Affirmative Repositioning (AR) is a

leftist Left-wing politics describes the range of political ideologies that support and seek to achieve social equality and egalitarianism, often in opposition to social hierarchy either as a whole or of certain social hierarchies. Left-wing politi ...

political movement in

Namibia Namibia, officially the Republic of Namibia, is a country on the west coast of Southern Africa. Its borders include the Atlantic Ocean to the west, Angola and Zambia to the north, Botswana to the east and South Africa to the south; in the no ...

mainly focused on

land reform Land reform (also known as agrarian reform) involves the changing of laws, regulations, or customs regarding land ownership, land use, and land transfers. The reforms may be initiated by governments, by interested groups, or by revolution. Lan ...

youth empowerment Youth empowerment is a process where children and young people are encouraged to take charge of their lives. They do this by addressing their situation and then take action in order to improve their access to resources and transform their consciou ...

and

social reform Reformism is a type of social movement that aims to bring a social or also a political system closer to the community's ideal. A reform movement is distinguished from more radical social movements such as revolutionary movements which reject t ...

. Founded in 2014 by Job Amupanda, Dimbulukeni Nauyoma and George Kambala, the AR uses

social media Social media are interactive technologies that facilitate the Content creation, creation, information exchange, sharing and news aggregator, aggregation of Content (media), content (such as ideas, interests, and other forms of expression) amongs ...

platforms to mobilise residents to apply for ''erven'' (small residential land titles) from municipalities. Due to thousands of youth submitting their forms on the same day, these activities have the character of mass demonstrations. The movement had, in a first round in November 2014, achieved a wave of individual land applications in

Windhoek Windhoek (; ; ) is the capital and largest city of Namibia. It is located in central Namibia in the Khomas Highland plateau area, at around above sea level, almost exactly at the country's geographical centre. The population of Windhoek, which ...

, Namibia's capital, which had since spread to other Namibian towns. The Affirmative Repositioning movement had threatened to take the land by force had the applications not have been processed and approved by July 2015 in the local municipalities. In 2024 the movement was officially registered as a political party. Affirmative Reposition (AR) took part in the National Assembly (Namibia) elections for 2024 and obtained 6 seats.

Establishment and operations

As a social movement

On 9 November 2014, Amupanda, Kambala and Nauyoma cleared land which they named "Erf 2014" in Windhoek's affluent Kleine Kuppe suburb, stating high rental prices in town and nepotism in the municipality as reasons for their actions. The action was widely seen as illegal

land grabbing Land grabbing is the large-scale acquisition of land through buying or leasing of large pieces of land by domestic and Multinational corporation, transnational companies, governments, and individuals. While used broadly throughout history, land g ...

. Amupanda, who was

SWAPO Party Youth League The SWAPO Party Youth League (SPYL), formerly known as the SWAPO Youth League (SYL), is the youth wing of the SWAPO Party, the ruling party of Namibia since 1990.Swapo party constitution It shares the same principles as those of the SWAPO Party. ...

(SPYL) Secretary for Information, Publicity and Mobilisation at that time and also served in the youth wing's executive committee, resigned his positions shortly before all three activists were expelled from

SWAPO The South West Africa People's Organisation (SWAPO ; , SWAVO; , SWAVO), officially known as the SWAPO Party of Namibia, is a political party and former independence movement in Namibia (formerly South West Africa). Founded in 1960, it has been ...

for their actions. This expulsion was ordered by the 'Top four' of

party: president

Hifikepunye Pohamba Hifikepunye Lucas Pohamba (born 18 August 1935) is a Namibian politician who served as the second president of Namibia from 21 March 2005 to 21 March 2015. He won the 2004 Namibian presidential election, 2004 presidential election overwhelming ...

, vice-president

Hage Geingob Hage Gottfried Geingob (3 August 1941 – 4 February 2024) was a Namibian politician who served as the third president of Namibia from 2015 until his death in February 2024. Geingob was the country's first prime minister A prime minister ...

, secretary-general Nangolo Mbumba, and his deputy Laura McLeod-Katjirua. The trio vacated the illegally occupied plot after a few days. In the meantime, AR activists started mobilising young people to apply for land at the Windhoek municipality. They used social media and existing SWAPO Youth League party structures. On 21 November 2014 the City of Windhoek received 14,000 individual land applications. In a second round of mass action on 27 February 2015, Windhoek received a further 2,500 applications. Land applications were also handed in to the municipalities of

Walvis Bay Walvis Bay (; ; ) is a city in Namibia and the name of the bay on which it lies. It is the List of cities in Namibia, second largest city in Namibia and the largest coastal city in the country. The city covers an area of of land. The bay is a ...

(9,500 applications), Okahandja (4,000),

Swakopmund Swakopmund ("Mouth of the Swakop River, Swakop") is a city on the coast of western Namibia, west of the Namibian capital Windhoek via the B2 road (Namibia), B2 main road. It is the capital of the Erongo Region, Erongo administrative district. It ...

(3,000),

Ongwediva Ongwediva is a town in the Oshana Region in the north of Namibia. It is the district capital of the Ongwediva Constituency, Ongwediva electoral constituency. it had 33,777 inhabitants and covered 4,102 hectares of land. Ongwediva has seven ...

(2,500),

Oshakati Oshakati is a town in northern Namibia. It is the regional capital of the Oshana Region and one of Namibia's largest cities both by population and as an economic center. It had a population of 58,656 people in 2023. Oshakati was founded i ...

(2,500),

Keetmanshoop Keetmanshoop is a town in the ǁKaras Region of southern Namibia. It is named after , a German Empire, German industrialist and benefactor of the city. Keetmanshoop had a population of 27,862 people in 2023. History Before the colonial era, ...

(800),

Rundu Rundu is the capital and the largest city of the Kavango-East Region in northern Namibia. It lies on the border with Angola on the banks of the Kavango River, about above sea level. Rundu's population is growing rapidly. The 2001 census counted ...

(400),

Otjiwarongo Otjiwarongo (Herero language, Herero for "beautiful place") is a city of 49,000 inhabitants in the Otjozondjupa Region of Namibia. It is the district capital of the Otjiwarongo Constituency, Otjiwarongo electoral constituency and also the capital ...

(200) and

Tsumeb Tsumeb (; ) is a city of around 35,000 inhabitants and the largest town in the Oshikoto Region, Oshikoto region in northern Namibia. Tsumeb, since its founding in 1905, has been primarily a mining town. The town is the site of a deep mine (the ...

(200). In April 2015 the municipality of Henties Bay offered 120 serviced land plots to applicants of the AR movement, among them Amupanda, Nauyoma, and Kambala. This move has been widely criticised, and the AR leaders were accused of misusing their movement's goals by applying for plots in the upmarket holiday town of Henties Bay while being residents of Windhoek. the plots have not been transferred. In May 2016 all three AR leaders were reinstated as SWAPO members after they won their respective court case against the party.

As political party

After political commentators had for some time speculated that the Affirmative Repositioning movement would transform into a political party, the movement was registered for the 2020 local elections as an association in the urban centres of Windhoek, Walvis Bay and Swakopmund.

Reception

In 2015, AR was described as the "biggest peaceful mass action since Namibia’s independence in 1990." The level of organisation within the movement as well as the variety of political promises by its main activist, Amupanda, raised the concern that AR might be a "political party in the making". SWAPO has generally condemned the initial land grab, but regarding the subsequent mobilisation action the party has not taken a uniform position. Former SPYL secretary-general Elijah Ngurare has backed the movement but several regional SWAPO politicians do not approve of it.

Electoral history

Presidential elections

National Assembly elections

References

{{Namibian political parties 2014 establishments in Namibia 21st-century social movements Namibian activists Pan-Africanist political parties in Africa Political parties established in 2014 Reform in Namibia Sankarist political parties Socialist parties in Namibia Windhoek