Thread by @RuthHallPLAAS

#ArchieMafeje memorial lecture, LAND AND AGRARIAN REFORM IN SOUTH AFRICA Lessons from other parts of the continent

4 September 2020 | 10:00 am to 12pm (CAT/SAST) | Online Seminar Zoom link: zoom.us/j/99768946836?…

Prof. Archie Mafeje (1936-2007) was a leading anthropologist and political economist whose ideas and work on African land and agrarian questions remain profoundly relevant today. An impressive panel discussing him @ #ArchieMafeje memorial.

Prof. @Jimiadesina of @unisa argues that #ArchieMafeje's thought lives on in the scholarly debates about African land, and his notion of a "lineage mode of production" as the dominant African form, rather than land commodification and market-based agrarian relations.

#ArchieMafeje played a leading role in building pan-African scholarship through @CODESRIA, says current director, Prof. Godwin Murunga.

Can our governments move beyond the "politics of the stomach" in favour of land & agrarian reforms? There's anti-intellectualism among political elites. No evidence that the @MYANC has taken heed of Mafeje’s arguments, says #ArchieMafeje's great-niece, Zimkhita Swana.

#ArchiMafeje's early involvement in the Non-European Unity Movement in the 1950s influenced his later scholarship, according to Prof. Lungisile Ntsebeza, African Studies @UCT_news. NEUM leader Isaac Bongani Tabata in particular shaped Mafeje's critique of Eurocentric academia.

#ArchieMafeje wrote extensively on land & agrarian issues. He distinguished between settler colonies & other parts of Africa where the bulk of land wasn't alienated. Whereas all face agrarain questions, settler societies face primarily a #landquestion.
unrisd.org/80256B3C005BCC…

What would #ArchieMafeje advise us to think about? Lungisile suggests:
1. The system of reserves should be abolished.
2. Informal and customary tenure is not obstacle.
3. Democratise land allocation & management.
4. Prioritise smallholder production for domestic markets

Dr Bongani Nyoka criticises biographies of black intellectuals for focusing on their biographies rather than them as knowledge producers - a form of "epistemic closure". So he's published 2 books on #ArchieMafeje - the first as a 'voice of liberation' (Nyoka 2019) 👇🏽

The second book is on #ArchieMafeje's social & political thought, which opens "epistemic possibilities". Bongani says it's not enough to talk about knowledge decolonisation - do it. "Take seriously the ontological narratives of Africans", from lived experience. (Nyoka 2020) 👇🏽

Beyond #ArchieMafeje's polemic on eurocentric anthropology, he argued for non-disciplinarity in the social sciences, to create African ethnography, based on study of African societies on their own terms - says Bongani Nyoka.

Dr Vuyo Mahlati says that racist dispossession cut across class. Land & agrarian reform has to be across the board. Cannot be for the poor only. Here’s the crux of the race versus class issue at #ArchieMafeje memorial. Hot debate... but very polite so far.🔥

Mathole Motshekga of @MYANC NEC & chair of @ParliamentofRSA Section 25 ad hoc committee "strikes a rock" at the @ArchieMafeje lecture, by saying that "if land is allocated to women, won’t that marginalise a great number of men who are unemployed, and cause social dislocation?" 🙄

Now we can relax because it's advocate @TembekaNgcukai1 up next at #ArchieMafeje memorial lecture, who will steer us back to principle & coherence with his historically-informed view on land & the Constitution.

First, @TembekaNgcukai1 demolishes land restitution and its 1913 as "historically senseless", its implementation as "judicialised", exclusionary and corrupt. Raises instead wider question of reparation for land, labour & cattle - and beneficiaries of dispossession. #ArchieMafeje

Second, @TembekaNgcukai1 points out the enormous potential but failure of land redistribution - it's hamstrung by depending on the market, landowners' veto, no process or policy for choosing who gets what. Redistribution is the way forward. #ArchieMafeje

Third, @TembekaNgcukai1 tackles land tenure. What rights do you have over the land you occupy? Colonial conquest rendered tenure of Africans precarious in both rural & urban areas. Alternative = tenure reform, but @MYANC is obsessed with private title. Why? #ArchieMafeje

Now Prof. Patricia McFadden, radical feminist from eSwatini declares "I live in a feudal dictatorship" - scuppering some idealised notions of African traditional hierarchies in the contemporary period. Insists on praxis, linking theory with practice #ArchieMafeje

Patricia McFadden calls for re-connection of feminism with ecology, "We’ve been resisting, critiquing, drawing on the ethical courage of people like #ArchieMafeje, who’ve pointed to the importance of reclaiming ourselves. But we have to now speak to the alternative."

"I’m very alert when it comes to anti-intellectualism. We have to respond vigorously & find the courage to critique nationalism. The backlash against theorising is deeply located w/i the sensibilities of black nationalism, based on black men." - McFadden #ArchieMafeje

Dr @wsschambati director of @AIAS_trust takes us through 6 axes of #landreform & lessons from Zimbabwe... model of acquisition, importance of agency 'from below', farm workers, gender question, post-settlement support & backlash & compensation. #ArchieMafeje

What are the lessons from Zimbabwe? Always contested, but it clearly is a singular case of radical land reform in contemporary period of global neoliberalism. Who benefitted? Empirical data shows mostly ordinary people, as well as elites - @wsschambati @AIAS_trust #ArchieMafeje

Less explored is agrarian labour after fast-track #landreform in Zimbabwe. @wsschambati says some farm workers were resettled but most not. They still reside in former farm compounds, with varied labour & tenure relations. Superexploitation of labour persists. #ArchieMafeje

Well, the #ArchieMafeje memorial lecture was great. Thanks a lot, @HSRCza and @aisa_research. We @PLAASuwc have been engaging his work with @boamonjane @toveratm @RamaKatlego @NkanyisoGums @sthaYeni and others. Ongoing conversations...

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