THE hunger for land in Namibia is not primarily rooted in the desire to farm, but rather because ownership of a piece of land means you have a home from which you cannot be chased, a panel discussion on land reform found on Thursday.

The launch of a book on the land question in Namibia, 'This is my land' by Namibian author Erika von Wietersheim was followed by a panel discussion, which clearly showed that land ownership is an emotional issue for previously disadvantaged people and linked to traditional beliefs about security.

Some commercial farmers and scholars referred to the development plan Vision 2030, which clearly states that by 2030 "most Namibians will be living in urban areas".

Von Wietersheim said she interviewed about 50 people, also at Government level, and found that the wounds of the past, being the land grab by colonial powers like Germany and South Africa up to the Odendaal Plan of the sixties, had not healed.

"The pain of having lost land has been passed on to the next generations of groups who were affected even a century ago," said the author.

"I also found that those I spoke to on resettlement farms and some emerging commercial farmers equal the ownership of a piece of land to having a house.

Many of those resettled did not cite agricultural activities as their main reason for having applied for resettlement," Von Wietersheim stated.

Doufi Namalambo, who facilitated the discussion, said she herself did not need to apply for resettlement or to buy a farm.

"I have a house, I do not need a farm," she said.

Commercial farmer Raimar von Hase said global trends showed that a huge urban migration was taking place, with more and more rural people moving to towns and cities in the hope of jobs and modern amenities.

"Namibia is on that same road and our development plan Vision 2030 says the same.

With most people living in urban areas and requiring large quantities of food that has to be produced somewhere, namely large commercial farms.

It is also impossible for any state to give a piece of land to each citizen," Von Hase said.

Prime Minister Nahas Angula, who has recently acquired a commercial farm and who launched the book, held the view that land is a productive asset, culture, tradition, a heritage, residence and a burial place.

"Dispossession of land is the greatest violation of a man's basic and fundamental rights, and it is destabilising, humiliating and pauperising," the Prime Minster said.

"This book is important because it portrays the feelings, sentiments, perceptions, expectations and sometimes cynicism of the respondents.

"The book provides a starting point for further and in-depth probes in ways and means of making the land redistribution programmes successful to individuals, and also for the growth of the economy", he added.

Alfred Angula, General Secretary of the Namibia Farmworkers' Union (Nafwu), said the colonial powers were solely to blame for the skewed ownership of land, which is still largely in the hands of white people.

"Even with a title deed in their hands for their 20-hectare portions of communal land or those who are resettled, I fear that in 40 years or so all that land will be owned by banks, because they will confiscate it as most people will not be able to pay back their loans obtained for agricultural activities due to lack of access to markets," Angula criticised.

The Friedrich Ebert Stiftung funded the book.