WOMEN AND LAND Blind spots for women on the land pie · with real pie, if among the potential pie...
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December 2012 NAMIBIA 18 WOMEN AND LAND Blind spots for women By Laura Sasman my colleagues and I closed our office around 2 o’clock in the afternoon and drove over to the Katutura Community Arts Centre, where couched in protocol and etiquette, much singing of our national and the African Union anthems and speeches by experts, a government minister and foreign dignitaries, the Land Matters in Art campaign was launched. Sister Namibia was there as one of the two official media partners as such, we are (voluntarily) obligated to reflect and report on the issue of land and art in Namibia. The event marked the official call for artists to create a body of visual pieces which showcase to the world how we feel about land in Namibia. Since then, I on a daily basis am confronted by a small sticker that reminds me that “ Land Matters in Art.” Every day, I now wonder how land matters for women and how I feel about land and the land question. We live in a country where the myth prevails that access to land will cure all social ills. It therefore is not surprising that it is every Namibian’s dream to own a piece of the land pie. As with real pie, if among the potential pie grabbers, you have alpha-male personality grabbers, it is entirely conceivable that a few might walk away with the lion’s share, whereas most will have to contend with the crumbs only and still others with nothing. There is hardly a politician, an academic, a bank manager, or a lawyer in this country who is not completely preoccupied with and living for supplementing his farming income with day jobs. Perhaps it is because so many city-dwelling fat cats are so busy as weekend farmers and weekend land owners that there are so many down-and-out rural women drifting to the urban sprawls we euphemistically refer to as informal settlements. Their need for and interest in land have shrunk to no more than a towel-width of earth on which they may erect a kambashu. I read somewhere and I have to agree that women are not a homogonous group and that we as such, have very different experiences, needs and expectations. I, for instance grew up in an urban setting, therefore my experience with and expectation fo land would be very different from a woman, lets say, in Vaalgras or in Nkurenkuru. A consumer as opposed to a producer of agricultural produce, my interest in land is restricted to its potential as residential “land” for myself and my family. I sometimes wonder what will happen if I, an urban-born-and -raised woman from Khomasdal make any other claim on land. Will I be taken seriously, or will I be sent off at the sound of howling laughter ringing in my ears for my audacity to even consider joining the land grab. I now know that there are many forms of land ownership in Namibia. These include title deed in freehold land and non-title deed in communal land. I was informed that in addition, to these two types of tenure, the Namibian land mass is divided into national parks, restricted on the land pie
Transcript of WOMEN AND LAND Blind spots for women on the land pie · with real pie, if among the potential pie...
December 2012 N a M I B I a
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WOMEN AND LAND
Blind spots for womenBy Laura Sasman
my colleagues and I closed our office around 2 o’clock in the afternoon and drove over to the Katutura Community Arts Centre, where couched in protocol and etiquette, much singing of our national and the African Union anthems and speeches by experts, a government minister and foreign dignitaries, the Land Matters in Art campaign was launched. Sister Namibia was there as one of the two official media partners as such, we are (voluntarily) obligated to reflect and report on the issue of land and art in Namibia.
The event marked the official call for artists to create a body of visual pieces which showcase to the world how we feel about land in Namibia. Since then, I on a daily basis am confronted by a small sticker that reminds me that “ Land Matters in Art.” Every day, I now wonder how land matters for women and how I feel about land and the land question.
We live in a country where the myth prevails that access to land will cure all social ills. It therefore is not surprising that it is every Namibian’s dream to own a piece of the land pie. As with real pie, if among the potential pie grabbers, you have alpha-male personality grabbers, it is entirely conceivable that a few might walk away with the lion’s share, whereas most will have to contend with the crumbs only and still others with nothing.
There is hardly a politician, an academic, a bank manager, or a lawyer in this country who is not completely preoccupied with and living for supplementing his farming income with day jobs. Perhaps it is because so many city-dwelling fat cats are so busy as weekend farmers and weekend land owners that there are so many down-and-out rural women drifting to the urban sprawls we euphemistically refer to as informal settlements. Their need for and interest in land have shrunk to no more than a towel-width of earth on which they may erect a kambashu.
I read somewhere and I have to agree that women are not a homogonous group and that we as such, have very different experiences, needs and expectations. I, for instance grew up in an urban setting, therefore my experience with and expectation fo land would be very different from a woman, lets say, in Vaalgras or in Nkurenkuru.
A consumer as opposed to a producer of agricultural produce, my interest in land is restricted to its potential as residential “land” for myself and my family. I sometimes wonder what will happen if I, an urban-born-and -raised woman from Khomasdal make any other claim on land. Will I be taken seriously, or will I be sent off at the sound of howling laughter ringing in my ears for my audacity to even consider joining the land grab.I now know that there are many forms of land ownership in Namibia. These include title deed in freehold land and non-title deed in communal land. I was informed that in addition, to these two types of tenure, the Namibian land mass is divided into national parks, restricted
on the land pie
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“diamond” and other mining areas, and I am assuming, residential tenure in municipal areas. I found out that distribution of land is categorised as “white and black individuals’ land, “companies’ land”, government-owned land, non-Namibian citizens’ land, municipalities and organisations’ land, and land for unclear purposes.
It would appear that Namibia is gender blind when it comes to matters of land. Cognizant that women are not a homogenous group, would it not make sense to also reflect how many women have access to either free-hold or non-title deed land, given that women in sub Saharan Africa are credited with the overall highest labour-force participation rates and the highest average agricultural labour-force participation rates? Or is this not true for women in Namibia?
All of these reflections make me wonder, if I were to make an art work that expresses my emotions about land, what it would be? I imagine there would be hyenas in that art work. There also would be quite a bit of if not cherry juice, then real blood, I imagine there would be gender blind male and female politicians and I imagine there would also be women. However, the women will be far on the outskirts of the action, looking hungrily. Some might be licking at a few crumbs, but mostly, they will be onlookers. As for the pie, there will not be any pie left for anyone to share in.
What are your reflections on land in Namibia?
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