Burnham, Forbes

February 20, 1923
August 6, 1985

Linden Forbes Sampson Burnham, or Forbes "Odo" Burnham, as he was popularly known, was a lawyer, politician, and founder and leader of the People's National Congress (PNC), the political party that led the colony of British Guiana to become the independent nation of Guyana. He was born to schoolmaster James E. Burnham and Rachel A. (Sampson) Burnham in Kitty, a suburb of Georgetown, the capital city. Other family members included siblings Olga, Freddie, Jessica, and Flora. Burnham received his primary education at Kitty Methodist School, where his father taught. In 1935 his secondary education started in Georgetown, first at Central High School and then at Queen's College, the country's premier secondary school. At Queen's College Burnham won three scholarships: the Centenary Exhibition in 1936, the Government Junior in 1937, and the Percival Exhibition in 1938. His performance as a student prepared him for a legal career, and he became an important political and public figure, holding positions as a trade unionist, city councilor, mayor of Georgetown, premier and prime minister of British Guiana, and the Cooperative Republic of Guyana's first executive president.

When Burnham graduated from Queen's College in 1942 he was named that year's British Guiana Scholar as the colony's most outstanding student. World War II delayed his plan for immediate study in the United Kingdom. The delay enabled Burnham to teach at Queen's College as an assistant master and to earn a bachelor of arts degree at the external examinations of the University of London in 1944. The next year he entered the University of London for legal studies.

In the United Kingdom, Burnham was elected president of the West Indian Students Union in 1947 to 1948, further stimulating his interest in politics. He was the organization's delegate to the International Union of Students' Congress in Prague and Paris. He was also a member of the League of Coloured Peoples, founded in London in 1931 by Jamaican-born Dr. Harold Arundel Moody with West Indian, African, and Asian students. In the 1940s the organization spearheaded demonstrations against colonial rule in their homelands. As a testament to his oratorical skill, Burnham won the Best Speaker's Cup, awarded by the Law faculty at the University of London. After graduating in 1947 with a bachelor of laws degree and being called to Gray's Inn in 1948, he returned to British Guiana in 1949.

Burnham was a physically imposing person who stood six feet two inches tall and weighed over two hundred pounds when he first headed the government of Guyana. He married twice, the first time in May 1951 to Sheila Bernice Latase, an optician from Trinidad and Tobago. This union produced three daughters: Roxanne, Annabelle, and Francesca. The second marriage, in February 1967 to Viola Victorine Harper, led to the birth of Melanie Abiola and Ulele Imodinda. Burnham was an avid sports fan with an interest in cricket, tennis, chess, horseback riding, swimming, and fishing.

When Burnham returned to British Guiana, he entered the private law chambers of Cameron and Shepherd in Georgetown. Later, he opened his own law firm, Clarke and Martin. The year 1949 also witnessed a significant political event when Burnham (of African descent) and Dr. Cheddi B. Jagan (of East Indian descent) cofounded the People's Progressive Party (PPP), a name Burnham chose. Burnham was instrumental in transforming a quasipolitical organization, the Political Affairs Committee, originally led by Jagan, into a nationally organized political party. Under their leadership the PPP brought together the racial groups in the colony.

In 1952 Burnham was elected to the Georgetown Town Council. He headed the Kitty Brotherhood Movement from 1952 to 1956 and served as president of the British Guiana Labour Union from 1952 to 1956 and 1963 to 1965. In 1959 he was elected president of the British Guiana Bar Association. One year later he was appointed a Queen's (Senior) Counsel. Burnham was the minister of education in the short-lived PPP government that won the

general elections of 1953. In 1955, during the Cold War era, events centering on some party members' alleged communist bent and his rivalry with Jagan caused Burnham to lead a breakaway faction of the PPP and eventually to form the PNC in 1957. The next year the PNC and John P. Carter's United Democratic Party merged. Burnham was the leader of the main opposition party in British Guiana's legislature from 1957 to 1964. After the December 1964 elections, the Burnham-led PNC headed a coalition government with Peter S. D'Aguiar's United Force. Burnham became the premier of the colony.

The period during which Burnham headed the government, from December 15, 1964, until his death, has remained one of significance in the annals of the country's history. British Guiana achieved independence from Great Britain on May 26, 1966. Renamed Guyana, it was the first new nation in South America in eight decades, with Burnham as its first prime minister. When the country became a republic in February 1970, Arthur Chung was appointed as the ceremonial president. Burnham, as head of government, became the first executive president of Guyana under the Constitution of February 14, 1980.

As leader of the PNC and during his tenure as head of the government of Guyana, Burnham must be credited with a remarkable number of developments. National emblems—the flag's Golden Arrowhead; the coat of arms; the anthem, "Dear Land of Guyana;" the Canje pheasant, Guyana's national bird; the national flower, the Victoria Regia lily, one of the largest of its kind in the world; and the motto "One Nation, One People, One Destiny"—were instituted and are symbols of Burnham's legacy. His administration created national monuments acknowledging outstanding local and international figures, such as the 1763 monument erected to honor Cuffy, the leader of a slave insurrection, and the Non-Aligned Movement Monument with busts of Nasser (Egypt), Nkrumah (Ghana), Nehru (India), and Tito (Yugoslavia). The administration recognized ethnic religious events, such as Pagwah (Hindu) and Dewalli (Muslim) festivals, along with Mashramani, a national festival, and they were established as public holidays. Mashramani, an Arawak (indigenous Indian) word, means a celebration to mark the end of a community self-help effort like building a house or planting and reaping a field.

National development in education, health, housing, pure water and electricity supplies, and youth schemes accelerated when Burnham headed Guyana's government. Major construction works such as the Soesdyke-Linden highway, the West Demerara, Corentyne and Mahdia roads, and the international airport, Timehri, were completed. Planned resettlement schemes to relocate persons to hinterland locations were implemented. The Demerara Harbour Bridge, reputedly, the world's longest floating bridge, and a textile mill and clay brick factories became operational during Burnham's tenure. A National Insurance scheme, the Guyana Defense Force, the Guyana National Service, the Guyana National Cooperative Bank, the Agricultural Bank, Critichlow Labour College, Kuru Kuru Cooperative College, President's College, the National Cultural Center, and a host of other enterprises are among institutions established during Burnham's time in office.

As a Caribbean leader, Forbes Burnham advocated regionalism, nonalignment, a new international economic order, and a new world information order. He made Guyana one of the original members of the Caribbean Free Trade Area (CARIFTA) that in 1973 became the Caribbean Community and Common Market (CARICOM), with most Caribbean countries. Burnham supported a West Indies Federation as leader of the opposition and as head of the PNC. He was also a keen supporter of the struggle against apartheid in South Africa and of liberation movements in Africa.

Honors and awards attest to Burnham's significance and stature. They include the Order of Excellence in 1973 (Guyana), the Grand Cordon of L'Orde du Nil (Egypt) and Jose Marti (Cuba) in 1975, an honorary doctorate of laws from Dalhousie University (Canada) in 1977, the Cruseiro De Sul (the highest award in Brazil) in 1983, the Bulgarian Star of Planinay in 1984, and Yugoslavia's Order of the Red Star in 1985.

There were several controversies during Burnham's regime. He had foreign policy disputes with the United States; his embracing of socialism and Cuba and the nationalization of American, Canadian, and British private entities led to economic hardships; and he faced challenges from opposition parties and allegations of dictatorial rule. Accusations of "rigged" national elections also bedeviled his tenure in office. His greatest achievement was the implementation of specific national development programs that continue to impact the country.

The significance of Burnham's life and times is measured by samples of outpourings of grief and condolences as gleaned from the pages of the Guyana Chronicle in the days following his death. Apart from African, Caribbean, and European dignitaries who paid tribute to Burnham, Brazil and Cuba declared three days of mourning. Roderick Rainford, CARICOM secretary general, viewed his passing as a great loss. Indira Gandhi, president of India, who headed the nonaligned movement, lauded Burnham as one of the twentieth century's outstanding figures. Javier Perez de Cuellar, the secretary general of the United Nations, expressed shock and sadness at the death, observing that "Burnham served his country and his people with outstanding leadership and was a dedicated and valued friend and supporter of the United Nations." Educator and trade unionist T. Anson Sancho's The Green Way (1996) argued that Burnham was perhaps the cleverest politician the Caribbean had seen so far.

See also Caribbean Community and Common Market (CARICOM); Hoyte, Desmond; People's National Congress; Politics

Bibliography

Foreign Service Dispatch, American Consulate, Georgetown. Decimal File (1910–1963), Numeric File (1963–1973), 741D, 841D, 844B. Record Group 59. Department of State, Washington, D.C. The National Archives (Archives 11). College Park, Md.

Guyana Needs Progress Not Conflict: The People's National Congress, The New Road. La Penitence, Guyana: British Guiana Lithographic Company Limited, n.d.

McGowan, Winston F., James G. Rose, and David A. Granger. Themes in African-Guyanese History. Georgetown, Guyana: Free Press, 1998.

Nascimento, Christopher A., and Reynold A. Burrowes, eds. Forbes Burnham: A Destiny to Mold, Selected Speeches by the Prime Minister of Guyana. New York: Africana Publishing, 1970.

Sancho, T. Anson. The Green Way: A Biography of Hamilton Green. Georgetown, Guyana: Author, 1996.

Wilson, Margaret. "Forbes Burnham: Politician." The African-Guyanese Achievement 1 (1993): 17.

barbara p. josiah (2005)