Clear as mud: the blurred influence of history on contemporary governance of natural resources in southern Africa

1. Solidarity-based governance model for Commons

Sukanya Chakravorty

Indian School of Business, Hyderabad, India

The African Commons, as a proprietary system survived inspite of the extent of damage which was inflicted upon it during 100 years of ruthless exploitation by colonial authorities, denial of their judicial content and systematic administrative, judicial and legislative subversion.

It must be understood that the Commons are not open access systems derived out of state, cooperative or socialist property. The Commons are managed decision-making levels in the form of an inverted pyramid with the tip representing the family, the middle the clan and lineage, and the base, the community. The defining characteristics of the Commons are, that land is held as a transgenerational asset, managed at different levels of social organization, and used for defined function such as cultivation, grazing and bio-diversity conservation.

The reconstruction of the African Commons will require innovation, flexibility and contextualisation. There are no precedents out there on which to base legislative design. Fundamental concepts, principles and structures will have to be developed and operationalised to reflect realities on the ground. Solidarity-based governance model for resources is becoming increasingly relevant amid current health, climate and social crises.

The driving forces behind solidarity based governnce model is to adopt an endogenous development model, based on the identification of various essential commons and the promotion of a local, low-carbon economy which can generate inclusive growth. Over time there will be adoption of more collaborative strategies to protect commons and their resources by enlisting the support of regional communities.

2. Privatization of bordering: how surplus people are repurposed by commercial agriculture in the Southern African borderlands

Lerato Thakholi¹ and Maud Sebelebele²

¹Wageningen University and Research, Netherlands, ²Institute of Poverty Land and Agrarian Studies, South Africa

From the Poniente Almeriense, in southern Spain to the commercial agricultural farms on the border of South Africa and Zimbabwe, borderscapes across the world are littered with commercial agricultural enterprises. What sets the locations of these commercial agricultural enterprises apart is their direct access to international and regional flows of undocumented surplus labour. The paper analyses the South African-Zimbabwe border, where private commercial farms and game reserves in the former become the landing pad for migrant workers escaping the economic downturn in Zimbabwe. It conceptualizes the privatization of bordering as a process in which private landowners reconfigure border landscapes by controlling the mobility of those seeking to re-enter the production sphere. The paper argues that these farms are central in the making of international boundaries because they act as holding centers for migrant workers. That is, private property along the international border enables private commercial crop and game farmers to control the movement of people and goods while simultaneously capturing some people for their labour under highly exploitative conditions. In so doing, these properties become integral in the (re)integration of surplus people in predatory capitalist economies. Furthermore, we show that the state through the police force, immigration officers and the labour department, facilitates this process because it serves particular interests and narratives.

3. Clear as mud: the blurred influence of history on contemporary governance of natural resources in southern Africa

Witness Kozanayi¹ and Philile Mbatha²

¹Department of Wildlife and Fisheries Management. Marondera University of Agricultural Sciences and Technology, Zimbabwe, ²Department of Environmental and Geographical Sciences. University of Cape Town, South Africa

Within the African context, there is poor recognition for how colonial and other hegemonic histories are playing out and influencing contemporary governance processes and practices, especially in rural landscapes. Contemporary governance strategies are largely molded upon and informed by historical regimes, ideologies and practices. Present day governance processes and practices use the guise of conservation and livelihoods when they rely on strategies that mirror those from historical legacies that benefited the powerful few and marginalized the majorities. This study focuses on Zimbabwe and South Africa, to interrogate the underlying philosophies and motives of historically key environmental laws, policies and customary systems in natural resource governance. The study demonstrates how history is conveniently recast into the present and future by all actors in order to assert and justify their interests in the commodification of the commons. To constitute and reconstitute resource-sharing arrangements, policy makers and resource users use current and historical knowledge of their circumstances. Use of history to regulate or negotiate access to natural resources has profound impacts on the governance of natural resources. To understand current governance practices, a historical understanding of the motive of the pertinent laws and policies is imperative, especially for countries which have a checkered history of disempowerment and re-empowerment of indigenous communities. Findings from the study point to the need to underline the importance of history in contemporary governance processes and the governability of resources, and the manner in which marginalized groups are able to use and access resources and livelihoods on the ground.