Suchergebnisse

This article uses the case of the commemoration of the Mpondo Revolts and the massacre by the state of defenceless villagers in Mpondoland in 1960 to argue that the political elite engage in distortions of history for political gain. The ruling party elite have over time omitted or added narratives about the revolts, thus gradually marginalising their significance. Part of the distortion of the history of the revolts is the gradual attempt to change the conversation during the annual commemoration event of the revolts and the Ngquza Hill massacre. While local people continue to be disenfranchised from their land, ironically now by the post-apartheid government, politicians at the memorial event focus not on the issues that were the causes of the revolts, especially the struggles around land, but on apparent local needs, such as electrification, access to clean water and bringing revenue to the villages through tourism. However, memorialisation of historical events is prone to these contested histories and narratives because of the political and financial support of the government in power, institutionalising both tangible and intangible aspects of the history that is being memorialised. It is only through defiant or insurgent scholarship that more accurate versions of the history of events such as the Mpondo Revolts can help to maintain their significance.

In addition to challenges facing South Africa's overall post-apartheid land reform, group rural land claims have particularly proven difficult to resolve. This paper explores the role that the state plays in shaping the outcomes of rural group land claims. It analyzes policy statements, including from policy documents, guidelines and speeches made by politicians during ceremonies to hand over land rights to rural claimants; seeking to understand the possible motives, factual correctness, as well as impact, of these statements on the trajectory of the settled land claims. The paper concludes that land reform as practiced in South Africa is functionally and discursively disembedded from socio-political histories of dispossession, because land has come to be treated more as a commodity, rather than as something that represents multiple meanings for different segments of society. Like many processes leading up to a resolution of a rural claim, subsequent statements by government concerning particular 'successful' land claims convey an assumption that local claimants have received just redress; that there was local consensus on what form of land claim redress people wanted, and that the state's lead role in suggesting commercial farming or tourism as land use options for the new land rights holders is welcome. The paper shows that previous in-depth research on rural land claims proves that the state's role in the success or failure of rural land claims is controversial at best.

Current debate on Cannabis sativa in South Africa has centred on its positive and negative effects on health, as well as its decriminalisation. The contribution of cannabis (dagga) to the livelihoods of people who inhabit some of the poorest parts of the country has thus far been largely ignored. Using a case study of a village in Pondoland, this article argues that while cannabis makes a significant contribution to the livelihoods of many households, the values derived by cannabis farmers vary widely, as determined by social difference, the illegal nature of cannabis production and trade, and the cannabis commodity chain. Furthermore, lobbies to legalise cannabis will not necessarily yield positive results for poor rural cannabis growers, as this could result in lower prices due to the possibility of increased supply, as well as the fact that illegality is what currently keeps the prices fairly high. (Dev South Afr/DÜI)

Das "Community"-Konzept im Agrarreformprogramm Südafrikas hat für die Begünstigten sowohl positive als auch negative Folgen. Positiv ist die Konzentration auf die Bedürfnisse armer Menschen, negativ jedoch die Tatsache, daß diese Politik konfligierende Gruppen zusammenführt mit dem Ergebnis, daß dann die schwächere von der stärkeren dominiert wird. Dieses Problem wird am Beispiel einer Fallstudie von der Wild Coast diskutiert, wo eine räumliche Entwicklungsinitiative die Frage aufwarf, wer im Endergebnis von der Landreform und ländlichen Entwicklung profitieren soll. Eine genauere Kenntnis der örtlichen Realitäten ist erforderlich, um die Neuverteilung von Land und Landrechten in einer Weise regeln zu können, daß Interessengegensätze und sich überlappende Nutzungsansprüche gelöst werden. (DÜI-Hlb)

"In the context of sustainable development recent land debates tend to construct two porous camps. On one side, land justice advocates dictate that people's rights to tenure security are tantamount and even sometimes key to successful conservation practice. On the other hand, biodiversity protection and conservation advocates, supported by global environmental organizations and participating states, remain committed to conservation strategies, justified as superior to the rights of local people on behalf of a "global" mandate for biodiversity and climate change mitigation. Struggles in the Spaces between Land Rights and Biodiversity Conservation traces the overlapping spaces between these two camps as a way to unpack what kinds of ideologies inform this tension. Through a number of case studies and shorter pieces of theoretical reflection taken from around the world, this edited volume explores the particular ideologies, narratives and practices in the spaces between land and territorial rights and biodiversity conservation that create natural resource struggles, negotiations and acceptance. In illustrating the spaces between competing agendas of land governance and conservation, the book offers a counter-narrative that affirms that the successful and just future of biodiversity conservation is contingent upon land tenure security for local people. The original research gathered together in this volume will be of considerable interest to researchers of development studies, political ecology, land rights, and conservation."--Provided by publisher.