The Gathering Storm? Namibia and the Land Question

Abstract

An announcement by Prime Minister Theo-Ben Gurirab on 26 February 2004 that the Namibian government would begin to expropriate white fans triggered fears that Namibia may witness the kind of violence that accompanied Zimbabwe's fast-track approach to land reform in 2000. After years of relative quiet, land reform has re-emerged as a defining issue in Namibian politics. Despite more than a decade of independence and majority rule, nearly 200,000 black subsistence banners and tenant laborers remain mired in poverty. Now radical elements both within and outside the ruling South West African People's Organization (Swapo) are pointing to the continuing failure to redress the vastly disproportionate patterns of land ownership between black and white Namibians, and are pressuring the government to adopt Zimbabwean style 'fast-track' land reforms. This heightened government rhetoric has alarmed the country's 4,200 white commercial banners and, increasingly, international investors.