Odendaal, Willem: ‘Beggars on our own land …’ Tsumib v Government of the Republic of Namibia and its Implications for Ancestral Land Claims in Namibia, Basel 2024
Description of the book on the website of the publisher Basler Afrika Bibliographien:
“In 1954, the Hai||om people were evicted from Etosha by the South African-controlled South West African Administration. In 2015, the Hai||om filed the case of Tsumib v Government of the Republic of Namibia in the High Court of Namibia.
‘Beggars on our own land …’ unravels the historical and contemporary socio-legal complexities that led to the Tsumib case. At the core of the case lies the legal question, how can the Hai||om people approach the Namibian Courts in order to claim compensation for the loss of their ancestral lands?
Odendaal goes into detail how the Tsumib case materialised under the post-independence Namibian constitutional discourse. He assesses the Namibian land reform programme and its oversight in dealing with historical land dispossessions. Odendaal inspects Hai||om ‘identity’ and how it was used to strengthen their case.
He concludes with an examination of Namibia’s outdated and restrictive legal framework, which ultimately denied the Hai||om people their constitutional right to be heard in the Namibian Court.
While the future of ancestral land claims in Namibia depends on the political will of the Namibian government, Odendaal argues that the Namibian courts have a duty to comply with the rights giving nature of the Namibian Constitution that lays the foundation for the Hai||om people’s ancestral claims.”
About the author Willem Odendaal:
“Willem Odendaal obtained his PhD in Law from the University of Strathclyde in Glasgow, Scotland. He is an admitted legal practitioner in the High and Supreme Courts of Namibia. He was the project coordinator of the Land, Environment and Development project at the Legal Assistance Centre (LAC) from 2006 until 2019. At present, Odendaal continues working with local communities in Namibia on human, land and environmental rights related topics.”
- See also the book launch on 17 September 2024 in Windhoek
Editor’s note:
The expulsion of the San people of the Hai||om from their ancestral land in Etosha Park took place in 1954. That was 39 years after the end of German colonial rule in Namibia (1915). However, the area had already been declared a nature reserve by the German colonial administration in 1907 (see Wikipedia). This conflict over the indigenous people’s ancestral land can therefore also be seen as as part of the land issue. Which is largely a legacy of the German colonial era.
The Etosha National Park is also part of the ‘Red Line’ (see article on Wikipedia). This is a cordon initiated by the German colonial administration in 1896. It formed part of the measures against the approaching Rinderpest (cattle plague). Today, the strictly controlled fence is a prerequisite for meat exports to the European Union. There has been a debate for years because it puts cattle farmers north of the ‘red line’ at a disadvantage.