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Publication: Turning Land into Money. Land, Inequality and Reforms in Namibia
In their article, Luregn Lenggenhager, Lena Bloemert and Romie Nghitevelekwa show how past and present developments in Namibia created opportunities to make money out of land, leading to the accumulation of wealth in the hands of a few.
Abstract
This paper shows how land and wealth are linked in Namibia. Historical examples of how white, commercial landowners used favourable economic, legal, and political conditions to make profit from land show how this accumulation of capital has been, to this day, a hindrance to a more equal society. Since Namibia’s independence in 1990, new and diverse ways of assigning value to land have also emerged on communal land in circumstances of growing market competition. In short, we will show how past and present developments in Namibia created opportunities to make money out of land, leading to the accumulation of wealth in the hands of a few.
- Luregn Lenggenhager
- Lena Bloemertz
