The Ol-Kai People: A Story from the Land of the Six Peoples by Jesse Hutson {Moose-chan}

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In 1966 a newly independent Guyana had successfully upended two hundred years of British government, thus leaving the country in the deep throes of political turmoil. The Ol-Kai people: A story from the land of the six peoples is author Jesse Hutson’s powerful novel that reimagines those tumultuous times, as seen through the eyes of Billu Latchman, an East Indian teacher and newspaper editor who must navigate a new world thrown into abject disorder, as it strives to evolve from a slave plantation society to a modern state. Startling and raw, this evocative novel offers a rare vantage into an exotic land as it clashes with contemporary culture. At twenty-four years old, Billu Latchman is a young man swept up in perilous times. Having no parents, his Aunt Emily and his ailing grandmother are all that he can claim as family. What’s more, the new independent republic under the rule of a recently appointed President does not bode well for Billu and his people. The regime is comprised of Afro-Guyanese, a people who have long fostered tensions with Billu’s East Indian community, the largest group in this “land of six peoples.” When, in his newspaper, Billu offends an important person in the new British Guiana, Billu finds he has no recourse but to go into hiding to save himself and his relatives, first taking up with Pastor Jim Jones and visiting the remote settlement of Jonestown near Venezuela. There Billu and his friend William gain an intimate understanding of the infamous Jonestown, its inhabitants, and the charismatic Pastor Jim Jones, with followers of the People's Temple describing their lives before and after they came to the settlement. Grappling with his homeland, Billu eventually seeks refuge in Copenhagen, where he lives with Auntie Madge and forges a new life, falling in love with a local woman named Eva. However, he finds himself ultimately drawn back to Guyana and the quest for the fabled city of El Dorado, leaving behind the life he built in Europe for the call of home. Along the way, Billu suffers the slings of a deeply discordant country, as well as the solace of women who take him in and minister to his spiritual wounds. Exploring an irreparably damaged nation and the forever foreign soils of Europe, The Ol-Kai people offers a glimpse of a Guyana long gone and the people left reeling from its utter change.