A group of residents of Old Road, some of them reportedly farmers, are protesting the Ministry of Agriculture's decision to lease several acres of land in the area to a woman for growing coconut palms. In this episode we tried to unpack two issues related to the protest. One was historical and community land rights. The other was race relations in Antigua and Barbuda.
The host is Kieron Murdoch. The guests are:
This programme first aired on NewsCo Observer Radio 91.1 FM on June 13th, 2021. Get the latest news from Antigua and Barbuda at the Antigua Observer online.
The Situation: The residents feel the farm land should be used by the people of Old Road, particularly those who are farmers. According to the MP for the area, some claim that they have tried and failed to get approval to farm the land. They protested the leasing of the same land to the same party back in 2018. That apparently fizzled out without concrete resolution. Because the Ministry has renewed the arrangement, residents feel slighted by the government.
Further, Jameson "Kublai" Mannix, a spokesman for the protesters, argues that the land ought to be protected against encroachment from "expatriates" and has even suggested the same should apply for "their descendants" regardless of whether such persons are citizens. He claims the Antiguan and Barbudan woman to whom the land has been leased, and who happens to be White, has "expatriate" parentage. If that's true, should it matter? Mannix has pointed to the protest over the Carlisle Bay development in 2001, and promises made by the then government not give control of land to any "expatriate" . Early on, it was actually falsely reported that the land had been leased to a "non-national", stirring a wave of xenophobic and racist comments online.
A Note on Land: Like Barbudans, Old Road residents are guarded about land, and have a sense of communal ownership and inheritance. But a great deal of that land is state-owned. Colonialism created largely Black communities on both islands, which have intergenerationally used land which was not legally theirs. Even after 1838, Black labouring masses were largely unable to own land. It was normal for people to be tenants on land owned by wealthy sugar planters in partial exchange for their labour. Entire communities began as tenants on the fringes of estates, and landlessness, unplanned settlements, and poor housing for Black working-class people became a colonial legacy.
Then in a single instance, the government took ownership of virtually half of all land in Antigua in 1967, when it bought out the syndicated sugar estates and the Antigua Sugar Factory. It was a guarantee to many poor working-class Black people then, that the government had secured the right for them to continue to use land for living, and for future development. There are just some factors which have contributed to the emergence of a strong belief in historical and community land rights in some places. Isn't that fair?
On Race and Ethnicity: There is racism in Antigua and Barbuda. That's a fact. But it can be meted out by anyone, to anyone. Here, most people are Black, and the history of the Black experience in Antigua and Barbuda is, for most Black Antiguans and Barbudans, the basis of the Antiguan and Barbudan identity. We often leave little room for those who aren't Black to equally enjoy the status of being "Antiguan and Barbudan" in the ethnic sense, even though citizens come in all colours. Is that right?
