‘This land is our land’

…Lincoln Lewis, other relatives move to occupy ancestral lands at Kingelly Village

By Clifford Stanley
Veteran trade unionist Lincoln Lewis has that himself and the descendants of the former slave Cudjoe McPherson have embarked on a definite push to occupy ancestral lands at Kingelly Village West Coast Berbice despite objections by some other residents of the village.

Lewis disclosed that the heirs of the land belonging to the former slave who bought the village in 1860s are now fencing eighteen acres of land in the area and intend to start occupation soon. He made the disclosures during a week in which there had been hostile approaches by some residents of the village who have been advancing on the land being fenced.

“Some of these people have had the temerity to tell us that this is no longer Granger Government this is now Ali and Jagdeo Government so we can’t stop them from moving in. So it is now at the point where they are using politics, government authority to tell us what they are going to do. He added: “Our position is very clear we will not disturb those persons who have been living here for a number of years. I want to give everybody who have been living there for years the opportunity to regularise themselves. We will not fight these occupiers. But we are not going to allow anybody to occupy the unoccupied lands.”

Lewis disclosed that his great, great, great, great grandfather Cudjoe McPherson a former slave bought Kingelly village from the colonial authorities in 1868. Cudjoe McPherson who pioneered the village movement in West Coast Berbice commissioned a survey of Kingelly that was done in February 1868 by William Chalmers, where 32 lots were assigned to 32 persons on the southern side of the public road. He said: “Among the group on the southern side of the public road was my great, great, great grandfather Edwin Semple. He is both of my mother and father, Stephen Lewis’ lineage. Cudjoe kept for himself the northern side of the public road, stretching across the entire village. The northern side of this land, by transport, remains to this day, in his name.”

He further disclosed that in the nineteen sixes his great uncles and aunts made every effort to occupy the lands on the northern side of Kingelly but the persons who they had allowed to live there, objected to their occupation.

He said that in recent years, the heirs of Cudjoe McPherson family have since grown large in number and members do not want to go and beg for land hence the current push to hand over the lands to desirous members of the family and extended family. The family he said had targeted eighteen acres of land for occupation. “All the family in the immediate environs will be put on the eighteen acres to live; first come first serve. And this occupation will start by weekend.”.

He took pains to stress: “These 18 acres are not occupied by anyone.”
He told Village Voice: “I am buoyant about this occupation. I know that I am standing on firm ground as a descendant of Cudjoe McPherson We have a transport and none of the people who are making allegations that the land is theirs can produce any documentation any transport or title to prove their claims.”
He added: “If they want to be hostile we will make life miserable for them.” Lewis added that he had no interest in action by the Courts. “I don’t have to take them to Court. If they want to they can take me to Court I know I am on firm ground.”

Kingelly village was formerly a slave plantation in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth century. The village is located in Region 5 (Mahaica/Berbice) along the Atlantic Coast between the Abary and Berbice Rivers a few miles east of the Abary River.