Book Reviews
ANATOMY OF RESISTANCE: A REVIEW OF MAURICE ST. PIERRE'S BOOK ON ANTI-COLONIAL RESISTANCE IN GUYANA 1823-1966
by David Hinds - Posted March 25th 2000.
Over the last decade there has been a marked increase in the volume of new books and other publications about Guyana. Most, but not all, of these publications have been by Guyanese, both at home or abroad. The topics range from poetry and fiction to Geography, History and Politics, but the majority deals either directly or indirectly with politics.
This is not surprising since Guyana's politics make for a good story, be it fiction or non-fiction. But it is also a largely untold story that has been manipulated by those who have tried to use it to score political points or settle political scores. It is also not surprising that the resurgence of studies on Guyana by Guyanese coincides with the decline and subsequent demise of the authoritarian phase. Further, that many of those new books are written by Guyanese who live outside of Guyana, some for a long time, testifies to a latent nationalism that has been persistently stifled by self-styled nationalists and their attendant nationalist projects. Guyana, despite the wretched hand of discord that holds it down, still calls it's exiled sons and daughters home.
Some of these books fall short the accepted level, but all of them have added to an understanding of the complexity that is Guyana. Since previous accounts of Guyana's history and politics are replete with myths, half-truths and inventions, any attempt at rigorous inquiry must be lauded.
One book that reflects such an attempt is Dr. Maurice St. Pierre's "Anatomy of Resistance: Anti-Colonial Resistance In Guyana 1823-1966". This is a significant study for several reasons, but three of these stand out.
First, Dr. St. Pierre investigates a period of Guyana's history that is pregnant with the contradictions that have shaped and nurtured contemporary Guyana. It is a period that includes the final demise of slavery; the early post-emancipation challenges loaded with the burden of race, class and identity; the colonial project with its economic and political arrogance and the explosions and implosions it engendered. The final mass anti-colonial, pro-independence crusade that mothered all of the following--the dictatorial prototype, the revolutionary charismatic type, the politically enlightened mass, and the racially defensive instincts-- all wrapped in one package.
Using his sociology training and a historian's methodology, Dr. St. Pierre puts this all in perspective. He establishes the links between these fragments and creates a continuum. One sees the link, for example, between the 1823 anti-slavery insurrection at La Resouvenir and the electoral insurrection of 1953; different settings, different tactics but similar spirit and purpose. Quamina and Gladstone, mobilizing and leading in 1823, connects with the Burnham-Jagan 1953 PPP express.
St. Pierre's account of, and conclusions about, 1823 are instructive. He goes beyond form. He reaches for the essence. Says the author:
"Although slave rebellions have been variously explained in terms of extreme cruelty and unassimilable elements, favorable geographical environment, and high density of slave population, here we seek to go beyond the effort of others who have stressed the slaves ability to think and act rationally in order deliberately to attack the system, by looking more closely at how the slaves did this by using various resources to mobilize others to participate in the 1823 insurrection" (p15).
The statistics provided are revealing: 1200 slaves involved in one week of Resistance, but only three whites dead - "and not at the hands of the slaves." St. Pierre, therefore, likens this action to a "strike" rather than a "violent reaction". This makes sense, especially since the demands were land, three days of the week to work for themselves, and of course total freedom from bondage. And this was not a spontaneous reactive action; it was carefully planned and executed, according to St.Pierre. Rationality, self-emancipation and revolutionary instincts resided in the slave experience too.
The second major significance of this book is its brave effort to construct a "balanced" and "neutral" account and analysis of this most misunderstood period of Guyana's modern political history--the mid-1940s to the mid-1960s. These two decades have been studied, interpreted, re-interpreted and misinterpreted by many, yet they remain somewhat of a mystery. Many lazy historians and social scientists have recklessly quoted from the few published accounts by one or two of the major players. Dr. Jagan's "The West On Trial", for example, is often quoted with alarming frequency without any double-checking with fellow travelers or sufficient critical assessment.
Maurice St. Pierre avoids this pitfall. He provides a whole body of data from primary sources. The work also benefits from the insights and accounts of many of the participants--Brindley Benn, HJM Hubbard Ashton Chase, John Carter, Sydney King (Eusi Kwayana) Jai Narine Singh and Clinton Wong among others. The Burnham-Jagan paradigm is challenged. Sydney King's role in the political leadership of this period, for example, is found by St. Pierre to be pivotal and definitive rather than peripheral. John Carter for once is not portrayed as a mere right-wing zealot, but as a crucial element in the ideological debate and political practice in the 1950s. The importance of this delve into the bowels of the movement, is that it liberates the history and politics from the suffocating confines of "maximum charisma." Therein lies the key to the truth.
Finally this book deals with "resistance". In so doing, it elevates to center stage the role of the ordinary man and woman in creating their own history. While the author spends a lot of time analyzing the leaderships, he always keeps in focus the foot soldiers--those who storm the gates of oppression, build the organizations, and protect the leaders--who in the final analysis are the true heroes. St. Pierre offers the reader another perspective--the perspective of the oppressed and the downpressed. Resistance here is not a footnote, but the essence of the process.
This is by no means a perfect book. No book is. The rebellions of the 1930's, in my opinion, the sledgehammer that finally broke the back of colonialism, should have been more thoroughly examined. Analysis of the events of 1961-64 relied too much on the "external intervention" paradigm and too little on the "internal dynamics". Perhaps, these shortcomings are the function of limited space. In any case they do not detract from the positive tenor of the book as a whole.
Clearly written in simple language, carefully researched and documented, and intellectually stimulating, this is not just a book for academics but also for the general public. It also is a popular educational tool that the worker, housewife and farmer can use to better understand his or her link to the Guyanese liberation tradition. For me the task of what Kwayana refers to as "taking the people's experiences, refining them, and giving it back to the people; a sort of ideological nourishment" is one that every academic and/or artist must see as his primary function.
Maurice St. Pierre has accomplished precisely that in this book which I highly recommend.
Maurice St. Pierre is an Assistant Professor of Sociology at Morgan State University in Baltimore, Maryland. The book is published by Macmillan Education Ltd. To obtain a copy call 410-321 0037.