DR FRANCES CHANDLER has accused historians of associating agriculture with slavery and causing it to suffer (Midweek Nation February 10, 2016). This is a crass generalisation that has no basis in reality and I challenge Dr Chandler to provide the evidence to substantiate such an accusation. Dr Chandler is obviously seeking to shift the blame of the woeful state of agriculture on black Barbadians but the facts speak for themselves.
The truth is that the state of agriculture in Barbados has very little to do with black Barbadians but more so much to do with our historical land ownership patterns and local and international lending agencies.
I will begin with the Barbados Mutual life Assurance Society, which has now metamorphosed into Sagicor Financial Corporation. According to Professor Hilary Beckles in his book Corporate Power In Barbados: The Mutual Affair, The Barbados Mutual epitomised a hostile force to black and white middle class ambitions during the 1920s by inflating the values on lands which drove Blacks off the market. Many Blacks returning from Panama, with over a million pounds collectively, sought to increase their life chances by owning land on which agricultural products would be cultivated. Blacks pooled their monies in friendly societies with the intention of making incursions into the plantation structure.
The predominantly white merchant community at the time, used their influence to have the Friendly Society Act passed, which imposed severe restrictions on the friendly societies to buy land on behalf of their many black members.
Amidst all this was the formation of Plantations Limited which strengthened the plantocratic grip on the Barbadian society with an interlocking relationship with the Barbados Mutual.
Barbados Mutual
Fast forward to the 1990s and we found that the Inter-American Development Bank was dictating to the Government at the time what land should be used for golf courses and luxury residences. Indeed, John Connell writing in his column Window On Events, in an article entitled We’re Neglecting Food Security cited evidence to support the removal of land from agriculture in exchange for US$35 million. Connell predicted at the time that large plantation owners would soon be applying for planning permission to convert agricultural land into golf courses and residences for the luxury seekers.
Undoubtedly, some of these plantation owners who benefited from the support of the Barbados Mutual would have stood to benefit from such a change in land use policy at the time. To compound this situation, mortgage companies have over time sought to dictate to many black mortgagors what they can grow on their properties. This policy, as well as the policy of the Inter-American Development Bank as Connell posited, is to steer Barbadians into importing increasing amounts of food from the United States of America especially since that country is the single largest shareholder in the bank.
So Dr Chandler’s anguish over some wrong that historians committed is obviously misplaced. She definitely needs to channel her criticisms in the right place and stop barking up the wrong tree.
– Ian A. Marshall