WEBVTT - The Triumph of the Commons in Barbuda 0:00:04.960 --> 0:00:09.160 Hey, welcome to it could happen here podcasts, but things 0:00:09.200 --> 0:00:12.840 fallen apart and putting them back together. And this is 0:00:12.880 --> 0:00:18.319 another Andrew episode. So hello Ulu, yes, greetings, we have 0:00:18.480 --> 0:00:22.320 we have we have Chris, we have James, we have myself, 0:00:22.800 --> 0:00:26.720 and we have Andrew. Obviously who I'm going to hand 0:00:26.720 --> 0:00:32.000 the reins off too awesome. So hello again to another 0:00:32.000 --> 0:00:41.320 episode of me talking about different stuff. Um and quite fittingly, 0:00:41.400 --> 0:00:47.519 considering to these the d that Queenlizabeth has passed into 0:00:48.280 --> 0:00:51.159 the pits of hell Um, we are we are deeply 0:00:51.280 --> 0:00:53.800 as as a citizen under the Commonwealth, we are deeply 0:00:53.840 --> 0:01:00.600 saddened by the loss we do. Listen there reached out 0:01:00.600 --> 0:01:07.840 to me today and I am okay, guys. Today we 0:01:07.920 --> 0:01:14.600 will be discussing a current member of the Commonwealth UM, 0:01:14.760 --> 0:01:20.120 one of quite a few twin island nations in the Caribbean, 0:01:21.120 --> 0:01:26.319 that being Antigua and Barbuda, and more specifically Barbuda. Barbuda 0:01:26.400 --> 0:01:30.200 is an example of African resilience. It's an example of 0:01:30.200 --> 0:01:34.440 a society in touch with this environment. It's an example 0:01:34.720 --> 0:01:39.080 of the capability of the Commons as an institution, and 0:01:39.200 --> 0:01:45.880 it's an example of sticking it to the Crown. To 0:01:45.959 --> 0:01:50.520 be quite honest as you nice, I mean, I'm excited 0:01:50.520 --> 0:01:54.720 to learn more about that. How how yes, So I 0:01:54.720 --> 0:01:57.800 don't think many people know about bob Uda and its history. 0:01:57.920 --> 0:01:59.960 I doubt most people could place it on a map. 0:02:00.920 --> 0:02:11.520 But it's it. It represents quite the interesting story. So 0:02:11.639 --> 0:02:15.880 to begin, I should probably explain what what is a Barbuda. 0:02:16.919 --> 0:02:19.880 Bobbuda is an island located in the Eastern Caribbean, forming 0:02:19.919 --> 0:02:22.680 part of the sovereign state of Antigua and Barbuda. It's 0:02:22.760 --> 0:02:25.280 located north of the island of Antigua and it's part 0:02:25.280 --> 0:02:28.560 of the Leeward Islands for the West Indies. It comprises 0:02:28.560 --> 0:02:33.720 about sixty two square miles, so it is about sixty 0:02:33.720 --> 0:02:38.000 two square miles which is a hundred and sixty kilometers, 0:02:38.120 --> 0:02:42.240 and it's one of the flattest islands in the Caribbean. 0:02:42.560 --> 0:02:45.200 It's soils are very shallow and in foods. Island is 0:02:45.280 --> 0:02:51.320 a very arid island with very little rainfall and very 0:02:51.360 --> 0:02:55.760 frequent routs. It's scrub willderness is roamed by day and 0:02:55.919 --> 0:03:01.280 pigs and descendants of the animals early European traders and 0:03:01.280 --> 0:03:04.799 settlers would have imported. It also has a pre settlement, 0:03:05.040 --> 0:03:09.240 ever green woodland that consists of white cedar, turpentine and 0:03:09.360 --> 0:03:14.760 white wood, alongside columnar cactus and thorny shrubs and grassy 0:03:14.840 --> 0:03:19.680 glades and soils that have been another species that have 0:03:20.480 --> 0:03:23.400 grown up in soils that have been degraded by the 0:03:23.520 --> 0:03:30.800 clearance of charcoal burning and crazing and just general human activity. 0:03:32.400 --> 0:03:36.400 Most bob Udans, I would say, engage in shifting cultivation, 0:03:36.480 --> 0:03:40.240 but none of them are full time farmers. The countryside 0:03:40.480 --> 0:03:44.600 is mostly uninhabited because the law required that all bob 0:03:44.680 --> 0:03:47.800 Udans lived in or near the islands one village, which 0:03:47.840 --> 0:03:53.560 is Quadrington, and there, according to twenty eleven census, there 0:03:53.600 --> 0:03:58.240 were roughly one thirty four people on the island. Of course, 0:03:58.280 --> 0:04:00.240 that has changed in recent times, and we'll get into 0:04:00.240 --> 0:04:07.520 that shortly. Barbuda is yet another example of a distinctive 0:04:07.560 --> 0:04:13.560 community emerging out of the colonial era that swept through 0:04:13.560 --> 0:04:18.280 the Caribbean. I've mentioned the Maroons before, the different marine 0:04:18.279 --> 0:04:20.960 communities that have existed on the different Caribbean islands and 0:04:21.360 --> 0:04:27.600 in Guyana and Surnam, but I think bob Uda and 0:04:27.880 --> 0:04:34.720 their story represents really the diversity of how colonialism manifested 0:04:35.400 --> 0:04:40.599 um in the region. Barbula's people have a sense of 0:04:40.640 --> 0:04:49.120 identity and attachment to locality that is I think very 0:04:49.160 --> 0:04:54.520 distinctive and very unique among people of the Caribbean. Not 0:04:54.600 --> 0:04:56.039 to say that the rest of us don't have a 0:04:56.080 --> 0:05:00.800 sense of identity or an attachment locality, but their story 0:05:02.400 --> 0:05:09.719 and the tradition reaches back over two centuries of near 0:05:09.800 --> 0:05:17.840 independence and quite significant levels of autonomy, which was unheard 0:05:17.880 --> 0:05:21.560 of in most of the Caribbean due to the legacy 0:05:21.600 --> 0:05:26.640 of slavery. Representing a very close knit and traditional community. 0:05:26.920 --> 0:05:30.960 Probably Runs approach to using and student the resources reflects 0:05:31.000 --> 0:05:35.360 that long legacy of isolation, of ecological constraint being on 0:05:35.400 --> 0:05:38.520 such a small island, of familial closeness having such a 0:05:38.520 --> 0:05:44.479 small population, and of social interdependence. Considering the series of 0:05:44.480 --> 0:05:47.000 administrators that they had dealt with and how each of 0:05:47.040 --> 0:05:51.960 those administrators neglected or ignored them. Bobby Runs, both whom 0:05:51.960 --> 0:05:54.799 and abroad, are still very much attached to their island 0:05:55.240 --> 0:06:03.039 because they have long held in common. So we'll be 0:06:03.080 --> 0:06:06.960 diving into a brief history of exactly how they reached 0:06:06.960 --> 0:06:12.080 this point, what institutions they've developed for common ownership and 0:06:12.200 --> 0:06:16.760 communal land use, and how emigration has played a role 0:06:16.839 --> 0:06:23.480 in that, and unfortunately, how the combination of Hurricane Irma 0:06:24.040 --> 0:06:30.640 and the doctrine and the shock doctrine have contributed to 0:06:30.839 --> 0:06:44.880 their current situation. So for more than two hundred years, 0:06:44.960 --> 0:06:48.960 from the late seventeenth century, Barbuda was leased by the 0:06:49.120 --> 0:06:53.719 crown to one family, the Cardringtons, hence the name of 0:06:53.760 --> 0:06:57.400 the village being Cardrington. The originally c was a guy 0:06:57.440 --> 0:06:59.920 named Christopher Cardrington. He was the governor of the Lead 0:07:00.000 --> 0:07:06.400 World Islands and his ears lived in England, so they 0:07:06.720 --> 0:07:12.720 pretty much neglected it after year died. Barbuda would have 0:07:12.800 --> 0:07:18.440 supplemented the lucrative sugar states that Cardrickton had an antigua 0:07:19.040 --> 0:07:23.520 with timber and ground provisions and fish and livestock and 0:07:23.600 --> 0:07:29.520 draft animals. Barbuda, being surrounded by coral reefs, often had 0:07:29.600 --> 0:07:32.560 ships wrecked near the island, and so they also salvage 0:07:32.600 --> 0:07:35.840 resources from lead ships and so as late as in 0:07:35.880 --> 0:07:39.880 the eighteen fifties, the Cardrington's were getting four thousand pounds 0:07:39.920 --> 0:07:42.880 a year from Barbuda and stock, and three hundred pounds 0:07:42.920 --> 0:07:46.840 a year from salvage in operations on the island. That's 0:07:46.880 --> 0:07:51.640 just over sixty three thousand pounds today per year, and 0:07:52.480 --> 0:07:54.760 it just demonstrates, of course, and even though they were 0:07:55.520 --> 0:08:02.240 more independent than bost other enslaved people US, the island 0:08:02.280 --> 0:08:07.920 wasn't as profitable. They were still being exploited. Initially the 0:08:07.960 --> 0:08:10.680 island was only worked by a few indentured whites, but 0:08:10.800 --> 0:08:14.880 then when enslaved people were brought in from Africa, the 0:08:14.920 --> 0:08:19.560 enslaved population began to rise, and they began to establish 0:08:19.600 --> 0:08:22.520 that sort of culture and community that we see to 0:08:22.560 --> 0:08:26.920 this day. Because they were neglected because the island was 0:08:27.560 --> 0:08:31.240 very little inhabited. They housed and they fed themselves through 0:08:31.280 --> 0:08:36.120 their own efforts and well basically spared of the rigors 0:08:36.200 --> 0:08:41.920 of the plantation regiment because of how unprofitable the island 0:08:42.080 --> 0:08:46.760 was because it's soils were so sandy and arid and unfertile. 0:08:48.760 --> 0:08:53.360 So between eighteen hundred and eighteen thirty two, being free 0:08:53.760 --> 0:08:57.760 in many respects, probably this population was able to rise 0:08:57.760 --> 0:09:01.600 from three hundred to five hundred and able to a 0:09:01.720 --> 0:09:07.360 cohesive creole community whose solidarity was able to thwart the 0:09:07.520 --> 0:09:13.080 efforts of local overseers and absentee proprietors to try to 0:09:13.120 --> 0:09:16.760 get them to labor on anti United States or to 0:09:17.840 --> 0:09:21.440 get them to be more quote and quote productive um 0:09:21.520 --> 0:09:28.160 for their overseers because they had such a several hundred 0:09:28.280 --> 0:09:33.960 strong community on that island that had established itself for generations. 0:09:33.960 --> 0:09:36.440 No overseer, no manager, could just pull up in there 0:09:36.480 --> 0:09:40.280 and just say try and cooce them into doing what 0:09:40.360 --> 0:09:43.040 he wanted them to do. This is installed contrast to 0:09:43.040 --> 0:09:44.880 a lot of the other Criban islands, where managers and 0:09:44.920 --> 0:09:47.960 overseers had a lot more presence and a lot more 0:09:48.000 --> 0:09:53.720 power to destroy families, to split up communities, to ferment divisions. 0:09:53.760 --> 0:09:57.080 Because the island just they basically neglected it, and in 0:09:57.160 --> 0:10:00.480 that neglect, they took advantage of that nicol of the 0:10:00.520 --> 0:10:03.920 material conditions that created that neglect to strengthen their community 0:10:03.920 --> 0:10:09.720 bonds and to strengthen their autonomy. As emancipation came around, 0:10:10.240 --> 0:10:16.520 car Drinton himself even was like, wow, good for them 0:10:16.520 --> 0:10:20.200 pretty much because almost all of them, who were, like 0:10:20.840 --> 0:10:24.839 to quote him directly, one united family so attached to 0:10:24.880 --> 0:10:28.240 bob Udell that force alone or extreme drought can alone 0:10:28.280 --> 0:10:31.920 take them from that island. In other words, as an exploit. 0:10:32.040 --> 0:10:36.440 As a displaced indigenous African people, they reforged the connection 0:10:36.480 --> 0:10:41.120 to the new land. They inhabited and rooted themselves in 0:10:41.160 --> 0:10:43.800 that land. The one, one particular tradition they have is 0:10:43.840 --> 0:10:47.120 the burial of ones in Biblical Code on the island itself, 0:10:47.240 --> 0:10:48.920 and so that has been going on for generations with 0:10:49.840 --> 0:10:52.199 a new child is born and the Embiblical code is 0:10:52.320 --> 0:10:55.520 buried on the island. And so even Mobudens move abroad, 0:10:55.600 --> 0:10:58.920 they still have that strong tie to the island itself. 0:11:00.840 --> 0:11:04.640 So after emancipation ruled around in eighteen thirty four, Bobby, 0:11:04.640 --> 0:11:07.640 their life didn't change that much. That the transition from 0:11:07.880 --> 0:11:12.560 slavery to being free was not as abrupt or as 0:11:12.640 --> 0:11:15.360 consequential as it was in other parts of the Cariban. 0:11:15.920 --> 0:11:19.360 They didn't become landowners, they didn't necessarily get any political 0:11:19.360 --> 0:11:23.360 power automatically because probably there was still being assigned to 0:11:23.440 --> 0:11:29.840 crown leases which had certain um agreements and contracts in 0:11:29.880 --> 0:11:33.840 place with the crown, that kind of thing. But they 0:11:34.080 --> 0:11:38.320 were I mean, they were still being exploited, but things 0:11:38.320 --> 0:11:41.040 were a bit easier for them to transition compared to 0:11:41.679 --> 0:11:46.079 other places. In eighteen thirty five, agreements had secured Bobby 0:11:46.120 --> 0:11:50.880 the unemployment on contracturn Empress enterprises at specific rates of pay, 0:11:51.440 --> 0:11:55.360 but after the contract had lapsed, it really really voted 0:11:55.400 --> 0:12:00.200 to a sort of relationship of coersion. They wouldn't pay um, 0:12:00.400 --> 0:12:04.440 they wouldn't pay them their wages. They would take quote 0:12:04.480 --> 0:12:07.880 and quote ricalcu and prob Udans and transport them to 0:12:07.920 --> 0:12:13.680 antigue and jails or plantations, and they would continue to 0:12:13.679 --> 0:12:16.480 just siphon off of the island. One of the only 0:12:16.559 --> 0:12:21.000 exports really on the island at the time was cattle, 0:12:23.120 --> 0:12:28.679 mostly for Cardrington's estates and Antigua cattle, sheep and firewood. 0:12:29.160 --> 0:12:33.880 And the people themselves were engaged in cultivating provisions yams, potatoes, 0:12:33.960 --> 0:12:39.000 corn and supplying their own farming history. They were including 0:12:39.440 --> 0:12:45.000 the necessities. So Abudans would continue with their different occupations, 0:12:45.000 --> 0:12:49.400 their hunting and they're fishing, their provision intending their cutting 0:12:49.440 --> 0:12:52.400 wood and put in charcoal and salvage and wrecks. Sometimes 0:12:52.400 --> 0:12:55.079 the would they would be employed by proprietors with governments, 0:12:55.120 --> 0:12:59.360 but most times they either disregarded these authorities or acted 0:12:59.400 --> 0:13:02.000 and opened the siance and so each ones the state 0:13:02.040 --> 0:13:06.839 would often complain about prob Uduans and their disregard for 0:13:07.920 --> 0:13:12.679 the crowns property and the estates property. They would often 0:13:12.720 --> 0:13:16.800 be accused of coaching Cortinon's cattle, and so they will. 0:13:17.240 --> 0:13:20.480 There was one attempt in particular to seize all their 0:13:20.520 --> 0:13:24.720 guns and send them off of the island. And so 0:13:24.760 --> 0:13:29.160 when the government did step in and condemned Bobby Duns 0:13:29.280 --> 0:13:34.079 for you know, taking cattle when they wanted to take cattle, 0:13:34.679 --> 0:13:39.800 Bobby Duns basically pull a reverse card and demanded redress 0:13:39.840 --> 0:13:45.439 against interference with their livelihoods. They basically were like, I'll 0:13:45.480 --> 0:13:49.640 quote one petition that was written by Bobby Duns in 0:13:49.679 --> 0:13:53.439 eighteen We are deprived of the use of our firearms, 0:13:53.440 --> 0:13:56.400 where by most of us live in shooting any large fish, 0:13:56.440 --> 0:13:59.320 tootle or wild birds. We are told to take out licenses. 0:13:59.400 --> 0:14:01.760 Yet if we have seen with a gun, not even shooting, 0:14:01.960 --> 0:14:06.480 we're taken before the Mages Street of Antigua and severely 0:14:06.520 --> 0:14:10.000 punished punished for it. Our little gardens are gone to waste, 0:14:10.080 --> 0:14:13.559 and if such as are still in a little cultivation, 0:14:13.720 --> 0:14:16.160 was to be injured by weather, and we, by sickness, 0:14:16.200 --> 0:14:19.000 are not able to have the fences repaired directly. It 0:14:19.040 --> 0:14:21.520 has taken and Brune say nour intention is willing to 0:14:21.560 --> 0:14:27.280 catch the wild beast sub Mr Cardington's. Eventually, I guess 0:14:27.320 --> 0:14:34.680 the Cardington's got tired of having to not profit as 0:14:34.720 --> 0:14:36.440 well as they could have, of having to deal with 0:14:36.440 --> 0:14:39.600 these independent people. Their relinquished on their least. In eighteen 0:14:39.640 --> 0:14:42.440 seventy they took all their horses and cattle off the island, 0:14:42.880 --> 0:14:45.880 leaving only the day and sheep because he currently round 0:14:45.920 --> 0:14:49.720 up day and sheep as effectively at that point, and 0:14:49.760 --> 0:14:53.320 they basically they left um. And I was find it 0:14:53.320 --> 0:14:56.640 interested when Europeans bring like a bunch of European animals 0:14:56.680 --> 0:14:58.760 wherever they go. It's like, let me just go and 0:14:58.800 --> 0:15:00.800 set up in a state here in a middle of 0:15:00.840 --> 0:15:03.400 no way and introduce a bunch of deer and sheep 0:15:03.480 --> 0:15:05.240 and rabbits and stuff. I mean, I think it happened 0:15:05.280 --> 0:15:07.320 in Australia as well. They just let a bunch of 0:15:07.400 --> 0:15:10.560 rabbitshes school loose just for hunting. It's like, oh, let 0:15:10.560 --> 0:15:17.480 me like get a hobby that's not shooting animals. But anyway, 0:15:20.160 --> 0:15:23.320 so because Bobby, they was seen as unprofitable. Each lea 0:15:23.440 --> 0:15:26.840 see that you know, got their least from the crown, 0:15:27.600 --> 0:15:29.600 got it its resources as much as they could and 0:15:29.640 --> 0:15:36.240 neglected its inhabitants. William and Robert Dougal of William and 0:15:36.320 --> 0:15:40.000 Robert Dougal's probably with the island company never invested the 0:15:40.040 --> 0:15:44.400 annual one point five or one hundred pounds required by 0:15:44.440 --> 0:15:47.600 their least only seven hundred pounds rather than they promised. 0:15:47.640 --> 0:15:51.080 Six thousand worth of stock were introduced with Bailey with 0:15:51.280 --> 0:15:55.360 barely a score. Pubulans employed as crazy as and even 0:15:55.400 --> 0:16:00.760 though they allegedly attempted to plant certain coffee cooler, cuckoo 0:16:01.080 --> 0:16:09.360 another fruits, they neglected that too, and eventually a derelict 0:16:09.440 --> 0:16:11.880 Bobido was forfeited to the crown for a non payment 0:16:11.920 --> 0:16:16.280 of friend. When a government official visited the island, we 0:16:16.400 --> 0:16:20.680 found the day were almost exterminated. The satin wooden log 0:16:20.720 --> 0:16:24.040 would be depleted, the cattle were famished, the fences would disrepair. 0:16:24.720 --> 0:16:28.040 They had four mens around up about horses, ate, a 0:16:28.120 --> 0:16:31.760 cattle and a bunch of cows, and the two products 0:16:31.760 --> 0:16:34.640 that existed on the island had long since become filthy 0:16:34.760 --> 0:16:37.680 and faiously overgrown not only with bush but dense tickets. 0:16:39.040 --> 0:16:43.080 Dr Dougal's gunners also apparently had a really bad sense 0:16:43.120 --> 0:16:46.600 of aim, because a lot of defences were just riddled 0:16:46.600 --> 0:16:50.160 with bullets, and so because the island and the people 0:16:50.160 --> 0:16:53.360 were starved and degraded by the dow calls UM, the 0:16:53.360 --> 0:17:00.440 Colonial Office had you know, revoked their lease and basically 0:17:00.440 --> 0:17:03.120 excused the few villages were taken some of the cattle 0:17:04.080 --> 0:17:11.320 for themselves. Babbulans had also protested the fact that whenever 0:17:11.359 --> 0:17:14.520 these leases would put up on their island, they would 0:17:14.560 --> 0:17:19.879 always be taking their stock, closing their provision grounds, trying 0:17:19.960 --> 0:17:25.920 to evict them basically doing everything they could be hostile 0:17:26.000 --> 0:17:28.760 towards people on the island, and so only their own 0:17:28.840 --> 0:17:34.040 traditional hunting and farming and and stuff enabled Baby Lands 0:17:34.080 --> 0:17:38.200 to survive. Of course, government being the government didn't really 0:17:38.200 --> 0:17:41.159 care about the people that much, so even though the 0:17:41.200 --> 0:17:45.600 lease holders were gone, didn't really get much out of 0:17:45.600 --> 0:17:50.879 it the people that is. So after determination lease, the 0:17:51.000 --> 0:17:56.159 Cluonial Government, the Leeward Islands Cluonial Government and Antigua basically 0:17:56.200 --> 0:17:59.879 took over the island and they established the government stock 0:18:00.000 --> 0:18:05.960 farm on some cotton plots in nineteen three UM. They 0:18:05.960 --> 0:18:09.159 gave some grants to pay for fencing and cutting wood 0:18:09.200 --> 0:18:13.240 and cotton experiments and cattle purchases and mule breeding, and 0:18:14.440 --> 0:18:17.040 the Bobby runs took the government gres and lands for 0:18:17.040 --> 0:18:23.240 their own purposes and basically enclosed a portion of that 0:18:23.359 --> 0:18:28.920 land and left it for the government stock and left 0:18:28.920 --> 0:18:31.040 the rest of the pasture, the richest parts of the 0:18:31.080 --> 0:18:35.280 pasture for their own horses and cattle and donkeys. So 0:18:35.359 --> 0:18:39.639 while the government had to deal with like this small 0:18:39.760 --> 0:18:46.800 portion of land with like some very weak, insufficient meadow, 0:18:47.720 --> 0:18:50.960 the rest of the community was able to flourish with 0:18:51.119 --> 0:18:55.359 a nice, rich pasture for their cattle. And still despite that, 0:18:55.480 --> 0:18:58.240 the stock farm, the government stock farm, still flourished with 0:18:58.280 --> 0:19:00.639 a hundred and sixty one horses, a hundred to eat cattle, 0:19:00.680 --> 0:19:07.240 and five mules. And then the cotton surprisingly also became 0:19:07.320 --> 0:19:12.119 profitable on the island um I called a crop that 0:19:12.200 --> 0:19:15.440 really didn't flourish. They are told during slavery, was now 0:19:15.520 --> 0:19:18.360 trying to pick up. In the beginning of the early century. 0:19:20.000 --> 0:19:22.960 We began shipping cotton note and employing a bunch of 0:19:23.000 --> 0:19:26.399 Bobby Dan's, and now Bobby there was being scheme is 0:19:26.440 --> 0:19:34.200 a super profitable place. However, because of that cotton boom, 0:19:34.400 --> 0:19:37.240 Bobby Dan's were able to buy passage overseas, they were 0:19:37.280 --> 0:19:41.440 able to raise the standard of living, and it ended 0:19:41.520 --> 0:19:49.399 up causing a labor shortage that led to conflict. After 0:19:49.440 --> 0:19:56.480 a shipwreck off the island. The island manager went to 0:19:56.560 --> 0:19:59.480 check out what was going on with the salvage, and 0:19:59.480 --> 0:20:03.639 and he caught a bunch of Bubu Dan's salvage in 0:20:05.840 --> 0:20:08.320 but salvage and for their own profits instead of his profits. 0:20:08.359 --> 0:20:12.000 And so, in retaliation, in retaliation for him trying to 0:20:12.080 --> 0:20:15.359 stop them from salvage and for themselves, the Bobby Duns 0:20:16.359 --> 0:20:21.800 burnt his boat and his wagon, and so in retaliation 0:20:21.840 --> 0:20:25.880 for that, the governor of Antigo started to impose these 0:20:25.880 --> 0:20:30.280 previously uninforced rents and cultivated plots, so like he wanted 0:20:30.320 --> 0:20:34.080 to charge like five shillings per equal per year, and 0:20:34.160 --> 0:20:41.119 he also doubled animal head taxes. And so by introducing 0:20:41.160 --> 0:20:44.960 these taxes, introducing these rents, the government's basically trying to 0:20:44.960 --> 0:20:48.959 get not just to punish the people for you know, 0:20:49.440 --> 0:20:51.920 daring to be free, but also trying to force them 0:20:51.960 --> 0:20:56.920 to work on their cotton plantation. Of course, Bob you don's, 0:20:57.680 --> 0:21:00.600 having lived so freely for so long, the want to 0:21:00.680 --> 0:21:07.199 work on these cotton plantations, especially not after slavery um. 0:21:07.240 --> 0:21:12.400 And so the people petitioned the crown against this kind 0:21:12.440 --> 0:21:16.520 of semi intentioned suitude that the governor was trying to introduce, 0:21:18.760 --> 0:21:23.439 and it seems that Mother Nature was on their side 0:21:24.240 --> 0:21:29.040 because they want their case. Due to drought, all the 0:21:29.040 --> 0:21:34.920 crops were basically ruined by drought, cutting on cotton profits, 0:21:35.160 --> 0:21:42.280 um cutting on cattle profits, cuttling on crops on corn profits. 0:21:42.480 --> 0:21:45.960 And all this happened in nineteen six and then in 0:21:47.840 --> 0:21:52.600 Barbado was hit by a hurricane more severe than they've 0:21:52.640 --> 0:21:58.560 ever seen before. And so that brief period where Barbarido 0:21:58.640 --> 0:22:03.280 was seen as striking google for the government came to 0:22:03.320 --> 0:22:06.600 an end, and Bob Dan's continued to cling on to 0:22:06.760 --> 0:22:11.679 their customary modes subsistence, of self reliance, of survival of 0:22:11.880 --> 0:22:15.320 their plots and their livestock and their fishing grounds, of 0:22:15.400 --> 0:22:18.760 continuing to be their own masters, because two d and 0:22:18.760 --> 0:22:22.239 fifty years of experience had taught them how unreliable and 0:22:22.320 --> 0:22:27.760 exploitative all these other alternatives that bosses non natives that 0:22:27.800 --> 0:22:33.919 the government was trying to introduce woo to them, and 0:22:33.960 --> 0:22:37.760 they learned that only ownership in common would guarantee their 0:22:37.800 --> 0:22:44.840 access and guarantee the protection of their island from environmental exploitation. 0:22:47.160 --> 0:22:51.199 As as we get to the interesting part, because they 0:22:51.200 --> 0:22:54.320 had already long thought to themselves as owners of the 0:22:54.359 --> 0:22:58.159 island as possessing the island for themselves, even though on 0:22:58.320 --> 0:23:02.199 people it wasn't the key, even though on people they 0:23:02.240 --> 0:23:06.320 were being handled between the Crown and the different lease holders, 0:23:06.320 --> 0:23:15.119 that the Crown would introduce Barbuda to Barbuda's being so small, 0:23:15.240 --> 0:23:21.359 being so homogeneous, having such meager soils, having such strong 0:23:21.400 --> 0:23:25.560 and type connections and bonds, they saw it as all 0:23:25.600 --> 0:23:35.200 of theirs collectively. It wasn't like and when I say 0:23:35.400 --> 0:23:37.320 strong connections, family bonds, I don't mean it in the 0:23:37.359 --> 0:23:44.000 sense that some of the other in lands in the Caribbean. 0:23:44.000 --> 0:23:45.959 And was sort of puzzled out because in the Caribbean 0:23:46.000 --> 0:23:49.399 there are lands that are held by certain families and 0:23:49.440 --> 0:23:52.920 it passes down the family and going on for generations. 0:23:53.000 --> 0:23:57.080 But it wasn't this idea that all these particular families 0:23:57.119 --> 0:24:00.480 owned the land. It was that all of them together 0:24:01.480 --> 0:24:12.240 wound the land serious real communal landownership. They'd use the 0:24:12.320 --> 0:24:19.240 land for generations, to raise ground provisions, to hunt there 0:24:19.240 --> 0:24:23.760 and wild pigs, to keep goats and sheep, to keep cattle, 0:24:23.880 --> 0:24:27.640 to cut firewood, to fish and so on. They had 0:24:27.640 --> 0:24:29.720 no documents and said that they had these collective rights 0:24:29.720 --> 0:24:33.320 in the island, and yet they all insisted with one voice, 0:24:33.640 --> 0:24:38.680 the Barbuda was theirs salon. No outsiders could tell them otherwise. 0:24:40.680 --> 0:24:45.920 And furthermore, they had proven again and again and again 0:24:47.119 --> 0:24:52.360 that outside proprietors were powerless in the face of their 0:24:52.400 --> 0:24:56.160 attempts to run the island for themselves, because they would 0:24:56.160 --> 0:25:00.119 continue to graze their cattle wherever they wanted to is 0:25:00.160 --> 0:25:02.639 the cattle. They'll continued to fish wherever they wanted to fish, 0:25:02.960 --> 0:25:07.080 salvage whatever they wanted to salvage, cultivate wherever they wanted 0:25:07.080 --> 0:25:13.080 to cultivate. Who's gonna stop them, You know, clearly nobody. 0:25:15.400 --> 0:25:18.280 They couldn't even get outside, It couldn't even get like 0:25:18.320 --> 0:25:24.840 a rent out of prob you done so. In nineteen twenty, 0:25:25.000 --> 0:25:28.960 Barbudans had gotten legal entitlement roughly half of the island, 0:25:30.520 --> 0:25:36.439 and by three they controlled futually all of its resources, 0:25:36.680 --> 0:25:45.719 basically the facto. Unfortunately, against their will. Honestly, Antigua and 0:25:45.760 --> 0:25:50.440 Barbuda were joined together by putting administrators, and so Antigua 0:25:50.440 --> 0:25:55.200 and Barbuda is the country that exist city. But one 0:25:55.240 --> 0:25:59.359 of the primary concerns of Brobudans were that they were able, 0:25:59.720 --> 0:26:04.560 were that they be able to maintain soul ownership, soul control, 0:26:04.680 --> 0:26:11.040 soul compunal control over the lands of Barbuda. Land ownership 0:26:11.800 --> 0:26:13.800 has been an issue that bobby udn't have had with 0:26:13.840 --> 0:26:17.080 Antigua for a very very long time now, for decades now, 0:26:17.760 --> 0:26:23.320 and really all bob Udan's want is to maintain their 0:26:24.040 --> 0:26:28.560 common ownership for themselves alone, and so they have maintained 0:26:28.600 --> 0:26:33.760 that through the Barbudaan Council defending the land and declaring 0:26:33.800 --> 0:26:37.040 that no land in Barbuda can be sold or developed 0:26:37.080 --> 0:26:52.160 without the permission of the Bubbudan Council, and so down. 0:26:52.200 --> 0:26:56.200 To explain basically how common land use boots in Barbuda, 0:26:57.600 --> 0:27:01.000 there are two distinctive and useful move of land use 0:27:01.320 --> 0:27:06.399 shifting cultivation for provision grounds and open range pastured for livestock. 0:27:07.400 --> 0:27:11.920 Because the soil is so weak, shifting cultivation is a necessity, 0:27:12.680 --> 0:27:16.240 and so after one or two years of planting exhausted soil, 0:27:16.720 --> 0:27:21.080 they move their fencing, they move their grounds of between 0:27:21.160 --> 0:27:25.560 half an acre to two or three acres, and plants 0:27:25.680 --> 0:27:33.119 they are sweet potatoes, yarms, me is beans, pigeon ps, squash, peanuts, etcetera. Elsewhere, 0:27:33.200 --> 0:27:38.199 So the old land could you know, regenerate, but this 0:27:39.080 --> 0:27:44.280 constant cultivation is something that occurs. The grants really no 0:27:44.400 --> 0:27:49.199 permanent rights any one individual. You do have use rights, 0:27:49.359 --> 0:27:53.880 it's the principle of use of fruct over the areare cultivating, 0:27:54.680 --> 0:28:00.040 but you don't have permanent ownership over that piece of 0:28:00.119 --> 0:28:04.159 land that you're cultivating. And they have that system in 0:28:04.200 --> 0:28:07.040 place because they recognize living on the island for the 0:28:07.119 --> 0:28:12.600 generations that bob ut As ecology is extremely fragile, extremely 0:28:12.640 --> 0:28:18.159 limited UM. Its resources are limited, and so they have 0:28:18.240 --> 0:28:26.080 to safeguard there um their sustenance for generations to come. Yeah, 0:28:26.080 --> 0:28:31.160 it's fascinating, Actually it's really I didn't know anything about that. Yeah, yeah, 0:28:31.200 --> 0:28:35.159 it really is. Similarly with them with the slash and 0:28:35.160 --> 0:28:38.720 boom cultivation, they also had the management of open range 0:28:38.800 --> 0:28:48.200 livestock being very much unrestricted. UM. They're actually feral cattle 0:28:48.960 --> 0:28:51.400 that exists on the island in addition to the more 0:28:51.440 --> 0:28:55.400 teamed and pen animals UM. And so how they basically 0:28:55.400 --> 0:28:58.000 they allow all the animals, you know, mixed and mingo 0:28:59.080 --> 0:29:04.520 of different families of different individuals would have their specific 0:29:04.520 --> 0:29:07.240 cattle or horses or sheep or whatever a marked or 0:29:07.320 --> 0:29:12.600 branded but for the most part they they've maintained this 0:29:12.680 --> 0:29:15.480 sort of open range husbandry because it helps to sustain 0:29:16.120 --> 0:29:21.040 their unity. It helps to maintain their strengthen their social 0:29:21.080 --> 0:29:27.080 bonds and their community solidarity, to basically ensure that everyone 0:29:27.120 --> 0:29:29.680 has taken care of in a place that is so 0:29:29.920 --> 0:29:38.680 scant resources. Lastly, through one of the ways that they 0:29:38.720 --> 0:29:42.640 maintain in the balance of the island is through it's 0:29:42.680 --> 0:29:47.400 through emigration. The population has basically stayed at that level 0:29:47.520 --> 0:29:52.360 because they've stayed within the limits of the resources they 0:29:52.400 --> 0:29:57.400 have on the island, and so young Baby don't have 0:29:57.440 --> 0:30:04.160 had to leave um the island um while still maintaining 0:30:04.240 --> 0:30:08.800 their communal use rights to the land. And then eventually 0:30:09.320 --> 0:30:14.600 they would make remittances of money or resources and periodic 0:30:14.680 --> 0:30:21.160 returns that would help to introduce you know, healthcare resources 0:30:21.200 --> 0:30:25.680 and housing resources and education resources to the island. Just 0:30:25.720 --> 0:30:28.960 another day, like completely isolated from the outside world, living 0:30:29.000 --> 0:30:31.360 in this sort of bubble. They do still have that 0:30:31.480 --> 0:30:35.480 exchange going on. Most of the immigrants live in three 0:30:35.560 --> 0:30:40.560 primary communities seeing John's Antigua of course, seeing as it's 0:30:40.880 --> 0:30:43.480 the neighbor um. A lot of them are in New 0:30:43.560 --> 0:30:45.520 York City. I mean a lot of Korean people in 0:30:45.560 --> 0:30:48.760 general in New York City, but Bob Dun's are in 0:30:48.800 --> 0:30:51.320 New York City, and all of them also live in 0:30:51.480 --> 0:30:56.800 Britain in Leicester as part of the West Indian exodus 0:30:56.960 --> 0:30:58.640 that took place all the way back in the late 0:30:58.680 --> 0:31:11.240 nineteen fifties. Yeah, so sort of wrap things up here. Um. 0:31:11.320 --> 0:31:15.160 Their communities and their solidarity have allowed them to cope 0:31:15.160 --> 0:31:20.080 with a harsh environment and to successfully navigate a succession 0:31:20.280 --> 0:31:28.440