What's with the land?
At the outset, allow us to state emphatically that we support any group, community or tribe of people that seek self-determination within a country and a place to call their own. We consider this a basic right of all and see it too, as essential for the dignity of all.
However, of late, the call for plots, land and resettlement farms, and more recently, the landmark case of the Hai//Om, a San group that can also be described as one of Namibia's first people, has brought some serious questions to the fore.
What happens if everyone who wants a plot, gets one? What happens if ancestral land is provided for and groups are successful in their claims? What happens if resettlement farms are given to the people that inhabit, historically, that area?
The concern is that those who are making these calls are marginalised. This is a given otherwise why make the call?
But what will they do with a plot or a farm or a stretch of ancestral land?
The Hai//Om, in as much as they come from Etosha, cannot ever go back to their nomadic way of life. An unemployed person who gets a plot, serviced or not, cannot pay for that plot and can, at most, afford to erect a shack. What does a dirt poor family do on a farm of say, 5000 hectares?
It is not the call for land; it is what will be done with the land after it is awarded.
Surely we cannot, every single time, turn to government, asking for infrastructure, clinics, farm schools, water points and cattle?
We cannot turn away from the rapid growth of shacks which pepper the outskirts of almost every town in this country.
Is this what we want for our people?
Or do we want our people to have a job, a home constructed of brick, a tax number and a fully paid-up account at their local municipality. Do we not want successful commercial farmers producing meat and grains for the food security of our people?
We need to make a plan to find out what we will do once we have that piece of earth that we are crying for, because with it comes financial responsibilities and hard work.
However, of late, the call for plots, land and resettlement farms, and more recently, the landmark case of the Hai//Om, a San group that can also be described as one of Namibia's first people, has brought some serious questions to the fore.
What happens if everyone who wants a plot, gets one? What happens if ancestral land is provided for and groups are successful in their claims? What happens if resettlement farms are given to the people that inhabit, historically, that area?
The concern is that those who are making these calls are marginalised. This is a given otherwise why make the call?
But what will they do with a plot or a farm or a stretch of ancestral land?
The Hai//Om, in as much as they come from Etosha, cannot ever go back to their nomadic way of life. An unemployed person who gets a plot, serviced or not, cannot pay for that plot and can, at most, afford to erect a shack. What does a dirt poor family do on a farm of say, 5000 hectares?
It is not the call for land; it is what will be done with the land after it is awarded.
Surely we cannot, every single time, turn to government, asking for infrastructure, clinics, farm schools, water points and cattle?
We cannot turn away from the rapid growth of shacks which pepper the outskirts of almost every town in this country.
Is this what we want for our people?
Or do we want our people to have a job, a home constructed of brick, a tax number and a fully paid-up account at their local municipality. Do we not want successful commercial farmers producing meat and grains for the food security of our people?
We need to make a plan to find out what we will do once we have that piece of earth that we are crying for, because with it comes financial responsibilities and hard work.
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Namibian Sun
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