EDITORIAL: The African meaning of land

One of the insensitive narratives used to discredit land ownership by black people is how unproductive or underused such land would be, if accessed.Such reasoning is either being advanced to deliberately mislead people or there is deep misunderstanding about the meaning of owning land in the African context.Land is often discussed in economic and food security terms, which is grossly wrong. Last weekend 23 shacks, which are crowded very close together as if they were sardines in a tin, burned down in Walvis Bay. A child died in that inferno.That dozens of shacks can burn down in that fashion is neither an economic nor is it a food security issue. This is a pure social issue related to lack of housing.When President Geingob says on Al Jazeera that land cannot necessarily resolve poverty, it’s because he thinks of land in commodity terms only. It is this Eurocentric posture and attitude that thrusted us in the land crisis we face today.In Africa, land ownership has a contextually different meaning. It’s not just about growing maize and milking Brahman cows for a profit at a local market.While it cannot be disputed that a dollar in the pocket is the primacy of survival today, confining the meaning of land to this issue is a misplaced judgement of both history and humanity.

EDITORIAL: The African meaning of land

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Namibian Sun 2025-07-02

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EDITORIAL: The African meaning of land

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Namibian Sun 2025-07-02

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