BARBUDA. What have you heard? What do you know? What have you read?
COLONIALISM. THE BRITISH EMPIRE. TOURISM. Told who we are through a Safe White Space. Narratives that appreciate whiteness.
SKILLED CRAFTSPEOPLE. COMMUNAL LAND SYSTEM. EMPOWERED VOICES. GLOBAL DIASPORA of BARBUDANS. We tell our stories. Celebrate our blackness. Who we are.
Prior to 2018, land could only be leased on Barbuda. It had been this way since 1685, since Great Britain seized control of the island. With the abolition of slavery in 1834 Barbudans began to fight for their land. Conflict over the land has been debated for years, but the law stated: “All land in Barbuda is owned in common by the people of Barbuda.” Any extension of leases were to be granted by the local Barbuda Council.
For many years, Barbudans protected the island from outside interests in court and on the ground. Barbudans took pride in the communal land system, and united across political party lines to prevent unapproved development.
In the aftermath of Hurricane Irma in September 2017, changes to laws were made to compromise Barbudan’s well-being. The Antigua and Barbuda government repealed the Barbuda Land Act, changing the definition of who is Barbudan, identifying Barbudans as tenants of the crown, and changing the land structure of common-held to freehold land.
How are Barbudans resisting the changes to the land system that they’ve known since emancipation? Did hurricane Irma weaken the reflex to protect the land by a people who have a history of resistance?
The eye of Hurricane Irma and the destruction that comes with a category 5 hurricane hit Barbuda on September 6, 2017.
Within two days, the threat of Hurricane Jose and the mandatory evacuation of all 1700 Barbudans to Antigua began. It was a forced evacuation under the guise of their safety. Elderly, sick, people who can count on one hand the number of times they have left the island were forced to leave, thinking they’d return after Jose passed.
Those who knew what was happening attempted to stay, but were forced at gunpoint to leave their land.
When Barbudans returned, evidence of their system of communal land ownership that stretches back hundreds of years was under threat. Heavy Construction equipment was brought on the island, and generator power was providing current at the construction site for a new international airport adjacent to coastline properties that had billionaire investor interests. Not one piece of equipment was for the village, the people, the hospital, the bank, the existing airport, the schools, nor any homes.
Naomi Klein's theory of Disaster Capitalism: “The original disaster - the coup, the terrorist attack, the market meltdown, the war, the tsunami, the hurricane - puts the entire population into a state of collective shock. The falling bombs, the bursts of terror, the pounding winds serve to soften up whole societies much as the blaring music and blows in the torture cells soften up prisoners. Like the terrorized prisoner who gives up the names of comrades and renounces his faith, shocked societies often give up things they would otherwise fiercely protect. Klein, Naomi. (2007) The Shock Doctrine, p 20.
Milton Friedman’s economic model of neocapital liberalism: “Only a crisis - actual or perceived - produces real change. When that crisis occurs, the actions that are taken depend on the ideas that are lying around. That, I believe, is our basic function: to develop alternatives to existing policies, to keep them alive and available until the politically impossible becomes politically inevitable.” Friedman, Milton. (2009, February 15). Capitalism and Freedom: Fortieth Anniversary Edition, page xiv. University of Chicago Press.
Naomi Klein on Friedman's theory: The bottom line is that while Friedman’s economic model is capable of being partially imposed under democracy, authoritarian conditions are required for the implementation of its true vision. For economic shock therapy to be applied without restraint - as it was in Chile in the seventies, China in the late eighties, Russia in the nineties and the US after September 11, 2001 - some sort of additional collective trauma has always been required, one that either temporarily suspended democratic practices or blocked them entirely. Klein, N. (2007) The Shock Doctrine, p 13.
While Barbuda has a unique history and relationship with land, the struggle of the people connects globally with communities in the throws of creating sustainable development, fighting gentrification issues and the impact of neoliberal capitalism. The impact of Disaster Capitalism that emerged as New Orleans rebuilt post-hurricane Katrina is prevalent thirteen years later in today’s housing, education and shift in cultural norms. Puerto Rico is in a current battle post-hurricane Maria where the public services are being privatized in efforts that began before the storm hit.
This body of work uses narratives to engender and create cohesion within a person's individual self and across communal selves, which is important from a cultural perspective throughout the Caribbean, and the African diaspora. On Barbuda, the narratives and stories are a form of preserving the culture, but the value seen is in how they are being used to mobilize and unify people for social action.
There were just 100 people back on the island in January 2018, and a grass-roots initiative, RebuildBarbuda, was bringing people together to unify and cleanup the debris and chaos that the hurricane spread throughout the village. RebuildBarbuda is led by Mike Harris and Sean Charles, Barbudans who use their compassion for Barbuda and US Military experience to organize efforts, uplift the people, and work through the roadblocks set forth by the agencies, organized efforts and individuals operating within the Shock Doctrine.
The video above was the first video created to tell the story of Barbuda pre-hurricane in an effort to unite the people and remind them that Barbudans have: strength, unity, land, a history and a future. The island had been torn up. Barbudans were scattered, and those who were back on the island in January 2017 were putting one foot in front of the other as a unit to clear the island during the sunlit hours of each day. For the first video, RebuildBarbuda asked for a story that could remind people of how we are connected.
It is through the oral history interviews that I have learned about the history, connected to my family's village, and am guided as a culture carrier. I also have discovered the limited access to information and facts that are changing laws and shifting the landscape. It is through digital storytelling that truth can be shared.
Janis Beazer was one of “The 44” who protested a reverse osmosis plant being put into the Codrington Lagoon in 1998. Janis, now 59, grew up in a culture of protest, where land rights were a part of educating youth, and she was taught by example by her father and the elders of her generation.
I asked Janis about the changes to the law. The redefinition of who a Barbudan is, and the end to the communal land tenure system. Janis was made aware of protest and the fight by her father, and elders. She has the fight within her, but is not aware of any changes to the law.
"This piece was written as I was looking at the investors coming to Barbuda, the politics surrounding developing Barbuda and how we as Barbudans do not necessarily want our island to be developed in a way that we lose the essence of who we are," Maureen Lee Simon.
A part of the Barbuda Land Act of 2007 grants any adult Barbudan access to three plots of land. One for a primary residence, one for farming and another for commercial purposes. Frances Beazer is a Barbudan who has a farm that is a part of a farming co-op. She is the only farmer who has returned to farm after Hurricane Irma. Her egg farm supplies the market and people with eggs. Francis discusses her farm, and the battle that she has dealt with.
I asked Francis about the changes to the law. She, like Janis, has the fight within her, but is not aware of any changes to the law.
Devon warner is a fisherman, diver and navigator of the seas. This is a skillset that has been passed down through generations of Barbudan men. “There’s a lot of built-in GPS with the older fishers...I remember when I used to sail to Antigua as a young boy with my father and he’d tell me: ‘We’ll be on Barbuda water in about a half an hour,’ because he felt the difference, he saw the difference in the coloration of the water. There’s that wisdom of the whole art of navigation that has been passed down. You can’t pay for this.” Devon Warner.
An accounting of the hundreds of millions pledged and donated to the recovery is not available to the Barbudans. Even some of the donors seem to be unaware. It is almost too easy – although arguably correct – to label this event “Disaster Capitalism” or another case of land grabbing. Barbuda is ground zero for twenty-first century genocide. Endless wars, gas, bullets or even the liberal use of eminent domain is so last century. Rather than killing to obtain desirable lands, the authority and violence enshrined in modern sovereignty can erase the people—step by step. By the stroke of a pen, by a reconstruction plan, by a willing omission and the crystallization in law of a bias history, people can be made invisible and all that is left to do is blame Nature’s wrath. Negga Melchior, Teckla C. (2018, October 15). #We The Peoples of the World… Except you: Disaster Capitalism.
It is through our stories, told on multiple platforms, that we preserve who we are and share who we are as we protect what our ancestors built. The passing down of history through narratives and storytelling is so that we can literally be free. Education, awareness, empowerment and the drive to work for our children’s future are the keys to uniting the people of Barbuda and the global community fighting for justice.
Written, photographed and produced by Mikki K. Harris. Additional photos by Mohammid Walbrook.