I finished writing my thesis in the summer, after some struggling, some nightshifts and all the pleasureful moments when inspiration strikes. Here is the executive summary:
In this thesis I analyse how rural Basotho in the Butha-Buthe district, Lesotho, claim and use land in relation to their local state institutions and a transfrontier conservation area, the Maloti-Drakensberg Transfrontier Conservation and Development Project (MDTP). The land claims and uses of rural Basotho are mainly based on their subsistence lifestyle. Land is claimed for agriculture, grazing and residential sites. Besides this they have places that are invested with cultural meaning, e.g. spiritual sites.
It is these claims and uses that are partly contested by the MDTP. The MDTP is a joint project of Lesotho and South Africa with the objectives of biodiversity conservation and economic development of the local population through nature-based tourism across their state borders. Conservation is promoted as land use option through which nature-based tourism as livelihood strategy can emerge. Notwithstanding its intention, I argue that the MDTP zones land to influence and affect the people’s land use. Mapping is an important tool as are pilot project areas, both elements of a process of territorialisation.
The local state is marked by an extended period of unclear jurisdiction and a vacuum in local governance. The election of Community Councils in 2005 was meant to close this gap. These Community Councils claim the right to natural resource management, including the allocation of land and the restriction of its use, in competition with traditional structures. The MDTP strengthens the elected body, mainly by the creation of another, more local advisory body, thus effectively enhancing the presence of the state in the villages. Notwithstanding this standardisation of local land administration, both elected bodies do cooperate with the traditional structure, which has retained much practical power among the local population.
The rural Basotho interact in a variety of patterns with both the state and the MDTP. In the interaction with the local state institutions, the rural Basotho utilise the competing jurisdiction to shop for the appropriate procedure and forum to realise their own end. The interaction with the MDTP takes place as disregard (unawareness and refusal), instrumentalisation, commitment and protest. It is through these patterns of interaction as well as the shopping behaviour that the Basotho claim their agency. They interpret and evaluate what is presented to them by the MDTP and the state against their life projects and livelihood options and then interact via the patterns outlined.
In a wider context, I conclude that development and conservation projects are an alien, external agenda, far removed from people’s culturally and historically constituted life projects. Therefore most of the interaction tends to be in a disregard and instrumentalisation pattern. While promoting community participation, the MDTP is strengthening the state rather than the local population through the creation of new state institutions, leading to a higher state infiltration in spite of a participation and empowerment rhetoric. Further the perception of the current situation in ‘development countries’ is informed by outside agendas, resulting in the application of uniform solutions, such as decentralisation and nature-based tourism. The thesis points to the negotiation that these solutions have to undergo in the local context.
Wednesday, 21 November 2007
Monday, 12 March 2007
Some more pictures
This is what it looks like when erosion is kept to the minimum here in Lesotho.
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Guess what I am crossing here :-)
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These are "the girls" as I refer to them sometimes in my notes :-) : the handicraft group and me in Clarens when we had the study trip to RSA.
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Here you see me really participating, guess in what? Yepp, in the drinking of traditional beer (made from Sorgum, the local crop) on a Wednesday in the middle of February at 1pm!!!! Some of the people have real problems with alcohol in that they not only drink one glass, but liters... and as I found out in this private 'tavern", they really have fun with it as well. Lots of dancing and loud music was accompanying the drinking. The liter of beer is sold for R2 here.
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Guess what I am crossing here :-)
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These are "the girls" as I refer to them sometimes in my notes :-) : the handicraft group and me in Clarens when we had the study trip to RSA.
.JPG)
Here you see me really participating, guess in what? Yepp, in the drinking of traditional beer (made from Sorgum, the local crop) on a Wednesday in the middle of February at 1pm!!!! Some of the people have real problems with alcohol in that they not only drink one glass, but liters... and as I found out in this private 'tavern", they really have fun with it as well. Lots of dancing and loud music was accompanying the drinking. The liter of beer is sold for R2 here.
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The countdown is running...
Now the countdown is really running, I only have thirteen days here and then I have to go back and write everything up!!! It is going fast now.
The last days I took some distance and finally caught up with my notes in my laptop so that I have now (nearly) everything digital as well. This note taking does take such a lot of time, when we heard that in our methodology course I was one of the unbelievers, but yes, decent note taking does take as long if not longer than all the interviews and participation time. And I really have the feeling that even at my age the brain can be trained to remember more and more details :-)
At the moment I am again in Pretoria, in a hostel that turns out to be a second home by now, and here with the distance I can think some things through. I have net 9 days of interviewing and participation left and have a list of people that I still want to interview or ask again some more details ... and those who know me will know that the list is far too ambitious for the time left ... and I am anyway going to try it :-)
The value of staying long at one place came to me last Wednesday when one of my key informants in the village revealed that the village I am in has a totally different name and actually is a place of contested headman boundaries!! I was nearly screaming when I heard that, how could that be kept from me for such a long time!! Anyway now that I know it and reading through my notes again, they make even more sense. And the good thing is, I found it and I think this is mainly due to me staying there for a longer time. At one point it has to come out.
Another problem I had the whole time and I continue to have is the language, this relying on translators is not my thing. Should I ever do another research I would need to cater for that differently just for my own sake. I notice myself getting angry when noticing that my translator is not really translating what I am saying or asking.... and yes after a while and some interviews I can actually roughly tell whether he asks "my" questions... Maybe I am just too big a control freak there. What comes with the translation but as well with just a different cultural background is the reflexiveness that people have on their lives and doings and hence how they can tell about them. In some respects this proves to be difficult and makes my research into the power relations really difficult. At the beginning I thought my questions are too conceptual, but even with straightforward questions (as they appear to me) I sometimes look into blank faces. Thus I am still adjusting questions all the time, but I think this is something we all have with anthropology. What I find a pity and what comes with the language issue as well is that informal conversation is a near impossibility and this is on what I really miss out here. Twisting my research questions will do the job of catering for that I hope.
Just reviewed what I wrote and realised that this post does not give much factual information, but a good overview on what I am thinking through at this point in time. As I have done quite some interviews I really hope to dig deeper in the net 9 days that are left and for this I need to reflect on the way I do it.
Beside all this I must say that I have met lots of wonderful people through this research, especially the handicraft group participants become more and more open and less and less shy of asking me questions as well.
Before I close a short big thanks to Sabine for the nice cadeautjes :-)If I find the time I will send some words from Butha-Buthe this week.
The last days I took some distance and finally caught up with my notes in my laptop so that I have now (nearly) everything digital as well. This note taking does take such a lot of time, when we heard that in our methodology course I was one of the unbelievers, but yes, decent note taking does take as long if not longer than all the interviews and participation time. And I really have the feeling that even at my age the brain can be trained to remember more and more details :-)
At the moment I am again in Pretoria, in a hostel that turns out to be a second home by now, and here with the distance I can think some things through. I have net 9 days of interviewing and participation left and have a list of people that I still want to interview or ask again some more details ... and those who know me will know that the list is far too ambitious for the time left ... and I am anyway going to try it :-)
The value of staying long at one place came to me last Wednesday when one of my key informants in the village revealed that the village I am in has a totally different name and actually is a place of contested headman boundaries!! I was nearly screaming when I heard that, how could that be kept from me for such a long time!! Anyway now that I know it and reading through my notes again, they make even more sense. And the good thing is, I found it and I think this is mainly due to me staying there for a longer time. At one point it has to come out.
Another problem I had the whole time and I continue to have is the language, this relying on translators is not my thing. Should I ever do another research I would need to cater for that differently just for my own sake. I notice myself getting angry when noticing that my translator is not really translating what I am saying or asking.... and yes after a while and some interviews I can actually roughly tell whether he asks "my" questions... Maybe I am just too big a control freak there. What comes with the translation but as well with just a different cultural background is the reflexiveness that people have on their lives and doings and hence how they can tell about them. In some respects this proves to be difficult and makes my research into the power relations really difficult. At the beginning I thought my questions are too conceptual, but even with straightforward questions (as they appear to me) I sometimes look into blank faces. Thus I am still adjusting questions all the time, but I think this is something we all have with anthropology. What I find a pity and what comes with the language issue as well is that informal conversation is a near impossibility and this is on what I really miss out here. Twisting my research questions will do the job of catering for that I hope.
Just reviewed what I wrote and realised that this post does not give much factual information, but a good overview on what I am thinking through at this point in time. As I have done quite some interviews I really hope to dig deeper in the net 9 days that are left and for this I need to reflect on the way I do it.
Beside all this I must say that I have met lots of wonderful people through this research, especially the handicraft group participants become more and more open and less and less shy of asking me questions as well.
Before I close a short big thanks to Sabine for the nice cadeautjes :-)If I find the time I will send some words from Butha-Buthe this week.
Friday, 23 February 2007
Butha - Buthe and the research
Finally online in Butha - Buthe :-)
Research is going at a slower pace now, or at least for the last days and it is still full with going here and there and joining this group or that meeting. And beside all the insitutional involvement I am conducting interviews with the people in the village here. And these are very very revealing.
Once one bypasses the gatekeepers or those involved in the structures, the "normal" people seem not to know or to care abou the projects brought to help them. There is sort of a tiredness of development work, especially because they feel that the follow ups are not done as they would wish it or it is put upon them without considering their needs. I have seen so many consultants by now, and talked to people that are involved in development work that I can understand the villagers.
Yesterday was one of the highlights of my research, I went to Clarens, RSA with "my" handicraft group on a study trip. This was a real adventure, first of all, be advised to find a taxi that has a permit otherwise you will be forced to go back, second make sure the taxi does not only have a permit, but the right one, otherwise you have to turned round as well.... or just take the next border post when one border post is too strict and will not let you pass, and that is what we did. To make it a real participant observation, it was myself having problems at the border to cross the first time into Lesotho (because of the wrong permit we had to turn round). When crossing back for the second time into Lesotho at the very same border post just with another official (a man that already knows me from all the crossings I did) I had no problems whatsoever and if even was granted another 30 days. These were very nice insights into the border procedures and crossings.
More of my findings when I am back to a decent Internet connection. What I found is that now that I stay, I have sort of 5 key informants that are my translators at the same time. As these have different backgrounds, I can do a very good triangulation with them and as well see where their background makes them thinking differently and therefore giving me different information. This sounds very technical, and I do really appreciate all their help, some of them let me look deep into their lives, although they are all not "rural rural" and good educated.
Shortly before I interrupt to go back to my interviews, the elections so far were quite smooth. But now the two parties that lost ABC and BNP are contesting the results and some of my people here said, that something could break out, so I am vigilant at this point. Especially because the elections of 1998 ended in big riots in this country. And no worries, I am vigilant and have friends that will let me know when I have to leave.
All the best and you will hear back from my next break in Pretoria next week!
Research is going at a slower pace now, or at least for the last days and it is still full with going here and there and joining this group or that meeting. And beside all the insitutional involvement I am conducting interviews with the people in the village here. And these are very very revealing.
Once one bypasses the gatekeepers or those involved in the structures, the "normal" people seem not to know or to care abou the projects brought to help them. There is sort of a tiredness of development work, especially because they feel that the follow ups are not done as they would wish it or it is put upon them without considering their needs. I have seen so many consultants by now, and talked to people that are involved in development work that I can understand the villagers.
Yesterday was one of the highlights of my research, I went to Clarens, RSA with "my" handicraft group on a study trip. This was a real adventure, first of all, be advised to find a taxi that has a permit otherwise you will be forced to go back, second make sure the taxi does not only have a permit, but the right one, otherwise you have to turned round as well.... or just take the next border post when one border post is too strict and will not let you pass, and that is what we did. To make it a real participant observation, it was myself having problems at the border to cross the first time into Lesotho (because of the wrong permit we had to turn round). When crossing back for the second time into Lesotho at the very same border post just with another official (a man that already knows me from all the crossings I did) I had no problems whatsoever and if even was granted another 30 days. These were very nice insights into the border procedures and crossings.
More of my findings when I am back to a decent Internet connection. What I found is that now that I stay, I have sort of 5 key informants that are my translators at the same time. As these have different backgrounds, I can do a very good triangulation with them and as well see where their background makes them thinking differently and therefore giving me different information. This sounds very technical, and I do really appreciate all their help, some of them let me look deep into their lives, although they are all not "rural rural" and good educated.
Shortly before I interrupt to go back to my interviews, the elections so far were quite smooth. But now the two parties that lost ABC and BNP are contesting the results and some of my people here said, that something could break out, so I am vigilant at this point. Especially because the elections of 1998 ended in big riots in this country. And no worries, I am vigilant and have friends that will let me know when I have to leave.
All the best and you will hear back from my next break in Pretoria next week!
Friday, 2 February 2007
... the last one for today: the weather!
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This is a picture from our drive last night, while we were heading into the thunder/lightning blackness to our front/right, to the back/left one could see the sun going down in a beautiful orange sunset.
Initiation School
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This picture shows a group of girls and women during their initiation school. We met them on our way from Liqobong back to Butha Buthe. Initiation school lasts for around 4 months, what exactly happens during this period is a secret, participation is not mandatory and the 'schools' are let by women who had taken part themselves.
The "Border"
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On this picture you can see my research area and "object", the border in form of this tiny little river in the middle of the picture. The picture is taken from the South African side, so the dirt road you see is Lesotho and the one I took yesterday with a 4x4 up to the Liqobong area. The tared road on the right side is the road of South Africa.
Liqobong Protester Meeting 1.2.2007
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This picture shows some of the protesters, behind them, the mountain that you see is already South Africa. On our way to Liqobong, we were the whole time driving along the border river.
From ButhaButhe via Liqobong to Pretoria
I am back in Pretoria to take until Tuesday to step back and see what I have got. Then I am going back on my own to stay in Ha Machefo for a while.
But first let me tell where I come from. Bram and me stayed the last days in Butha Buthe where we were frequenting the MDTP office sort of every day. On Monday we should have had an appointment with Ntate Mohai but as I know now, meetings in Africa never start at the agreed time, nor do they end and maybe they just don't take place :-) This is a nice reminder to take it easy, especially because transport, if you do not have the luxury of driving your own car (which most of the people have not) then it just takes a while to go from A to B, especially if it goes via C :-) So I had a day of reading, I had found some more articles that were/are quite interesting especially David B. Coplan (he is sort of the genius on the border issues). For Tuesday we did sort of the same after chatting longer with the secretary of the office, a very nice girl who offered to take me to a (English) Church Service, and I am really curious about those. In the Likileng Village (fenced and provided by the Lesotho Highlands Development Authority) where we stayed in a HUGE guesthouse for little money I had witnessed one of those services while I was sitting in the garden. The preacher was really really loud and rageous..
Really interesting and productive were Wednesday and Thursday. On Wednesday we went with Me Malintle (my African Ma and Community Facilitator) to her handicraft association. The women there were very friendly, we could join and follow how those meetings are held. Especially the commentaries of Malintle were very interesting and one could see that she really had gained the trust of these women (normally there should have been 21 persons 4 of which are men, but at this meeting only 7 were present). And this trust is the starting point of how to empower and enable those women. While her work from the headoffice is seen as a deliverable: involving locals and empowering women, this is not just done by giving them one training course in handicrafts making. What is needed is someone guiding and coaching in how to open a bank account, how to write a own constitution etc. This is what Malintle is doing with the association. When I asked whether I could join for the next weeks (the meeting is every Wednesday) the women agreed! And this gives me a really good opportunity to get a bit closer to them as well. None of them is speaking English, so I need Malintle as a translator. One of the things the group is doing is organising a study visit to Clarens! Which gives me a good observation opportunity. These women are not wealthy in no respect, some are widows, divorced etc. Beside the handicrafts they work on their fields and they have children to raise. I think that seeing Clarens (some of them have not been to RSA) will be a clash of worlds for some of them, especially so because Clarens is really posh. And for my border subject this is a good casestudy.
On Thursday we went to the protester meeting in Liqobong. The MDTP had planned for a protected area (PA) in this area. After protests the idea was dropped, but the Community Council of the area came back to them asking to pursue the idea further, the protesters could be negotiated with. These protesters had written a letter to the Ombudsman to ask for help and justice for them in this matter. And this was when this meeting was held as a response and triggered by their letter.
A summary of this meeting is hard to give as everything was in Sesotho and depending on the translator (jaja.. a really big issue to be taken into account) the perception of what was said differed. This was very interesting in itself, Bram had a different translator (was not a real translator, we just asked another participant to help us) than I had and we have different stories. This tells us again all about anthropology, depending on who wittnesses will bring values, beliefs, assumptions and perceptions of him/herself in and through this lense interpret the happenings. 'My' translator was a representative from the Ministry of Local Government (a girl maybe my age), who clearly felt more 'modern and forward'and could not understand why people would rather 'fight' against a park and prefer 'to live in poverty than development' (quotations from the protestors), to be so backward so to speak. This was how the translations were, she did not hear any reason for their protest and translated to me they say the same all the time, they do not want the park. Bram was helped by Malintle, who is much more engaged with communities and more involved, she translated much more nuances and political details. Thus we have two versions of an event plus our observations. A mingling will hopefully get us to some understanding.
Generally what could be seen was that the whole idea was very politicised. The villagers seemingly had no clue on how the procedures after requesting the Ombudsman's help are. There must have been somebody telling them to send a letter to this instance without involving their Community or District Council (thus overriding these fairly new instances) nor it seemed their Chiefs. As there are elections on the 17th of February this issue is of course instrumentalised in this area by the political parties. What is at stake for the protesters is a cattle post area, thus there is no resettlement of people or similar involved. It is a wetland where the Caledon River (the border river with RSA) has its source and it is exactly this source that should be protected. The arguments in favour of the PA are mainly, creation of jobs and development through tourism. The PA should in the long term be connected to the Golden Gate National Park which is directly across the border in South Africa. On the South African side, there are still fights about the joining together of the Golden Gate NP and the QwaQwa Nature Reserve (which is still used as grazing land). It appears that those people fighting against the QwaQwa becoming part of Golden Gate (and then no grazing is possible anymore) are as well fighting against the Liqobong PA (which would prevent cattle grazing there). There was at least one guy in the protester meeting who was from QwaQwa and not from the village. This is of course pure speculation on my part, but makes a nice story to read :-) and maybe I find some more evidence.
I leave you with this, will print out my notes so far and make some brainstorming how that all fits with my research questions....
But first let me tell where I come from. Bram and me stayed the last days in Butha Buthe where we were frequenting the MDTP office sort of every day. On Monday we should have had an appointment with Ntate Mohai but as I know now, meetings in Africa never start at the agreed time, nor do they end and maybe they just don't take place :-) This is a nice reminder to take it easy, especially because transport, if you do not have the luxury of driving your own car (which most of the people have not) then it just takes a while to go from A to B, especially if it goes via C :-) So I had a day of reading, I had found some more articles that were/are quite interesting especially David B. Coplan (he is sort of the genius on the border issues). For Tuesday we did sort of the same after chatting longer with the secretary of the office, a very nice girl who offered to take me to a (English) Church Service, and I am really curious about those. In the Likileng Village (fenced and provided by the Lesotho Highlands Development Authority) where we stayed in a HUGE guesthouse for little money I had witnessed one of those services while I was sitting in the garden. The preacher was really really loud and rageous..
Really interesting and productive were Wednesday and Thursday. On Wednesday we went with Me Malintle (my African Ma and Community Facilitator) to her handicraft association. The women there were very friendly, we could join and follow how those meetings are held. Especially the commentaries of Malintle were very interesting and one could see that she really had gained the trust of these women (normally there should have been 21 persons 4 of which are men, but at this meeting only 7 were present). And this trust is the starting point of how to empower and enable those women. While her work from the headoffice is seen as a deliverable: involving locals and empowering women, this is not just done by giving them one training course in handicrafts making. What is needed is someone guiding and coaching in how to open a bank account, how to write a own constitution etc. This is what Malintle is doing with the association. When I asked whether I could join for the next weeks (the meeting is every Wednesday) the women agreed! And this gives me a really good opportunity to get a bit closer to them as well. None of them is speaking English, so I need Malintle as a translator. One of the things the group is doing is organising a study visit to Clarens! Which gives me a good observation opportunity. These women are not wealthy in no respect, some are widows, divorced etc. Beside the handicrafts they work on their fields and they have children to raise. I think that seeing Clarens (some of them have not been to RSA) will be a clash of worlds for some of them, especially so because Clarens is really posh. And for my border subject this is a good casestudy.
On Thursday we went to the protester meeting in Liqobong. The MDTP had planned for a protected area (PA) in this area. After protests the idea was dropped, but the Community Council of the area came back to them asking to pursue the idea further, the protesters could be negotiated with. These protesters had written a letter to the Ombudsman to ask for help and justice for them in this matter. And this was when this meeting was held as a response and triggered by their letter.
A summary of this meeting is hard to give as everything was in Sesotho and depending on the translator (jaja.. a really big issue to be taken into account) the perception of what was said differed. This was very interesting in itself, Bram had a different translator (was not a real translator, we just asked another participant to help us) than I had and we have different stories. This tells us again all about anthropology, depending on who wittnesses will bring values, beliefs, assumptions and perceptions of him/herself in and through this lense interpret the happenings. 'My' translator was a representative from the Ministry of Local Government (a girl maybe my age), who clearly felt more 'modern and forward'and could not understand why people would rather 'fight' against a park and prefer 'to live in poverty than development' (quotations from the protestors), to be so backward so to speak. This was how the translations were, she did not hear any reason for their protest and translated to me they say the same all the time, they do not want the park. Bram was helped by Malintle, who is much more engaged with communities and more involved, she translated much more nuances and political details. Thus we have two versions of an event plus our observations. A mingling will hopefully get us to some understanding.
Generally what could be seen was that the whole idea was very politicised. The villagers seemingly had no clue on how the procedures after requesting the Ombudsman's help are. There must have been somebody telling them to send a letter to this instance without involving their Community or District Council (thus overriding these fairly new instances) nor it seemed their Chiefs. As there are elections on the 17th of February this issue is of course instrumentalised in this area by the political parties. What is at stake for the protesters is a cattle post area, thus there is no resettlement of people or similar involved. It is a wetland where the Caledon River (the border river with RSA) has its source and it is exactly this source that should be protected. The arguments in favour of the PA are mainly, creation of jobs and development through tourism. The PA should in the long term be connected to the Golden Gate National Park which is directly across the border in South Africa. On the South African side, there are still fights about the joining together of the Golden Gate NP and the QwaQwa Nature Reserve (which is still used as grazing land). It appears that those people fighting against the QwaQwa becoming part of Golden Gate (and then no grazing is possible anymore) are as well fighting against the Liqobong PA (which would prevent cattle grazing there). There was at least one guy in the protester meeting who was from QwaQwa and not from the village. This is of course pure speculation on my part, but makes a nice story to read :-) and maybe I find some more evidence.
I leave you with this, will print out my notes so far and make some brainstorming how that all fits with my research questions....
Sunday, 28 January 2007
Another message from Clarens and Golden Gate
The last days have been a bit quieter in terms of research, at least compared with the first weeks. And of course still very interesting!!
On Friday after interviewing the Community Facilitator of the MDTP for the Free State (which was very revealing), he took us to a local school for Hotel and Agriculture. Faster than I realised I was standing in front of 30 schoolchildren roundabout 14 years starring at me!!!! (For those who know me a bit they can imagine how I felt). And then most surprisingly for me, it was not as frightening as it presented itself at the beginning. After answering our questions, the kids had of course lots of questions for us. Some of them made us struggling, as e.g. How do we think about our ancestors? Can I come with you to Holland? And then of course explaining the flatness of Holland here in about 2000m above sea level in a mountainous area J It was fun after all.
Later we drove with the Community Facilitator and some of his friends of the Bluegum-Bush Conservancy to Phuthaditjhaba which is a huge city (counted 450k and estimated 600k people) in the former homeland of QwaQwa. I experienced it as one big township and we were taken local there to a braai place (open air barbecuing on a fully cemented place in the city after having bought the meat at the butcher next door). Being a vegetarian I had my problems in finding something to eat but then could buy a sandwich (the preparation of which took longer than the barbecuing of the meat!!) in a nearby pub-style restaurant. A township is one of those places where you realise that ‘going local’ as an anthropologist can be blocked by the very fact of your skin colour. Everybody we met saw that we were not part and would never be. This makes you of course as well realise that ‘going local’ is always an ideal state non-reachable in a social environment that is not the one you grew up with. On the other hand, this gives one the opportunity to talk to people in a different manner, because they will approach you for not being part and having an outsider perspective on their lives and an insight perspective into a life that is not theirs but yours.
On Saturday a visit to the tourist attraction ‘Basotho Cultural Village’ in the Golden Gate/QwaQwa National Park was our only program point, and a fairly entertaining one. I had the chance to dress in an old style Basotho dress: being unmarried the girls only wore a skirt made out of grass haulms, after initiation school (roundabout 16) a second layer of animal skin was bound around the hips. Being married the woman would then finally wear another skin around her shoulders. It was interesting to compare the cultural village with Ha Machefo. Most of the things were done very authentic, only small things like a house that should show how the Basotho live now was very far from the reality I had seen. Instead of the pink painted rectangular house with 4 rooms, most of the people I met lived in one or several huts or combined huts with one-room rectangular homes.
Today we are heading back to Butha Buthe, there we hope to be able to speak to some more local communities. Especially interesting is Thursday when Bram and myself can attend a meeting in Liqobong between the local protesters, the Ombudsman and the MDTP. The protests are targeted against the erection of a new protected area in Liqobong. This area would protect the sources of the Caledon (to be confirmed) river. The protesters are mainly local cattle owners, while other local interest groups are in favour as the erection of the new PA would bring new job opportunities through tourism.
As I know now that Lesotho and Internet are two words that are still struggling with each other I hope to be back with the next report in a week from Pretoria again.
On Friday after interviewing the Community Facilitator of the MDTP for the Free State (which was very revealing), he took us to a local school for Hotel and Agriculture. Faster than I realised I was standing in front of 30 schoolchildren roundabout 14 years starring at me!!!! (For those who know me a bit they can imagine how I felt). And then most surprisingly for me, it was not as frightening as it presented itself at the beginning. After answering our questions, the kids had of course lots of questions for us. Some of them made us struggling, as e.g. How do we think about our ancestors? Can I come with you to Holland? And then of course explaining the flatness of Holland here in about 2000m above sea level in a mountainous area J It was fun after all.
Later we drove with the Community Facilitator and some of his friends of the Bluegum-Bush Conservancy to Phuthaditjhaba which is a huge city (counted 450k and estimated 600k people) in the former homeland of QwaQwa. I experienced it as one big township and we were taken local there to a braai place (open air barbecuing on a fully cemented place in the city after having bought the meat at the butcher next door). Being a vegetarian I had my problems in finding something to eat but then could buy a sandwich (the preparation of which took longer than the barbecuing of the meat!!) in a nearby pub-style restaurant. A township is one of those places where you realise that ‘going local’ as an anthropologist can be blocked by the very fact of your skin colour. Everybody we met saw that we were not part and would never be. This makes you of course as well realise that ‘going local’ is always an ideal state non-reachable in a social environment that is not the one you grew up with. On the other hand, this gives one the opportunity to talk to people in a different manner, because they will approach you for not being part and having an outsider perspective on their lives and an insight perspective into a life that is not theirs but yours.
On Saturday a visit to the tourist attraction ‘Basotho Cultural Village’ in the Golden Gate/QwaQwa National Park was our only program point, and a fairly entertaining one. I had the chance to dress in an old style Basotho dress: being unmarried the girls only wore a skirt made out of grass haulms, after initiation school (roundabout 16) a second layer of animal skin was bound around the hips. Being married the woman would then finally wear another skin around her shoulders. It was interesting to compare the cultural village with Ha Machefo. Most of the things were done very authentic, only small things like a house that should show how the Basotho live now was very far from the reality I had seen. Instead of the pink painted rectangular house with 4 rooms, most of the people I met lived in one or several huts or combined huts with one-room rectangular homes.
Today we are heading back to Butha Buthe, there we hope to be able to speak to some more local communities. Especially interesting is Thursday when Bram and myself can attend a meeting in Liqobong between the local protesters, the Ombudsman and the MDTP. The protests are targeted against the erection of a new protected area in Liqobong. This area would protect the sources of the Caledon (to be confirmed) river. The protesters are mainly local cattle owners, while other local interest groups are in favour as the erection of the new PA would bring new job opportunities through tourism.
As I know now that Lesotho and Internet are two words that are still struggling with each other I hope to be back with the next report in a week from Pretoria again.
Wednesday, 24 January 2007
... and again in Clarens
Hello there,
I am again in Clarens, RSA easily to see, because I can enter the internet and even the blogger site :-)
The last three days were great, finally we went "local". We stayed in the "first and only Basotho owned backpackers" in the village of Ha Machefo (Ha always means "place of" and then follows the name of some Chief or headman) in Lesotho. The backpackers is not a real backpackers witg dorms, but the three brothers rent out a real Basotho hut. No running water, no electricity... living like the rural Basotho, that is what we did. Owned by three brothers, Mamohase (name of their mum and of the hostel) is a community based concept - development out of own initiative without any government help. This made the place the more interesting for me.
Staying three days there we gathered around 12 small interviews by which we were guided by one of the three brothers. They helped us with the translation, because the people all speak Sesotho and only when they went to Highschool,they know some English. These interviews helped me a lot in trying to find out how the people lived, because we visited them in their houses/huts and asked about the composition of household, their knowledge on the MDTP and their relation to RSA.
What one can extracts, without extensively studying my notes again is the ambivalence between being proud of the "Basotho way", meaning being able to live from the land (that is what they claim but which is doubtable because there was at least one of the family members living in RSA so far) and their thinking that "everything" is better in RSA because there are jobs (thus the dependence on wage labour). I am looking forward to going back to Ha Machefo again to speak more to the people. Due to the focus on the MDTP and the focus of our translator (yes, he is influencing the data, of course) we talked to lots of people that I think were fairly "rich" (in rural Basotho terms) and had some post in one of the endless committees. When going back at the beginning of February I want to do sort of a household survey and then do more extensive interviews with a representative portion of these households. Slowly slowly I am dropping the idea of research both sides of the border, from the RSA side there will only be case studies involved I guess. And what I want to do more is just hanging out and observing a bit more. Getting the grip on it.
The planning for the next days here in Clarens is to go local for some short interviews in the Phutabidshaba area (I hope this is spelt right, town in the QwaQwa homelands area). Thus I will be for a bit online at least until Sunday.
What is very clearly observable, having crossed the border now several times already is the difference in population density. In Lesotho, you see villages everywhere, while in South Africa you can drive and drive and only see farmland....
I am again in Clarens, RSA easily to see, because I can enter the internet and even the blogger site :-)
The last three days were great, finally we went "local". We stayed in the "first and only Basotho owned backpackers" in the village of Ha Machefo (Ha always means "place of" and then follows the name of some Chief or headman) in Lesotho. The backpackers is not a real backpackers witg dorms, but the three brothers rent out a real Basotho hut. No running water, no electricity... living like the rural Basotho, that is what we did. Owned by three brothers, Mamohase (name of their mum and of the hostel) is a community based concept - development out of own initiative without any government help. This made the place the more interesting for me.
Staying three days there we gathered around 12 small interviews by which we were guided by one of the three brothers. They helped us with the translation, because the people all speak Sesotho and only when they went to Highschool,they know some English. These interviews helped me a lot in trying to find out how the people lived, because we visited them in their houses/huts and asked about the composition of household, their knowledge on the MDTP and their relation to RSA.
What one can extracts, without extensively studying my notes again is the ambivalence between being proud of the "Basotho way", meaning being able to live from the land (that is what they claim but which is doubtable because there was at least one of the family members living in RSA so far) and their thinking that "everything" is better in RSA because there are jobs (thus the dependence on wage labour). I am looking forward to going back to Ha Machefo again to speak more to the people. Due to the focus on the MDTP and the focus of our translator (yes, he is influencing the data, of course) we talked to lots of people that I think were fairly "rich" (in rural Basotho terms) and had some post in one of the endless committees. When going back at the beginning of February I want to do sort of a household survey and then do more extensive interviews with a representative portion of these households. Slowly slowly I am dropping the idea of research both sides of the border, from the RSA side there will only be case studies involved I guess. And what I want to do more is just hanging out and observing a bit more. Getting the grip on it.
The planning for the next days here in Clarens is to go local for some short interviews in the Phutabidshaba area (I hope this is spelt right, town in the QwaQwa homelands area). Thus I will be for a bit online at least until Sunday.
What is very clearly observable, having crossed the border now several times already is the difference in population density. In Lesotho, you see villages everywhere, while in South Africa you can drive and drive and only see farmland....
Saturday, 20 January 2007
Clarens.... and finally Internet
Hey out there,
finally I have Internet again, that is sort of really good working. Nearly a week past by now since I posted last time and lots lots happened.
From Pretoria we drived down to Maseru, yes, I drove as well on the *wrong* side of the road and the car, that was already really exciting. But what was even more exciting is the landscape it is incredible wide wide wide and then you see the horizon, where the clouds touch the next mountains or hills I was totally amazed and took one picture after the other. I hope I can post one, but am afraid that they are to big to be uploaded.
In Maseru Bram and me were storming the MDTP office and the NES library for two days and I was basically following Bram who knows everybody and he did a very good job introducing me everywhere and giving me all the background details. And of course in repeating those Sesotho names all over and over again for me... Lucky as we are we were invited to attend the Strategic Transfrontier Workshop of the MDPT with both offices (Lesotho and South Africa) present. Thus I had the whole project team one day later in Butha Buthe available for questions. This was better than great!!! Especially because it was the team from both countries talking about the transfrontier strategy, exactly what I am interested in.
Yeah and this questioning, I mean once you are in, everything is fine, but these first minutes of small talk... I really have to get used to being a bit of a nuisance to those people, that I suspect have information I need. With others it is fine they open up because they are really open and interested anyway and are present in the same area. Just that they have much more expertise on it like for example Tony who answered to my blog last week (Thanks a lot Tony!!! I am coming back with some of my comments to you) So there is this balance that you need to strike. And I found out, one or two beers are always a good starter :-) I need to get some training in that though.
The meeting itself was taking up two days, and on Friday we went to the Butha Buthe office of the MDTP talking with Mathosi of how to get access to local communities. He is the head of the BB office and he is really in for helping us. The weekend in Clarens is dedicated to get up to date with my notes and all my thoughts about it. I hope to be able to give you some of those next time. In the end it is all about: "first people need to eat and then they can think about conservation", just to give you some illustrations of the comments I receive.
On Sunday night we really go local, in a community hostel, no electricity, no water... until Wednesday and then I hope to give you much more insight not only into politics (as I get now) but as well into the rural life.
Ok, three more minutes to go and then we are kicked out here...
ALL THE BEST TO ALL OF YOU
finally I have Internet again, that is sort of really good working. Nearly a week past by now since I posted last time and lots lots happened.
From Pretoria we drived down to Maseru, yes, I drove as well on the *wrong* side of the road and the car, that was already really exciting. But what was even more exciting is the landscape it is incredible wide wide wide and then you see the horizon, where the clouds touch the next mountains or hills I was totally amazed and took one picture after the other. I hope I can post one, but am afraid that they are to big to be uploaded.
In Maseru Bram and me were storming the MDTP office and the NES library for two days and I was basically following Bram who knows everybody and he did a very good job introducing me everywhere and giving me all the background details. And of course in repeating those Sesotho names all over and over again for me... Lucky as we are we were invited to attend the Strategic Transfrontier Workshop of the MDPT with both offices (Lesotho and South Africa) present. Thus I had the whole project team one day later in Butha Buthe available for questions. This was better than great!!! Especially because it was the team from both countries talking about the transfrontier strategy, exactly what I am interested in.
Yeah and this questioning, I mean once you are in, everything is fine, but these first minutes of small talk... I really have to get used to being a bit of a nuisance to those people, that I suspect have information I need. With others it is fine they open up because they are really open and interested anyway and are present in the same area. Just that they have much more expertise on it like for example Tony who answered to my blog last week (Thanks a lot Tony!!! I am coming back with some of my comments to you) So there is this balance that you need to strike. And I found out, one or two beers are always a good starter :-) I need to get some training in that though.
The meeting itself was taking up two days, and on Friday we went to the Butha Buthe office of the MDTP talking with Mathosi of how to get access to local communities. He is the head of the BB office and he is really in for helping us. The weekend in Clarens is dedicated to get up to date with my notes and all my thoughts about it. I hope to be able to give you some of those next time. In the end it is all about: "first people need to eat and then they can think about conservation", just to give you some illustrations of the comments I receive.
On Sunday night we really go local, in a community hostel, no electricity, no water... until Wednesday and then I hope to give you much more insight not only into politics (as I get now) but as well into the rural life.
Ok, three more minutes to go and then we are kicked out here...
ALL THE BEST TO ALL OF YOU
Friday, 12 January 2007
Pretoria die zweite
Hallo meine Lieben,
another hello from Pretoria. I get more and more used to the city and the way "one" behaves, this really helps sharpening observation and imitation skills. Although I found it is much easier when the people think you are a tourist then when they think you are a white South African. At least for me this works better.
Apartheid is not too long over and this is what one still can observe. Today I have been to the center of town and walked all the way (1 hour there plus 1 hour back plus getting lost here and there and this all in roundabout 30 degrees...). On my way I passed a long fence behind which primary school children where playing football or sitting in the shade. There were three groups, the first I passed was a group of black children, the second was coloured and the third white... Another thing I found really shocking was the advertisement for abortion for 250R (which is with the current exchange rate around 280 Euro) and another medical center that offered circumsicion, family planning would obviously be a nice topic to research here. I hope to be able to upload some photos next time so that you can see how it looks here.
For the research I went to the Tourist Office of Pretoria, where they had only one brochure of the South African National Parks, which they could not give away and never had heard of the Maloti Drakensberg TFCA (MDTP), at least the guy I spoke to there. Yesterday I have been to the SANparks Head Quarters with Bram, where we tried to speak to one of the managers of the Golden Gate Highland National Park (GGHNP which is included in the MDTP) but we could not be open about being researchers (because you need permission) which made the whole thing a bit difficult and not really successfull in the end. For me it was very nice to observe Bram and the ways he used to get passed this reception man, I can definitely learn from this.
Yesterday I finally heard back from one of the NGOs I contacted, the most important one and they said it would be good to meet me etc.... that is sooooooooo good, now I can just pass by them in Maseru and have one chat or hopefully more with them. Will prepare for this interview a bit more in reading more about what they do etc. to get the most out of it. From them (it is the TRC-Transformation Resource Center) I hope to get links to active local groups.
Spending some days here in Pretoria before I move on is definitely very good, so I can get much better adjusted, especially to the weather, I would not have thought that it is going to be soooooooo brilliant.
Next time you will here from me from Maseru, the capital of Lesotho.
All the best
another hello from Pretoria. I get more and more used to the city and the way "one" behaves, this really helps sharpening observation and imitation skills. Although I found it is much easier when the people think you are a tourist then when they think you are a white South African. At least for me this works better.
Apartheid is not too long over and this is what one still can observe. Today I have been to the center of town and walked all the way (1 hour there plus 1 hour back plus getting lost here and there and this all in roundabout 30 degrees...). On my way I passed a long fence behind which primary school children where playing football or sitting in the shade. There were three groups, the first I passed was a group of black children, the second was coloured and the third white... Another thing I found really shocking was the advertisement for abortion for 250R (which is with the current exchange rate around 280 Euro) and another medical center that offered circumsicion, family planning would obviously be a nice topic to research here. I hope to be able to upload some photos next time so that you can see how it looks here.
For the research I went to the Tourist Office of Pretoria, where they had only one brochure of the South African National Parks, which they could not give away and never had heard of the Maloti Drakensberg TFCA (MDTP), at least the guy I spoke to there. Yesterday I have been to the SANparks Head Quarters with Bram, where we tried to speak to one of the managers of the Golden Gate Highland National Park (GGHNP which is included in the MDTP) but we could not be open about being researchers (because you need permission) which made the whole thing a bit difficult and not really successfull in the end. For me it was very nice to observe Bram and the ways he used to get passed this reception man, I can definitely learn from this.
Yesterday I finally heard back from one of the NGOs I contacted, the most important one and they said it would be good to meet me etc.... that is sooooooooo good, now I can just pass by them in Maseru and have one chat or hopefully more with them. Will prepare for this interview a bit more in reading more about what they do etc. to get the most out of it. From them (it is the TRC-Transformation Resource Center) I hope to get links to active local groups.
Spending some days here in Pretoria before I move on is definitely very good, so I can get much better adjusted, especially to the weather, I would not have thought that it is going to be soooooooo brilliant.
Next time you will here from me from Maseru, the capital of Lesotho.
All the best
Wednesday, 10 January 2007
Pretoria
Here I am now, with 30 degrees and my winterclothing for the mountains that are going to come later. But believe me it is enjoyable nevertheless. Pretoria is a good place to get adjusted to the weather and the mentality in the sense of people are just doing everything with a bit more "Gemuetlichkeit" for those who understand German :-) What I notice with myself is some anxiety about "being a target" as being a white tourist which must have come from having read tooooo much of "take care" literature, so far people are friendly, if contact is there.
I am staying in a hostel here until Sunday and from there I go with Bram (the PhD of the VU) to Lesotho, first the capital city: Maseru and then to the research location around Butha-Buthe. I am just about making those decisions concerning renting a car or not and how all I do eventually influences my research outcomes and how people perceive me. On the other hand it is just so much handier to have a car especially in this remote area I am planning to go, as you see I just need to make some decisions...
Bram will stay with me two weeks to do his own research that he still needs to complete in the same area. It will be (and already is) of a great help to have him round, knowing some people and places.
Today I spent some hours online to contact some more NGOs, I hope to have some responses soon, otherwise I will just "fall with the door in their house" (very German expression...) and try to get contact directly when I am there. And I had a very interesting talk with a girl from Swaziland that is staying at the same hostel as I. Swaziland is as well totally surrounded by South Africa so I tried some of my interview questions on her, and I already noticed that I need to make some adjustments.
More at a later stage, all the best to all of you
I am staying in a hostel here until Sunday and from there I go with Bram (the PhD of the VU) to Lesotho, first the capital city: Maseru and then to the research location around Butha-Buthe. I am just about making those decisions concerning renting a car or not and how all I do eventually influences my research outcomes and how people perceive me. On the other hand it is just so much handier to have a car especially in this remote area I am planning to go, as you see I just need to make some decisions...
Bram will stay with me two weeks to do his own research that he still needs to complete in the same area. It will be (and already is) of a great help to have him round, knowing some people and places.
Today I spent some hours online to contact some more NGOs, I hope to have some responses soon, otherwise I will just "fall with the door in their house" (very German expression...) and try to get contact directly when I am there. And I had a very interesting talk with a girl from Swaziland that is staying at the same hostel as I. Swaziland is as well totally surrounded by South Africa so I tried some of my interview questions on her, and I already noticed that I need to make some adjustments.
More at a later stage, all the best to all of you
Sunday, 7 January 2007
Still in Amsterdam
Liefste Mensen
- as the Dutch would say :-) -
This blog is for all those interested and will tell about my research journey to the Kingdom in the Sky in the far South of Africa. I aim to find out how differing parties claim and use land for differing purposes and what this all means to the Basotho, the people living there.
Just right now, I am sitting in Amsterdam on my packed backpack and after having read all the nice blogs of my mates was inspired to follow their example. Especially as I am getting more and more excited. My flight is taking off tomorrow evening and on Tuesday I will land in Johannisburg where Bram, the PhD studying as well at the VU, will pick me up from the airport. After having spent some days in Pretoria we aim to travel further South on Sunday.
to be continued...
- as the Dutch would say :-) -
This blog is for all those interested and will tell about my research journey to the Kingdom in the Sky in the far South of Africa. I aim to find out how differing parties claim and use land for differing purposes and what this all means to the Basotho, the people living there.
Just right now, I am sitting in Amsterdam on my packed backpack and after having read all the nice blogs of my mates was inspired to follow their example. Especially as I am getting more and more excited. My flight is taking off tomorrow evening and on Tuesday I will land in Johannisburg where Bram, the PhD studying as well at the VU, will pick me up from the airport. After having spent some days in Pretoria we aim to travel further South on Sunday.
to be continued...
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