The myth of the white farmer: commercial agriculture in Namibia, 1900-1983

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Book

Title:	The myth of the white farmer: commercial agriculture in Namibia, 1900-1983
Author:	Schmoekel, W.
Year:	1983
Pages:	23
Language:	English
City of publisher:	Los Angeles, CA
Publisher:	African Studies Association
Geographic term:	Namibia
Subjects:	farmers colonists Whites cash crops
Abstract:	Due to the environmental peculiarities of Namibia, white commercial agriculture failed to establish itself as a viable economic enterprise. From its inception to the present day, it has not only failed to contribute to overall economic development, but can be seen as an essentially parasitical phenomenon. Resources drawn from the traditional sector of the economy (in the form of land and labour), from the modern mining sector, and from the economies of the colonial metropolises (investment and working capital), have been able to establish and maintain livelihoods for 4-5,000 white farmers at a relatively comfortable, albeit far from affluent 'European' level, and to provide extremely marginal, subsistence-level employment for some tens of thousands of African farm labourers. However, commercial farming has not been capable of reproducing its capital, let alone of autonomous economic expansion. Seen as a whole, settler farming in Namibia has been a rather curious politico-cultural activity, nurtured by the state, not an economically rational enterprise.