Land Inequality Quotes
In developed nations land tends to be fungible—there is a fair market value to land and there is little emotional attachment to a particular piece of land. However for aborigines and citizens of many lesser developed countries, land is not fungible. Ancestor burial, tradition, family identity, dignity requires a particular plot of land—not just acreage. So taking of land—even with monetary compensation—is often liable to induce violent protest.
If the land to be redistributed is divided amongst the majority population, each parcel would be too small to make any difference in any recipient’s life. For efficient agriculture there must be large land holdings. The colonial, stolen land history is valid for most former colonies, however, in Southern Africa, the situation was more complicated. When the whites landed at Capetown in the South, they moved North “stealing” land as they went. However, in Central Africa, Shaka and his Zulus were also a colonial power, and they moved South “stealing” land from the indigenous Blacks as they went. Eventually, the two Colonial Powers—the whites and the Black Zulus—clashed and the Zulu Wars ensued. So all of the land in Zimbabwe and South Aftica was stolen from the Blacks—except about half was stolen by Blacks. After the Zulu Wars, the victorious whites ended up “stealing” land from the Black Zulus that had been stolen by them from other Blacks. Also although the English were the official colonial power, the Dutch “Afrikaners” were a powerful subculture which was dominant on many parts of South Africa and especially at the frontier and they did most of the land stealing. The ethnic English were the businessmen and the city dwellers who actually ruled that Blacks were citizens with rights and slowedmdown some of the land stealing. There is no more complicated ethnic history in the world.
