A cadastral survey was carried out in Antigua in the early seventies {https://www.oicrf.org/-/cadastral-surveyand-the-land-registry-in-antigua-and-barbuda}. This was done to regularize the freehold land system and to clarify and define the Crown lands. The fact that the survey was never conducted in Barbuda is a powerful confirmation that Barbuda lands were never considered to fall under the system in Antigua.

This was again confirmed during the Independence negotiations in 1980 – 81. For various reasons which have turned out to be
justified, the Barbuda delegation rejected going into independence with Antigua and never signed the final agreement. The then Premier Sir V.C. Bird senior however gave the undertaking to leave the people of Barbuda with their lands.

The central government administration is now attempting to use this Bill to impose its will on the People of Barbuda to force into existence a freehold land system by declaring all lands to be Crown lands. By doing so the ministers of the Gaston Browne Administration believe they would now have unfettered access to the lands of Barbuda to do as they please. These government ministers believe themselves to be the “Crown”.

This Bill represents another push in the ongoing attempt to bypass the Barbuda Council and restrict the exercise of its powers under the Barbuda Local Government Act. The wise people of Barbuda will continue to resist the efforts of a few who are determined to do with the communal lands of Barbudans what was done with the approximately 33 thousand acres of Syndicate lands purchased by the tax payers of Antigua and Barbuda.

The best of these lands have found their way back into the hands of persons whose Forebears were the architects and beneficiaries of enslavement and colonization of African people. Barbudans will not allow their lands and resources to be taken and sold off for the benefit of the wealthy, leaving us disempowered and encircled, as has happened in Antigua and on other islands.