The Landless People’s Movement

          Though the name refers to a different group in South Africa, in Namibia the Landless People’s Movement is an independent political movement calling for specific changes in land redistribution, specifically in the Zambezi, Kavango, Omusati, Oshana, and Ohangwena regions, where they say current resettlement policies have left historically oppressed tribal peoples behind. The group is in conflict with President Hage Geingob, who has accused the group of being divisive and self-serving.

People at a Landless People’s Movement protest calling for the resignation of Utoni Nujoma, the current land reform minister

The Landless People’s Movement was founded by former students at the University of Namibia, who first met in 2001 while organizing a land question workshop. They base much of their philosophy off of the historical context of German dispossessions, as well as the Odendaal Plan and Karl Marx’s conflict theory, framing dispossessed people as an agrarian peasant class rising against the organized elite. Today the group has grown far beyond those beginnings, and now has support of traditional leaders and former members of SWAPO, though it is likely far from the political power it would need to achieve its goals.

            -J. Cole Holderman

Link to Interview with a Leader in the Movement: (www.newera.com.na/2017/02/17/just-who-are-the-landless-peoples-movement/)

News Article about the Landless Peoples Movements recent actions: (https://www.namibian.com.na/161304/archive-read/Geingob-dares-the-landless-movement