Faced with the threat of eviction from land they have occupied for decades, the people of Bozine Town are dredging up every reserve of resolve they can muster. This, they say, will be a fight to the finish.
An effigy bearing the label ﾓLandcoﾒ has already been strung from a lamp-pole and ﾓWe shall not be movedﾒ has been adopted as an unofficial slogan of defiance. A nine-person steering committee has been elected and a strategy of stout resistance is in place.
ﾓIf they thought they were up against a bunch of smokeheads and neﾴer-do-wells, then they have a rude awakening coming,ﾒ said one furious home-owner.
What happens in the Battle of Bozine Town will, they say, probably determine the future for thousands of Bahamians, and establish once and for all whether the land on which people live is actually worth more than the pieces of paper they cite as their title documents.
Already, senior lawyers and others are offering comforting and supportive words to those who are saying unequivocally: ﾓWe are going nowhere! Repeat, nowhere!ﾒ
Efforts are now underway to raise funds to help the cause if the matter develops into a full-pitched court battle. At first, attorneys resisted any temptation to get involved in what one described as ﾓa legal quicksandﾒ but, as of last Thursday, lawyer Milton Evans had agreed to take the case.
When residents received letters from the Nassau law firm Lockhart and Munroe two weeks ago claiming ownership of the land on behalf of Landco – otherwise known as the Harrold Road Land Development Company – it was the first they had heard of a judgement handed down in the Supreme Court by Justice Ricardo Marques in January this year.
They claim they were never contacted, never consulted and never represented at any hearing which preceded the judgement. The ruling, they say, was ﾓa bolt out of the blueﾒ which has severely undermined, at least temporarily, their usually unruffled way of life.
But no sooner had it landed on their doorsteps than earnest discussions began among affected families. From those early murmurs and mutterings has arisen a howl of defiance which, residents say, will solidify into militant action if the issue is not resolved in their favour.
All indications are that they mean it. In fact, they say, they have no choice but to mean it. To think otherwise would lead to massive upheaval, a totally unacceptable dislocation of their lives, and forfeiture of everything worthwhile they own. Or payments to LANDCO which, they say, they simply canﾴt afford.
If the judgement were enforced, they claim, they would effectively be dispossessed of land which morally – and legally – belongs to them. And it would throw into question the ownership rights of many thousands more Bahamians throughout the land.
Landcoﾴs ownership claims, and the judgement on which the company is relying to extract payment, and by implication enforce possession in the event of default, are products of deeply unsatisfactory land laws in the Bahamas, the residents say. In New Providence and the Family Islands, vast acreages have lain dormant for decades because of uncertain title and the vagaries of property ownership. Now, they feel, it is time for people to stand their ground and resist attempts by others to grab land from beneath their feet.
A lawyer told INSIGHT that acreage in the Harrold Road area has been particularly difficult to develop in the past because of unresolved title issues.
ﾓItﾴs a mess, a terrible mess,ﾒ she said. ﾓBut when people ﾠhave been living there for 30 years or more with title deeds, itﾴs unlikely you could ever establish a realistic claim against them.ﾒ
The people of Bozine Town, who liken their community to a Family Island village, insist that their rights are well-established in line with all the requirements of existing legislation, and that Landcoﾴs move is doomed to failure.
Now they are mobilising forces on two fronts. Firstly, to have the judgement set aside with claims that it should never have been handed down in the first place. Secondly, to force the governmentﾴs intervention in an issue which, say residents, it has so far approached with ﾓdeafening silenceﾒ.
If they fail to gain satisfaction, it is hard to say exactly what will happen. But itﾴs unlikely to be pleasant, according to those who are now bracing themselves for battle.
Last week, Attorney General Alfred Sears stepped in to investigate after a 21-day reprieve had been granted by the land title certificate holders. But residents remain uneasy about the prospects of a peaceful solution.
One told INSIGHT: ﾓYou canﾴt acquire land on which people have been living for 40, 50 or 60 years and expect them to sit by and let it happen. It amounts to an attempt to dispossess people. The government could find itself in Hell Creek because of its silence on this issue.
ﾓThis is so serious that it could develop into a full-scale peopleﾴs movement because this is something that is happening to others in the Bahamas. People are having land sold from under them in an unjust way. Many people have expressed their support for us in Bozine Town. This matter will not go away.ﾒ
The 148-acre tract of land involved in the dispute is said to house hundreds of people, including many families who went through the process of registering title up to 40 years ago. An estimated 80 to 100 homes are affected, many housing pensioners and single parents with children.
The community is made up largely of fairly modest houses in the $100,000 to $150,000 bracket, but residents are said to range from solid middle-class citizens – including nurses, teachers and one or two lawyers – to ﾓfairly unsavoury typesﾒ with jail time behind them.
Thus, reaction to the judgement has varied widely from ﾓa sane and reasonable assessment of the optionsﾒ to reckless declarations of all-out war, with one or two ﾓmaladjusted typesﾒ advocating armed resistance.
Among those hit by the order is the Rev Hayden Dean, 75, who farmed his plot for many years from 1957 onwards. He acquired title deeds in 1967 and still lives in one of two houses the land, the other now occupied by his daughter, who raised a bank mortgage to buy her home.
Rev Dean has always enjoyed ﾓpeaceful possessionﾒ of the property, and recalls no hostility over ownership. ﾓNo-one has fought or cussed,ﾒ said a family member. ﾓWe feel, quite rightly, that itﾴs our place and weﾴre not moving.ﾒ
In fact, the Deans were one of the original families to settle in the area along with the Archers, Browns, Daniels, Burrows and Knowles. ﾓI am told,ﾒ said one resident, ﾓthat this matter of land ownership has been in and out of court since 1962 when the Archer family made certain claims.
ﾓBut no-one really knew about this. Certain pockets of land have apparently always been in dispute but meanwhile people were building and passing on land from one generation to another. However, there has never been any open tension or hostility there.ﾒ
In Rev Deanﾴs case, he ﾓwent through the court system and got his title deeds stamped and recorded,ﾒ according to family members.
ﾓMost people in Bozine Town have title deeds going back 30 years, so how can any court give judgement against them? This judgement seems repugnant to law,ﾒ said one.
Bozine Town, to its residents, is not a bush settlement, but a proper, cohesive community with its own small shops, boutique, buildersﾴ merchant, storage company and mechanics depot.
There is a real community feeling established over many years, they say, and to suggest breaking it up is unthinkable. ﾓItﾴs true we have one or two whoﾴve been outside the law, but it would be quite wrong to think this place is about dope addicts and low achievers,ﾒ said one householder.
Families affected by the order are worried and outraged but – according to steering committee chairman Adell Gay – absolutely solid in their resolve to fight. They see the situation emerging as the biggest embarrassment the government will ever have to face if it is not resolved to their satisfaction.
Ms Gay said: ﾓYou cannot pull the rug out from under a man and expect him to take it lying down. This is potentially a very explosive situation and it has implications for every home-owner in the Bahamas. ﾓIf the government is prepared to see its citizens thrown into the street, then the consequences will be very serious indeed.ﾒ Ms Gay has lived in Bozine Town for 13 years in a home on which her mother recorded title in the 1960s. She said the familyﾴs ownership of the property has never been challenged or disputed in any way.
So why has Bozine Town suddenly become the subject of such a judgement? And why were its residents never warned that such action was afoot? Speculation is now running rife in the community, but the most persistent theme is that the areaﾴs elevation, its sweeping vista, its balmy breezes and its complete immunity to flooding make it a speculatorﾴs dream. There is also, inevitably, the question of money, and the fact that a five-acre plot in nearby Knowles Garden sub-division off Harrold Road is currently on the market at $870,000. The community believes that plans are afoot to turn Bozine Town into a gated community for black professionals, with homes valued $450,000 upwards looking out over the island, with lake views on one side and distant sea views on the other.
By any standard, Bozine Town, properly developed, would make a highly desirable location for high-achieving home-owners, a kind of inland downscale Lyford Cay. For those facing possible eviction, this theory presents itself as the most obvious long-term objective for Landco, a company which – based on information received from the government registry – is something of a spectral entity.
Ms Gay said: ﾓWe have been told that this company was struck off the registry in 1978. We are trying to find out who is behind it, who the shareholders are. So far, we have been unsuccessful, though we have our suspicions.ﾒ
There is no listing for the firm in the telephone book under either its full or abbreviated name, and employees of Lockhart and Munroe were unable to name any of its principals or shareholders when The Tribune called.
Whoever or whatever Landco turns out to be, they or it can prepare themselves for a legal scrap of some duration.
Its warning letter has done nothing to intimidate Bozine Town, whose residents are now digging in for a long campaign in which reputations, egos and pocket-books will take a battering.
The residents suspect their adversaries have the deeper pockets ﾓbut we have the deeper resolve,ﾒ they say.
As they get ready for the fray, Bozine Towners intend to be guided by the great novelist William Faulknerﾴs famous dictum. ﾓWe shall not merely endure, we shall prevail,ﾒ is the considered consensus of this feisty community.
Insight, The Tribune
