Researching the 1964 Ethnic Cleansing in Wismar, Guyana, in the British Library

Abstract

In 1964, politically-instigated racial turmoil raged throughout British Guiana (now Guyana) as the Caribbean/South American country prepared for independence. Accompanied by rioting, strikes had erupted in 1962 and 1963, and in 1964, violence had been escalating since the commencement of the sugar workers’ strike that began in February of that year. Even so, the extent of the atrocities that took place in Wismar three months later was unprecedented.