Jacklyn Frank is a retired teacher and the former chair of the Barbuda Council. In 2018 she and John Mussington began a legal battle against the government of Antigua and Barbuda for the construction of an airport. Speaking on behalf of an outraged and shell-shocked community she said, “If we accept what’s being done, we don’t just lose the land, we could be removed as a people.”
The morning of September 6, 2017, Hurricane Irma made its first landfall on the 62 square mile island of Barbuda as the strongest hurricane in North Atlantic recorded history. Two days later, all 1,700 Barbudans were forced to evacuate to their sister island Antigua.
An estimated 90% of structures on the low-lying island were damaged. The estimated total cost of rebuilding was at $250 million. Living in a stadium turned disaster shelter, the survivors anxiously awaited permission to return and begin repairing their homes. Families were not able to return to their island for 4 months.
And yet, the construction of a private airport for wealthy U.S. investors began just days after the local people were evacuated.
Barbuda is historically unlike other Caribbean islands. In fact, it was one of the only ones that operated based on a communal landownership system. It had done so since the dissolution of the Codrington Plantation in 1834. All development decisions were made by the majority vote of the elected Barbuda Council. You could not ‘own’ land – it belonged to the locals. It was a novelty in that it was a Caribbean economy not latched onto the teat of tourism. They were extremely selective of foreign-based development. It was a subsistence economy, catching what they ate, creating what they needed. They protected their local environment and it sustained them.
Antigua and Barbuda are a two-island country operating as a constitutional monarchy within the UK commonwealth. Antigua, much larger and highly developed for tourism, long resented Barbuda’s lack of contribution to the GDP. Foreign investors had long sought property on the pristine pink sand beaches and mangrove forests of Barbuda. After the destruction from Hurricane Irma as well as the complete and prolonged evacuation of all its residents, Barbuda was a clean slate.
A year prior to the storm, the law which formally protected Barbudan communal landownership was dissolved by the Antiguan Prime Minister. Barbudans, standing stalwartly on their traditional culture, vehemently opposed any privatization or development of their lands. However, when 100% of the population is left temporarily homeless, they have little organizational capacity or ability to defend themselves.
In the following weeks, plans were laid for the development of 495 luxury residences, an 18-hole golf course, a beach club and a natural gas storage facility on more than 600 acres of protected wetland. All of which were being developed without the consent of the Barbuda Council and Barbudans.
Barbudans have been forced to purchase deeds for their properties. The Antiguan Prime Minister has referred to Barbudans as “squatters” on the land they have lived on and protected for generations.
What is happening in Barbuda is a prime case study of Naomi Klein’s concept of disaster capitalism. She defines disaster capitalism as “the systematic raiding of the public sphere in the aftermath of disaster. When people are too focused on the emergency, their daily concerns, to protect their interests.” It takes advantage of social disruptions and cataclysmic events to force mass privatization on unwilling communities. This economic overhaul often aims to protect and promote the investments of wealthier enterprises and disenfranchise locals. Financial assistance is offered for recovery and resilience so long as it is in the investors’ interests. The result is gentrification and a loss of culture, autonomy, and home for the citizens as their land develops around them but without them.
The airport was being constructed on the environmentally sensitive Codrington mangroves, an internationally registered wetland. Construction began in September, permitting applications were not submitted until November. The initial clearing of land was done without any environmental regulation or consideration. Construction on the airport began before life-sustaining infrastructure like the electrical grid, potable water, and the hospital were repaired.
The destruction of mangrove forests and pollution of the lagoons from sediments threaten the traditional subsistence livelihoods of Barbuda. Many Barbudans fear the erasure of their traditions and ability to persist on their island that is being sold out to foreign developers.
Similar examples of disaster capitalism run rampant throughout the Caribbean. A local advocacy group calculated that less than 1% of Jamaica’s beaches are readily accessible for local Jamaicans. The vast majority of beachfront property is restricted to foreign-owned luxury resorts. Immediately following Hurricane Maria in Puerto Rico, electricity production was privatized. Puerto Rican budgeting capacity was removed from the local government and put in the hands of a U.S. regulatory council prior to the storm, making it impossible for them to fund their own recovery.
Hurricane Irma hit St. Thomas, U.S. Virgin Islands hours after it had ravaged Barbuda. Local historian Gabrielle Querrard recalls, “shortly after the storm passed so many people were in such a state and needed money that they sold their homes for little to nothing. There were people from the states who were able to come in and just buy. There was no regard for the fact that they were destabilizing our community.”
More and more Caribbean land is owned by non-Caribbean people and re-purposed for tourism. As we fall into the trap of ecological and cultural degradation to promote destructive tourism, the islands of the Caribbean will no longer belong to the Caribbean people. They are displaced by rising costs of living, most of the profit going to the investors who never set foot on their shores. Opportunities for alternative and traditional livelihoods are overpowered by the demand for restaurant, resort and excursion employees. Local business is outcompeted by wealthy corporations. Development is done in favor of corporate progress rather than in the service of the people and sustainability.
Frank and Mussington’s legal case challenged this head on, with the goal of establishing legal precedent for the protection of local autonomy following disasters in the Caribbean. They argued that the Barbudan people had the legal right to a voice in decisions regarding development and uses of Barbudan land. They appealed their case all the way to the UK privy council. In February 2024, over 6 years after Hurricane Irma and the start of construction, Barbuda won the case. This ruling is expected to have reverberating consequences throughout the Caribbean on the efficacy and rights of Caribbean people in decisions regarding their resources.
Upon the final ruling of the airport construction in February, Frank said, “despite having won, we Barbudans recognize that the fight for our land is not over. We plan to continue to keep fighting in order to protect what is ours and preserve it all for our future generations, just as our ancestors have done for us.”