
A Proxy Africa
Guyana, African Americans, and the Radical 1970s
Russell Rickford(Author)
The University of North Carolina Press
Published on 5. May 2026
Book
Paperback/Softback
360 pages
978-1-4696-9080-3 (ISBN)
Description
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.
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.
Reviews / Votes
"This meticulous study from historian Rickford spotlights a dramatic time in Guyana, when the nation held a heightened international profile as a hub of pan-Africanism . . . . Wide-ranging and evenhanded, this offers a fascinating overview of a dynamic time and place."-Publisher's Weekly"In this richly researched, informative study of Guyana as a site of revolutionary aspirations, Rickford situates the country within a longer history of Pan-Africanism, Caribbean radicalism, and anticolonial solidarities. His analysis of the engagement of African American activists, exiles, travelers, and expatriates with Guyana is unsparing even as it takes their ideas and radical hopes seriously."-Kevin K. Gaines, author of American Africans in Ghana
"A wide-ranging exploration of the radical promises and deep contradictions of Pan-Africanist solidarity. Written with verve and clarity, A Proxy Africa remaps the contours of Pan-African imaginations and brings to the fore a neglected set of grassroots institutions and actors."-Adom Getachew, author of Worldmaking After Empire
"Well-researched, well-written, and revelatory. The contribution to the field is overwhelming to the point that it carves out new territory, due in large part to Rickford's granular research."-Gerald Horne, author of Revolting Capital
More details
Series
Language
English
Place of publication
Chapel Hill
United States
Target group
Professional and scholarly
College/higher education
Product notice
Paperback (trade)
Illustrations
27 illustrations - 27 halftones - 27 Halftones, unspecified
Dimensions
Height: 234 mm
Width: 156 mm
Thickness: 22 mm
Weight
522 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-4696-9080-3 (9781469690803)
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Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions

E-Book
03/2026
The University of North Carolina Press
€29.49
Available for download
Person
Russell Rickford is associate professor of history at Cornell University.