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FM
Former Member

Afro-Guyanese deserve 15,000 square miles of territory as partial compensation for enslavement; law being drafted for African land rights

 

Chairman of the Guyana Reparations Committee, Eric Phillips and Retired Rear Admiral, Gary Best.

The Guyana Reparations Committee is drafting legislation to allow Afro-Guyanese to secure a percentage of Guyana’s territory as compensation for slavery in the same way that Amerindians have been legally guaranteed land rights, a move Retired Rear Admiral Gary Best supports.

“I believe that unless the State acknowledges its responsibility, we’ll only be looking towards the external reparations which is financial reparations but within the country itself, I think Guyana owes its own people to allocate a portion of land both onshore and offshore reparatory justice to the people of Guyana,” Best said.

The issue was discussed at the University of Guyana’s 6th Conversation on Law and Society that was held on Monday  under the theme “The Challenges of and to Reparations for People of African Decent in the 21st Century.”

Best, an Attorney-at-Law, is drafting legislation for the Committee which is part of a Caribbean Community (Caricom) Reparations Commission that continues to lobby Britain to compensate countries in the region for slavery.

The former Guyana Defence Force (GDF) Chief-of-Staff argued that the State of Guyana has a duty to grant some form of reparation to descendants of African slaves by setting aside 18 percent or 15,000 square miles of Guyana’s territory.

“As a successor State, we owe a responsibility to correct those historical wrongs so I believe the Government of Guyana, more particularly the State of Guyana, owe the people of Guyana land as compensation for reparatory justice,” Best said, adding that his recommendation was linked to recommendations by the 1948 Commission of Inquiry into the social conditions of then British Guiana by British Professor Dr. J. A. Venn.

A section of the attendees at the University of Guyana’s 6th Conversation on Law and Society that was held on Monday  under the theme “The Challenges of and to Reparations for People of African Decent in the 21st Century.”

He argued that the State of Guyana has a duty to provide partial reparations as partial restorative justice based on three specific occasions: Africans were kidnapped and illegally transported to this part of the world from their lands, they indigenised the lands for more than 200 years but they were not handed to them, and only Amerindians received reparatory  justice at the time of Guyana’s independence in 1966 through the provision of lands to Amerindians, and when Guyana became a republic in 1970 no lands were again provided to African descendants.

“I do believe that the State owes a responsibility to the people of this country because it was always the State that committed the crime and prior to the Guyana State it was the British State and it was the British State that committed those heinous crimes,” he said. Best bolstered his argument by saying that enslaved Africans had humanised the coastline, created the nation state, developed the modern state and provided safe haven for all other ethnic groups to come to Guyana.  He said unless the State acknowledges its responsibility, Guyana would be merely seeking financial compensation from Britain.

Chairman of the Guyana Reparations Committee, Dr. Eric Phillips added that the land claim is documented in a book titled “Guyana Reparations Story”. Phillips announced that Rear Admiral Best was drafting an Ancestral Rights Bill.

Best told Demerara Waves Online News  on Wednesday that he expects the draft to be completed by year-end after which it would be presented to government and eventually the National Assembly for bipartisan consideration. “It is aimed at reducing inequalities and part of the healing process,” he said.

He restated that the committee would lay its claim before the President of Guyana, Cabinet and Parliament. He said Guyana’s Amerindian Act is the first reparatory justice Act in the Caribbean because it provides the nine Amerindian tribes 13.8 percent of  Guyana’s territory. “That’s what it is regardless of what you call it or don’t want to call it and the reason why Africans in Guyana have a claim to reparatory justice in Guyana is because three of those nine tribes came to Guyana a hundred to two hundred years after captive Africans were brought here so if they were given reparations, why shouldn’t we,” he said.

At the same time, Phillips said among the hurdles to reparations are questions about the legality of demands, disunity, calls for forgiveness by the church and the media,  huge unrealistic financial demands and views by other ethnic groups that Africans do not deserve reparations although 473,000 lives were lost in building Guyana.

“Justice is justice but it seems to be an issue whenever people of African descent seek justice. Oh Africans want affirmative action, never mind that those who are complaining that we want affirmative action have received affirmative action on the backs  and deaths of blood and tears of Africans who built Guyana,” said Phillips who is an executive member of the African Cultural and Development Association.

The Caribbean’s demand of 7.5 trillion pounds sterling, he said, was not too large to be paid because Britain and other European countries could pay the region 1 percent of their Gross Domestic Product  each year for 400 years. “It will never be too large to pay”, he said.

Phillips said there was need for public education and awareness to hammer home the point that reparatory justice is necessary and just. Saying that an expression of regret by European countries was insufficient.

Replies sorted oldest to newest

If any land is given it should come with conditions, maybe  it’s use should be for farming and it should be monitored.

However, what about the other ethnic groups? The Indians can argue that they deserve land due to Indenturship.  The other races can also have valid arguments.  This sounds like opening a can of worms.

alena06

Guyana has land for everyone. 

If anyone should get reparations from the government it is the Amerindians.

Blacks should seek reparations from the Europeans, not the Guyana government. 

This is indeed opening a can of worms. 

V

This is such fallacious crock. I read this again and cant figure how they came up with 18% or 15000 sq miles of land. 

Phillips is basing this on the Venn Commission Report and a book on reparations he supposedly wrote?

Guyana and CARICOM needs to take this case to Europe and seek reparatory justice from dem people, not demand from the Guyanese State to legitimize any form of forceful land grabbing.

Guyana's patrimony belongs to ALL Guyanese.

 

V

I agree. If you study African history, they have been shortchanged all their lives. (Ray, I under that the British enslaved them, but they went to Guyana, not England). Give them their entitlement. God's earth is plentiful for Coolie and Black. My fellow coolies who disagree, please don't be covetous on this one, too. 

FM
cain posted:

I feel like I should get in line fi lil bit reparation, Iman could put dah land to some good good use yeh.

Just imagine all that tropical weather and watching your erbs flourish. Good quality erbs man!

FM
Prince posted:

I agree. If you study African history, they have been shortchanged all their lives. (Ray, I under that the British enslaved them, but they went to Guyana, not England). Give them their entitlement. God's earth is plentiful for Coolie and Black. My fellow coolies who disagree, please don't be covetous on this one, too. 

Can you enlighten us who shortchanged the Africans? If you are talking about Africans, why not let them go back to Africa and ask the chiefs who sold them into slavery for compensation? 

 

FM
Last edited by Former Member
skeldon_man posted:
cain posted:

I feel like I should get in line fi lil bit reparation, Iman could put dah land to some good good use yeh.

Just imagine all that tropical weather and watching your erbs flourish. Good quality erbs man!

I should hook up with our former police chief Fantino who is now in the 'erb business to get some pointers. Imagine the banna bustin people and now runs a business doin the same thing.

cain
cain posted:
skeldon_man posted:
cain posted:

I feel like I should get in line fi lil bit reparation, Iman could put dah land to some good good use yeh.

Just imagine all that tropical weather and watching your erbs flourish. Good quality erbs man!

I should hook up with our former police chief Fantino who is now in the 'erb business to get some pointers. Imagine the banna bustin people and now runs a business doin the same thing.

He's laughin' all the way to the bank. You can say that the man was always in the erb business. You are too straight, he would not want to do business with you. He wants people like Princess Pusswah dem.

FM
Last edited by Former Member

Africans sold Africans. Those sold, were enslaved to the African overlords as captives-perhaps inferior in comparison to their captors in the art of war.

Suh, why dey want the Amerindian lands. Shouldn't they be going after African governments?

They bought old plantations at the period of emancipation and after so many decades they have not utilized it fully. 

S
skeldon_man posted:
Prince posted:

I agree. If you study African history, they have been shortchanged all their lives. (Ray, I under that the British enslaved them, but they went to Guyana, not England). Give them their entitlement. God's earth is plentiful for Coolie and Black. My fellow coolies who disagree, please don't be covetous on this one, too. 

Can you enlighten us who shortchanged the Africans? If you are talking about Africans, why not let them go back to Africa and ask the chiefs who sold them into slavery for compensation? 

 

What more enlightenment do you need when the PPP marginalized them? What more do you need when Yuji said they can't run a cake shop? What more do you need to know when you see black people excelling in Guyana in the field of agriculture, serving their country in the arm forces when coolie think Blackman wants to slave them in the jungle? They are Guyanese and earned every right as Guyanese. Blackman should kick out coolie from Guyana for their stupidity. You nah shame? Them ah rule you and you still want to send them back to Africa? Coolie people are neemakaram crabdaags. You know that?

FM
Prince posted:
skeldon_man posted:
Prince posted:

I agree. If you study African history, they have been shortchanged all their lives. (Ray, I under that the British enslaved them, but they went to Guyana, not England). Give them their entitlement. God's earth is plentiful for Coolie and Black. My fellow coolies who disagree, please don't be covetous on this one, too. 

Can you enlighten us who shortchanged the Africans? If you are talking about Africans, why not let them go back to Africa and ask the chiefs who sold them into slavery for compensation? 

 

What more enlightenment do you need when the PPP marginalized them? What more do you need when Yuji said they can't run a cake shop? What more do you need to know when you see black people excelling in Guyana in the field of agriculture, serving their country in the arm forces when coolie think Blackman wants to slave them in the jungle? They are Guyanese and earned every right as Guyanese. Blackman should kick out coolie from Guyana for their stupidity. You nah shame? Them ah rule you and you still want to send them back to Africa? Coolie people are neemakaram crabdaags. You know that?

U know this post is just a load of shit. You're fooling anybody. U racist pig!

Sheik101

My fellow coolies who disagree, please don't be covetous on this one, too. 

Prince you are not a coolie, who you're fooling. You are as racist as a racist can be, peddling articles about race bait everyday.

K

Hey hey hey...Mr Guana how much acre yuh getting? Yuh sellin yuh share? Hey hey hey...Mr Ronan will never sell he share. White mout foh dem pool coolie peopkle. Hey hey hey...

FM
Mitwah posted:

How did they come up with 18%  entitlement?

Hey hey hey...Bharrat treat de man nice nice. De man get a big land and house pon de Pradoville 2. I tell dem coolie bais fram de PPP dont believe Mr Ogunseyee, Mr Best and dem doh up for sale. Ah waiting foh see we House of Israel bai Lumumba turn PNC foh get more land dan what Bharrat ge he...hey hey hey...

FM
alena06 posted:

If any land is given it should come with conditions, maybe  it’s use should be for farming and it should be monitored.

However, what about the other ethnic groups? The Indians can argue that they deserve land due to Indenturship.  The other races can also have valid arguments.  This sounds like opening a can of worms.

Exactly. What about the other races? Why is it that Afro Guyanese are being singled out? What differs them from the other indentured immigrants (Indians, Chinese, Portuguese etc. ) who worked and sacrificed and saved to own what they own now? I spoke about this sense of entitlement a short while ago and here we go. It's a crock of shit. Work for you want.

GTAngler
Prince posted:

I agree. If you study African history, they have been shortchanged all their lives. (Ray, I under that the British enslaved them, but they went to Guyana, not England). Give them their entitlement. God's earth is plentiful for Coolie and Black. My fellow coolies who disagree, please don't be covetous on this one, too. 

BANNA, shut yuh ignorant ass. Guyana belongs to all Guyanese. Anyone who disagrees and wants a piece because they believe they are owed anything should go the f**k to wherever they came from.

GTAngler
Last edited by GTAngler
GTAngler posted:
Prince posted:

I agree. If you study African history, they have been shortchanged all their lives. (Ray, I under that the British enslaved them, but they went to Guyana, not England). Give them their entitlement. God's earth is plentiful for Coolie and Black. My fellow coolies who disagree, please don't be covetous on this one, too. 

BANNA, shut yuh ignorant ass. Guyana belongs to all Guyanese. Anyone who disagrees and wants a piece because they believe they are owed anything should go the f**k to wherever they came from.

Well some born in Guyana,i will like to add the fellas who are pushing for land for reparations should fade away.

Hopefully i don't degrade Yugi thread.

Django
Last edited by Django
Labba posted:

Hey hey hey...Mr Guana how much acre yuh getting? Yuh sellin yuh share? Hey hey hey...Mr Ronan will never sell he share. White mout foh dem pool coolie peopkle. Hey hey hey...

Gwana man getting nothing and want nothing. I state emphatically - Guyana as it is today belongs to all Guyanese, never to be partitioned.

To the Indian racists who post here - Nehru, Prashad, Skeldon Man, Vish Mahabir, Yugli, Drugb, Seignet, KP, Dave, et al I say this:

As long as you continue to deny that Guyana also belongs to black people, and to paint black people as lazy good for nothings who contributed NOTHING to Guyana, actively discriminate against them in every sector, then you will empower these movements who seek their own land within Guyana for their ethnicity.

YOU are the ones who will spur and legitimize these movements by your racist behavior! You all racist Indians will create another Burnham and you're going to reap what you sow!

FM
Django posted:
GTAngler posted:
Prince posted:

I agree. If you study African history, they have been shortchanged all their lives. (Ray, I under that the British enslaved them, but they went to Guyana, not England). Give them their entitlement. God's earth is plentiful for Coolie and Black. My fellow coolies who disagree, please don't be covetous on this one, too. 

BANNA, shut yuh ignorant ass. Guyana belongs to all Guyanese. Anyone who disagrees and wants a piece because they believe they are owed anything should go the f**k to wherever they came from.

Well some born in Guyana,i will like to add the fellas who are pushing for land for reparations should fade away.

Hopefully i don't degrade Yugi thread.

Exactly so what reparations are they looking for? What does it say for you if after 150 odd years you haven't improved yourself and are looking for handouts AND why was this not addressed when the PNC/Burnham was in power? I'll tell you what the game is. The oil money will be coming in eventually. So the government is supposed to give out land and build homes and provide free utilities for a select few. This is racism and laziness at it's best.

GTAngler
alena06 posted:

I? The Indians can argue that they deserve land due to Indenturship.  The other races can also have valid arguments.  This sounds like opening a can of worms.

The contract made provision for lands. Whether they actually received can be debated. 

When slavery ended the slave masters were compensated and the entire socio economic system of 19th C colonial Guyana (and the rest of the British West Indies) was to punish the freed people for being bold enough to demand improved living conditions.

Please don't compare indentureship and slavery.  Argue on the basis of the fact that it is water under the bridge and chatter about reparations at this point is futile.

FM
caribny posted:
alena06 posted:

I? The Indians can argue that they deserve land due to Indenturship.  The other races can also have valid arguments.  This sounds like opening a can of worms.

The contract made provision for lands. Whether they actually received can be debated. 

When slavery ended the slave masters were compensated and the entire socio economic system of 19th C colonial Guyana (and the rest of the British West Indies) was to punish the freed people for being bold enough to demand improved living conditions.

Please don't compare indentureship and slavery.  Argue on the basis of the fact that it is water under the bridge and chatter about reparations at this point is futile.

Villages were created for non-returning East Indian Indentured,they got 99 yr leases for the lands,my grand parents had such land.

Django
Django posted:
 

Villages were created for non-returning East Indian Indentured,they got 99 yr leases for the lands,my grand parents had such land.

And that was the point. 

My ancestors had to save their little pennies then put them in a wheel barrow to pay for the land.  I mean MY ancestors as I am a direct descendant of people involved in the establishment of BV and Victoria.

Once purchased the land was flooded out by the estates, the villagers were heavily taxed and no public works was done to improve drainage, irrigation or sea defense.  This is why blacks, whose first occupations after slavery was in farming and petty trading, moved to the security of the civil service and the trades.  Those who couldn't do so remained poor, and those who did so entered the lower middle class.

Furthermore the Portuguese were allowed to undermine them by importing cheap food.  And when many were forced to go back to the estate to supplement their income when the villages were in dire difficulties by the 1860s Indians were brought in to undermine any demands for decent pay.

The plantation owners were not only compensated for their loss of slave labor but also received massive tax benefits.  Some used to subsidize the imports of indentures.  There were heavy taxes on items used by the former slaves. and they also didn't receive tax waivers for items that the sugar estates benefitted from.

It would seem to most rational people that those who were deprived of pay for centuries, as well as the ability to develop a culture of running enterprises should have received assistance and compensation to get on their feet.

My issue with demands for reparations is that the people responsible no longer live in Guyana, or are even interested in Guyana, so I don't see the sense of this demand. Penalizing other groups who weren't directly responsible for the plight suffered by the freed men and women doesn't seem rational.  Guyana and the rest of the Caribbean lack the leverage to demand reparations from the UK, France and the Netherlands, these being the guilty parties and the biggest beneficiaries.

So why waste time.  Mr. Phillips and company need to find other ways to help impoverished rural Afro Guyanese, many still suffering from the legacy of the post emancipation era.

FM

Carib,

I forget to mention they had to pay taxes yearly for the land.

I heard my Grandfather while at the office paying taxes,if someone is short he gave them the shortage to make up the taxes,he became ill in his 50's from then hardships embraced the family.

It's worthy to mention during the last gov't of the PPP/C,the owners of those lease land was given transported ownership.

Django
Last edited by Django
Iguana posted:
Labba posted:

Hey hey hey...Mr Guana how much acre yuh getting? Yuh sellin yuh share? Hey hey hey...Mr Ronan will never sell he share. White mout foh dem pool coolie peopkle. Hey hey hey...

Gwana man getting nothing and want nothing. I state emphatically - Guyana as it is today belongs to all Guyanese, never to be partitioned.

To the Indian racists who post here - Nehru, Prashad, Skeldon Man, Vish Mahabir, Yugli, Drugb, Seignet, KP, Dave, et al I say this:

As long as you continue to deny that Guyana also belongs to black people, and to paint black people as lazy good for nothings who contributed NOTHING to Guyana, actively discriminate against them in every sector, then you will empower these movements who seek their own land within Guyana for their ethnicity.

YOU are the ones who will spur and legitimize these movements by your racist behavior! You all racist Indians will create another Burnham and you're going to reap what you sow!

Another Black skont. Even though I know yuh ain black, but yuh mind is racist just as the black.

S
Django posted:

Carib,

I forget to mention they had to pay taxes yearly for the land.

I heard my Grandfather while at the office paying taxes,if someone is short he gave them the shortage make up the taxes,he became ill in his 50's from then hardships embraced the family.

It's worthy to mention during the last gov't of the PPP/C,the owners of those lease land was given transported ownership.

Bai, taxes were paid by all on this planet. The muslims taxed hindus more than muslim converts in India-just because they were different.

Blacks owned land, they must pay the taxes.

Is the mentality of entitlement mek Linden get free current. Dey lazy to try. Why Black ppl deh so, thinking dey getting screwed by every one.

S
seignet posted:
 

Blacks owned land, they must pay the taxes.

.

Blacks owned land and paid taxes. Whites owned land and did NOT pay taxes as the sugar industry was exempt.  The taxes paid by blacks was supposed to be used for drainage, irrigation and sea defense.  It was NOT used for that purpose and many of the sugar estates used to drain water ON THESE black owned lands.

You don't know the history of Guyana so you must cease to babble and make yourself look like an idiot.

FM

I see this government planning to funnel most of the oil revenues to one ethnic group.  I see major political conflicts emerging in this country.  It's not only going to be an Indian-African thing. I see the Amerindians rebelling and demanding a fair share of Guyana's resources.  Slavery and Indentureship as bad as they were would not negate the Amerindian rights to Guyana as their homeland.  

Billy Ram Balgobin
caribny posted:
seignet posted:
 

Blacks owned land, they must pay the taxes.

.

Blacks owned land and paid taxes. Whites owned land and did NOT pay taxes as the sugar industry was exempt.  The taxes paid by blacks was supposed to be used for drainage, irrigation and sea defense.  It was NOT used for that purpose and many of the sugar estates used to drain water ON THESE black owned lands.

You don't know the history of Guyana so you must cease to babble and make yourself look like an idiot.

Here goes GNI's most famous black nationalist with his divisive politics.  He wants Indians to feel guilty about black slavery when in fact Indians had nothing to do with Europe's enslavement of the African anywhere in this hemisphere. I wonder if he ever thought about those in Africa whose ancestors assisted white slave traders operating on the dark continent for centuries.

Billy Ram Balgobin
Billy Ram Balgobin posted:

I see this government planning to funnel most of the oil revenues to one ethnic group.  I see major political conflicts emerging in this country.  It's not only going to be an Indian-African thing. I see the Amerindians rebelling and demanding a fair share of Guyana's resources.  Slavery and Indentureship as bad as they were would not negate the Amerindian rights to Guyana as their homeland.  

Shows how little you know about Guyana.  The current cast of characters are collecting bribes from Jagdeo's oligarchs in exchange for spreading largesse to that group.  They have determined that the oligarchs can fund their retirement and to hell with others who cannot.  Its the same BK and crew who are the biggest beneficiaries.

Amerindians will do no such thing.  They have no expectations of anything from coast landers and will continue trying to eke out a living as they always have.

FM
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