Caribbean Seminar Series - Forbes Burnham: The Life and Times of the Comrade Leader

Abstract: It is virtually impossible to understand the history of modern Guyana without understanding the role played by Forbes Burnham. In this talk, Professor Lewis will discuss his book Forbes Burnham: The Life and Times of the Comrade Leader (Rutgers University Press: 2024), the first political biography of this complex and influential figure. An intensely charismatic politician, Burnham helped steer a new course for the former colony, but he was also a quintessential strongman leader, venerated by some of his citizens yet feared and despised by others. Drawing from historical archives as well as new interviews with the people who knew Burnham best, Lewis examines how his dictatorial tendencies coexisted with his progressive convictions. Forbes Burnham is a compelling study of the nature of postcolonial leadership and its pitfalls.

Biography: Linden Lewis is Emeritus Professor of Sociology at Bucknell University. He is the editor of Caribbean Sovereignty, Development and Democracy in an Age of Globalization (Routledge: 2013), co-editor of Color, Hair and Bone: Race in the Twenty-first Century (Bucknell University Press: 2008), and editor of The Culture of Gender and Sexuality in the Caribbean (University Press of Florida: 2003). He has published widely in areas such as gender, race, labour, globalization and culture. His latest book, Forbes Burnham: The Life and Times of the Comrade Leader was published with Rutgers University Press in 2024. Professor Lewis has served as Chair and Vice-Chair of the Caribbean Studies Association.