Relocation in Tseki & Phuthaditjhaba: A comparative ethnography of planned & unplanned removals in Qwaqwa

African Studies Seminar series. Paper presented August 1989.The dominant theme in the recent history of Qwaqwa has been the relocation of thousands of people from "common" South Africa into the "homeland". In 1929 Ross (1930: 88) estimated that the population of Witzieshoek (as Qwaqwa was then known) was 8000 and wrote: In the past few years many folk who could make no existence on the farms outside have moved in. They are the old folk and the poor. This would have to be prohibited because Witzieshoek is already full, or Witzieshoek would have to be enlarged by the addition of nearby farms. (My translation). Subsequent estimates of Qwaqwa's population are: 23 860 in 1970 (BENSO 1978: 9), at least 300 000 in 1980 (Murray 1985: 289) and between 400 000 and 500 000 people in 1982 (Sharp 1982: 13). These figures are suggestive of mass population relocations It is generally possible to distinguish three sending areas. Murray (1985:290) estimates that perhaps 60% of people relocated to Qwaqwa came off white-owned farms, particularly in the northern, eastern and northwestern districts of the Orange Free State (OFS). The remaining 40%, he suggests, came from towns such as Harrismith, Bethlehem, Senekal, Vereeniging, Klerksdorp and Bloemfontein. A relatively small number of people have also been relocated from other "homelands"…. This paper is particularly concerned with highlighting the diverse implications of relocation for different sections of Qwaqwa's population. Despite the conceptual difficulties involved the the concepts "forced" and "voluntary", it is my intention to show that such distinctions may indeed be valuable in understanding relocation processes. It is argued that "official" removals imply at least some prior planning by the state to cater for the needs of those affected. Evidence indicates that people subject to forced removals from OFS townships by the state have enjoyed favourable access to resources and amenities in the 'homeland'. Such people are highly noticeable and taken account of by government and administration in the subsequent allocation of services in the 'homeland'. By contrast, former inhabitants OFS rural areas who have unofficially made their way into the 'homeland's' closer settlements have been severely disadvantaged. Their removals were unplanned and no administrative provisions had been made to meet even their most basic needs. Subsequently they have been largely unnoticed in the allocation of services. This paper reports the results of fieldwork undertaken in the Apollo (plural Diapollo) housing section in the town of Phuthaditjhaba (from August 1984 until February 1985) and the closer settlement of Tseki (in April, June-July and December 1983). The housing section was opened for settlement in March 1971

Witches, mysteries, rumours, dreams and bones: Tensions in the subjective reality of witchcraft in the Mpumalanga lowveld, South Africa

African Studies Seminar series. Paper presented 10 March 1997Evans-Pritchard's classical text Witchcraft, Oracles and Magic Among the Azande (1937) lay the foundations for contemporary scholarly understandings of witchcraft. Yet the author's central contention that witchcraft presents a logical explanation for misfortune has been less inspirational than his suggestion than that witchcraft accusations express regularly recurring socio-structural conflicts [2]. This idea was developed most fully by Marwick (1970) who argued that witchcraft accusations present a social "strain-gauge". This formulation is based on two closely related assumptions. First, that at a general level, the distribution of witchcraft accusations, between persons standing in various relationships, reveals tension points in the social structure. Anthropologists and historians have contended that witchcraft accusations indicate different sorts of tensions in different social contexts. Witchcraft accusations have been shown to cluster between different matrilineal segments among the Chewa of Northern Rhodesia (Marwick 1965), agnates and affines among the Zulu of South Africa (Gluckman I960), youths and elders among the Gisu of Uganda (Heald 1986), competing work parties among the Hewa of New Guinea (Steadman 1985), commoners and new state elites in Cameroon (Geschiere 1988), and between men and women in colonial Peru (Silverbladt 1987). Second, the social strain hypothesis assumes that tense relations are the prime determinants of whom the accused shall be. For example, Macfarlane argues that in sixteenth century Essex witchcraft accusations arose from quarrels over gifts and loans, rather than strange events. This article critically reexamines the relationship between social tensions and witchcraft. It draws on fieldwork conducted between 1990 and 1995 in Green Valley, a village situated in the lowveld of Mpumalanga, South Africa. In 1991 Green Valley had a population of approximately 20 000 Northern Sotho and Tsonga-speakers [4]. In the article I aim to focus on how individuals subjectively inferred the existence of witchcraft and the identity of alleged witches, rather than to explore the quantitative distribution of witchcraft accusations. From this perspective, I suggest that social tensions by themselves are less accurate predictors of witchcraft attributions and accusations than the literature may lead us to believe. The article is divided into two parts. The first considers the ontological status of witchcraft in local knowledge. I argue that the perception of witchcraft as a transcendent reality immunizes the belief against disproof. Yet in specific situations the occurrence of mysterious events, circumstantial evidence, revelations through divination and dreams, and confessions attested to the reality of witchcraft. Part two provides a detailed analysis of five case studies, and critically scrutinizes the role of social tensions relative to other types of evidence. I argue that social tensions were neither a sufficient, nor even a necessary, condition for witchcraft accusations. Villagers did perceive a conflictual relationship between the victim and the accused, prior to the advent of misfortune, as a motive for witchcraft. Tensions were therefore part of the wider framework of evidence they used to justify particular accusations. But villagers believed that witches often struck without motive

Coins for blood and blood for coins: Towards a genealogy of sacrifice in the Transvaal Lowveld, 1930-1993

African Studies Seminar series. Paper presented 14 March 1994.In 1889 Tylor defined sacrifice as a form of gift-giving to spiritual beings (Tylor 1958:461). This definition has formed the conceptual framework for both classical and contemporary anthropological understandings of sacrifice. Subsequent theorists have viewed these gifts-to-gods as fundamentally different from gifts-to-people. Indeed, sacrifice has been seen as essential to the quest for morality, purity and salvation. The sacrificial gift, it has been contended, is offerred to establish communion with the sacred and to sacrilize the sacrificer (Robertson-Smith 1984, Hubert and Mauss 1964). Evans-Pritchard (1970) described Nuer sacrifices as aimed at ridding individuals from the dangerous state of nueer brought about by pathogenic contact with the Divinity. More recently, Gregory (1980) and Parry (1986) have viewed sacrifice as a 'pure gift' which is surrendered without the expectation of recall and return in this life. Parry (1986: 460-61) suggests that in salvation-orientated religions ultimate destiny is determined by supernatural reward. As such unreciprocated gifts mean liberation from the bondage of the profane world and create an image of the other world in this one. Whilst these contributions yield general insight, there is an urgent need to refocus attention on the meanings of sacrifice in particular performative and narrative contexts (Hoskins 1993). Generalized and static formula often obscure intricate, diverse, and changing emic models of sacrifice. This article investigates continuities and changes in concepts of sacrifice among Sotho and Tsonga-speakers of the Transvaal lowveld. It warns against the generalized formulation of sacrifice as a moralistic act and contemplates the possibility that sacrifice may well be motivated by more imediate and materialistic concerns. My analysis is based on fieldwork I have conducted, for intermittent periods over past four years, in the lowveld village of Green Valley. Green Valley has a population of approximately 20 000 people. It forms part of the Setlhare chiefdom and is situated in the Mapulaneng area of Lebowa. My account is diachronic, but genealogical rather than historical. The aim is not to provide a comprehensive overview of process based on the chronology of events, but merely to highlight prominent cultural assumptions underlying the conceptions of sacrifice at different times [1]. Along with Cousins and Hussain (1984) I see the critical potential of the genelogical method as lying in its ability to trance symbolic connections between seemingly diverse phenomena. As such phenomena can be shown as not nearly as timeless and distinct as they appear. My analysis differs significantly from earlier functionalist and structuralist accounts of sacrifice in the lowveld (Junod 1966, Krige and Krige 1965, Monnig 1988, Hammond- Tooke 1981, de Heusch 1985). I do not merely focus on the performative aspects of offerings to the ancestors, but incorporate reference to mythical and imagined sacrifices. As such I explore the wider meanings of sacrifice in cultural discourses. These discourses are located within changing local religious, socio-political and economic contexts

Wage workers in a 'homeland township' : their experiences in finding, maintaining and losing employment

Bibliography: pages 254-266.Workers domiciled in Qwaqwa, South Africa's smallest 'homeland', experience high rates of unemployment and job instability. Yet most terminations of employment are employee-instigated. This dissertation examines the reasons for employment instability among wage workers resident in a housing section in Phuthaditjhaba, the 'homeland's' only urban area. The approach adopted in the dissertation is primarily ethnographic. It describes the everyday experiences of African workers and treats their own perspectives of their working lives as central. Quantitative and qualitative data, collected from two samples drawn from the population in the housing area selected for study, are presented. It is argued that employment instability must be understood as a consequence of a web of interrelated circumstances and cannot be explained in terms of any one single causal factor. The following employment and employment-related circumstances are examined: workers' views of, and reactions to, wages and working conditions; problems with transport between places of work and home, and with workplace accommodation; conflicts of interest arising from domestic pressures undermining workers' ability to remain in a job; and the experience of joblessness. These various factors are then drawn together to show that workers do not perceive these factors in isolation from one another, but that they experience the oppressive conditions of their domestic and working lives as a totality. Any attempts to find ways to increase workers' job stability will have to look both within and beyond the workplace

Biographical Lessons

RÉSUMÉLeçons bibliographiques. Vies, sexes et culture chez les Bushbuckridge, Afrique du Sud.Cet article montre que les histoires vécues nous permettent de comprendre la sexualité masculine à un niveau théorique plus général. Je présente ici la vie d'un homme de 38 ans habitant à Bushbuckridge en Afrique du Sud, en m'intéressant plus particulièrement à certaines de ses expériences : socialisation sexuelle, scolarité, initiation, migration professionnelle, mariage, divorce, chômage et violence sexuelle. Je suggère que cette histoire de vie permette plusieurs avancées analytiques sur les modèles théoriques relatifs à la culture sexuelle africaine. Elle révèle l'interaction entre les différents discours sur la sexualité et met en lumière l'impact d'institutions telles que l'école, les enclos (compounds) de migrants et les bars (drinking houses) sur le comportement sexuel, et établit une distinction entre ce que disent et pensent les gens, et entre leurs aspirations et leurs contraintes. Pour ces raisons, les modèles culturels ne constituent pas des instruments fiables de prédiction du comportement sexuel. En revanche, les biographies peuvent ouvrir des perspectives d'une importance stratégique pour empêcher la propagation du sida.ABSTRACTThis article shows that life stories contain valuable lessons for understanding masculine sexuality at a more general theoretical level.   I discuss the life story of a thirty-eight year old male resident of Bushbuckridge, South Africa, focusing specifically on his experiences of sexual socialisation, schooling, initiation, labour migration, marriage, divorce, unemployment and sexual violence.   I suggest that this life story offers several analytical advances over theoretical models of African sexual culture.   It is more likely to reveal the interplay of different discourses on sexuality; to highlight the impact of institutions such as schools, migrant compounds and drinking houses on sexual behaviour; and distinguish between what people say and what they honestly believe, and between what they aspire to and what they are constrained to do.   For these reasons cultural models are not accurate predictors of actual sexual behaviour.   Therefore, biographies may accord insights of strategic importance in preventing the spread of HIV/AIDS

Ellis, Stephen & ter Haar, Gerrie. — Worlds of Power: Religious Thought and Political Practice in Africa. London, Hurst and Company, 2003, 263 p.

In recent years religion has played a prominent role in international debates about how the world should be governed.   In this ambitious monograph Ellis and ter Haar contend that Africa has stood at the heart of these developments and endeavour to show the myriad of different ways in which religious beliefs have shaped political action on the continent.   They defend Geertz’s view that we should first attempt to understand religious meanings before ascertaining their political significance. ..

Wealth-in-people and practical rationality: aspirations and decisions about money in South Africa

This article explores crucial decisions made by Sylvia, a Xhosa woman living in the townships of Cape Town, during a period of approximately thirty years. These decisions involved large sums of money and had important consequences for her own life, for those of her son and grandchild, and for the relationships she had with her first and second husbands and in‐laws. Sylvia's decisions continued to be influenced by gendered ways of belonging to ancestors and descendants but also show important changes in connecting wealth and people. The wealth‐in‐people approach offers important insights into how Sylvia's decisions are guided by power and control over people as well as by prestige. However, it also becomes evident that the wealth‐in‐people approach does not sufficiently explain or theorize the agency of people. By drawing on the philosophical notion of practical rationality as a complementary analytical perspective, I explore agency in relation to aspirations and the acquisition of new open‐ended values. The perspective offered by practical rationality increases our understanding of how individual decisions, especially complex decisions around money, are made because of their transformative potential and the aspiration to cultivate oneself.Horizon 2020(H2020)Global Challenges (FSW

Gendered endings: Narratives of male and female suicides in the South African Lowveld

This is the author's accepted manuscript. The final publication is available at Springer via http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s11013-012-9258-y. Copyright @ Springer Science+Business Media, LLC 2012.Durkheim’s classical theory of suicide rates being a negative index of social solidarity downplays the salience of gendered concerns in suicide. But gendered inequalities have had a negative impact: worldwide significantly more men than women perpetrate fatal suicides. Drawing on narratives of 52 fatal suicides in Bushbuckridge, South Africa, this article suggests that Bourdieu’s concepts of ‘symbolic violence’ and ‘masculine domination’ provide a more appropriate framework for understanding this paradox. I show that the thwarting of investments in dominant masculine positions have been the major precursor to suicides by men. Men tended to take their own lives as a means of escape. By contrast, women perpetrated suicide to protest against the miserable consequences of being dominated by men. However, contra the assumption of Bourdieu’s concept of ‘habitus’, the narrators of suicide stories did reflect critically upon gender constructs

Witches of the Transvaal Lowveld and their Familiars. Conceptions of Duality, Power and Desire

Abstract In the Transvaal lowveld of South Africa witches are commonly associated with animals. With reference to fieldwordk conducted in the village of Green Valley, this article considers the symbolic meanings of the relationship between witches and two witch-familiars—the apelike tokolose and the snakelike mam-lambo. I argue that this relationship resonates with the duality between a person's body and its animal-like instincts and desires. Whereas the tokolose symbolizes the desire of unconstrained sexual expression, the mamlambo symbolizes people's desire for money. These familiars comment on contemporary conditions of life in the Transvaal lowveld which are marked by migrant labour, the separation of spouses and by severe economic deprivation.Résumé Sorciers de la région du lowveld au Transvaal. — Dans la région du lowveld au Transvaal (Afrique du Sud), les figures de sorciers sont habituellement associées à celles d'animaux. Procédant d'un travail de terrain mené dans le village de Green Valley, cet article examine les rapports symboliques existant entre les sorciers et deux entités qui leur sont familières: la figure simiesque du tokolose et celle du mamlambo associée au serpent. L'auteur postule que cette relation fait écho à la dualité existant entre le corps d'une personne, et les instincts et désirs sauvages de celle-ci. Alors que le tokolose symbolise le désir d'une sexualité sans entraves, le mamlambo représente le désir d'argent. Ces entités familières témoignent des conditions de vie difficiles de la population de cette région du Transvaal, marquées par les migrations de travail, l'éloignement des épouses et un niveau de vie très bas.Niehaus Isak. Witches of the Transvaal Lowveld and their Familiars. Conceptions of Duality, Power and Desire. In: Cahiers d'études africaines, vol. 35, n°138-139, 1995. pp. 513-540

Anthropology and Whites in South Africa: Response to an Unreasonable Critique Ethnologie und Weiße in Südafrika: Antwort auf eine nicht angemessene Kritik

Contribution to the Debate on Anthropology in Africa in Africa Spectrum.Beitrag zur "Debate on Anthropology in Africa" in Africa Spectrum