The African Cultural & Development Association (ACDA) is calling on President Bharrat Jagdeo to make a national statement on the issue of African Guyanese land rights.
ACDA said it is not opposed to economic and other collaboration between Caricom member states but noted with concern the statements made by members of the PPP/C administration offering lands in Guyana to farmers and investors from the Caribbean Community to develop for agricultural purposes.
ACDA said in a press release last Thursday that it believes that the idea “is just another attempt to satiate the land lust of PPP/C supporters.”
In that light, ACDA said that President Jagdeo as well as Minister of Agriculture Robert Persaud should make a statement on the issue before inviting other countries to invest in farming projects here as they could “become caught up in the middle of a nasty political and racial problem.”
And the association pointed out that since October 1997 it had called for the setting up of an African Guyanese Land Commission to make recommendations on actions that should be taken to rectify and regularize, as appropriate, the ownership of village lands based on the examination of the historical and legal tenure of lands in the villages which were purchased by the ancestors of Africans.
According to ACDA, the Jagdeo government was asked to set up this Commission with “an adequate budget, logistical and professional research support, as well as free access to official records,” so that this burning historical issue could be addressed.
The debate of this motion, which was brought to
Parliament by MP Deborah Backer, “was a lesson in racial politics,” ACDA contended.
The association also noted that Africans were the first large scale farmers in Guyana who toiled for over 200 years without pay.
The association cited the Venn Commission of 1948 as noting in its report that to build these coastal plantations alone, “a volume of 100,000,000 tons of earth had to be moved by the hands of African slaves … They had driven back the sea and had cleared, drained and reclaimed 15,000 square miles of forest and swamp. This is equivalent to 9,000,000 acres of land. In short, all the fields on which the sugar estates are now based were cleared, drained and irrigated by African labour forces.
All the plantations now turned into villages, land settlements, towns and cities were built by unpaid African labour…”
ACDA also contended that while global food production will continue to be a critical issue, African Guyanese farmers are unable to use their lands productively.
“Without land titles, they cannot raise capital to develop their farms,” ACDA stated.
ACDA declared also that the problems of African Guyanese farmers are real and cannot be wished away. “Our demands for justice and fair play will also not go away. Land is one of our most important assets. It was paid for by our ancestors’ blood, sweat and death.”
ACDA warned also that “these issues left unresolved may more and more lead to continuous instability in the country as farming takes center stage in the global economy.”
