I'm from Lethem, I'm an Afro Amerindian mix. Lethem is an Amerindian majority town where many of them are dual citizens of Guyana and Brazil. There are some of the older generations who dont speak any English only the language of their tribe. Almost all of the younger generations speak both English and Portuguese but not their native languages. Aside from the recent Venezuelan migrants no one speak Spanish. I would argue that Lethem and the surrounding areas are more connected to Brazil than Venezuela because many of them have relatives over there.
Lethem is miles away from the Venezuelan border unlike region one essequibo that's why you find a lot of people in the bordering area with Venezuela in region 1 speak Spanish vice-versa.
What an incredibly intimate look at the interior! You’ve gotta be the only person on RUclips going to these super remote places - loving this series so far!
So many inaccuracies. There was no African political party. What are you trying to achieve?You are attempting to distort and change Guyana's History. Anyway, you are not the first to try that. Do you really understand and know the characteristics of a dictator??.
And they are fully supporting the dictatorship now. The theft of oil monies, sugarcane workers mention, land theft, what about the killings of many activists. They are supporting the politicians pocketing the revenues and not allows the citizens to benefit so America can get what they want.
This "documentary" is what you get when you allow a relatively uninformed outsider to tell your story. Regarding the claim that there was no infrastructure; the British left a functional railway system that ran from Rossignol to Georgetown on the East Coast, and from Vreed-en-hoop to Parika on the West Coast. I know because I rode those trains many times. The Burnham government decided to scrap the railway around 1971 and replaced it with cheap Tata buses imported from India. The buses all fell apart within about 6 months but by that time the railway lines were being ripped up and the locomotives given to several African countries. If my memory is correct some steam engines went to Zambia where they might still be in operation. Then the 1973 Arab oil embargo occurred and Guyana did not have the foreign exchange to import food or fuel; the government was forced into taking loans from agencies like the IMF and World Bank, and countries like Trinidad. This is a major fact that's never mentioned in this "documentary."
You brought up some valid point. Even though I was born way after the time you speak of, his details are quiet inaccurate. He may have put it over so eloquently and to be persuasive but Alex did not get the facts.
@suddie1215 you mean the railway was sold, and the money went into a dictator pocket. The current Guyana Govt needs to publish all documents pertaining to the railways, leaving Guyana.
@StevenBiko1 A black sleuth dog that never stops barking ,that is the effect one gets when one drinks Congo pump tree leaves for tea ,and eating black pudding sadly no brain development to have a meaningful discussion or mabie one of those that the Guyana Govt pay to raise as a child because of single mother help from social services ministries.
I really enjoyed watching this video! The mixture between telling Guayanas history and showing yourself actually getting to know the country in person is just perfect! Now i'm subscribed, keep up the good work!
You ignorant people ought to learned your history. If you haven’t by now you still have the slavery mentality. There are hundreds of documentations on how America and England put Burnham in power and banned all food products, yet his home had all these things. Burnham told the Guyanese people he would do anything even sell his soul to be in power. I was maybe six years went the bombs were falling. I can still hear the bombs falling up to present. Not a nice sight for a little child.
This is what travel is about. Truly understanding a country. I found your channel last year when i was doing research on sri lanka before going there. Just awesome content. Keep travelling and researching. I have no words for the quality of your movies. Insane
love the video production and visuals of Guyana and its beauty. Your respect of the people and their cultures is wonderful and heartwarming especially from tourists. Additionally, the story of LFS Burnham while a small glimpse of the dictator is refreshing to be publicised. Many denies the atrocities and hardly anyone ever mentions it (likely most wanna forget it while others were 'fortunate' and/or propagandised), but I have heard so many stories from my grandparents and elders. The Ballot Box Martyrs is one of the many stories in the fight for a free Guyana.
Under Burnham many must never forget the Wismar massacre that took place in the 1960s. I was living in Guyana as a young child when that happened. I met many Guyanese over the years and some believe that's in the past but it should not be forgotten because it happened two times again in modern times. Guyana is a beautiful country and I think the Government in power is doing an excellent job
You have certainly captured the essence of that period of time of my beloved country. Thank you for making it, and I look forward to the next episode...
Guyana is an incredible country .i am so glad i was borned in the best country in the world with so many adventures. I may be a canadian but guyana will always hold a special place in my heart.
Guyana was basically the reverse of Uganda. When will people learn about mutual respect co-operation? I'm sure the US & India will their claws into Guyana to extract its share of the cheap oil. I hope the leaders of Guyana can begin with housing the poor, building up hospitals around the country, educating its people in engineering, construction, health sciences, farming, etc. to establish a self-sufficient, vibrant state. As I've seen the first construction projects are to house the American subcontractors & staff of Oil companies with luxurious seaside apartments & private schools etc for their civilian needs. So round 1 lost. Good luck, as inequality & family squabbles will increase as the petrodollars flow in.
I love your videos my man! The mix of travel and history on your channel add depth you don’t get often. Keep it up. Looking forward to seeing what you make!
Thanks guys, trying to get out videos as fast as I can while also writing and researching upcoming projects. There will be much more regular uploads starting in around October I think
@@AlexRothman it’s honestly no rush man! we sincerely appreciate it! the quality over quantity approach is so worth it! i enjoy watching your videos so much, after i found your first video on guyana i went back and watched so many of your videos including your entire series on sri lanka! thank so much man, keep up the great work! we’ll be here whenever the uploads come regardless!
@@AlexRothmandefinitely appreciate your thoroughness! These videos are so important especially for our future generations. A lot of our people don’t know the history of Guyana especially those who live abroad. Please take your time getting these videos out - Quality over quantity. Sending love and appreciation from NY!
Now this is entertainment, I'm all for it! Exploring the country and showing people places not commonly known, amamzing job you've earned yourself a sub
I'm really enjoying these videos with the great combination of history and travelogue. Have to say, seeing Adam with a smart phone in his hand was interesting. We would love to know about how connected every day Guyanans are with the outside world.
@@AlexRothman Thanks Alex. I was surprised at Adam and his smart phone due to how remote You indicated the people on the interior were. Having service to support a smart phone surprised me a bit given that description. Thanks for the follow up. Looking forward to the next video in the series. Thank you!
They aren't tribes living with no outside contact lol. It's just that due to poor roads and distance they are a bit disconnected from resources but they all have phones, access to Internet, they get supplies from Brazil or when they go into a city, etc.
Guyana was never an African dictatorship..it is Caribbean or West Indian in culture, multi-ethnic in race, granted socilaist under later Burnham, but democratic today..so the comparison is quite frankly egregious.
Forbes Burnham of Guyana was not the only Caribbean leader to sport the Nationalist / Marxist-Leninist hat in the Caricom region during the latter half of 20th century. Different hybrid versions of this political ideology was adopted with various degree of influence across the Caribbean. In Grenada under Maurice Bishop, Dominica under Patrick John, Antigua under Lester Bird, Trinidad & Tobago under Dr. Eric Williams, Jamaica under Michael Manley, St. Vincent and the Grenadines under Milton Cato and of course Haiti under father and son Francois and Jean-claude Duvalier who cleverly straddled the Democrat-Communist fence to America's chagrin.
So glad to see a new upload in this series! I enjoyed the first two Guianas videos so much and loved learning even more through this video. I hope that the boom in views your first video saw can carry over to this one as you and these videos absolutely deserve the viewership
Wow. As a Jamaican watching this hearing him talk about bitta cassava and sweet cassava. It shows how similar we are while being so different. Thank you for sharing.
@4:30 Cooperative Republic meant that the 6 races would now be “one” ❤ They were to cooperate and live as “one people ” No race would be superior. ❤ One People ❤ One Nation ❤ One Destiny ❤
@StevenBiko1 I'm not the one who constantly blames bharat jagdeo for all my self-inflicted failures in life and constantly bang I'm my youths heads that he is the cause for them to even stump their toes 🤣. Jagdeo lives in you all. Touche!
Thanks so much ! I read a book years ago called 'Journey to Nowhere' by Shiva Naipaul about the Jonestown catastrophe. A lot of the book dealt with the Forbes Burnham dictatorship and got me really interested in the subject. But finding further info about it was extremely difficult. Even with the internet there wasn't much to go on so this video was a real feast ! It's about time the Burnhamite nastiness has come to light.
I just watched these three Guyana videos back to back. They are incredible! Our work in television news and have done so for over 25 years, and this is some of the best reporting I’ve ever seen. I can hardly wait for the next one.
The rupununi uprising was a blood bath my Grandfather was in charge of the police station at the time Five police officers - this included the constables James McKenzie, William Norton, Michael Kendall, Sergeant James Anderson and Inspector Whittington Braithwaite - along with two civilians, Victor Hernandez and Thomas James, were killed
I think this was so enjoyable to watch and thank you for continuing the education about Guyana 🇬🇾. I also though think that it is important to recognise that those of us who were not around will not know why people such as Burnham really behaved in the way that they did.
Same thing have been done in Sri Lanka by Indian slave labours who were brought by british , portuguese ,dutch and then immediately their slave labours outnumbered the native people in Sri lanka .
356, an elephant 🐘 born in Africa and taken to, let's say Guyana or China, will give birth to nothing but elephants. Burnham was, therefore, African ethnically, his ancestors having been captured, brought to Guyana (BritishGuiana) and ENslaved. Having been born in Guyana, Burnham was a Guyanese African by reason of birth. Not unlike, let's say, East Indians, Chinese, Europeans, etc., all of whom retained their ancestral appellations despite leaving their motherland hundreds of years ago, Africans have also retained their "Africanness". Burnham - and Guyanese Africans - are no different 😮😢😅
@justsaying4303 Afro is a contraction of African; Indo is a contraction of Indian; Chino is a contraction of Chinese; Euro is a contraction (or shortening) of European, "Guy" is a contraction of Guyana, as in Guysoco, and so forth. In acceptable standard English, one should say, Guyanese Europeans and not European-Guyanese, the United States creole dialect. Similarly, one says, "white" man and not man white, in standard English. However, in many romance languages such as Spanish, French, Italian, Romanian, the adjective takes a post nominal position: man white, king black, etc.
@wyndhl8309 Bad analogy, an elephant is an elephant wherever it is born, likewise a human being is a human being regardless of where he's born. I noticed you didn't define the nationality of the elephant, you're mixing oranges with apples.
He meant an Guyana became like an African dictatorship which is true. I am Guyanese and it was run by an African descendant and it was dictatorship. He knows it is in Sourhb America. He has shown several map.
I wonder if, rather than being an act of solidarity, the practice of all the cars waiting until everybody is through the mud was developed as a measure to prevent conflict over who gets to be pulled out first.
So what's happening in Guyana now what is going on with this administration, the British and Americans did the same to Guyana what they also did to Africa and so many resourceful nations
Because it's filled with inaccuracies, falsehood, and vilification of Burnham re. his support for Africans, many of whom suffered under Burnham's acts of patriotic nationalization.
@mrchris6684 Yes, reason why head is spells with an "A" instead of letter "H, and 32 is a greater number than 33."Have a good day that much for extremely educated.😂😂😂😂
Hey, Alex. Obviously, you don’t know the meaning of word, dictatorship. Did you live in Guyana during the period of time when you are claiming that there were a dictatorship? As a Guyanese, in my opinion no dictator or dictatorship ever existed in Guyana. I am willing to debate anybody about fact who thinks differently.
Yes he may have been a dictator , but he didn’t hate the Indians as they hate us . He never demonstrated hatred. He had the Indians close to him , both the East Indians and Aboriginal Indians . We may not have like some of his policies, but he was right about a few things. People are still leaving with the current Gov. I haven’t seen many returned after Burnham departed.
EastIndians are departing 🛫 Guyana 🇬🇾 shores on a daily basis to North America and numerous Caribbean islands, that are governed by Black people’s for a better life.
You need to do some research. Your content and context are misleading and very untrue. You sound like a paid content creator who lacks credibility 😢😢😢😢😢
@@Sid-gu5qkwhat do mean culturally??? Africa has 54 different countries & over 3000 different ethnicities with different cultures, there's isn't one African culture
@@samanth. Are you also trying to say that Guyanese are culturally African? That's what my comment was about, notwithstanding the semantics of which part of Africa their ancestors came from.
Amazing how they ignore the Portugese and Chinese labour immigrants that arrived before the east indians.......Burnham was not a dictator......he was preferred by the CIA, instead of Jagan, who was labelled as a communist. Burnham was a socialist. Socialism was popular in those days. Of course the west didn't like the socialist republic status of Guyana. People leaving was a tru fact, because life became hard. Rice, sugar, gold, bauxite etc markets were probably suppressed by the west. However there were sufficient resources to sustain such a small population. Fortunately oil was discovered and now its another page of its rags to riches story. Wise or wasteful spending? We'll see.
Had US billionaire friend, Ramy El-Batrawi who was recently killed under peculiar circumstances in Guyana. He just closed on the Georgetown Hilton late last year for $91MM US, economically helping to open up South America with El Presidente's blessings. Too much intrigue, too many despotic players ... 😕
Alex, your work fails and shows your bias. You claim Guyana is an African dictatorship, yet Africa is a continent while Guyana is a nation. Your writing fails to acknowledge the complexities of African history and instead reflects your own biases. Consider researching and portraying a more accurate and fair representation of African history. "Why haven't you written about the exploitation of the continent, the assassination of post-colonial leaders, the interference of Western political forces in African leadership, and the resulting impact on nations and people across the continent? Your work falls short. Your biases are evident in your skewed version of history, is without merit.
I was also perplexed by why Africa was being attached to this. Very ignorant thing to do but hey anything to further the stereotypes for the masses to consume.
Greetings to Guyana Georgetown south america amazing amen i was born in Guyana Georgetown i love 💕 u Guyana at the age of 12 year old my geart. Ann took me to linden live and went to school at 19 years old i return again to geroetown the city Guyana be long to Guyana i love 💕 my country my name is mr bernard Forbes Stephens okay 🇬🇾🇯🇲🇬🇳🫂🔥✅😇
He does, he is correct in a lot of ways. Burnham ruin the country. I remember the bans and food had to be smuggled in. Lots of intelligent and educated people left including my family.
I would like to ask Mr Alex where he comes from and where he get his facts from because Mr Burham had this country 100%better than it is now and when you are talking about dictatorship who is more dictator dictator more than jagdeo
Keep the good work and information going thanks for exposing the horror suffering and injustice Indian went true during that 28 years of Dictator ship under the PNC Burnham Regime
I'm not at all pleased with all your information. It's a western naritive. Ok when the country started deterating was because of the western sanctions. Because he decided not to follow their lead. He was more interested in notion building and not being the puppet of the west. He wanted guyanese to be incharge of their own destiny but the population didn't grasp the foresight
His comments about Guyana not justifying. Who read this and don't know our histor, will get a very negative opinion of Guyana. He has some facts but are not.
Im not sure that this video covers the importance of social class in Guyana. After slavery the Afro-Guyanese were well versed (and increasingly so post Emancipation) in most of the cultural values of the British - language, Christianity, Western education and manners. This meant they took powerful positions in the capital and urban centres - teachers, public servants, managerial posts, lawyers, etc. At one point Georgetown was essentially owned by middle and upper class Afro Guyanese - while the rural areas were the heartlands of the well to do agricultural Indians. Many Creole (Mixed) and Afro-Guyanese thus believed, as they were the major group brought in after whites historically to build the national economy - that they were the natural 'inheritors' of Guyana after the British. They couldnt understand how - purely due to population advantage - the Indians could usurp that power from them when they had been around for less time and not adapated to the 'cultural standards' that, at that time, defined what made you 'respectable' and part of elite Guyanese society. This is perhaps the greatest mental and social divide in Guyana. Most of Guyana's old dominant Creole and Afro-Guyanese bourgeoisie left the country during the 1970s. Essentially leaving behind the working class Afro-Guyanese and Indo-Guyanese 'new money', who were largely Hindu and of rural Guyanese extraction. It was a huge cultural shift for the nation. However the old bourgeoisie still considers that their kind has the best 'tools' to run Guyana and that part of the reason it struggled so long during - and with the various leaders LONG after Burnham - is that the 'right' social class opted to leave the country due to degraded standards...
You have your info incorrect. Guyana was under sanctions from 1970 to 1992 by the us government, for its role and contributions to the African liberation struggles against apartheid. This is what is responsible for its economic woes and hardships during the PNC administration. Guyana was under colonial dictatorship for more than four hundred years, where its indigenous peoples and Africans were enslaved for more than 400 years. During slavery some of the world's worst atrocities were committed against the enslaved. Slavery ended in the eighteen hundreds and was followed by indentured servitude, which ended in the late eighteen hundreds. Free Africans were barred from buying fertile and prime lands but were sold over priced barren waste land and drainage reserve land, which was deliberately flooded at crop time to destabilize the free Africans, and to force them off the lands. While the indentured servants were given free arable lands for farming and for housing. Guyana didn't experience any development from the end of indentured servitude to Guyana's independence. However, after independence, the new government built over a hundred thousand houses all over Guyana. Free school from nursery to university. Free text books from nursery to university. Free school meals. Free or subsidized transportation for school children. Free school uniform for school children. Hundreds of millions of dollars in loans for farming and home ownership. And the list of achievements goes on and on. Now what the colonizers did wasn't a dictatorship? But the rapid development we achieved is a dictatorship? Make that make sense
Burham did not ban the wheat 🌾 It Was the US and even when he secured a wheat deal with India 🇮🇳 the money still had to pass through the US financial system to make it to India 🇮🇳 and that too was eventually block (if u did know now ya know )
Between the Sri Lanka series and this one, you seem to be following the works of John Gimlette, who I see referenced in the notes. Is he a particular inspiration, and do you plan to cover Paraguay and Madagascar someday as he did in his writings?
Well observed! Paraguay and Madagascar are very much projects I hope to do in the future. I'm not consciously following him but there we definitely have an interest in the same kind of places: countries with interesting but somewhat obscure histories
I was young when Burnham was President. My mother is Amerindian and Chinese, man we ate cassava and breadfruit in each which way to can use it. He banned the import of all food items. I hate breadfruit to this day and I am in my 50s. My younger uncles had to shipped out of Guyana because the dead swat would constantly be at my grandmother's house looking for them because they were always having meetings planning to overthrow Burnham. If you were a young man those were some very uncertain times getting picked up and beaten up. People disappeared and were killed.
Amerindians eat cassava on a daily basis in the jungles of Guyana 🇬🇾, with uncleaned ,unseasoned meats currently to this present day. What is your point, that’s your culture, traditions and customs.
I'm from Lethem, I'm an Afro Amerindian mix. Lethem is an Amerindian majority town where many of them are dual citizens of Guyana and Brazil. There are some of the older generations who dont speak any English only the language of their tribe. Almost all of the younger generations speak both English and Portuguese but not their native languages. Aside from the recent Venezuelan migrants no one speak Spanish. I would argue that Lethem and the surrounding areas are more connected to Brazil than Venezuela because many of them have relatives over there.
Lethem is miles away from the Venezuelan border unlike region one essequibo that's why you find a lot of people in the bordering area with Venezuela in region 1 speak Spanish vice-versa.
Just like BERBICE where many Guyana speak creole Afrikaans ..
@@john-hk5pu it’s sad this is due to our weak corrupt politicians who don’t promote our true culture country wide ..
@@Draintheswamp888yes. But the people can continue trading. Ignore the government,. They all garbage without sense
@@Draintheswamp888 Ithaca Village for sure, Rosignol.
What an incredibly intimate look at the interior! You’ve gotta be the only person on RUclips going to these super remote places - loving this series so far!
no there a lot it has become a genre
@@glynphelps9027 oh interesting, have you come across any other good ones you’d recommend?
Hope he enlightened you about malaria 🦟
I hope he gets it in the worst way, no return. 😂@@yatradeocoomar5166
So many inaccuracies. There was no African political party. What are you trying to achieve?You are attempting to distort and change Guyana's History. Anyway, you are not the first to try that. Do you really understand and know the characteristics of a dictator??.
Your opening statement “the world wasn’t watching” is highly inaccurate. The USA/CIA fully supported the dictatorship in Guyanese.
And they are fully supporting the dictatorship now. The theft of oil monies, sugarcane workers mention, land theft, what about the killings of many activists. They are supporting the politicians pocketing the revenues and not allows the citizens to benefit so America can get what they want.
So what do u have to say about the current dictatorship that taking place in Guyana under the current regime???
I think he meant the world media.
@@Gods_Worship_Sanctuarythe usa support it too
@Gods_Worship_Sanctuary There is no dictatorship going on in Guyana.
I like the history + travel combo. Nice work
This "documentary" is what you get when you allow a relatively uninformed outsider to tell your story. Regarding the claim that there was no infrastructure; the British left a functional railway system that ran from Rossignol to Georgetown on the East Coast, and from Vreed-en-hoop to Parika on the West Coast. I know because I rode those trains many times. The Burnham government decided to scrap the railway around 1971 and replaced it with cheap Tata buses imported from India. The buses all fell apart within about 6 months but by that time the railway lines were being ripped up and the locomotives given to several African countries. If my memory is correct some steam engines went to Zambia where they might still be in operation. Then the 1973 Arab oil embargo occurred and Guyana did not have the foreign exchange to import food or fuel; the government was forced into taking loans from agencies like the IMF and World Bank, and countries like Trinidad. This is a major fact that's never mentioned in this "documentary."
You brought up some valid point. Even though I was born way after the time you speak of, his details are quiet inaccurate. He may have put it over so eloquently and to be persuasive but Alex did not get the facts.
@suddie1215 you mean the railway was sold, and the money went into a dictator pocket. The current Guyana Govt needs to publish all documents pertaining to the railways, leaving Guyana.
@@hafizkhan4031. The monies went to Hamas
@StevenBiko1 A black sleuth dog that never stops barking ,that is the effect one gets when one drinks Congo pump tree leaves for tea ,and eating black pudding sadly no brain development to have a meaningful discussion or mabie one of those that the Guyana Govt pay to raise as a child because of single mother help from social services ministries.
@StevenBiko1 black sleuth dog that never stops barking ,brain dead" Aead" that thinks that 32 is greater than 33.
As a Guyanese who lived and still live in Guyana,I must say this video is fill with inaccuracies😮...
IT'S THE TRUTH ,I KNOW FOR A FACT.
@@user-sm7hc8si6u I didn't ask a question...smh
What's more important is that people are having the discussion. Go from there.
Like?
The irony is that for the last 30 years Guyana has been run by the PPP which is a corrupt indian nationalist party!
Very interesting . Colonial Britain was the cause of much political and social discord worldwide . The arrogance of it all .
I really enjoyed watching this video! The mixture between telling Guayanas history and showing yourself actually getting to know the country in person is just perfect! Now i'm subscribed, keep up the good work!
You ignorant people ought to learned your history. If you haven’t by now you still have the slavery mentality. There are hundreds of documentations on how America and England put Burnham in power and banned all food products, yet his home had all these things. Burnham told the Guyanese people he would do anything even sell his soul to be in power. I was maybe six years went the bombs were falling. I can still hear the bombs falling up to present. Not a nice sight for a little child.
This is what travel is about. Truly understanding a country. I found your channel last year when i was doing research on sri lanka before going there. Just awesome content. Keep travelling and researching. I have no words for the quality of your movies. Insane
Thank you so much 🙂
love the video production and visuals of Guyana and its beauty. Your respect of the people and their cultures is wonderful and heartwarming especially from tourists. Additionally, the story of LFS Burnham while a small glimpse of the dictator is refreshing to be publicised. Many denies the atrocities and hardly anyone ever mentions it (likely most wanna forget it while others were 'fortunate' and/or propagandised), but I have heard so many stories from my grandparents and elders. The Ballot Box Martyrs is one of the many stories in the fight for a free Guyana.
Under Burnham many must never forget the Wismar massacre that took place in the 1960s. I was living in Guyana as a young child when that happened. I met many Guyanese over the years and some believe that's in the past but it should not be forgotten because it happened two times again in modern times. Guyana is a beautiful country and I think the Government in power is doing an excellent job
You have certainly captured the essence of that period of time of my beloved country. Thank you for making it, and I look forward to the next episode...
Glad you enjoyed it!
Mr. Alex you’re the best, we’ll miss you in school
Guyana is an incredible country .i am so glad i was borned in the best country in the world with so many adventures. I may be a canadian but guyana will always hold a special place in my heart.
Guyana was basically the reverse of Uganda. When will people learn about mutual respect co-operation? I'm sure the US & India will their claws into Guyana to extract its share of the cheap oil.
I hope the leaders of Guyana can begin with housing the poor, building up hospitals around the country, educating its people in engineering, construction, health sciences, farming, etc. to establish a self-sufficient, vibrant state.
As I've seen the first construction projects are to house the American subcontractors & staff of Oil companies with luxurious seaside apartments & private schools etc for their civilian needs. So round 1 lost. Good luck, as inequality & family squabbles will increase as the petrodollars flow in.
Uganda’s decision to expel Indians was the best
Great stuff brother. Keep 'em coming.
Feed the algorithm everybody!
This report is a blasted lie. BURNHAM WAS THE BEST LEADER.
This is better than any TV show. I am so impressed with your challenges and motivation to make a good history report.
Just Brilliant.
This video is worth the wait ❤thank you
Really interesting mix of historical and documentary footage. Great stuff!
awesome
your channel should have more subscribers...
Thank you so much 😀
I love your videos my man! The mix of travel and history on your channel add depth you don’t get often. Keep it up. Looking forward to seeing what you make!
So good man, love the format, absolutely fascinating. Always looking forward to the next one!
I agree the format it great. He did a good job.
Interesting perspective from one who contributed. Thanks for your views!
bro i await your uploads like a dope fiend 😭 i check like weekly, its been 2 months i’m so excited
Haha, I came to the comments to say the exact same thing !
I'm glad this channel is finally starting to blow up. The production value is unreal.
Thanks guys, trying to get out videos as fast as I can while also writing and researching upcoming projects. There will be much more regular uploads starting in around October I think
@@AlexRothman it’s honestly no rush man! we sincerely appreciate it! the quality over quantity approach is so worth it! i enjoy watching your videos so much, after i found your first video on guyana i went back and watched so many of your videos including your entire series on sri lanka! thank so much man, keep up the great work! we’ll be here whenever the uploads come regardless!
@@AlexRothmandefinitely appreciate your thoroughness! These videos are so important especially for our future generations. A lot of our people don’t know the history of Guyana especially those who live abroad. Please take your time getting these videos out - Quality over quantity. Sending love and appreciation from NY!
Always amazing, unique and interesting content. Please keep it up!
Amazing job with your videos, looking forward to seeing more!
Goddamn.❤ You mix history and travel so good even drugs can't compete with your content❤
Now this is entertainment, I'm all for it! Exploring the country and showing people places not commonly known, amamzing job you've earned yourself a sub
I'm really enjoying these videos with the great combination of history and travelogue. Have to say, seeing Adam with a smart phone in his hand was interesting. We would love to know about how connected every day Guyanans are with the outside world.
I think pretty connected, like almost everywhere smart phone penetration is thorough
@@AlexRothman Thanks Alex. I was surprised at Adam and his smart phone due to how remote You indicated the people on the interior were. Having service to support a smart phone surprised me a bit given that description. Thanks for the follow up. Looking forward to the next video in the series. Thank you!
They aren't tribes living with no outside contact lol. It's just that due to poor roads and distance they are a bit disconnected from resources but they all have phones, access to Internet, they get supplies from Brazil or when they go into a city, etc.
Guyana was never an African dictatorship..it is Caribbean or West Indian in culture, multi-ethnic in race, granted socilaist under later Burnham, but democratic today..so the comparison is quite frankly egregious.
Forbes Burnham of Guyana was not the only Caribbean leader to sport the Nationalist / Marxist-Leninist hat in the Caricom region during the latter half of 20th century. Different hybrid versions of this political ideology was adopted with various degree of influence across the Caribbean. In Grenada under Maurice Bishop, Dominica under Patrick John, Antigua under Lester Bird, Trinidad & Tobago under Dr. Eric Williams, Jamaica under Michael Manley, St. Vincent and the Grenadines under Milton Cato and of course Haiti under father and son Francois and Jean-claude Duvalier who cleverly straddled the Democrat-Communist fence to America's chagrin.
So glad to see a new upload in this series! I enjoyed the first two Guianas videos so much and loved learning even more through this video. I hope that the boom in views your first video saw can carry over to this one as you and these videos absolutely deserve the viewership
Thank you so much for your comment and for watching!
Hi I just found your video and subbed, thank you for sharing this video
Wow. As a Jamaican watching this hearing him talk about bitta cassava and sweet cassava. It shows how similar we are while being so different. Thank you for sharing.
@4:30 Cooperative Republic meant that the 6 races would now be “one” ❤ They were to cooperate and live as “one people ” No race would be superior.
❤ One People ❤ One Nation ❤ One Destiny ❤
What logic did he use to come up with the title of the video? How was Guyana an African dictatorship?
Under Burnham.
@@dopamine3255. dope fiend
@@dopamine3255 The Brilliant LFS Burnham lives in you and your kinds empty heads and thoughts forever. 😂😂😂😂
@StevenBiko1 I'm not the one who constantly blames bharat jagdeo for all my self-inflicted failures in life and constantly bang I'm my youths heads that he is the cause for them to even stump their toes 🤣.
Jagdeo lives in you all.
Touche!
It was like an African dictatorship and ran like one which is true.
Great video. Traveling through the interior seems like traveling back in time to much simpler times.
Currently binging your series on my country, and man, I've gotta say the journalism is amazing.
Thanks so much ! I read a book years ago called 'Journey to Nowhere' by Shiva Naipaul about the Jonestown catastrophe. A lot of the book dealt with the Forbes Burnham dictatorship and got me really interested in the subject. But finding further info about it was extremely difficult. Even with the internet there wasn't much to go on so this video was a real feast ! It's about time the Burnhamite nastiness has come to light.
Beautiful cinematography, thank you very much for your RUclips content I really like your approach to the content!
This account should have +500k followers
loved your sri lankan series. had indo Guyanese friends in canada in the 70's
I just watched these three Guyana videos back to back. They are incredible! Our work in television news and have done so for over 25 years, and this is some of the best reporting I’ve ever seen. I can hardly wait for the next one.
Thank you, you’re very kind! Next one coming soon
The rupununi uprising was a blood bath my Grandfather was in charge of the police station at the time Five police officers - this included the constables James McKenzie, William Norton, Michael Kendall, Sergeant James Anderson and Inspector Whittington Braithwaite - along with two civilians, Victor Hernandez and Thomas James, were killed
May they rest in peace and not be forgotten
Thanks for the quality content on an area I know little about. Looking forward to the next videos.
Many Guyanese with money left Guyana only the poor remains.
I think this was so enjoyable to watch and thank you for continuing the education about Guyana 🇬🇾.
I also though think that it is important to recognise that those of us who were not around will not know why people such as Burnham really behaved in the way that they did.
Guyana needs people to develop the hinterland regions it's is here the country potential lies not in region 4.
Same thing have been done in Sri Lanka by Indian slave labours who were brought by british , portuguese ,dutch and then immediately their slave labours outnumbered the native people in Sri lanka .
How is this an African dictatorship? Burnham's forebears left Africa 400 years ago. You Sir, are letting your prejudices show.
356, an elephant 🐘 born in Africa and taken to, let's say Guyana or China, will give birth to nothing but elephants.
Burnham was, therefore, African ethnically, his ancestors having been captured, brought to Guyana (BritishGuiana) and ENslaved.
Having been born in Guyana, Burnham was a Guyanese African by reason of birth.
Not unlike, let's say, East Indians, Chinese, Europeans, etc., all of whom retained their ancestral appellations despite leaving their motherland hundreds of years ago, Africans have also retained their "Africanness".
Burnham - and Guyanese Africans - are no different 😮😢😅
@@wyndhl8309 afro guyanaese
U sure right
@justsaying4303 Afro is a contraction of African; Indo is a contraction of Indian; Chino is a contraction of Chinese; Euro is a contraction (or shortening) of European, "Guy" is a contraction of Guyana, as in Guysoco, and so forth.
In acceptable standard English, one should say, Guyanese Europeans and not European-Guyanese, the United States creole dialect.
Similarly, one says, "white" man and not man white, in standard English. However, in many romance languages such as Spanish, French, Italian, Romanian, the adjective takes a post nominal position: man white, king black, etc.
@wyndhl8309 Bad analogy, an elephant is an elephant wherever it is born, likewise a human being is a human being regardless of where he's born. I noticed you didn't define the nationality of the elephant, you're mixing oranges with apples.
Incredible video. So glad I found your channel.
Correction how guyana was an african dictatorship?Guyana is in the continent of south America not Africa.
He was referring to Burnham
He meant an Guyana became like an African dictatorship which is true. I am Guyanese and it was run by an African descendant and it was dictatorship. He knows it is in Sourhb America. He has shown several map.
I guess it is meant to be a provocative statement. He includes a question mark at the end.
Stellar production and story telling Alex.
Exactly, story telling. His story.
I wonder if, rather than being an act of solidarity, the practice of all the cars waiting until everybody is through the mud was developed as a measure to prevent conflict over who gets to be pulled out first.
So what's happening in Guyana now what is going on with this administration, the British and Americans did the same to Guyana what they also did to Africa and so many resourceful nations
Burnham said in a speech once” killing I is a waste, another Rasta will take I place” the lyrics from Bob Marley. That is exactly what we are seeing.
Bravo! Nice videos, well explained....
Loving this series
Your format is very interesting! Keep doing this!
I can't believe a video this good only has 25k views. I'm very impressed.
Because it's filled with inaccuracies, falsehood, and vilification of Burnham re. his support for Africans, many of whom suffered under Burnham's acts of patriotic nationalization.
The video is tasteless ,extremely misleading and inaccurate, spoken from the mouth of a fork tongue devil 😈.
Commenting to support, great content!
Much appreciated!
This is one of the best documentaries I've seen.
Great video Mr Alex!
Majority of Guyanese blacks are extremely educated
@mrchris6684 Yes, reason why head is spells with an "A" instead of letter "H, and 32 is a greater number than 33."Have a good day that much for extremely educated.😂😂😂😂
Yes too extreme, you can't bare it.
@@hafizkhan4031. Untouchables are historically illiterates
Not true but you can spread your fake neqs
@@daniyalbbd5281 another illiterate untouchable
Hey, Alex. Obviously, you don’t know the meaning of word, dictatorship. Did you live in Guyana during the period of time when you are claiming that there were a dictatorship? As a Guyanese, in my opinion no dictator or dictatorship ever existed in Guyana. I am willing to debate anybody about fact who thinks differently.
So y r they still leaving now
This video is divisive you can actually feel it, try again buddy but next be more balanced in your reporting.
The content is in-depth and very professional.
@@mikhailv67tv. Anything spoken from the mouth of a fork tongue devil, should not be considered in- depth and very professional.
Great content man keep it up
Great stuff keep it going...you have gained a new follower today!!
As a Guyanese New Zealander, these videos are so fascinating! Please keep it up!
Thanks a lot for the comment! Guyana has an incredibly interesting story that more people should know about
Yes he may have been a dictator , but he didn’t hate the Indians as they hate us . He never demonstrated hatred. He had the Indians close to him , both the East Indians and Aboriginal Indians . We may not have like some of his policies, but he was right about a few things. People are still leaving with the current Gov. I haven’t seen many returned after Burnham departed.
EastIndians are departing 🛫 Guyana 🇬🇾 shores on a daily basis to North America and numerous Caribbean islands, that are governed by Black people’s for a better life.
Bro finally! I’ve been waiting for this part 🐐
Awesome Video my friend!
You need to do some research. Your content and context are misleading and very untrue. You sound like a paid content creator who lacks credibility 😢😢😢😢😢
Great style of story teling
Who are you to tell us we are not the same,we are Africans, doesn't matter where we are globally ❤❤
It seems to me like the dude still mad at Burnham for trying to connect with his African roots.
Genetically, yes, culturally, not as much, no offense, just facts brother.
No, wake up. You are either Black- Guyanese or African ,decide. Ask the Africans' (not from Guyana) if they think Black Guyanese are Africans.
@@Sid-gu5qkwhat do mean culturally??? Africa has 54 different countries & over 3000 different ethnicities with different cultures, there's isn't one African culture
@@samanth. Are you also trying to say that Guyanese are culturally African? That's what my comment was about, notwithstanding the semantics of which part of Africa their ancestors came from.
Hell you do not want to see a Black Man Rule
I remember Jonestown as a little girl. It was shocking. No Guyanese except the Burnham clan knew about this.
Fascinating! Thank you.
What about the dictatorship government we have now? Could you please do a documentary on them.
Love your documentary on the political history of Guyana curing the Burnham Era and I admire the accuracy of your account 👌
You need to get an education. Propaganda is truth for your pea brain
raymondrodrigues pea brain 😂
Amazing how they ignore the Portugese and Chinese labour immigrants that arrived before the east indians.......Burnham was not a dictator......he was preferred by the CIA, instead of Jagan, who was labelled as a communist.
Burnham was a socialist.
Socialism was popular in those days.
Of course the west didn't like the socialist republic status of Guyana.
People leaving was a tru fact, because life became hard.
Rice, sugar, gold, bauxite etc markets were probably suppressed by the west.
However there were sufficient resources to sustain such a small population.
Fortunately oil was discovered and now its another page of its rags to riches story.
Wise or wasteful spending?
We'll see.
I wish this can be the 1st comment. Alex cleary is in the dark.
The chinese did not came to Guyana before east indians
He was an even bigger communist than Jagan was and a black supremacist.
Fantastic series, keep up the great work!!
Thanks, will do!
So are the darker Black people on the interior “ Africans” are indigenous like the lighter ones ?
What?
Had US billionaire friend, Ramy El-Batrawi who was recently killed under peculiar circumstances in Guyana. He just closed on the Georgetown Hilton late last year for $91MM US, economically helping to open up South America with El Presidente's blessings. Too much intrigue, too many despotic players ... 😕
Georgetown Has no Hilton
billionaire?
Alex, your work fails and shows your bias. You claim Guyana is an African dictatorship, yet Africa is a continent while Guyana is a nation. Your writing fails to acknowledge the complexities of African history and instead reflects your own biases. Consider researching and portraying a more accurate and fair representation of African history. "Why haven't you written about the exploitation of the continent, the assassination of post-colonial leaders, the interference of Western political forces in African leadership, and the resulting impact on nations and people across the continent? Your work falls short. Your biases are evident in your skewed version of history, is without merit.
I was also perplexed by why Africa was being attached to this. Very ignorant thing to do but hey anything to further the stereotypes for the masses to consume.
He is talking about a period of history that happens to show case how Burnham (Afro-guyanese) destroy a great country.
@@karmaalwaysprevail1202he needs to showcase now how Jagdeo is raping Guyana and oppressing black Guyanese
@@karmaalwaysprevail1202
And until recently was the 3rd poorest country in the Americas.
@@muchit3629everyone knows the truth about blacks
Greetings to Guyana Georgetown south america amazing amen i was born in Guyana Georgetown i love 💕 u Guyana at the age of 12 year old my geart. Ann took me to linden live and went to school at 19 years old i return again to geroetown the city Guyana be long to Guyana i love 💕 my country my name is mr bernard Forbes Stephens okay 🇬🇾🇯🇲🇬🇳🫂🔥✅😇
This man knows nothing about Guyana’s history.
Exactly!
His story of Guyana not the accurate story of the country.
Is it inaccurate because you didn't like it?
What are The main aspects he got wrong?
He does, he is correct in a lot of ways. Burnham ruin the country. I remember the bans and food had to be smuggled in. Lots of intelligent and educated people left including my family.
24:25 That's my Dad, here in that clip lol, he was 24 years old, he is 70 today
I would like to ask Mr Alex where he comes from and where he get his facts from because Mr Burham had this country 100%better than it is now and when you are talking about dictatorship who is more dictator dictator more than jagdeo
Keep the good work and information going thanks for exposing the horror suffering and injustice Indian went true during that 28 years of Dictator ship under the PNC Burnham Regime
I'm not at all pleased with all your information. It's a western naritive. Ok when the country started deterating was because of the western sanctions. Because he decided not to follow their lead. He was more interested in notion building and not being the puppet of the west. He wanted guyanese to be incharge of their own destiny but the population didn't grasp the foresight
The indo Guyanese have the nastiest things to say about Burnham
Bro you didn't even learn proper English, gtfo
😂😂😂😂 Burnham maths 33 is not the majority of 65. Same thinking here
@@Quantumtrix baldeo bootlick , the Brilliant LFS Burnham is your daddy 😂😂😂😂
@@QuantumtrixOne dumb coolie =?
Guyanese must tell their own history. There are too many false narratives out there.
This is pretty accurate as a Guyanese I say this.
His comments about Guyana not justifying. Who read this and don't know our histor, will get a very negative opinion of Guyana. He has some facts but are not.
Im not sure that this video covers the importance of social class in Guyana. After slavery the Afro-Guyanese were well versed (and increasingly so post Emancipation) in most of the cultural values of the British - language, Christianity, Western education and manners. This meant they took powerful positions in the capital and urban centres - teachers, public servants, managerial posts, lawyers, etc. At one point Georgetown was essentially owned by middle and upper class Afro Guyanese - while the rural areas were the heartlands of the well to do agricultural Indians. Many Creole (Mixed) and Afro-Guyanese thus believed, as they were the major group brought in after whites historically to build the national economy - that they were the natural 'inheritors' of Guyana after the British. They couldnt understand how - purely due to population advantage - the Indians could usurp that power from them when they had been around for less time and not adapated to the 'cultural standards' that, at that time, defined what made you 'respectable' and part of elite Guyanese society.
This is perhaps the greatest mental and social divide in Guyana.
Most of Guyana's old dominant Creole and Afro-Guyanese bourgeoisie left the country during the 1970s. Essentially leaving behind the working class Afro-Guyanese and Indo-Guyanese 'new money', who were largely Hindu and of rural Guyanese extraction. It was a huge cultural shift for the nation. However the old bourgeoisie still considers that their kind has the best 'tools' to run Guyana and that part of the reason it struggled so long during - and with the various leaders LONG after Burnham - is that the 'right' social class opted to leave the country due to degraded standards...
What a fascinating comment, thanks for sharing!
Parts of Your introduction is a factually incorrect,Burnam and Jagan were both PPP they split and then Burnam started the PNC!
he make the distinction in his other videos. maybe he just summarised here
You have your info incorrect. Guyana was under sanctions from 1970 to 1992 by the us government, for its role and contributions to the African liberation struggles against apartheid. This is what is responsible for its economic woes and hardships during the PNC administration. Guyana was under colonial dictatorship for more than four hundred years, where its indigenous peoples and Africans were enslaved for more than 400 years. During slavery some of the world's worst atrocities were committed against the enslaved. Slavery ended in the eighteen hundreds and was followed by indentured servitude, which ended in the late eighteen hundreds. Free Africans were barred from buying fertile and prime lands but were sold over priced barren waste land and drainage reserve land, which was deliberately flooded at crop time to destabilize the free Africans, and to force them off the lands. While the indentured servants were given free arable lands for farming and for housing. Guyana didn't experience any development from the end of indentured servitude to Guyana's independence. However, after independence, the new government built over a hundred thousand houses all over Guyana. Free school from nursery to university. Free text books from nursery to university. Free school meals. Free or subsidized transportation for school children. Free school uniform for school children. Hundreds of millions of dollars in loans for farming and home ownership. And the list of achievements goes on and on. Now what the colonizers did wasn't a dictatorship? But the rapid development we achieved is a dictatorship? Make that make sense
That true that how the story was in the 60's and 70's
Some wrong history
Burham did not ban the wheat 🌾 It Was the US and even when he secured a wheat deal with India 🇮🇳 the money still had to pass through the US financial system to make it to India 🇮🇳 and that too was eventually block (if u did know now ya know )
Between the Sri Lanka series and this one, you seem to be following the works of John Gimlette, who I see referenced in the notes. Is he a particular inspiration, and do you plan to cover Paraguay and Madagascar someday as he did in his writings?
Well observed! Paraguay and Madagascar are very much projects I hope to do in the future. I'm not consciously following him but there we definitely have an interest in the same kind of places: countries with interesting but somewhat obscure histories
I was young when Burnham was President. My mother is Amerindian and Chinese, man we ate cassava and breadfruit in each which way to can use it. He banned the import of all food items. I hate breadfruit to this day and I am in my 50s. My younger uncles had to shipped out of Guyana because the dead swat would constantly be at my grandmother's house looking for them because they were always having meetings planning to overthrow Burnham. If you were a young man those were some very uncertain times getting picked up and beaten up. People disappeared and were killed.
Amerindians eat cassava on a daily basis in the jungles of Guyana 🇬🇾, with uncleaned ,unseasoned meats currently to this present day. What is your point, that’s your culture, traditions and customs.