The Ants Will Come and Tell Me

History teaches that movements have high points and low points. Jewish history records that on their way to the Promised Land, the Jews were set back for 40 years in the wilderness. Perhaps, like that story, the march to a new earth must wait, correct itself, and recuperate before another advance, and it won’t take 40 years, because the contradictions inherent in the system will be as a spur to a new push. I don’t think I will be around, but the ants will come to the grave and tell me. — Brindley Horatio Benn, 1991

The reader of this book will get an intimate glimpse into the lives of Brindley and Patricia Benn and their family, who loom large in the history of the small South American nation of Guyana. Guyana is about to assume a much larger role on the world stage, because of its vast, newly discovered oil resources. With this book, we hope that Guyanese both young and old will gain a better understanding of their nation’s long and arduous struggle for the right to develop into a modern and sovereign nation-state. The reader will learn how neo-colonialism operated during the period following World War II, and we will introduce the upcoming generation to the unsung heroes of that era. Let their example inspire us to guard against any future assaults on Guyana’s sovereignty, and to build a world that is just.

• Readers from around the world who see themselves as opponents of imperialism and its modern make-over, neoconservatism, will learn how valiant little Guyana was used as a test laboratory for the techniques of “regime change,” not once, but three times over seven decades.
• This book looks at how the post-WWII British Empire transformed itself into a privatized network of financial and raw materials cartels, interlocked with supranational bureaucratic institutions like the the International Monetary Fund. The methodology of financial colonialism as it was applied in Guyana is examined in this book.
• The reader will learn how Brindley Benn sounded the alarm about the Reverend Jim Jones and the People’s Temple, long before the infamous Jonestown massacre took place.
• The astonishing saga of the 2020 Guyana election is recounted in detail: how Guyana entered the Guinness Book of Records for the longest interval between an election and the formation of the new government, as a gang of political desperados made a clumsy attempt to rig the election outcome with the entire world looking on.
• The book examines the efforts of the PPP/C administrations, from 1992 to the present day, to revive the outlook and intentions of Cheddi Jagan, Brindley Benn, and the other leaders of Guyana’s independence movement.

This book is the result of countless hours of interviews, and is also documented with recently declassified material from the U.S. State Department, archives of the CIA and MI5, and material made public by Wikileaks. There are four editions of this book available at Amazon:

• The Kindle edition (e-book)
• Paperback edition with black and white photographs
• Full-color paperback edition, with over 45 color images
• Full-color hardcover edition

Click here to read a review by British novelist Andrew Blackman

The authors presenting a copy of the book to the Guyana National Library

The authors presenting the book to the University of Guyana Library

The authors presenting the book to the Cheddi Jagan Research Centre

Daniel and Lena Platt are political activists, translators, musicians, and world citizens. Lena is the third daughter of Brindley and Patricia Benn.

Contact the authors at lenaanddanielplatt at yahoo dot com.