Jonestown (1974 to 1978)

Content note: this article covers the deaths of more than 900 people, about a third of them children. It is written as a short factual summary. Please read with care.

Jonestown was the informal name of the Peoples Temple Agricultural Project, a commune in the forest of north west Guyana set up by the Peoples Temple, a US religious movement led by Jim Jones. On 18 November 1978, 918 people died there and at two other locations in Guyana.^[1][2] It is one of the darkest events connected with Guyana, although the victims and the perpetrators were members of a US organisation.^[1]

Origins

The Peoples Temple began in Indianapolis in 1955 and later moved to California, where it became politically influential in San Francisco.^[1] In 1974, after visiting the area with Guyanese officials, Jones negotiated a lease of more than 3,800 acres of land about 240 km (150 miles) west of Georgetown. The Guyanese government approved the lease in 1976.^[1] Guyana's government at the time saw the project as an agricultural settlement in line with its own aims of settling the interior and building co-operatives.^[3]

In the summer of 1977, as US media began investigating the Temple, Jones and several hundred members moved to Jonestown. At its peak in 1978 it had just under 900 residents, about 70% of them African American.^[1]

The visit of Congressman Leo Ryan

Relatives of members raised concerns about abuse and people being held against their will. US Congressman Leo Ryan of California flew to Guyana on 14 November 1978 with officials, reporters and relatives to investigate.^[2] Several residents asked to leave with him.^[2]

On 18 November, as Ryan's group prepared to fly out from the Port Kaituma airstrip, Temple gunmen opened fire. Ryan and four others were killed and others were wounded.^[1][2]

The deaths at Jonestown

The same day, Jones ordered his followers to drink a fruit drink laced with cyanide.^[2] 909 people died at Jonestown. About a third were children, and at least 70 people were injected with poison. Armed guards had been told to shoot anyone who tried to flee.^[1] Four more Temple members died in Georgetown on Jones's orders.^[1] Early reports called it a "mass suicide", but later accounts describe it as a mass murder and suicide.^[1]

Aftermath

The tragedy brought intense international scrutiny of the Burnham government and questions about its links with the Temple.^[3] The Guyanese government insisted that the bodies be removed from Guyana rather than buried there.^[3] Over 400 are buried at Evergreen Cemetery in Oakland, California, where a memorial was put up in 2011.^[1]

How GuyanaHub covers this topic

This article is limited to verified facts. It does not include images of the dead. Readers looking for deeper research can use the archive run by San Diego State University.^[4]