Generational Farmworkers, Land and Unam’s Neudamm Campus

ISAK KAHOLONGO KAHOLONGOCHALLENGES related to misunderstandings over housing and land between Unam’s Neudamm campus management and generational farm-workers, which made headlines recently, are not new.

Its cause and effect lie in the large-scale land dispossession of the indigenous inhabitants by successive colonial regimes.

The Neudamm and Ogongo campuses are the University of Namibia’s (Unam) two farms. They provide the important outdoor training and research infrastructure needed to provide hands-on practical training and research. In both cases, Unam inherited unresolved land questions.

Before its transfer to Unam in 2008, the Ogongo campus was compelled to give away a large portion of its land to the Omusati Regional Council to create room for other developmental activities. As the Omusati region is in the heart of the Cuvelai watercourse system, uplands free of seasonal flooding are scarce.

Giving away this portion of land fits well with the campus’s social responsibility. It paved the way for the development of the Ogongo resettlement, a dumping site, a police station and a rural development centre.

However, the situation at Neudamm is tricky. It is informed by the large scale dispossession of land by successive colonial regimes.

After independence, the government, through the Ministry of Lands, Resettlement and Rehabilitation, developed and implemented the National Resettlement Programme (NRP) and the Affirmative Action Loan Scheme (AALS) as instruments to acquire commercial farms, transform them and allocate small-scale farming units to previously disadvantaged Namibians.

Despite the government’s good intentions, the cultural and socio-economic aspects of indigenous people, these instruments do not address the plight of dispossessed generational farmworkers – indigenous people used for cheap labour during colonial times. They lived on their masters’ farms and continued providing generational labour. They have nowhere else to call home.

What we now see at the Neudamm campus is the “unveiling” of the plight of generational farmworkers.

These workers do not have the economic means and ability to qualify for the NRP, highlighting a need to develop or amend the current land redistribution and resettlement structural instruments. The current one-size-fits-all policy does not work for everyone.

What the landless destitute farm-workers may need is a small piece of land for subsistence they can call home; where they can practise farming with poultry, pigs, new cattle and small livestock, and have a few donkeys for draught power, a vegetable garden and cereal production plot.

Individual families can then graduate and qualify for a normal small-scale resettlement unit under the NRP at a later stage if they wish.

As a practical example, a family allocated 100 ha can accommodate about eight cattle at an average stocking rate of 12 ha per large livestock unit, or about 50 goats or sheep at the average stocking rate of 2,5 ha per small livestock unit. More destitute farm workers can be accommodated.

It may not make them rich, but it will give them a sense of belonging and satisfaction where they previously had no hope of owning a piece of land.

Some farmers in Namibia venturing into crop production around Tsumeb, Mariental, and around the Olushandja Dam area in the Omusati region have smaller plots (less than 10 ha) but they generate good money. Given adequate training and mentorship, water and basic production input, the livelihood of farmworkers can be improved.

As a beacon of hope, Unam’s core mandate is teaching, research and community engagement. The challenges at the Neudamm campus present an opportunity for the university to show its calibre and find solutions to real issues affecting Namibians. It has the expertise and resources.

A research-based special project could be developed to address the plight of the generational farm-workers. A tailor-made mentorship programme could be used for work-integrated learning, hands-on practical training and field exposure, research and community engagement.

This could begin by allocating a small section of Neudamm for small land units for individual destitute generational farmworkers.

It is anticipated that the real solution to Namibia’s land question will be research and evidence-based. Unam has a vital role to play in finding solutions.

* The views expressed in this article are those of Isak Kaholongo Kaholongo and not of the University of Namibia where he is employed.

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