The land question in the context of reparations

German expropriation of land, livestock and other goods at the beginning of Germany’s colonisation of what was then known as German South West Africa instantaneously established structural inequality. With immediate dispossession came immediate poverty on the side of the colonised, as well as immediate increased wealth on the side of the colonisers. This structural inequality continues to reassert itself in the modern state of Namibia, which remains one of the most unequal societies in the world.The vestiges of German and South African Afrikaner colonial legacies linger large in Namibian social and economic realms. Still today, white Namibians hold most commercial agricultural land. White compatriots remain at the economic apex, while those who were historically dispossessed remain landless, homeless and without assets. Generations of descendants of the dispossessed communities who were victims of the genocide have become street kids and farm labourers, living in abject poverty without hope of a different or decent livelihood.Upon attaining retirement age or when hit by a major disease, these people are dumped in urban or peri-urban centers of the country where they are reintroduced to a new level and scope of poverty, often living in corrugated iron shack dwellings in areas without sanitation. They experience personal and family insecurity, and lack retirement packages worthy of their many years of labour on white farms. This cycle repeats itself so often that some quarters of government and agricultural unions have accepted it as normal. Independence has not meant social justice.The advent of colonialism brought three types of land ownership: state ownership, private ownership and black ownership on the native reserves onto which they had been forcibly pushed. State-owned land and private land were the result of expropriation without compensation by the colonial government. Private land was the most distinguished and valuable in which the state invested. State-owned land was mainly used for touristic purposes as well as the exploitation of natural resources. Again, the land was used to accumulate wealth for the settlers. Today, state-owned land is still in the hands of the Namibian government and public authorities.We must ask ourselves the question: Is it just for a democratic government to continue benefitting from land acquired through unjust colonial expropriation without acknowledging past wrongs or giving any kind of reparations or royalties to the decedents and communities of those whose land was forcefully taken away during Namibia’s colonisation? Yes, we want reparations from the German government, but also from our own government here in Namibia, which is the successor state.*Paul Thomas is a member of the Nama Traditional Leaders Association&#039;s (NTLA) technical team.

The land question in the context of reparations

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Namibian Sun 2025-05-02

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The land question in the context of reparations

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Namibian Sun 2025-05-02

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