Settler Colonialism and Land Rights in South Africa: Possession and Dispossession on the Orange River

179 Pages·2013·0.753 MB·English

by  Edward Cavanagh (auth.)

The Palgrave Macmillan
Settler Colonialism and Land
Rights in South Africa
Possession and Dispossession on
the Orange River
Edward Cavanagh
Settler Colonialism and Land Rights in South Africa
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Settler Colonialism and
Land Rights in South
Africa
Possession and Dispossession on the
Orange River
Edward Cavanagh
TrilliumFoundationScholar,UniversityofOttawa
©EdwardCavanagh2013
Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 2013 978-1-137-30576-3
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For Jane and Mick
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Contents
ListofFigures viii
Acknowledgements ix
ANoteonTerminology xii
Introduction:Land,Sovereignty,andIndigeneityinSouth
Africa 1
1 TheErasureofPastInterestsinLandatPhilippolis 24
2 TheGriquaLandRegimeandItsChallenges 40
3 TheErasureofPastInterestsinLandatOrania 62
4 TheOranianLandRegimeandItsChallenges 74
Conclusion:LandRegimesandPropertyRightsonthe
OrangeRiver 90
Afterword:OnRestitutionandDispossession 101
Notes 119
Bibliography 149
Index 159
vii
Figures
I.1 AmapofthemiddleOrangeRiver 12
2.1 AnexampleofaGriqualease 46
4.1 Frontpageoftheapplicationform 77
viii
Acknowledgements
The first acknowledgement of this book should be offered to South
African President Jacob Zuma and the African National Congress
(ANC), in this, the hundredth year since the passage of the first
Union-passed Natives Land Act. Delivering the ANC anniversary
statement in January, Zuma gave the strongest indication yet that
‘ourgovernmentwillre-openthelodgementdateforclaimsandpro-
vide for the exception’ in existing land law, potentially allowing for
historical acts of dispossession to fall within the hitherto restricted
scope of land restitution. It should also be acknowledged that the
specificnatureofthesereformsremainedunclarifiedasthisbookwas
going to print. For this reason (and also because similar proposals
havebeenbandiedaboutatANCgatheringsoverthelastfewyears),I
havenotfoundmyselfcompelledtoamendacornerstoneargument
of this book about the politicised version of South African history
whichresultedinthesubscriptiontoastrangelyrestricteddefinition
of ‘dispossession’ by the Commission on Restitution of Land Rights
between1994and2012.
The research for this study was done hard and fast, and I have
incurred many debts. I am grateful to the NRF History Workshop
attheUniversityoftheWitwatersrandforitsaccommodationofmy
interestsduringmytimeinSouthAfrica.Imustalsoacknowledgethe
financial support of the Ford Foundation, a wonderful organisation
withacommendablemission,andlikewisetheMooneeValleyFoun-
dation,whichsponsoredmyinitialresearchtriptoSouthAfrica.The
CapeArchivesshowedmeallthedocumentsIneeded,andtheUni-
versityoftheWitwatersrandlibraryshippedinallthebooksIwanted.
Thankstoboth.
TherearemanyscholarsfromwhomIhavetakeninspiration,and
theywillfindtheirnameinfootnotes.Anumberofindividualssup-
ported this research more directly, in one way or another. Julian
Brown,CliveGlaser,EmileCoetzee,andLiezemarieJohannesdeserve
mybiggestthanks.IamalsoindebtedtoMathewAbbott,Mohamed
Adhikari,RobertArculus,BaasBadenhorst,PhilBonner,SamChallis,
ix