Displaced People, Replaced Narratives
Forest Conflicts and Historical Perspectives in the Tsolo District, Transkei
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 4604631 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Jacob Tropp (Middlebury College, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2003 |
| Volume | 29 |
| Issue | 1 |
| Pages | 207-233 |
| Publication date | 2003-03-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Journal of Southern African Studies (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0305-7070 • E-ISSN: 1465-3893 |
| Publisher | Informa UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1080/0305707032000060458 |
| OpenAlex | W2137860044 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 14 |
This article examines the long-term development of state forestry's dominance in the Tsolo district of the former Transkeian region of South Africa. From 1885 to 1915, as part of colonialism's entrenchment in local African communities, the successive Cape Colony and South African governments first instituted the structures of state control over indigenous forests, absorbing demarcated areas into a government reserve system and regulating and policing popular access to forest resources. Building upon this formative period, apartheid planners embarked on an aggressive afforestation programme in the late 1950s and early 1960s in the district, culminating in the complete removal of the communities of one ward, the Gqogqora location, and their replacement with exotic tree plantations. Despite the significant and often drastic changes colonial and apartheid schemes brought to local residents, these experiences have been largely silenced by inherited state narratives of the Transkei's 'conservation' and 'development' history. Contrary to such accounts, the introduction and expansion of state forestry in Transkeian communities was a highly contested process, as African men and women negotiated increasing state intrusions into their livelihoods amid deeper social and ecological changes in their lives. Popular experiences and memories of this history reveal the significant conflicts over meaning - the meaning of both forest resources and state interventions into their use - which accompanied the reconfiguration of local environments and peoples
Afforestation · Agriculture · Appropriation · Archaeology · Colonialism · Economic growth · Economics · Ethnology · Geography · Indigenous · Livelihood · Narrative · Political economy · Political science · Sociology · African history and culture studies · African studies and sociopolitical issues · Law · South African History and Culture · Ecology · Forestry
The Conservation and Utilisation of the Natural World
Livelihood transitions in selected former homelands of South Africa
Tackling Environmental and Epistemic Injustice
An Exceptional Strike
Conflicts over industrial tree plantations in the South
The El Dorado of Forestry
Latitudes and Longitudes
A systematic review of the socio-economic impacts of large-scale tree plantations, worldwide
Socio-economic impacts of private land use investment on rural communities
Trees, forests and communities’
Globalization, Science, and the Making of an Environmental Discourse on the Wild Coast, South Africa
Forests, food, and fuel in the tropics
Land Restitution and Biodiversity Conservation in South Africa
Every African a Nationalist
| Unique citing works | 14 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 0,56 |
| Citation span | 2001 - 2025 (25) |
| Citation velocity | recent |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 13 |