As we enter the season of Afrika Liberation Day, established by the Organization of African Unity (OAU) who designated May 25th in 1963, we are reminded of the principles enshrined in its charter:
“The sovereign equality of all member states. • Respect for the sovereignty and territorial integrity of each state. • The inalienable right to independent existence of each state. • Peaceful settlement of disputes by negotiation, mediation, conciliation, and arbitration • Unreserved condemnation of political assassination in all its forms as well as of subversive activities on the part of neighbouring states or any other state. • Absolute dedication to the total emancipation of African territories which are still dependent. • Non-alignment with regard to all power blocs.” (1)
Across the ocean Omowale Malcolm X re-affirmed these principles in his own inimitable style later that year when he famously declared in his Message To The Grassroots speech, that land is “the basis of all independence. Land is the basis of freedom, justice, and equality.” (2)
An example of this in the current context is the fight for land in Barbuda, within the three island state of Antigua, Barbuda and uninhabited Redonda. The north-eastern Caribbean land m. ass has a proud history of resistance to slavery – that it actually freed itself from. (3) Having established emancipation Barbuda set about instituting a system of communal land for the use of inhabitants where it can be used freely and in common, eschewing private ownership. (4)
This right was enshrined in law under a UPP (United Progressive Party) Antiguan government, led by Baldwin Spencer, through the Barbuda Land Act 2007. This law held all land on Barbuda in common, for Barbudans and their descendants, wherever they may live in the world. It means in practice that anyone of Barbudan descent can use – free of charge – up to three areas of land on Barbuda to build themselves a home, for agriculture or for business. (5)
However, since 2014 when the Antigua and Barbuda Labour Party won the election, Prime Minister Gaston Browne, known for describing Barbudans as “squatters” and their communal land system as “welfare”, and his adminsitraion has sought to roll back these measures through the curiously titled Paradise Found Act of 2015 Act with the intention of forcing: (6)
“Major development on Barbuda, to undermine the powers of the Barbuda Council and to monopolise all potential economic benefits from the acres of prime Caribbean [and to] allow his new economic envoy (the actor Robert De Niro, and partner James Packer to take up huge areas of land on Barbuda.” (7)
So this plan was already in place when the powerful Category 5 storm Hurricane Irma slammed into the island, creating as it were, a perfect storm of corruption, disaster capitalism and neocolonialism. Barbuda’s population of 1,600 was evacuated by the Antiguan government and in many cases not allowed to return for several months. (8)
However, some did return early and soon realised someone was amiss. One of those was retired teacher Jacklyn Frank, who wondered about a light flickering in the distance. She recalls:
“It turns out it was an airport being built without the proper permissions,” she said, adding that the government never consulted residents. “They were breaking their own laws.” (9)
Similarly, another resident, John Mussington, a local marine biologist, was visited by police after asking whether the destruction of 300 acres of previously untouched forest had a permit for construction work. (10)
The airport construction on Barbuda is part of a deal involving the government, the Barbuda Council and PLH (Barbuda) Ltd., established by U.S. billionaire John Paul DeJoria, co-founder of the Paul Mitchell hair products company. Also involved is U.S.-based Discovery Land Co., founded by Michael Meldman of Casamigos Tequila. There are also some accounts linking Prime Minister Gaston Browne’s wife, Maria Browne. The companies plan to build 495 upscale homes, an 18-hole golf course, a beach club and a natural gas storage facility on more than 600 acres (240 hectares) of protected wetland. Interestingly, one person not involved is boxing legend Mike Tyson who reportedly pulled out in sympathy with Barbudans fight against developers. (11)
It did indeed transpire that the Antiguan government rushed developers into Barbuda immediately after the Hurricane struck and started work with little regard to the environment. This caused Sis. Jacklyn and Bro. John to mount a legal challenge in 2018 and they were granted an interim injunction to halt the construction of the airport because planning laws were not followed. (12)
In addition Bro. John expressed concerns that Barbudans are being “ethnically cleansed” off their land in a bid to push them off the island permanently:
“As our saying says: ‘land equals culture.’ The kind of things that these developers are doing, they are literally destroying our resources, including our food security, and destroying our culture.” (13)
Unfortunately, the injunction was appealed by the government of Antigua and Barbuda in the Eastern Caribbean Court of Appeal (ECCA) and the appeal was successful and the case was sent back to local courts. The application for the injunction was heard in local courts and it was later dismissed. The dismissal was then appealed by the two residents and the case went back to the ECCA, who again ruled in favour of the government. (14)
The Antiguan government’s perspective is predicated on the notion that that Barbudana are “a lazy, unproductive, pastoral people that need to be modernized”, including rebuilding the damage from Hurricane Irma. (15) It further claims that it cannot rebuild unless Barbudans accept the proposal for private ownership. The cost of rebuilding is estimated to be $250 million. (16) Their case against Frank and Mussinigton was fundementally that they didn’t not have “standing” to mount a legal challenge. In other words, the construction work on Barbuda and its impact has nothing to do with them and they should mind their own business. But undeterred, the two took the case to the Privy Council in the UK in November 2023. In March 2024 the court delivered its verdict essentially said that “it is not necessary for the applicant to demonstrate an expertise in the subject matter. Having some knowledge or “concern about the environment” is enough.the two do have standing.” (17)
Looking at the case as far back as 2018, academic Matthew Quest declared:
“It may be misread as a small skirmish rather than a major battle. This is a mistake. The encounter with ecological disaster and dispossession is coming closer in many global locations and may be the future of the multitudes if we don’t rethink with Barbudans how to resist.” (18)
It was a landmark ruling and not just for Barbuda but also for palces like Jamaica and Grenada, where campaigners are fighting exclusion from beaches taken over by developers. (19) It’s also ironic in a region increasingly seeking to cut its old colonial ties with the UK and move towards republicanism, that it takes colonial court to provide some semblance of justice where the regional court woefully failed time and again. (20)
Worrying, the Privy Council decision puts the case back in local hands where Antiguan Attorney General Sir Steadroy Benjamin has declared the whole island as an adjudication area. This means they’ll have a land adjudication process to determines the ownership and boundaries of land. “It usually involves surveying, mapping, and resolving disputes over land rights. It helps establish clear titles and prevents land disputes” and is scheduled to start on May 15t. 2024. Sis. Jacklyn feels the date, the day before Barbuda’s local celebration of Caribana is an attempt to intimidate due to the increased law enforcement on the island at that time. (21)
With CARICOM, in spite of its supposed advocacy for liberations, shamelssly implicated in the ongoing crisis in Haiti, it increasingly looks like willing accomplices in the designs of imperialist predations – in stark contrast to luminaries like Errol Barrow, Walter Rodney or Maurice Bishop. (22) For his part it is widely believed that Antiguan premier Browne, who has presided over his island being a “notable site of international banking and money laundering”, “cannot collect his larger consulting fees from Robert De Niro and other global investors until he separates Barbudans from their rootedness in an ecological view of the commons.” (23)
Thus, what Margaret Kimberley of Black Agenda Report asserts is:
“Most of the world would look like Barbuda if more of us had the good fortune to live under such a system… Not many people even knew of Barbuda’s existence, much less the fact that it has such a successful system of governance. Throughout history there have been wars and revolutions waged in efforts to gain what people on this tiny island already have.” (24)
What Afrikan people worldwide should be doing is lending their support to the fight of Barbuda because its history and example of resilience, self-reliance and communalism is exactlly those seeking liberation say they want.
(1) New African (25/05/19) Africa Freedom Day: The birth and history of the OAU you should know.https://newafricanmagazine.com/18870/
(2) Malcolm X (10/11/63) Message To The Grassroots. http://teachingamericanhistory.org/library/document/message-to-grassroots/
(3) Barbudaful a (2024) Historical Notes. https://barbudaful.net/barbudaful-history/history/. After a centuring of frequent rebellions, the British Parliament neglected to name Barbudans in the Slavery Emancipation Act of 1834 “and so Barbudans freed themselves from slavery – at abolition Barbudans on the island numbered 500.”
(4) Barbudaful b (2024) Barbuda Land Rights. https://barbudaful.net/barbudaful-history/the-land-issue/
(5) Ibid.
(6) Margaret Kimberley (06/12/17) Freedom Rider: Barbuda and Disaster Capitalism. https://blackagendareport.com/freedom-rider-barbuda-and-disaster-capitalism
(7) Barbudaful b. Op. cit.
(8) Rebecca Boger and Sophia Perdikaris (11/02/19) After Irma, Disaster Capitalism Threatens Cultural Heritage in Barbuda. https://nacla.org/news/2019/02/12/after-irma-disaster-capitalism-threatens-cultural-heritage-barbuda
(9) DÁNICA COTO (16/01/24) Barbuda residents win appeal to protect land from development in potential precedent for Caribbean. https://apnews.com/article/barbuda-privy-council-appeal-environment-caribbean-e4d4e608cd0296cbe1b0278a9d7c3ef9
(10) Lester Holloway (08/11/23) Barbudans battle for island in London court.https://www.voice-online.co.uk/news/world-news/2023/11/08/barbudans-battle-for-island-in-london-court/
(11) COTO. Op. cit.; Barbudaful b. Op. cit; Holloway. Op. cit.
(12) Sinai Fleary (14/03/24) Barbudans win court battle against alleged ‘ethnic cleansing’ by property developers http://teachingamericanhistory.org/library/document/message-to-grassroots/
(13) Ibid.
(14) Fleary. Op. cit.
(15) Dr. Matthew Quest (13/07/18) Enclosure, Dispossession and Disaster Capitalism in Antigua and Barbuda. https://www.blackagendareport.com/enclosure-dispossession-and-disaster-capitalism-antigua-and-barbuda
(16) Kimberley. Op. cit.
(17) Ibid.
(18) Dr. Matthew Quest (19/07/18) Barbuda Fisher Folk Fight for Community Control. https://www.blackagendareport.com/barbuda-fisher-folk-fight-community-control
(19) Holloway. Op. cit.
(20) Afrika Speaks with Alkebu-Lan on Galaxy Radio (18/04/22) Caribbean Royal Tour: Should it be scrapped? https://alkebulan.org/2022/04/18/aswag-377-royal-caribbean-tour/
(21) Kenica Francis (24/04/24) Barbuda declares, ‘it’s not for sale’. https://antiguaobserver.com/barbuda-declares-its-not-for-sale-2/
(22) Ozzi Warwick (2022) The History of Socialism in the English-speaking Caribbean. https://journals.lwbooks.co.uk/socialisthistory/vol-2022-issue-62/article-9656/
(23) Quest (13/07/18)
(24) Kimberley. Op. cit.
we ask the question
Can we save Barbuda?
1) Is the Caribbean region now simply a tool for western imperialism?
2) Is the UK court now the only safeguard against Caribbean government corruption?
3) What would it take to establish a system of communal like that in Barbuda?
4) How can Afrikans globally support the Barbuda campaign?
Our Special Guests:
Bro. Ldr. Mbandaka: Resident guest who is Spiritual Leader of the Alkebu-Lan Revivalist Movement and an Afrikan-Centred Education Consultant. Bro. Ldr is a veteran activist of over 40 years standing, a featured columnist in The Whirlwind newspaper and author of Mosiah Daily Affirmations and Education: An African-Centred Approach To Excellence.
Sis. Jacklyn Frank: is a retired teacher and former Chair and Councilmember of the Barbuda Council. She has been actively involved in preservation efforts relating to Barbuda’s heritage and traditional land usage. She advocates for maintaining the Barbudan way of life, which is a sustainable way of interacting with the environment, which is being deliberately and systemically erased in the name of foreign direct investment. She fights for her rights, health and safety as a Barbudan, as well as those of all Barbudans at home and overseas.
Bro. John Mussington: is an Educator (retired secondary school Principal), Scientist and Community Advocate. He has worked consistently over the past 3 decades to increase public awareness on the consequences of the climate crisis and the link to environmental destruction due to poor policy decisions. He advocates on behalf of affected communities by taking their ideas and concerns to the larger media outlets in Antigua and Barbuda and to international organisations and audiences. He advocates to influence public policy in Barbuda, as a leader in organizations such as the Barbuda Farming Co-Op and the Barbuda Land Rights & Resources Committee. Mr Mussington actively agitates to promote awareness of resource management and sustainable development issues and to promote policies that conserve the natural and built environments. He has worked as a consultant environmentalist with several funding agencies and international partners. In the aftermath of the 2017 Hurricane Irma Disaster Mr Mussington was among the first set of Barbudans to return to the island and to start the resistance movement against attempts to deracinate the Barbudan community to facilitate the redevelopment of the island into a private playground for millionaires.
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