A Brief History of Land Dispossession in Namibia

This paper traces the chronology of land dispossession in Namibia. Land alienation by Europeans began in 1883. By 1893 practically the whole territory occupied by pastoralist communities had been acquired by eight concession companies. Unable to confront and subdue the powerful Ovambo kingdoms in the north, the German colonial administration established a Police Zone, where the process of dispossession was just about complete at the outbreak of war in 1914. Between 1915, the conquest of Namibia by Union troops, and 1919, when the mandate over Namibia was granted to South Africa, many black Namibians settled on vacant Crown Land and unoccupied farms. After 1919, the South African government embarked on an accelerated programme of settling mainly poor South African whites on dispossessed land in Namibia. With the implementation of the recommendations of the Odendaal Commission, appointed in 1962 by the South African government, Namibia’s distribution of land along racial lines was complete. During the 1980s, access to agricultural land was extended to black Namibians, but the concessions were made within the land ownership structure as recommended by the Odendaal Commission and benefitted only the big communal farmers. Ref.