Contested terrain: Tobago 1650-1995

By Dr Rita Pemberton

Across the 17th-20th centuries, the history of Tobago revolved around contests for control of the island, and of its land resources in particular.

There were several contenders for the Tobago space, each with its own plan, which invariably required total removal of the rivals and vestiges of their presence which could not be integrated into or repurposed for the victors’ plan. There were several heated contests, in which the competition was characterised by short-lived victories.

As a result, the island endured an extended adjustment and readjustment as the new owners, buoyed by the optimism that came with victory, sought full possession.

The first phase of contests occurred between the First Peoples and the Europeans, whose intelligence information was that the island was unoccupied except for a few First People and European whalers. To the European mind, the few Indigenous People could be easily dismissed, so the general belief was that Tobago was unoccupied and available for occupation and settlement. However, the island’s First People, with assistance from their kith and kin from St Vincent, Dominica, Martinique, Grenada and the mainland, put up an unwavering resistance to defend their land from the invading Europeans.

In the face of this fierce resistance, the Europeans devised various strategies to win the favour of the First People and outmanoeuvre their rivals. These included negotiations with the leaders of the First Peoples, trading arrangements and agreements to assist in the contests with their European competitors.

However, as it became clear that the Europeans intended to take possession of their space, First Peoples’ resistance became more determined and they managed to preserve it from permanent European settlement for over a century. In some instance, settlement attempts were foiled from the very start; in others they were short-lived.

Despite their efforts, the First People population was decimated by European guile and superior weapons, which made way for the second phase of contestation, European versus European. The island experienced rotating periods of varying lengths of Dutch, English, French and Courland occupation, including the British occupation in 1763, a French interregnum between 1781 and 1793, and two French assaults at the beginning of the 19th century, until the island became a British possession. This phase was marked by raging battles on land and sea, surprise attacks and destruction of settlements.

The next spate of contests occurred between the imperial government and the colonial assembly put in place to support British imperial policy. Instead, the interests of the two bodies diverged, which resulted in power clashes as the assembly challenged imperial authority and asserted its rights to make decisions despite imperial opposition. The recalcitrant assembly, which maintained it did not answer to the British Parliament, used every opportunity to embarrass its imperial superiors, but ultimately it lost. The assembly was stripped of its power by the introduction of crown colony government and by union with Trinidad.

The third phase of contests overlapped with the second, because it was related to planter relationship with the enslaved Africans. In their quest for freedom the Africans launched a spate of attacks and other forms of resistance on planters and plantations which terrified the planting community into using its lawmaking power as a weapon and intensified its brutal punishments as deterrents. This contest intensified after Emancipation, when the freed Africans were engaged in a long battle with the ruling plantation owners, who sought to deprive them of a share in the island’s land resources. The planters ultimately lost this battle because of the demise of the sugar industry. The poor state of the island’s finances assisted the freed Africans’ cause and by the beginning of the 20th century there was a class of black landowners.

Sixty years later the land issue became the focus of attention, when the island’s tourism potential was being developed. During the 1960s several Americans purchased properties around the Mt Irvine Golf Course which were used to establish guesthouses. This was the start of a fourth contest, this time between foreigners and locals, for Tobago’s land, which sounded alarm bells. Land prices began to rise and it was feared locals would be outpriced. In response, Prime Minister Eric Williams passed the 1969 Aliens (Landholding) Act. However, that act was repealed in 1990 and replaced by the Foreign Investment Act, which applied only to foreign investors and left a loophole through which they could buy up as much land as they desired on the island.

The situation worsened during the 1990s, when the tourism thrust brought an intensified scramble for land. The alarm bells rang longer and louder when it was realized that foreigners, mainly Germans, had come to own about 60per cent of the land in Parlatuvier. The villagers became aware that land they had long used as communal pastures had been sold by the overnight appearance of NO TETHERING OF ANIMALs signs.

Of particular concern were the nature and location of these foreign-owned, properties, which skirted the beach, restricting access for fishermen and other users. A group of Germans established the Blue Mango commune in Castara, where they operated guest houses. Between September 1990 and September 1995, 149 foreigners acquired properties in Tobago without a licence, 126 acquired residential lands and 19 for business and trade. The law allowed automatic approval of the purchase of lands less than an acre, or, in the case of land for business, less than five acres. The foreign owners were: Germans 31 per cent, British and North Americans 26 per cent each, and Italians and Swiss four per cent each. Approvals increased from 20 in 1990-91 to 49 in 1994, and the preferred areas were St Patrick, St Andrew and St John.

While the European presence signalled the growth of the tourism sector, with an increase in restaurants and hotel/guesthouse accommodation and dive shops, its benefits went primarily back to Germany, from where prepaid accommodation and tours were organised.

Foreign interest in Tobago’s land caused a sharp rise in land prices which were never significantly reduced. Most properties were sold for US dollars, which enticed some locals to sell out their inheritance.

As a result, the northern areas, especially Parlatuvier, primarily a community of black landowners at the start of the 20th century, became a haven for Europeans, especially Germans, and some descendants of the old black landowning families became landless. The efforts of freed Africans to own land were sacrificed at the altar of the American dollar. While its financial deficit contributed to the demise of the Tobago House of Assembly, Tobagonians lost the contest for land because of the impact of the inflow of US dollars on the land market.