Dear Editor,
I take up this matter now since enough time has passed since ACDA had placed its full page “Holocaust Day” advertisements. These advertisements are praiseworthy except for a number of unfactual statements. Examples of two such statements are as follows:-
(i) The advertisement says:- “the PPP denial to grant the children of enslaved Africans right to their ancestral lands and to deny them the right of an ancestral land commission.” The true story is as follows: After Emancipation in the 1840’s, African ex-slaves bought some abandoned sugar estates and set up villages. The total amount of lands these ex-slaves owned amounted to less than 10,000 acres. These abandoned estates were bought in joint ownership so it was passed on to their children as undivided “children’s property”. These “ancestral lands” are the same abandoned sugar estates converted into villages such as Victoria and Buxton.
Some occupiers of these “children’ properties” have expressed the desire to have individual titles so that they could sell the land. Several occupiers have already started the legal process and have gotten individual transports. The call for the government to set up an Ancestral Land Commission to grant transports to individuals and replace the courts is unrealistic.
Many have already obtained their individual transports through the courts.
Accordingly, the African never lost the right to his ancestral land.
(ii) ACDA must realize that the slaves were captured and first enslaved by Africans before being sold to Europeans. ACDA need also to note and do something about the present-day MAAFA which is happening in Africa.
In the last 20 years, millions of Africans were killed, tortured, raped, mutilated and enslaved in places like Rwanda, Darfur, Congo and West Africa and entire communities were wiped out with their culture. The AIDS epidemic is not properly addressed by African governments and every year, millions of Africans die from these epidemics. African slavery still continues in West Africa and several Arab countries such as Mauritania.
Yours faithfully,
Peter S Charles