By Willem Odendaal

Large scale land acquisitions by foreign investors in Africa for agricultural purposes continue to capture attention worldwide. In recent years Namibia has received some proposals from multi-national agricultural corporations to develop large scale irrigation projects, mainly in Namibia’s water rich northeastern regions.[1] However, to date none of these proposed large scale projects have materialized. But, while foreign investors might not have been making headways into acquiring land in Namibia’s communal areas, another form of “land grabbing” driven by politically well-connected locals[2] is taking place.  

The aim of this paper is to examine through a case study some of the emerging trends around the changing dynamics of power relations within rural communities in Namibia as a result of the emerging of new elites and how subsistence farmers access to communal land and its natural resources are threatened in the absence of poorly implemented land reform policies.

In order to achieve the aim of this paper, I will first in brief present the case study on land-grabbing[3] in the Omusati Region. To fully comprehend the aim set for this paper, an overview of Namibia’s environmental conditions, agricultural practices, land ownership history and an investigation into the development of Namibia’s land reform legislative process is required, after which an analysis of the case study in Omusati follows, followed by recommendations.