Flooding exposes legacy of land dispossession – Ithete

Calls for immediate revision of willing buyer-willing seller policy

Deputy prime minister Natangwe Ithete has attributed northern Namibian communities’ vulnerability to seasonal flooding to colonial-era land dispossession and displacement.

Speaking at Oshakati on Saturday, Ithete said the historical forced movement of indigenous people into flood-prone areas, such as the oshanas (seasonal floodplains), was a direct result of land occupation by colonial powers.

“One of the reasons our people are experiencing flooding is rooted in our history. “Those who came and took our land during the era of Jan van Riebeeck and so on pushed us into oshanas, where our people now share land with water,” he said.

Ithete added that colonial displacement also forced communities such as the Herero and Setswana-speaking people into arid regions bordering the Kalahari Desert, while large portions of fertile land remain in the hands of a minority.

“As part of a lasting solution, we need to revisit the policy of ‘willing buyer, willing seller’. We must reconcile as Namibians, black and white, to enable proper resettlement and correct the historical imbalance,” he said.

He criticised the current land reform process, saying the government faces challenges in acquiring land for redistribution due to reluctance from current landowners to sell.

“The state wants to buy land to resettle people, but where must the state get the land from? The process is very, very slow because those who occupy the land are not willing to sell,” he said.

Ithete emphasised the urgency of addressing overcrowding in the northern regions to prevent people from continuing to live in seasonal floodplains.

He further argued that any policy that does not benefit the majority of Namibians must be revised, saying the country’s resources – including land – should benefit all citizens, regardless of race.

“Let’s share. If you consider yourself a true Namibian, share with your brothers and sisters. Only then will we see true reconciliation. Reconciliation can never be one-way traffic,” he said.

In a recent interview with Al Jazeera, president Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah said the government plans to put at least 130 000 hectares of land into productive use over the next five years. This will be guided by the long-awaited land bill currently making its way through the Parliament.

Last week, The Namibian reported that the Kunene, Omusati, Oshana, Ohangwena and Zambezi regions are reeling from severe flooding that has disrupted education and food distribution.

Over 8 500 pupils have been unable to attend school, while submerged roads, flooded mahangu fields and waterlogged villages have hampered aid efforts.

In the Zambezi region, pupils in floodplain areas risk encounters with crocodiles, snakes and hippos as they travel to school using traditional canoes and old banana boats.

Teachers and other staff face the same daily hazards, with the Kabbe South and Kabbe North constituencies being the hardest hit.

Political analyst Ndumba Kamwanyah said over the weekend that while colonial land dispossession is part of Namibia’s history, blaming current flooding vulnerability solely on colonialism while overlooking the threat of climate change is misleading and dangerous.

“There are more immediate issues like poor planning, lack of investment in infrastructure, weak disaster preparedness from our government, lack of leadership and insufficient understanding of policy issues. “These are policy failures, not just historical legacies,” Kamwanyah said.

Political analyst Henning Melber says Ithete displays a degree of historical ignorance.

“While a fundamental structural colonial legacy and distortion clearly remains when it comes to land distribution in Namibia today, it is not effective in the northern regions.

“Those living in the north were not moved by colonialism to where they settled and stayed. The northern communities have been settled on the land there for centuries,” he says.

Melber says oshanas existed then, just as they do now, and one cannot blame colonialism for the Cuvelai system.
“One can blame the effects of climate change for worse flooding in the Cuvelai system, but not colonialism,” he says.