There are lands that Africans owned that need to be regularised

Jul 21, 2008 Letters

Dear Editor,
I take offence at R. Edmonds trying to lecture me about the right of Africans to own property and how much property we own.

The properties he wants to deny us were bought through the blood, sweat and tears of our ancestors.
Our ancestors pooled their monies and fetched them in wheelbarrows, pots and whatever vessels available, confounding ‘massa,’ who didn’t think they had the ability to own lands and achieve economic liberation.

Contrary to Edmonds’s belief, there is no need for “Clarifying misconception about ‘ancestral land’ (Kaieteur News 18/7/2008), because there was never any misconception!

Edmonds is presumptuous to even think, much less offer, to “educate Modibo and others who write in SN from time to time, confusing themselves and trying to confuse others about ‘ancestral land.” I am not confused and do not need Edmonds’s ‘education,’ which is designed to make me a servant of his masters. I reject it outright!

I do not care for verbal semantics. I call the Bill that was before the National Assembly, brought by Parliamentarian Deborah Backer, to regularise African ancestral land, the Ancestral Land Bill.

Edmonds calls it another name. A rose called by any other name is still a rose!
The Bill, call it whatever you want, was denied a hearing and passage by PPP Parliamentarians, who know absolutely nothing about African property ownership and want to deny us this right, which may force us into a state of mendicancy, so we can be called lazy and criminalised.

I believe, as so do many Africans, in the words of the great Robert (Bob) Nestor Marley that: “my right is my right an’ I gun die for my rights.”

As for lands Africans own that we cannot get regularised in order that we can have title and engage in property ownership and wealth, here are some examples:

The village of Number 12, West Coast Berbice was bought by Africans who were forced to flee for their lives in the 1964 riots. Go and find out the history of this period and how the current residents acquire ownership.

Many villages in Demerara, Berbice and Essequibo are currently being surveyed to give lands to party supporters. Go and find who own those villages this Government is surveying.

Some Government properties are standing on lands owned by Africans, who have not been compensated for them.

This land issue is serious business, Edmonds, and I refuse to take lightly the scorn you want to heap on a proud people. A reggae artiste sang: “circumstances make me what I am.” Africans are who they are because of our proud heritage and history of fighting for our rights; and if in this circumstance we have to invoke the spirits and tenacity of the great ancestors Cuffy, Damon and Quamina to get what is duly ours, it is because the circumstance dictates this approach.

Again, I call on the PNC, TUC, AFC, ACDA, PANAF, African Renaissance and other African groups to take the time and make the well-founded case of African discrimination to UN Human Rights Independent Expert Ms. Gay McDougall on her visit here from July 28 to August 2. Do not squander the opportunity to have the ancestors’ voices and desires heard loud and clear. We want every square inch of our lands regularised and given to us, and we want our rights to be respected!

Osafo Modibo

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There are lands that Africans owned that need to be regularised

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