribbean”. In addition, Guyana’s role regionally in areas such as food security, or internationally on climate change, is making its mark.
In light of such increasing positivity, I am flummoxed as to the thought process that would have informed the decision to make Jonestown a tourist attraction: as I understand it, this is a private sector venture which has received the blessings of those in authority.
So who is the rocket scientist that came up with this incredulous business/tourism venture, the ultimate goal of which should really be to attract visitors to Guyana? I have elsewhere expressed my abhorrence over what in my humble estimation is a ghoulish and bizarre idea, but being a reasonable man, stand to be corrected, if I could be edified as regards the following: was this idea tested on a focus group, whether local or foreign; was any scientific market research done; have statistics been compiled on this matter; do persons go into a travel agency in “farrin” ecstatic about going to Guyana to visit Jonestown, as well as Kaieteur Falls? Do persons in the arrival hall at CJIA enquire about how to get to Jonestown?
Besides Americans – and perhaps Californians to be precise, from where hailed former US Congressman Leo Ryan, who was killed at Port Kaituma just hours before the Jonestown massacre – what touristic value would Jonestown hold for a visitor to Guyana from say, Japan, or Uganda, or Saint Lucia, or even Guyanese for that matter?
Make no mistake: there are various locations across the globe which have been turned into tourist attractions for historical or other reasons, their sordid past notwithstanding. From personal experience, Goree Island off the coast of Senegal is one such site; truth be told, the range of emotions with which one is overcome, while standing in those cramped, low-ceilinged, dungeon-like spaces where the slaves were assembled in the Slave House, or when staring out over the Atlantic horizon from the infamous ‘Porte de Non Retour’, are indescribable – President Bill Clinton, like countless others, is reported to have wept on his visit – that is an experience that has to be lived to be fully appreciated.
A visit to Goree Island or any of the other slave trading posts along Africa’s West Coast (Ghana, Benin) can help one to reminisce on the brutality of slavery and to attempt, however imperfectly, to relive the inhumanity, indignity and trauma of the commencement of the Middle Passage, with which our history, heritage and culture are inextricably intertwined. However I cannot in good conscience transpose the merit of a visit to Goree Island with a tour of Jonestown. What is the inherent touristic value of this venture? I can almost hear the tour guide now: “On the left is where they mixed the Koolaid that killed 900 people…and here on the right is where Jim Jones slept”,,,seriously, is this the takeaway we would want for visitors to Guyana?
According to Newsroom of 29 November, 2024, the Jonestown tour is among ‘…new adventures and tours for thrill seekers and nature lovers…designed to immerse visitors in nature, culture, and history…on unforgettable adventures across Guyana’s pristine landscapes’. What thrill is there to seek at Jonestown? What is so pristine about that killing field? What part of Guyana’s nature and culture is represented in a place where death by mass suicide and other atrocities and human rights violations were perpetuated against a submissive group of American citizens, which had nothing to do with Guyana nor Guyanese? The only history that Jonestown represents is that which we should want to undo, rather than promote it for profit and willingly put it on display for our tourists.
Would it not be a better way to use Jonestown for some touristic (economic?) value if a monument or some kind of memorial was to be erected at the Port Kaituma airstrip to celebrate the lives of Congressman Ryan and the others who were shot there, as they attempted to leave and carry back the message of what they had seen and heard on their ill-fated visit to Jonestown on Saturday 18 November, 1978? In this way, all who use the airstrip at that location would get a chance to pay respects to the fallen heroes, without making the trek to visit and “tour” the creepy venue where an American cult of domination and evil had been allowed to thrive.
The alternative would be to abandon the tourism incentive and transform Jones-town into an agricultural space, although the experts would have to pronounce on the effect that hundreds of bloated and decomposing cadavers exposed to the North West heat for days would have had on the composition of the soil, and whether agriculture would still be viable, account being taken of the passage of time since 1978.
All credit should be given to our entrepreneurs and policy makers for thinking outside the box, except that in so doing we should not transition out of the box and into the rubbish bin (of history). If people want to be creative, why not, for example, promote and monetise an organized and regulated attraction of horse-drawn cart races – not a regular sight in the Caribbean – reminiscent of gladiators of ancient times charging along in fierce competition (remember how innocuously the Jamaican bob sled team got started?) As it is, the cart men already illegally commandeer some thoroughfares on a Sunday morning to pursue the local equivalent of chariot races, which is a “big money” affair. Or bird racing, for that matter, which is another big unregulated gambling event that regularly occurs both in Georgetown and elsewhere.
Or, could this decision about Jonestown as a tourist attraction go the way of the No Right Turn at Vlissengen into Lamaha decision…
Yours sincerely,
Neville J. Bissember
