Borders of Mutuality, Frontiers of Resistance
Paternalism and Working Identities of Farm Labourers in the Sundays River Valley, South Africa
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 2137724 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Teresa K Connor (0000-0002-3135-8502, University of Fort Hare, corresponding author), Teresa Connor (0000-0002-7630-5156) |
| Year | 2013 |
| Volume | 72 |
| Issue | 3 |
| Pages | 375-398 |
| Publication date | 2013-12-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | African Studies (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0002-0184 • E-ISSN: 1469-2872 |
| Publisher | Informa UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1080/00020184.2013.851466 |
| OpenAlex | W2031600710 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 3 |
| References cited | 24 |
This article deals with the practice of work on farms in the Sundays River Valley, a farming district located near the city of Port Elizabeth in the Eastern Cape Province, South Africa. Situated on a historical frontier zone where land has been claimed by multiple generations of both farmers and farm workers, I analyse the incidence of paternalism and payment in kind on one particular farm in the district, with particular reference to ostrich work. I point out that paternalism has meaning beyond that of subservience and enslavement, and that working relationships among masters and servants have produced a very rural and conservative 'Red' identity among workers, based on historical claims to land and a working knowledge of farming techniques. The article argues that this type of 'frontier paternalism' produces ways in which workers can resist working practices on farms, particularly through sustaining ties with kin and maintaining memories of past tenure on farms in the district. Overall, the article argues that the relative recency of tenure relationships in the Sundays River Valley re-orientates the analysis of farm labour beyond subservience, and centralises workers as people with a vested history, culture and identity. These idioms of place provide recourse to even the most temporary and unstable forms of work in the district, since it is within the experience of disruption that the greatest level of resistance is eventually experienced
Agriculture · Archaeology · Frontier · Geography · Identity (music · Paternalism · Political science · Resistance (ecology · Sociology · African history and culture studies · African studies and sociopolitical issues · Law · South African History and Culture
Cutting down trees
The Historical meanings of work
Putting a plough to the ground
Economy and society in pre-industrial South Africa
Reaction to conquest
Outline of a Theory of Practice
Precarious Liberation
Locality and Belonging
Domination and the Arts of Resistance
Class, Race, and Inequality in South Africa
The frontier revisited
Land for the Landless
No Fixed Abode
Beyond Red and School
Umgidi at the Mabambas
The micro-politics of paternalism
The Anthropology of Work
Xhosa Beer Drinking Rituals
Monkey in a spiderweb
Introduction
| Unique citing works | 3 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 0,3 |
| Citation span | 2016 - 2021 (6) |
| Citation velocity | historical |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 3 |