What kind of land reform programme takes land away from the San, the oldest known living inhabitants, after it has been declared a conservancy area in order to redistribute bits of it as small farms of questionable commercial viability?
After many years of painstakingly gathering 1 800 signatures among the local !Kung people in Western Bushmanland, a communal area set aside for settling the San people in the 1960s, the !Kung appeared to have established their rights to land use in the area when the N#a Jaqna conservancy was recognised by the Namibian ministry of environment and tourism in July 2003.
Modelled on the nearby Nyae-Nyae conservancy, the N#a Jaqna conservancy recently received a major boost when the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) started financing the relocation of game back into the area, which covers about 10 000 km2.
But other political developments are now suddenly threatening to undo whatever gains have been made. The ministry of lands and resettlement (MLR) recently unveiled plans to resettle small-scale farmers in the N#a Jaqna conservancy area. The !Kung fear that this will displace them from their own land, spoil waterholes and turn them into serfs at the service of the more politically powerful Herero, Kavango and Owambo farmers.
The MLR’s plan is financed by the German government’s Kreditanstallt fuer Wiederaufbau (KfW) to the tune of some R39-million. Some of this money will be used to develop a number of 500-hectare farms in the Western Bushman land area.
One of the academics involved in the environmental impact study of the farm project, who asked not to be named, said the KfW report had recommended small-scale farming but warned that too small tracts could lead to severe land degradation in the semi-arid area.
“There is also a big problem with ‘gifblaar’ [a poisonous bush that is deadly to cattle] in the area … it can work if cattle can be moved over large areas, but if you confine it to small farms, you are going to have serious problems,” he said.
But it is the questionable actions of Lands Minister Jerry Ekandjo that are raising the most serious concerns over the San’s land use rights. With all power over land reform issues essentially resting in his hands, an even-handed approach to the San’s land rights would be critical. But his recent utterances — which include threats that the affected community was somehow being disloyal to the country — appear to be setting the scene for a unilateral and politically motivated land-grab.
The motives can be traced back to a smouldering land problem north of Bushmanland, and the South West African People’s Organisation government’s inability to enforce the law on its own supporters. Under President Sam Nujoma’s government, the MLR had negotiated temporary grazing rights for Oshiwambo-speaking farmers in the communal farming area belonging to the Kavango people, because they had been pushed off their own communal lands by rich and well-connected people who were illegally fencing off the largest and choicest tracts of land.
This was supposed to be a temporary arrangement but, after the Owambo farmers showed no signs of leaving, tribal clashes started erupting between the Kavango and the Owambo. Cattle herders were driven off at gunpoint, cattle were seized, and the government suddenly faced a problem that was entirely of its own making.
Meanwhile, land-hungry Herero and Owambo farmers have also started moving their cattle into the thinly populated western Bushmanland area, creating conflicts with the local community over access to scarce water resources.
Several media reports detail these newcomers’ apparent disregard for their !Kung neighbours: when cattle disappear, the San often get blamed and mercilessly beaten. Charges are laid, but dockets disappear and witnesses are allegedly intimidated.
The local traditional leader, Chief John Arnold, appears unable or unwilling to intervene on behalf of his subjects and there are suggestions that he is actually in cahoots with the new arrivals. As the only recognised San traditional leader, and receiving a salary from the government, Arnold is accused of being more intent on pleasing his political masters than standing up for his people’s rights.
The !Kung and their neighbouring Ju/’hoansi cousins accuse Arnold, who is half-San, half-Herero, of selling them out, but he says that he is powerless in the face of a distant and powerful government in Windhoek.
His detractors say they have tried to dismiss him for years, but his political affiliation to the ruling party appears to be the Superglue that keeps his well-padded bottom stuck to the seat.