After the Cooper’s Pen Demolitions, a Christian Media Group Calls Landlessness a “Massively Unjust” Legacy of Slavery

• The Association of Christian Communicators and Media responded to the Cooper’s Pen demolitions
• It called landlessness a “massively unjust” result of the slave trade
• It proposed parish land committees with church and civil society members
• It urged the use of NHT funds for lease and rent-to-own arrangements

In August 2026, a demolition crew flattened 20 squatter houses in Cooper’s Pen, Trelawny, in an early-morning operation, the Gleaner reported. The demolitions set off protests and political argument. They also drew a response from the Association of Christian Communicators and Media (ACCM), which said the episode exposed a much older problem.

In a statement reported by the Jamaica Observer, the ACCM noted that newly emancipated people in 1838 were not given land or property rights. It said that injustice still affects a large part of the population. It called landlessness a “massively unjust” outcome of the transatlantic slave trade that “must be urgently and firmly addressed for the benefit of all concerned and the sake of good governance.”

The group did not argue against enforcing the law. It called for “established protocols” in court-ordered evictions of families, providing “safeguards against violation of human dignity while ensuring enforcement of the law.” It said the ministers responsible for justice and social security should set out those procedures.

It also made practical proposals. The ACCM suggested parish- or county-based land committees that include church and civil society representatives, partly to keep partisan politics out of land disputes. It proposed using National Housing Trust funds to buy properties that could be leased or sold on a rent-to-own basis, with beneficiaries paying back the cost over time. And it urged the Government to deal proactively with known illegal settlements while respecting private property rights.

The statement puts a faith voice behind ideas that are usually debated as technical housing policy. Tying NHT money to rent-to-own for the landless would change who the Trust serves. Giving churches a formal seat on land committees would draw on the Church’s long history in Jamaica’s free villages. For returnees and diaspora landowners, the Cooper’s Pen case is also a reminder that land left unused and unmonitored can become someone else’s home. When that happens, both sides can end up losing.

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