Janet Jagan: Freedom Fighter of Guyana - Patricia Mohammed

In 1943, Janet Jagan née Rosenberg, gave up her studies in nursing in Cook County Hospital, Chicago, and her goal of serving in the Second World War in Europe, to marry Cheddi Jagan, a young man from British Guiana who had come to the USA to study dentistry. She followed her husband to this little-known British colony in that same year. In a unique political partnership, which would last for fifty-four years, this revolutionary couple charted a new course in Guyana's anti-colonial history. With a few like-minded individuals, they would create the People's Progressive Party (PPP), the first mass party in this country. Janet was a committed and disciplined stalwart of the party, holding the role of general secretary for decades and ministerial positions when the PPP held parliamentary power. By 1997, she was elected as the first female President of Guyana.