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The time has come to own land
Dear Editor,
I believe that the time has come to call a spade a spade by this I mean that the Nation of Guyana must understand that Africans have just as much ability as any other ethnic group to efficiently get involved in large scale business.
First I want to point out that after Slavery was abolished in 1834 the then Slaves who were all Africans had money which they put together to purchase land. The history of land ownership in Guyana supports this contention. This money the Slaves had gained from throwing box hand.
However, the Africans were not able to succeed in farming because they were not able to get proper drainage and irrigation. The reason for this is that the owners of the sugar estates who were close to the Government in power at the time deliberately did not want Africans to succeed in farming since they left the sugar estates and Indian labor had to be imported.
Africans have always been as intelligent people and so they decided that instead of farming they encouraged their children to become educated and in doing so many became teachers, professionals and others civil servants. This resulted in their children leaving their village to live in the city and elsewhere wherever they were employed. Over the years the land of the people went abandoned and up to today this younger generation is trying to regain title to their inheritance.
I say all of this so that young Black people could understand why their parents are not in big business is not because of their inability to do business but because of a deliberate effort in earlier years to prevent them from succeeding.
Now that we have a Coalition Government which is striving to achieve good for all the people of Guyana, I hereby wish to encourage young Black men African women to become focused and concentrate on getting involved in business activities.
In 1947, when I was still at primary school in New Amsterdam, Berbice I can recall several religious folks from India visiting Guyana and encouraging their followers to own land you own the country. As I travel to work each day using public
transportation I can hear people talk that because there is a new Government things will go better.
However, I want to point out that you better start to own businesses and land. We must stop pulling down one another.
Jonas Coddette
Attorney-at-Law
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