The Tribune

By EARYEL BOWLEG

Tribune Staff Reporter

ebowleg@tribunemedia.net

THIRTY-FIVE Bozine Town residents received deeds to their properties yesterday, ending decades of uncertainty for families who had long feared they could lose the land on which they built their homes.

For some, the milestone came too late for parents, spouses and other relatives who spent years fighting to establish ownership before they died.

Successive administrations had sought to resolve the dispute, which intensified after a 2004 court ruling cast doubt over residents’ ownership of the land beneath their homes.

Among those receiving a deed yesterday was 76-year-old Ellen Daniels, who struggled to believe the document she had waited years for was finally in her hands.

“Just trying to digest it,” Ms Daniels said. “You got it in your hand but you’re trying to say to yourself, ‘Is it really happening? Is it true?’ Because you know it’s here, but you’re still asking yourself these questions.”

For Ms Daniels, the deed represented not only ownership, but the culmination of a fight waged by relatives who did not live to see it resolved.

“I’m just so excited because you always wonder if it’s going to really happen because you know there’s so many disappointments,” she said.

Her husband was among those who died before yesterday’s ceremony.

“I’m also excited, and especially for the children, because you know my husband didn’t live to see this day,” Ms Daniels said. “You know, they fought hard.”

In 2004, a certificate of title arising from court proceedings placed ownership of the land beneath residents’ homes in doubt.

At the time, it was reported that Harold Road Land Development Company (LANDCO) claimed ownership and ordered residents to leave their homes within two weeks or face legal action.

Families who had lived in the area for decades and believed their conveyances secured their ownership suddenly faced the prospect that someone else could claim land they had spent much of their lives developing.

Ms Daniels estimated that about 75 percent of the original residents eventually left the area following the 2004 judgment.

Those who remained organised, protested and raised money to hire lawyers. Families contributed what they could towards legal fees and sometimes held fundraisers to sustain the fight.

Ms Daniels said she learnt in June or July that she would finally receive a deed.

“You know you never know they’re gonna take it from you,” she said. “That’s why I guess some persons kept a low profile.”

She said residents maintained the properties despite the uncertainty but could not fully exercise ownership rights.

“Now that we have the papers we are free to move forward,” she said.

Housing Minister Keith Bell said the Christie administration intervened in 2005 and assured residents they would not be displaced.

In March 2012, under the Ingraham administration, an arrangement was made to exchange 34 acres in Bozine Town for Crown Land in Abaco, with the intention that the Bozine Town property would ultimately be conveyed to residents.

The Minnis administration subsequently continued efforts to resolve the matter.

Earlier this year, Mr Bell gave notice of a resolution in Parliament seeking approval to acquire land titles for Bozine Town.

“We cannot talk seriously about home ownership without dealing with ownership of the land beneath the home,” Mr Bell said yesterday. “We cannot talk about generational wealth if one generation cannot securely pass property to the next.”

He described Bozine Town as an early example of the Davis administration’s land reform efforts.

For another family, yesterday’s ceremony fulfilled a dream a father fought for but did not live to see completed.

Adline Burrows, 89, received her deed decades after her husband built the family home while she was living in Cat Island.

Her daughter, Adline Burrows-Mott, 54, recalled the uncertainty created by the 2004 judgment over the home in which she grew up. She moved out about ten years ago.

“It was very frustrating, very frustrating in that time,” Mrs Burrows-Mott said. “My dad, everybody was fighting, trying to get the property together and all of that and stuff. But thank God we got it through today.”

She also remembered an earlier Bozine Town, before basic infrastructure reached the community, when residents had to carry water uphill.

For Eleanor Patricia Archerdean, 62, the fight was one she inherited from her parents.

She has lived in her family home for more than 55 years and grew up watching her parents pursue the land dispute.

“When they pass on and my parents always leave will to me,” she said, “so I was able to, you know, get in the fight and continue to push for getting this done.”

Prime Minister Philip “Brave” Davis said Bozine Town’s experience illustrated why land reform was important and told residents their years of uncertainty were finally giving way to security.

“For years, you’ve lived with uncertainty over land that has been your home,” Mr Davis said. “You built your houses here, you built relationships here, and you raised your families here, and you watched generations grow up here.”

He said yesterday marked another step towards giving residents formal title to land they had occupied for years.

“As you would have heard, successive governments were tackling this problem,” he said, “and today we have conquered those problems.”

Garden Hills MP Mario Bowleg said the ceremony should also honour residents who spent years fighting for ownership but died before deeds were issued.

“We remember them today with great respect and gratitude,” Mr Bowleg said. “Their hopes, sacrifices, dreams were a part of the journey that brought us here today.”

“Today,” he said, “that long-awaited day has arrived.”