Browsing by Author "Ramutsindela, Maano Freddy"

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    Africa's ‘miracle state'? the intersection of political leaders and non-state actors in the greening of Botswana through wildlife
    (2020) Mogende, Emmanuel; Ramutsindela, Maano Freddy
    The premise of the thesis is that attention to the processes that produce the green state opens up avenues for analysing African states from the perspective of the green state. This study engages the theory of the green state within the African context to understand the complex processes that enabled the greening of the state in Botswana. I draw on the example of wildlife conservation policies and practices in post-independence Botswana to argue that the greening of the state entails processes by which the state interacts with non-state actors to enact environmental reforms over a long period of time. Such interaction maybe initiated by the state or by non-state actors who are determined to pursue an environmental agenda or to implement environmental strategies through organs of the state. To account for the processes that enable the greening of Botswana, the study employed an interpretive approach that is dependent on qualitative data. The study primarily draws from archival research and key informant interviews with academics, environmental consultants, representatives of civil society, relevant government departments and ministries, the private sector in Botswana's tourism, and an interview with former President Ian Khama. To understand the greening processes, the thesis analysed the qualitative data between 1966 and 2018. These historical periods cover the presidency of Seretse Khama (1966 – 1980), Ketumile Masire (1980 – 1998), Festus Mogae (1998 – 2008) and Ian Khama (2008 – 2018). The four key findings of the study are that, first, the collaboration between authorities in Botswana and international agencies and actors enabled the greening of Botswana. These agencies and actors, financed environmental related programmes, facilitated the development of green institutions, and influenced the country's conservation policies. Second, the study demonstrates that political leadership is instrumental in the greening of Botswana. The four presidencies paid attention to environmental protection though there were variations in each presidency. The presidency of Ian Khama stands out as an important period in greening of the state as he strengthened the greening process by realigning the wildlife economy with political power. Third, the study found that the greening process necessitates the internal restructuring of the state through the establishment of green institutions, which serve to realign state activities with the green agenda. Fourth and lastly, the study reveals that the greening of the state in Botswana is accompanied by negative state-citizen relations in the wildlife sector. These relations played out through the marginalization of the local people in the ecotourism enterprise within the context of community-based natural resource management initiative.
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    Capitalism and private nature reserves: the taming of Mala Mala land claim
    (2020) Ghedi Alasow, Khadra; Ramutsindela, Maano Freddy
    Capitalism has evolved globally by disciplining its key features to suit new markets and changing socio- economic environments. These features include private property, labour and neoliberalism. Whilst capitalism has managed to become a well-established system, occasionally it is confronted with challenges which expose its callous nature. In South Africa, land restitution calls into question capitalism's operation as it disrupts the conventional process of profit accumulation. This is evident when looking at the manner in which land claims are settled in private nature reserves that are under a land claim. Private nature reserves have been structured to bring together capitalism's key features of property, labour and neoliberalism and therefore become interesting sites on which to study how they react to land restitution. This study uses Mala Mala Game Reserve to investigate how capitalism unfolds in the game reserve. It specifically looks at the conservation business, labour conditions, and the settlement of the land claim in the reserve. It begins by analysing the structuring of the conservation business to fit capitalism's objective of profit accumulation. The emphasis here is on the relationship between capitalism and nature, and how the conservation business is built on the commodification of nature. It traces the business foundation of Mala Mala over time to understand how the reserve became a luxurious safari destination that target a small, select group of wealthy, mainly international tourists. The reserve promises quality wildlife viewing and luxury accommodation for its guests, which it is able to offer through the commercialisation of nature in a manner that is often viewed as ethical to the greater public, yet a closer look at the operation of the reserve shows the unaccounted cost of exclusion, dispossession and exploitation. These impacts are further contextualised in the second part of the study, which documents the structuring of labour as a condition for building the reserve's economic success. Labour is an important necessity for capitalism's operations and its conditions show us the fierce manner in which surplus value is extracted. The creation of the cheap labour system in South Africa played an important role in building conservation areas. The success of conservation business in private nature reserves routinely depends on conservation labour. The study finds that cheap labour in Mala Mala is secured through the adoption of a migrant labour system. Such a system highlights the social ‘cost' (labour) of capital accumulation that takes place in the reserve. While the first two parts of the study explain how capitalism has shaped the conservation business in Mala Mala, the last section investigates what happens when this almost perfectly structured system is challenged through land claims. The study finds that the clash between conservation business and land restitution produce a model of land reform that chime with neoliberalism. Backed by government and landowners, the model separates business ownership from landownership in order to guarantee capital accumulation. This study contributes to our understanding of land restitution in private nature reserves in South Africa and the land restitution model it produces.
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    Lefebvrean analyses of the South Africa-Botswana international border and borderlands
    (2024) Nkooe, Seanokeng Ernestina ; Ramutsindela, Maano Freddy
    International borders and borderlands are geographically organized political spaces which are primary objects of geographical research. This cluster of geographic border spaces embody the territorial dimensions of Lefebvre's scholarship which are critically under advanced and not readily appropriated in political geography. To address this gap, I advanced Lefebvre's spatiology and rhythmological science territorially for the critical analyses of South Africa's international border with Botswana, and its Batswana inhabited borderlands along the NorthWest Province, Southern District and South Eastern District respectively. Through a qualitative methodological design of spatial rhythmology underpinned by ethnographic as well as archival techniques, I made the following discoveries pertaining the political geography of Tswana populations straddling the international border of South Africa and Botswana at A1 and A2 border gates. I found that (a) the A1-A2 border-gated region of South Africa and Botswana is a territorial polyrhythmia in which the African society of Batswana are the dominant culture. (b) The A1 cross-border gates and borderlands of South Africa and Botswana are dominated by the Tshidi Barolong of Kgosi Montshiwa I, whose prehistoric dynasty is divided between the North-West Province and Botswana's Southern District, while the minority Batloung of Kgosi Shole are ensconced by the transnational Tshidi Barolong. (c) Political relations between the Barolong of Botswana and the Batloung of South Africa are eurhythmic however, the territorial specter of Apartheid and Bophuthatswana interstate histories threatens eurhythmic relations between South African Barolong and the Batloung of Greater Mahikeng, with arrhythmia. (d) There are no tangible cross-border governance structures and interstate relations between South Africa and Botswana despite a high degree of spatial integration and cross-border social interaction. (e) South Africa's international border with Botswana is an asymmetrical fracture line and monumental state space comprising superimposed spaces of accessibility, non-synchronized temporal rhythms, relatively fixed junction points and permanently established places of abode inhabited by a variety of Batswana. (f) The geopolitical spatial practices and asymmetric spatial rhythms of the international border of South Africa and Botswana produce binary border regimes which are directly influenced by interstate variations in their respective international border management practices and migration policies. These findings have significant implications for the Lefebvrean understandings of the contemporary political geography of the Batswana inhabited cross-border region of Southern Africa. Furthermore, the findings enhance the critical need for international border policymakers in the African sub-region to make empirically informed decisions pertaining interstate governance of territorial fracture lines, and the co-management of crossborderlands with territorial societies that inhabit them.
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    Quirimbas: A society reconfigured by nature
    (2022) Ribeiro, Vera; Ramutsindela, Maano Freddy
    Dominant or western imaginations of ‘nature' have been historically imposed on Southern landscapes, resulting in processes of disruption of socio-ecological relations. By using the Quirimbas National Park in Mozambique as a case study, this thesis seeks to understand how nature has been used as an instrument for the social and political stratification of society. The thesis engages with the social construction of nature and nature assemblage theories to explore how binary approaches to conservation dichotomise ‘nature' and ‘culture' and, in the process, force the reconfiguration of society. It draws on examples of wildlife conservation approaches, territorial planning tools and protected area management policies as separation mechanisms which have been applied to the Quirimbas archipelago (and Mozambique) over the longue durée. Besides redefining the physical environment by turning socio-cultural landscapes into ‘nature blocks' or ‘prisons', separation mechanisms also framed the indígena in relation to how nature was perceived and manipulated by powerful groups. To explore how dominant imaginations of nature have been historically projected onto Mozambican landscapes and what that meant for the Quirimba National Park residents, the research adopted an interpretivist approach which relies on qualitative data. The study primarily draws from participant observation, archival research, interviews and focus group discussions with ‘external' actors including conservationists, historians, researchers, government authorities, NGOs, park authorities, conservation organisations and the private tourism sector, as well as ‘internal' ones which comprised park residents. To understand processes of disruption, the thesis analysed qualitative data from the historical periods covering Portuguese colonial rule from the late 1800s up to Mozambique's independence in 1975, and the post-independence period until the 2020s. The three key findings of the study are that, first, mechanisms used to separate or disrupt the links between ‘nature' and ‘culture' in Mozambique tended to fluctuate over time, but essentially maintained the same goal, which was to interrupt the connectivity between people and the environment. Second, the disruption of ‘nature' and ‘culture' led to the placing of locals into different categories that changed over time, in function of Portuguese colonial interests/perceptions of nature, and/or external conservation narratives. In line with this, locals were either perceived as belonging in the wilderness (i.e. part of the local flora and fauna), excluded from it for being primitive and irresponsible towards nature, or reintroduced back in nature to serve the interests of external actors (i.e. native life used as a product for consumption by tourists). Third, when mechanisms of separation disrupt the links people have with the environment, society is forced to reorganise itself and essential socio-ecological relations are disturbed. That is, while people's lives are not necessarily stopped in the process of separation, they are reconfigured in the process or forced to reorganise themselves and/or their livelihoods every time there is a disruption.