ACDA presses case for ancestral lands inquiry

Violet Jean-Baptiste

The African Cultural & Development Association (ACDA) yesterday reissued its call for an ancestral lands commission to address concerns surrounding the allocation of African Guyanese lands, as the third day of the Commission of Inquiry (CoI) into land ownership convened yesterday.

Executive Member of the organisation Violet Jean-Baptiste told the commission that in 2007 the organisation would have penned letters to then President Bharrat Jagdeo requesting that the Government set up a commission to address the issue of African ancestral lands.

According to Jean-Baptiste, while there would have also been paid advertisements in 2007 “making our case for an ancestral lands commission. Our pleadings fell on deaf ears,”