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Guyana Cults
The House of Israel was established by an American fugitive,
David Hill, also known as Rabbi Edward Washington, who arrived in
Guyana in 1972. The cult had no ties to traditional Jewish religion
but was a black supremacist movement. In the 1970s, the group
claimed a membership of 8,000. The House of Israel had a daily
radio program in which it preached that Africans were the original
Hebrews and needed to prepare for a racial war. Opponents of the
government claimed that the House of Israel constituted a private
army for Guyana's ruling party, the People's National Congress
(PNC). During an anti-government demonstration, a House of Israel
member murdered a Roman Catholic priest because he was on the staff
of a religious opposition newspaper, the Catholic Standard.
The House of Israel also engaged in strikebreaking activities and
disruptions of public meetings. Critics of the government alleged
that House of Israel members acted with impunity during the
government of Linden Forbes Burnham. However, under Hugh Desmond
Hoyte, Burnham's successor, Rabbi Washington and key associates
were arrested on a long-standing manslaughter charge and
imprisoned.
Guyana acquired international notoriety in 1978 following a
mass murder-suicide at the commune of the People's Temple of
Christ, which had been led by the Reverend Jim Jones, of Oakland,
California. In 1974 the People's Temple, a utopian commune, leased
a tract of land near Port Kaituma in western Guyana to escape from
mounting scrutiny of the group by California authorities. The
government welcomed the People's Temple in part because of its
interest in populating the interior of the country, especially the
area claimed by Venezuela, where Jonestown was situated. Members of
the People's Temple also became close to PNC leaders, and the group
was allowed to function without interference from the government.
Allegations of atrocities by commune leaders and charges that the
commune was holding people against their will led a United States
congressman, Leo Ryan, to go to Jonestown to investigate the
allegations of abuse
(see The Cooperative Republic
, ch. 1).
Fearing that Congressman Ryan's report on the commune would
bring unwanted publicity and restrictions on his operations, Jones
had the congressman shot as he was boarding an airplane to return
to Georgetown. The United States immediately asked Guyana to send
in its army. Before the army could reach Jonestown, however, Jones
coerced and cajoled over 900 members of the commune to commit
murder and suicide.
Data as of January 1992
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