Still Losing Land

PLEASE allow me space to express my dissatisfaction with the way the Mayeyi tribal authority, Wuparo conservancy, Nkasa Rupara Tented Lodge and their Italian investor are making us feel robbed and discriminated against with regard to our ancestral land and ancestral land benefits that are suppose to come with it.
Land is a gift from God and our ancestors.

I’m part of the Mayeyi as a distinct indigenous community and the only way we have is forward into the future is together as a community. The disunity that is being caused by sidelining us is denying us livelihood on the land that we deem as our own ancestral home.The loss of ancestral land started during colonial times, where many of the Africans lost their land to European settlers and it continues today where conservation interests, commercial plantations, mineral explorations, and other economic activities are leading the encroachments, expropriations and forced removals.Nkasa Rupara game park became the biggest protected wetland in Namibia on the 1st day of March 1990, 20 days before Namibia got her independence. The forced removal of our parents from the park meant the loss of the right to collect plants they once relied on for medicinal purposes, conduct religious ceremonies at their sacred sites or visit the gravesites of our ancestors and maintain them, lost the hunting, gathering, crop and grass fields. They fish the swamps and the indigenous people no longer had land they could call their own, which eventually led to loss of identity for some.How much more are we going to lose without compensation and restitution? Development must be equitable, non-discriminatory, participatory, accountable, and transparent and in line with the constitution of our country. Ngwama VuyaroBy e-mail