Guyanese Online

Another glance at the Jonestown Tragedy – by Francis Quamina Farrier

Francis Quamina Farrier

“Sure I know ’bout Jonestown. Everybody knows ’bout Jonestown”, the elderly African-American gentleman responded to me in a deep Southern accent, when I asked him what he knew about the tragedy which had occurred in Guyana some years previously.

That exchange took place between the gentleman and myself twenty years ago, while I was on a visit to Washington, DC, and on the pavement in front of the White House. But I’ve always remembered it, if only because of the way in which that stranger to me, was as warm as ever discussing that sordid topic, as though we had known each other for a very long time, and as though it was destiny for a cult which was against all what America stood for, ending in such a dramatic way.      Continue reading →