Keeping Land for Their Children

Generation, Migration and Land in South Africa's Transkei

Datos Bibliográficos

ID5083476
AutoresDerick A Fay, Derick Fay (0000-0003-1396-2842, University of California, Riverside, autor de correspondencia)
Año2015
Volumen41
Número5
Páginas1083-1097
Fecha de publicación2015-09-03
Peer ReviewedSí
Open AccessNo
TipoARTICLE
RevistaJournal of Southern African Studies (JOURNAL)
Identificadores de la revistaISSN: 0305-7070 • E-ISSN: 1465-3893
EditorialInforma UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/03057070.2015.1077421
OpenAlexW1661124292
IdiomaEN
Citas recibidas8

Even as they cultivate less land, residents of Hobeni, in the former Transkei homeland, describe increasing concerns over land shortage, explaining that disused land has its owners who ‘are keeping that land for their children’. This paper examines the social practices that shape rural land tenure, in a setting where traditional authorities bear little relevance to customary tenure. Land in this context holds value not only for agricultural and residential use; it is a resource for rural residents to persuade migrants to maintain their rural ties, in a political-economic context in which migration has become more unstable and insecure. Attention to the attractive value of land as a resource situated in relations between migrants and rural kin also highlights the limits of a narrowly economic perspective on apparently ‘underutilised’ land: land may be materially ‘unproductive’ but socially valuable

Geography · Political science · Socioeconomics · Sociology · African history and culture studies · African studies and sociopolitical issues · Legal Issues in South Africa