[Article] 129 The Land Question and Colonial Legacy in North-Eastern Botswana Boga Thura MANATSHA Graduate Student Graduate School for International Development and Cooperation Hiroshima University 1-5-1 Kagamiyama, Higashi-Hiroshima, 739-8529 Japan E-mail:
[email protected] Keshav Lall MAHARJAN Professor Graduate School for International Development and Cooperation Hiroshima University 1-5-1 Kagamiyama, Higashi-Hiroshima, 739-8529 Japan E-mail:
[email protected] Abstract The land question in north-eastern Botswana has been, over a century now, a controversial political issue in the country. The article argues that this region faces an inevitable land crisis; which can be politically volatile, if not addressed urgently, but cautiously. It also contends that the concessions signed by European concessionaires in the 1880s, which legitimized colonial land alienation and expropriation, were, and stilI are, 'dubious' if not, 'fraudulent'. Proclamation No.2 of 1911, issued by the British colonial administration, still constraints the implementation of a sound land reform. Villagers and opposition politicians regard the government's approach to the land question as lukewarm, and its treatment of Tati Company and absentee landlords, in particular, tenderly. A neo-liberal approach to the land question is, however, pervasive in southern Africa. The article concludes that a radical land reform in North East, which takes into cognizance, historical injustices, and aims at correcting them, is a must and overdue. 1. Introduction Even in the twenty-first century, the land question remains, like in the past century, a serious threat to the democratization process and political stability of southern Africa, in particular, and sub-Saharan Africa, in general (Lahiff, 2005; Lee and Colvard, 2003; Moyo, 2004a).