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!
Friday 23 February 2007
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....
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