Abstract:
The paper scrutinizes perceptions of and discourses about scarcity of land in northern Namibia in order to
show the multiple meanings that land has for the population. It is based on two years of fieldwork, and
brings together interdisciplinary perspectives on why people argue that land is scare. Our research
contributes to a better understanding of the meaning of land in a rapidly changing setting, in which
demands for land are changing and diversified. Furthermore, new land uses have come into play, and
subsistence agriculture is no longer the mainstay of livelihoods, but one of the many sources. We argue for
a more nuanced concept of scarcity of land, in order to acknowledge the different meanings of access to
land to different people and to improve land policies.
