‘Our land they took’: San land rights under threat in Namibia

December 2006
Legal Assistance Centre (Land, Environment and Development Project)

A study of the San, the poorest and most marginalised minority group in Namibia, with little access to existing political and economic institutions. They have been dispossessed of most of their ancestral lands and on lands they still occupy there are major issues of resource overuse, degradation, illegal grazing, unclear legal status and ongoing threats of dispossession. Looks at threats to San lands in 4 distinct parts of the country and the legal issues raised by those threats. Recommendations cover who owns the land, land reform, reforming governmental administration, law, social change and San rights. Argues the need for prompt government action to prevent political and legal chaos.