Relevant, important and credible: reflections on applying anthropology in the South African land restitution process

Broadbridge, Helena Tara

Relevant, important and credible: reflections on applying anthropology in the South African land restitution process

Thesis / Dissertation

1997

Publisher

University of Cape Town

Department

Social Anthropology

Faculty

Faculty of Humanities

Abstract

After decades of institutionalised racism, South Africa has recently embarked upon a nation-building process of reconstruction, development and reconciliation. Central to the country's land reform is the Commission on Restitution of Land Rights, through which people may seek restitution for land rights lost under racially discriminatory legislation and practices of the past eight decades. The dissertation explores the contribution which applied anthropology can make to the land restitution process. I argue that, through its particular knowledge and explanatory power, applied anthropology is able to expose and sensitise actors to the complexities and dynamics of power structures and social relations, as they manifest themselves in the process of lodging, researching and settling a land claim. An understanding of these issues is crucial to the timeous and successful completion of claims and to realising the broader goals of the Commission on Restitution of Land Rights. I illustrate my argument with an analysis of my experience as an applied anthropologist working for the Commission on Restitution of Land Rights in Cape Town. Between October 1996 and March 1997, I researched the land claim of the 'Ndabeni Community', Greater Cape Town, in preparation for its referral to the Land Claims Court for settlement. The people seek restitution for their forced removal from Ndabeni to Langa between 1927 and 1936. The research applied anthropological, qualitative, research methods including participant observation of the land restitution process (as manifest in the. meetings and activities of the Commission and the claimant population) and in-depth interviews (of key actors). My brief from the Commission required me to conduct structured and semi-structured interviews and extensive archival research (for the compilation of a historical overview of the dispossession), as well as limited quantitative research (for the compilation of a socio-economic profile of the claimant population). The dissertation reflects critically upon how knowledge, participation and power was articulated in the tasks I was given, and in the relationships I established, during my research. The task of writing a historical overview of the dispossession made me an agent in instrumentalising a certain version of the past. I show how an understanding of the dynamics of memory can assist in overcoming the challenge of negotiating multiple memories and shaping them into a single representation. My research demonstrates how the perspective and methods of applied anthropology can make a relevant, important, and credible contribution to achieving the objectives of the land restitution process. In so doing I also demonstrate the broader ability of applied anthropology to generate useful social knowledge.

Keywords

Social Anthropology

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