Dear Editor,
Please allow me to share some thoughts, experiences, observations and findings on African Guyanese and their ancestral lands. I am doing some remarkable and interesting work around African Guyanese and their ancestral lands. My family and I are also involved in a land matter, and over the past few years, we are now involved in the fourteenth High Court, Magistrate Court and Police matter relating to this land. The important question is why, after fourteen encounters, collectively, with the High Court, Magistrate Court and police, a solution has not been found? We need to fight for a professional judiciary, and professional law enforcement, but equally important, is to fight for a fair and just society. I am writing a book on this case and its variations – legal, social, from a law enforcement perspective, etc.
I have been involved in assisting my family with our land matters since for over 30 years, and have acquired a lot of knowledge and information on the Laws and legal system and legal processes in relation to land in Guyana. One of my discoveries is that African Guyanese need technical leadership. Leadership generally is important, but technical leadership in these matters is critical, especially now. I provide technical leadership to my family and communities. Additionally, I applied to a university earlier this year to do a PhD in Law and my research will focus on ‘Land Law and Social Policy in Guyana’, this I hope to start in 2027, if granted an offer from a university. Nevertheless, I am continuing to do my study which is a compilation of experiences, observations, extensive research, etc., on African Guyanese ancestral lands, particularly, private ancestral lands, African Guyanese history, family history and heritage in some villages, the laws and legal systems and social and economic systems in relation to African Guyanese Ancestral Lands, such as the British Guyana Village Administration System from 1838, Land Registration Act of 1959, Lands Department Act, the Guyana Constitution, particularly Article 20, just to name a few of the sources of information.
However, based on my observations, the current Attorney General, Anil Nandlall, has a limited and broad unqualified understanding of African Guyanese private ancestral lands, their history, including family history and heritage in relation to these lands. My research, to some extent, is re-writing the African Guyanese story – history and heritage, as it relates to private ancestral lands. For e.g., we have heard that African Guyanese do not like to write Wills, while that might be true to some extent, my research has found that there was a dominant culture in the mid to late 1800’s and early 1900’s of freed Africans writing Wills. However, what I have discovered is that, in 2026, many African Guyanese are fifth, sixth and seventh generations from the title holders, therefore, in many cases, the title holders died over one hundred years ago, so for about five or four generations, hundreds of people, could not write Wills because they were and are not the title holders for their private ancestral lands. Many of them do not even know who the title holders were, this creates an opportunity for the government to challenge them for these ancestral lands.
It seems that the understanding of the Attorney General’s and to some extent, the government, is that many African Guyanese have for almost 180 years, been living on lands that they have no documents for, so, I think that the Attorney General and the government based on that premised, has a plan to challenge African Guyanese who are occupying private ancestral lands, and who are not the title holders, or whose surnames are different from the title holders, etc., and they have narrowed the proof of ownership to a transport, in many cases, but the Attorney General and the government is setting themselves up for a serious constitutional challenge. Article 20 of the Guyana Constitution states that ‘The right to an inheritance is guaranteed’, it does not limit that right to a transport.
African Guyanese have an interesting history with land ownership that predates for e.g. East Indians, Portuguese and Chinese, because slavery was abolished in 1838, and shortly after, the British government allocated lands to ex-slaves. In the case of Coverden on the East Bank of Demerara, one of the villages that I am studying, the first land titles were allocated to ex-slaves from around 1842. In one village, there was a misunderstanding that in a particular family, after over one hundred and fifty years, they did not own a particular piece of land because the title was not in their names. From my research, I discovered that a relative of that family had owned the land and the relative and his wife did not have any children, so when he died sometime in the late 1800’s, the British State took control of the land and sold it at an auction (I will not provide further evidence here in this particular matter), but the Attorney General, in 2026, based on his narrow understanding of African Guyanese family history and heritage on private land ownership, may want to have us believe that these ex-slaves bullied the British government in the late 1800’s and took possession of this land from the British State and occupied it for over 150 years, and not that they purchased it from the British State.
In another instance, families have evidence in Official Gazettes from the 1800’s, Wills, etc. and the Attorney General and the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) are asking for transports. This is a violation of the constitutional rights of African Guyanese. Article 20 does not state that African Guyanese need transports for their Ancestral lands, it states that ‘The right to an inheritance is guaranteed’.
In the short, medium and long-term African Guyanese need a more structured approached to organizing and modernizing their ancestral lands and villages. These are some points for a possible ‘framework or proposal for organising and modernising African Guyanese ancestral lands and villages in Guyana’: 1) Develop a process and plan (Legal, social, economic, etc.) for updating title holders; 2) Develop a process and plan for increasing the collateral value of African Guyanese ancestral lands; 3) Develop a plan for modernising African Guyanese ancestral lands and villages; 4) Develop a strategy/plan for integrating African Guyanese ancestral lands and as a key driver for economic and social stability in villages and families; and 5) Government to make allowance for legal, political, social space for African Guyanese to organise their ancestral land in peace.
I am currently working with families on developing excellent ‘Family Development and Economic Plans’ and ‘Family Poverty Reduction Strategies’, using their ancestral lands as a key driver to move at least four hundred people out of poverty into prosperity over the next four years, and to enable their economic and social stability by organizing and modernizing their private ancestral lands and their villages. Some of the programmes we are developing are: A Family Pension Programme; a Family Unemployment Programme; a Family Scholarship Fund; and a Family Microfinance Scheme to fund small businesses in their families, support family members in constructing their homes. I will also integrate these economic and social plans, strategies and programmes into my broader research on ‘Land Law and Social Policy in Guyana’.
With support from the international community; and a genuine effort by the government to respect African Guyanese rights to their inheritance and to support them in organizing and modernizing their Ancestral lands and villages, this initiative has the potential to significantly develop a sustainable process for moving thousands of Guyanese, African Guyanese in particular, out of poverty and enabling their sustainable economic and social development.
Yours sincerely,
Citizen Audreyanna Thomas
