Thembela Kepe
Datos Biográficos
| ID | 92931 |
|---|---|
| NOMBRE | Thembela Kepe |
| NOMBRES | Thembela |
| APELLIDO | Kepe |
| FIRMA | KEPE T |
| AFILIACIONES | University of Toronto |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-1807-0387 |
| VERIFICADO | Sí |
| TOTAL DE OBRAS | 47 |
| TOTAL DE CITAS | 183 |
| TOTAL COMO AUTOR | 45 |
| TOTAL COMO EDITOR | 2 |
| PRIMER AÑO DE PUBLICACIÓN | 1997 |
| AÑO MÁS RECIENTE DE PUBLICACIÓN | 2026 |
| ÍNDICE H | 8 |
What happens on land reform farms in South Africa? A field-based reality check
Land reform in South Africa has not only been slow compared to official targets and popular expectations, but also, where land has been acquired for redistribution, people lack secure rights and have limited options for improving their livelihoods. In this paper we report on our field-based research on ten projects in the Eastern Cape, offering insights that can only become visible with detailed fieldwork. In our initial study, none of the benefi…
The Political Ecology of Contested Land Use Planning in the Context of Urban Livestock Farming and Urban Sprawl in South Africa
Land tenure (in) security in the context of urban flood risk in Ghana
The increasing incidence of floods driven by urbanization and climate change destabilizes urban social, economic and environmental systems where land tenure is integral. Land tenure security is regarded as an essential element in navigating adaptations to disaster events, including floods. However, the occurrence of floods itself could be a source of land tenure insecurity. This study, drawing on political ecology and the diverse theoretical fram…
Situated urban political ecology of climate resilience planning
The insufficient focus on power and equity in earlier resilience thinking prompted urban resilience planning scholars to explore urban political ecology for insights into the power dynamics that influence varying levels of vulnerability and resilience to urban environmental stressors. However, the predominance of neoliberal capitalist logic in Marxist urban political ecology attracted criticism and calls for a situated urban political ecology. Th…
Sand mining governance in post-apartheid South Africa
Memorials and shifting meanings of rural revolts in South Africa
This article uses the case of the commemoration of the Mpondo Revolts and the massacre by the state of defenceless villagers in Mpondoland in 1960 to argue that the political elite engage in distortions of history for political gain. The ruling party elite have over time omitted or added narratives about the revolts, thus gradually marginalising their significance. Part of the distortion of the history of the revolts is the gradual attempt to cha…
Land as Common Property
The High Court Ruling Against Ingonyama Trust
This article discusses the implication of the 2021 CASAC v Ingonyama Trust judgment on South Africa’s land governance policy trajectories. It explores the extent to which there are missing links between policy imperatives, the legal system, court processes and socio-economic emancipation. It argues that the failure of the state in policy design and implementation has turned courts into contradictory sites of struggle for emancipating land rights.…
Resolving land conflicts through Alternative Dispute Resolution
Navigating Community and Place Through Colloquial Street Names in Fingo Village, Makhanda (Grahamstown)
Land and Fragility of Peace in Postwar Liberia
Land Redistribution in South Africa
Contrary to populist political discourses, in South Africa the ruling party’s approach to land \npolicy is reproducing paternalistic relations that echo apartheid practices and represent the \n’colonial present’. This reality stands in stark contrast to the initial aim of land reform, which \nwas conceived as part of a larger project of decolonisation. The latest land redistribution \nstrategy, the Proactive Land Acquisition Strategy, where the s…
Elite capture and state neglect
The most recent incarnation of South Africa’s land reform is a model of state purchase of farms to be provided on leasehold, rather than transferring title. This briefing presents headline findings from our field research in one district
Creating learning and action space in South Africa’s post-apartheid land redistribution program
This paper uses the case of South Africa’s latest land redistribution strategy known as the Proactive Land Acquisition Strategy, to explore whether, and how, research can have direct and positive impacts on beneficiaries of land reform. The study is situated within the practice of action research: to explore how it can generate knowledge that can be shared back and forth between stakeholders, as well as how it may ignite changes that the particip…
Spaces of Contention
Collective violence and the agrarian origins of South African apartheid, 1900–1948
Collective violence and the agrarian origins of South African apartheid, 1900–1948." Safundi, 17(3), pp. 361–362
Understanding the Resurgence of Traditional Authorities in Post-Apartheid South Africa
Drawing their power not from the ballot box but from a supposedly ancient wellspring of power, hereditary traditional authorities in postcolonial Africa have frequently posed challenges for incoming ‘democratic’ governments. The situation in post-apartheid South Africa is no different. However contentious their role under the colonial and apartheid systems of government was, the Constitution of the new South Africa (1996) recognised traditional a…
Co-Management, Land Rights, and Conflicts Around South Africa’s Silaka Nature Reserve
Globally, co-management of protected areas (PAs) offers promise in efforts to achieve ecological integrity and livelihood needs. Most co-management agreements are premised on joint decision making in defining equitable sharing of benefits from and the management responsibilities for natural resource management. However, co-managed PAs are often conflict ridden. The forceful closure of Silaka Nature Reserve in South Africa in 2013 by a local commu…
Youth under construction
As the 2015 deadline for the Millennium Development Goals approaches, youth have been ushered into the United Nation's decision-making processes for global development in the post-2015 era with a sense of uncontested urgency. Through the “global conversation” – a large scale participatory process involving consultations with youth and other groups – participation has featured prominently in the making of the post-2015 global development agenda. U…
Farmers at the Edge
‘Development’ at the crossroads
In South Africa, extreme rural poverty often geographically overlaps with areas of high and important biodiversity. Attempts to bring about land-based poverty reduction projects in such areas tends to trigger tensions among stakeholders purporting to be concerned about local people’s welfare, as well as the environment. Using discursive document analysis and semi-structured interviews, the paper discusses a case study of the Wild Coast, an area c…
Trading-off
Indigenous voices and the making of the post-2015 development agenda
This paper explores recent efforts to ensure the participation of indigenous peoples in the making of the post-2015 development agenda. It is based on an examination of the UN’s global consultation process, conducted between July 2012 and July 2013. Using discursive analysis of consultation findings and reports, we argue that the UN’s approach to participatory development represents a pretence rather than an actual shift in power from development…
Globalization, Science, and the Making of an Environmental Discourse on the Wild Coast, South Africa
This paper uses the case of the proposed Pondoland National Park in South Africa, which is in the center of policy debates about biodiversity conservation, development, and resource rights in the Wild Coast area of South Africa. It explores whether the making of the case for the conservation of the Wild Coast, which relies on global environmental discourses, has ideologically and practically clarified local poor people's resource rights. It does …
Contextualising development projects among the San of Botswana
The San of Botswana are marginalised and live in poverty. Through semi-structured interviews and participant observation in two San communities, we analyse challenges facing community garden initiatives, and find that the failure of the gardens related to how the San are treated, as well as how they themselves have come to view their situation as destitute people. We conclude that forced resettlement, and historical livelihood disruption, as well…
Elite capture and state neglect
The most recent incarnation of South Africa’s land reform is a model of state purchase of farms to be provided on leasehold, rather than transferring title. This briefing presents headline findings from our field research in one district
Land Redistribution in South Africa
Contrary to populist political discourses, in South Africa the ruling party’s approach to land \npolicy is reproducing paternalistic relations that echo apartheid practices and represent the \n’colonial present’. This reality stands in stark contrast to the initial aim of land reform, which \nwas conceived as part of a larger project of decolonisation. The latest land redistribution \nstrategy, the Proactive Land Acquisition Strategy, where the s…
Secrets' that kill
Understanding the Resurgence of Traditional Authorities in Post-Apartheid South Africa
Drawing their power not from the ballot box but from a supposedly ancient wellspring of power, hereditary traditional authorities in postcolonial Africa have frequently posed challenges for incoming ‘democratic’ governments. The situation in post-apartheid South Africa is no different. However contentious their role under the colonial and apartheid systems of government was, the Constitution of the new South Africa (1996) recognised traditional a…
Trading-off
Indigenous voices and the making of the post-2015 development agenda
This paper explores recent efforts to ensure the participation of indigenous peoples in the making of the post-2015 development agenda. It is based on an examination of the UN’s global consultation process, conducted between July 2012 and July 2013. Using discursive analysis of consultation findings and reports, we argue that the UN’s approach to participatory development represents a pretence rather than an actual shift in power from development…
Unjustified optimism
The World Bank Development Report 2008 sees agriculture as a crucial instrument for sustainable development and poverty reduction. It emphasises the need for a sharp productivity increase in smallholder farming, as well as more effective support to millions of subsistence farmers. However, while admitting that there are challenges in making this goal a reality, the report fails to fully acknowledge the legacy of colonialism and apartheid on land …
Between Global Interests and Local Needs
This article presents the case of the creation and expansion of Namaqua National Park in Namaqualand, South Africa, to highlight the contradictions between global interests in biodiversity conservation and local livelihoods. Despite the policy shift in the conservation literature from 'fortress' to community-based conservation, we argue that in practice conservation still tends to dominate when there is a trade-off between Western-style conservat…
Resolving land conflicts through Alternative Dispute Resolution
Agricultural cooperatives and social empowerment of women
This article presents a case study of Manyakabi Area Cooperative Enterprise in south-western Uganda, which shows that benefits from agricultural cooperatives can extend beyond monetary tangibles. We discuss several social factors that women members claimed have improved since they became members of the cooperative, including their confidence, their negotiating skills, the ability to be of service to their communities through transferring skills t…
Co-Management, Land Rights, and Conflicts Around South Africa’s Silaka Nature Reserve
Globally, co-management of protected areas (PAs) offers promise in efforts to achieve ecological integrity and livelihood needs. Most co-management agreements are premised on joint decision making in defining equitable sharing of benefits from and the management responsibilities for natural resource management. However, co-managed PAs are often conflict ridden. The forceful closure of Silaka Nature Reserve in South Africa in 2013 by a local commu…
Beyond the numbers
Creating Grasslands
Communities, Entitlements and Nature Reserves
‘Community?based sustainable development’ has become central to the development rhetoric of the new South Africa, whereby local communities are expected to be involved in decisions from which they were previously excluded. But how do such processes work in practice, especially where conflicts over resource use are much in evidence? Through a case study of the Mkambati area of the Wild Coast in the Eastern Cape, this article explores how the inter…
Dealing Land in the Midst of Poverty
Customary tenure in Africa has tended to be marginalized in favour of statutory control and privatisation, including public areas protected for wildlife and forest conservation. Zambia has retained a significant proportion of customary land controlled by traditional authorities (chiefs), although access to wildlife and other natural resources is controlled by the state. Recent private sector investment in the agricultural and tourism sectors has …
Sand mining governance in post-apartheid South Africa
Youth under construction
As the 2015 deadline for the Millennium Development Goals approaches, youth have been ushered into the United Nation's decision-making processes for global development in the post-2015 era with a sense of uncontested urgency. Through the “global conversation” – a large scale participatory process involving consultations with youth and other groups – participation has featured prominently in the making of the post-2015 global development agenda. U…
Globalization, Science, and the Making of an Environmental Discourse on the Wild Coast, South Africa
This paper uses the case of the proposed Pondoland National Park in South Africa, which is in the center of policy debates about biodiversity conservation, development, and resource rights in the Wild Coast area of South Africa. It explores whether the making of the case for the conservation of the Wild Coast, which relies on global environmental discourses, has ideologically and practically clarified local poor people's resource rights. It does …
Land and Justice in South Africa
In addition to challenges facing South Africa’s overall post-apartheid land reform, group rural land claims have particularly proven difficult to resolve. This paper explores the role that the state plays in shaping the outcomes of rural group land claims. It analyzes policy statements, including from policy documents, guidelines and speeches made by politicians during ceremonies to hand over land rights to rural claimants; seeking to understand …
Implementing Education for All—Whose agenda, whose change? The case study of the Ghana National Education Campaign Coalition
Magwa Tea Venture in South Africa
Agricultural parastatals were a common feature during apartheid and were intended, according to the government, to address poverty in the Bantustans. However the failure of these projects to achieve the publicised goals, mainly due to their heavy dependence on government funding, led to a belief that their establishment was motivated more by politics than the stated reasons. Following a review of these parastatals, the post-apartheid government i…
Land and Fragility of Peace in Postwar Liberia
Creating learning and action space in South Africa’s post-apartheid land redistribution program
This paper uses the case of South Africa’s latest land redistribution strategy known as the Proactive Land Acquisition Strategy, to explore whether, and how, research can have direct and positive impacts on beneficiaries of land reform. The study is situated within the practice of action research: to explore how it can generate knowledge that can be shared back and forth between stakeholders, as well as how it may ignite changes that the particip…
Smallholder farmer participation in local and regional food aid procurement
Local and regional food aid procurement (LRP) – the purchase and distribution of food aid within andbetween developing countries – has recently become a common occurrence. In contrast to traditionalmethods of food aid provision, which are costly cross-border operations and often slow to respond duringemergencies, LRP aims to combat food insecurity in a more effective, economical and contained manner.There is a limited amount of research concernin…
The Elusive ‘Fair Deal’ in South Africa's Land Reform
Communities, Entitlements and Nature Reserves
‘Community?based sustainable development’ has become central to the development rhetoric of the new South Africa, whereby local communities are expected to be involved in decisions from which they were previously excluded. But how do such processes work in practice, especially where conflicts over resource use are much in evidence? Through a case study of the Mkambati area of the Wild Coast in the Eastern Cape, this article explores how the inter…
Creating Grasslands
Decentralisation when Land and Resource Rights are Deeply Contested
Land Restitution and Biodiversity Conservation in South Africa
(2004). Land Restitution and Biodiversity Conservation in South Africa: The Case of Mkambati, Eastern Cape Province. Canadian Journal of African Studies / Revue canadienne des études africaines: Vol. 38, No. 3, pp. 688-704
Magwa Tea Venture in South Africa
Agricultural parastatals were a common feature during apartheid and were intended, according to the government, to address poverty in the Bantustans. However the failure of these projects to achieve the publicised goals, mainly due to their heavy dependence on government funding, led to a belief that their establishment was motivated more by politics than the stated reasons. Following a review of these parastatals, the post-apartheid government i…
Beyond the numbers
Social Dynamics of the Value of Wild Edible Leaves ( Imifino ) in a South African Rural Area
The contribution of wild edible leaves to the livelihoods of rural poor is widely acknowledged. Yet the notion of value of these natural resources is poorly understood. Using a case from Mkambati area, South Africa, this article suggests that in order to better understand resource value, both realized (in terms of material benefits and contributions to livelihoods) and notional (in terms of appreciation of resources and their potential uses), a b…
Discordant Harvest
Despite the geographic and context-specific nature of the relationship, the strong link between biodiversity use and poverty is acknowledged worldwide. Biodiversity is seen as both being negatively affected by, and contributing in the fight against, poverty. Agathosma betulina (buchu), a plant growing in the Cederberg Mountains in South Africa, has a global commercial value for use in medicine, food and cosmetics. It is also popular among the poo…
Dealing Land in the Midst of Poverty
Customary tenure in Africa has tended to be marginalized in favour of statutory control and privatisation, including public areas protected for wildlife and forest conservation. Zambia has retained a significant proportion of customary land controlled by traditional authorities (chiefs), although access to wildlife and other natural resources is controlled by the state. Recent private sector investment in the agricultural and tourism sectors has …
Why are Students Attracted to Political Ecology
There is no abstract for this paper
Between Global Interests and Local Needs
This article presents the case of the creation and expansion of Namaqua National Park in Namaqualand, South Africa, to highlight the contradictions between global interests in biodiversity conservation and local livelihoods. Despite the policy shift in the conservation literature from 'fortress' to community-based conservation, we argue that in practice conservation still tends to dominate when there is a trade-off between Western-style conservat…
Unjustified optimism
The World Bank Development Report 2008 sees agriculture as a crucial instrument for sustainable development and poverty reduction. It emphasises the need for a sharp productivity increase in smallholder farming, as well as more effective support to millions of subsistence farmers. However, while admitting that there are challenges in making this goal a reality, the report fails to fully acknowledge the legacy of colonialism and apartheid on land …
Land, Memory, Reconstruction, and Justice
An examination of ‘Participation’ and ‘Sustainability’ in a Food Security Project among the Rural Poor in Northwestern Tanzania
Implementing Education for All—Whose agenda, whose change? The case study of the Ghana National Education Campaign Coalition
Secrets' that kill
Rural Resistance in South Africa
Much has been written about anti-apartheid resistance by the marginalized people of South Africa, as well as its violent repression by security forces in urban areas (e.g. Sharpeville massacre; Soweto riots). Very little attention has been paid to resistance by rural people. The Mpondo Revolts, which began in the 1950s and reached a climax in 1960, rank among the most significant rural resistances in South Africa. Here Mpondo villagers emphatical…
Smallholder farmer participation in local and regional food aid procurement
Local and regional food aid procurement (LRP) – the purchase and distribution of food aid within andbetween developing countries – has recently become a common occurrence. In contrast to traditionalmethods of food aid provision, which are costly cross-border operations and often slow to respond duringemergencies, LRP aims to combat food insecurity in a more effective, economical and contained manner.There is a limited amount of research concernin…
The Elusive ‘Fair Deal’ in South Africa's Land Reform
Can land reform terminate injustice in South Africa? A reply to Derman and Fay
Trying to suggest the ultimate solution to poverty and historical land injustices in South Africa is a challenging, and perhaps futile, exercise. We wish to note that our article was envisioned as
Agricultural cooperatives and social empowerment of women
This article presents a case study of Manyakabi Area Cooperative Enterprise in south-western Uganda, which shows that benefits from agricultural cooperatives can extend beyond monetary tangibles. We discuss several social factors that women members claimed have improved since they became members of the cooperative, including their confidence, their negotiating skills, the ability to be of service to their communities through transferring skills t…
Land and Justice in South Africa
In addition to challenges facing South Africa’s overall post-apartheid land reform, group rural land claims have particularly proven difficult to resolve. This paper explores the role that the state plays in shaping the outcomes of rural group land claims. It analyzes policy statements, including from policy documents, guidelines and speeches made by politicians during ceremonies to hand over land rights to rural claimants; seeking to understand …
Contextualising development projects among the San of Botswana
The San of Botswana are marginalised and live in poverty. Through semi-structured interviews and participant observation in two San communities, we analyse challenges facing community garden initiatives, and find that the failure of the gardens related to how the San are treated, as well as how they themselves have come to view their situation as destitute people. We conclude that forced resettlement, and historical livelihood disruption, as well…
Farmers at the Edge
‘Development’ at the crossroads
In South Africa, extreme rural poverty often geographically overlaps with areas of high and important biodiversity. Attempts to bring about land-based poverty reduction projects in such areas tends to trigger tensions among stakeholders purporting to be concerned about local people’s welfare, as well as the environment. Using discursive document analysis and semi-structured interviews, the paper discusses a case study of the Wild Coast, an area c…
Political science (38 obras) · Geography (32 obras) · Economics (28 obras) · Law (27 obras) · Economic growth (24 obras) · Sociology (24 obras) · Land Rights and Reforms (22 obras) · Agriculture (17 obras) · Law (17 obras) · Politics (17 obras)