More than 900 people died in Jonestown, now some in Guyana want to turn it into a tourist destination

It is seen as the largest mass suicide in contemporary history: the suicide of more than nine hundred followers, forced by the charismatic American sect leader Jim Jones, deep in the jungle of South American Guyana in the late 1970s. Now Guyanese tourism organizations want to turn Jonestown, as the site was called, into a tourist attraction.

Supported by Guyana’s Ministry of Tourism, the industry hopes to boost tourism, because the market for ‘morbid’ attractions is growing. But in Guyana opinions are divided.

In recent years, Guyana had somewhat shed the stigma of being a ‘grisly place where sect leader Jones and his followers had committed mass suicide’. Thanks to oil discoveries, the country has become one of the fastest growing economies on the continent.

Jones, who united evangelical and socialist elements in his so-called Peoples Temple, not only had white Americans but also a large African-American following in the United States in the 1970s. When things became too hot for him there because of his criticism of the American state, his Marxist-oriented ideas and accusations of drug use and sexual abuse, he fled to Guyana, which borders Suriname, Brazil and Venezuela.

Utopian commune

Deep in the jungle he founded his ‘utopian commune’. His American followers – including families with children – followed him. But once in the jungle cut off from the outside world, Jones turned out to be a dictatorial leader with paranoid delusions.

On November 18, 1978, his followers were told that their task of finding “heaven on earth” was complete. They would also be followed by the CIA, Jones said. Collective suicide was the only way out.

The three hundred children present were the first to be given the deadly cyanide mixed with fruit drink through a syringe in the mouth, after which the rest of the people followed. Cult members who refused were strangled, and Jones most likely shot himself in the chest.

American soldiers place bodies in coffins after the collective suicide of American cult leader Jim Jones and more than 900 followers in Guyana, November 1978.

Guyanese tourist organizations now want to revive the place where this tragedy took place. Local tour operator Rose Sewcharran states in Guyanese media that the development of tourism in Jonestown must be seen within a global trend. “There are several examples of tourism in places where terrible things have happened, such as Auschwitz.”

‘Creepy and bizarre’

But the plan also attracts great criticism in Guyana. In an open letter, Guyanese law professor Neville Bissember spoke of a “creepy and bizarre” idea, which, according to him, has nothing to do with Guyana. “What part of Guyana’s nature or culture does this represent, in this place where death and other human rights abuses have occurred against a group of American citizens?” he wrote. Opponents also point to the risk that the site could become a place of pilgrimage for modern-day Jones fans.

What part of Guyana’s nature or culture does this represent?

The intention is that Jonestown, which is only accessible by plane and boat, will be renovated and that Jones’ home will be restored. The remains of the settlement, overgrown by jungle, must also be renovated, as far as possible.

The Guyanese Ministry of Tourism says it is aware of the criticism, but supports the plans for this new tourist attraction. “It may be possible to make people – with the right context – aware of the atrocities that have taken place just by bringing them to the site,” said Guyanese Tourism Minister Oneidge Walrond. against the AP news agency. “We have seen how a country like Rwanda has done that with a terrible tragedy,” a reference to tours in that country related to the 1994 genocide.

The possibilities of turning the place into a tourist attraction will be investigated in the near future, and work should start next year.

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