Many indigenous peoples, in various places on the planet, have created a model of community ownership, in which everyone can enjoy what nature has to offer. But the West has imposed its vision, also erasing the few common lands in Europe
Nell’West AfricaThe ashanti they argue that the earth “belongs to a vast family of which many are dead, few are alive, and an innumerable host is not yet born.” In practice, it is the shared property of a community, which also includes past and future generations. This way of reasoning, which may seem bizarre to us Westerners, has actually been common to many human civilizations, which flourished in different times and places on our planet. Dividing the land into “privately owned” parcels, as the white man has done wherever he has set foot, is not the only possible model. It’s just the prevailing one, and it’s not necessarily the best.
British writer and journalist Simon Winchester in essay Earth. From common good to private property, from place of dominion to space for struggle, just published by Mimesis, investigated customs and reconstructed stories, misdeeds and follies related to land ownership all over the globe. He concludes his journey around the planet by warning us: the earth, the safest asset of all, may no longer be such. The 37 billion acres of emerged land (equivalent to about 15 billion hectares) are in part at risk of being devoured by the sea, due to climate change which is raising the level of the oceans.
It’s good to read Winchester’s book, because it refreshes our memory of the many crimes committed by Europeans, in the name of an alleged civilizing mission. The most striking example is the conquest of Nord America. It was not an “empty” territory to conquer. Twenty million and more indigenous peoples lived there for thousands of years, organized groups and tribes who practiced agriculture. A Wampanoag chief, who saved the Pilgrim Fathers who landed in America from starvation, said: “The earth is our mother, she feeds all her children, the beasts, birds, fish and every man. The woods, the streams, everything upon it belongs to all and is for the use of all. How can a man say that it belongs only to him?”. He and his community were perplexed by these strangers who landed planting flags and claiming possession of their lands in the name of an elusive – for them – English monarch. To assert their right, the settlers and their supporters in Europe racked their brains inventing that a common land, never subject, with no ownership documents, was free for anyone who wanted to own and improve it. And John Locke, a British philosopher, would have increased the dose by saying that this was a Christian duty, enshrined in the book of Genesis.
In the following centuries, the now American English colonists did everything to get rid of the more than 500 native tribes. The only one who tried to stop the invasion was King George III of England, who proclaimed to his transatlantic subjects to leave the territory west of the Appalachian mountains to the Indians. Obviously the independence of the colony from England made waste paper of this request. By the millions, natives were herded into reservations, slaughtered, subjected to forced marches. Even exterminated by the method of blankets soaked in smallpox bacilli. Cattle ranchers, gold prospectors, adventurers took over indigenous lands, drew up property deeds, created a system whereby natives did not enjoy the same rights as whites. Ironically, they were not even entitled to US citizenship, they were the first, true Americans. In 1924 alone, the 300,000 surviving Indians became US citizens.
Another compelling chapter in the relationship between Western imperialism, lust for land and indigenous peoples concerns the New Zeland. This time we are in the mid-nineteenth century and the British are trying to cheat the Maori, the original inhabitants of the island and advocates of shared ownership of the land by the community. An unclear treaty, signed in 1840 by means bordering on deception, leads to decades of vicious warfare. The Maoris have the worst, until in the 1970s an elderly Maori widow leads a protest movement destined to change things. The Polynesian language acquires a new dignity, indigenous toponyms are once again used on maps and above all various judges condemn the mistakes of the past, recognizing reparations to the Maori for the rights to fish and use the forests. No one is perfect, but today’s New Zealand is a virtuous example of building a more inclusive relationship with Indigenous descendants.
In the post-colonial arena, Britain has made some attempts to restore balance after exploiting the lands of the former empire to its advantage. However, the damage is not easily repaired. When a social system that worked to expropriate land and give it to white settlers is undermined, it is not always easy to go back. An example that Winchester cites is that of Zimbabwe. London has created a fund to compensate white farmers settled in the country and redistribute land to landless farmers. «In 2000 – writes the journalist – about 40 percent of white lands had been transferred into black hands. Only it didn’t end up in the hands of landless farmers but, in too many cases, in those of President Robert Mugabe’s political cronies.
E in Europa? If the Dutch were the most virtuous in assigning the new lands reclaimed from the sea to all their citizens and fairly, the book Terra it also collects less uplifting stories. In medieval England, where the concept of land ownership already existed, each family was assigned lots to cultivate in order to survive, plus access to common lands where animals could graze, to avoid eating what was grown in the fields . Then this good habit, favorable to the less well-off, was lost and land fencing and the end of common lands appeared. The ensuing impoverishment helped to drive the peasants away from the countryside, who moved into urban areas, becoming arms to be exploited cheaply during the Industrial Revolution.
The 21st century promises nothing better, if one considers the growing inequalities. The twenty richest landowners of the United States they own over half a million acres (over 200,000 hectares) each. But there are also some examples that give us hope, inspired by an idea of sharing: i community land trustmainly present in England and the USA, have often recovered damaged land, improving the environment and creating housing solutions within the reach of all budgets.