The Aborigines of British Guiana and their Land. 
417 
The Aborigines of British Guiana and their Land. 
By the Reverend James Williams. 
These Aborigines, by British and Colonial Law, own no land. From 
time immemorial they and their forefathers have occupied land in the country 
which since 1831 has been called the Colony of British Guiana. They, of 
course, derive their sustenance from the land they occupy, yet any legal title 
to ownership of it has been and is still withheld from them. Colonial law 
allows land occupied by them to be alienated from them, and by an Ordinance, 
No. 28 of 1910, they may even be removed, like cattle, from one area to 
another 1 . 
This is a state of things abhorrent to all right-minded people. Indeed, 
one may affirm that if it were known to the British Public, many voices would 
be raised to demand that justice be done to people unable to make their own 
appeal. At one time the European conscience was undisturbed at the practice 
of slavery and the slave trade; it needed the persevering effoits of a few 
earnest opponents to bring about a change of attitude. It is contended that a 
similar change is needed so that European Governments, especially oui own, 
may be brought to recognize the justice of securing to Aboiigines a legal 
title to o w n the land they occupy. 
British Guiana is a Crown Colony with a Legislative Council which 
includes fourteen elected members; but the Aborigines of the Colony have no 
political status; they have no vote; nor indeed any voice at all in the Govern 
ment of the Colony. They are never in any way consulted, yet aie subject to 
Ordinances and Regulations, the outcome of the ideas, prejudices, and pre 
possessions of other races who doubtless take for granted that thus sub 
stantial justice is done. 
British Guiana’s Aborigines prefer to dwell apait from other laces, and 
so choose especially the more remote regions of the Colony. The gi eater part 
of the Colony’s population (310.933 in 1931) is spread along the Coast lands 
and the banks of the lower reaches of the principal rivers, thus the Aboriginal 
and immigrant sections of the population live very much apait, with the 
consequence that the former is almost entirely foi gotten and scarcely enteis 
at all into the ordinary daily life of British Guiana. ‘ Thus the hue American 
has completely vanished for all practical purposes from the life and thought 
1 Ordinance No. 28 of 1910. An Ordinance to provide for the better Protection 
of the Aboriginal Indians of the Colony. 280' December 1910. F. M. Hodgson, Governor.