Aspects of tourism in Kenya

By: John Middleton

Pages 65-74

Abstract: Tourism in Kenya dates back to the colonial era. Tourists have invented a map of Kenya that comprises mainly the Rift Valley and the Indian Ocean coast; and they divide the population into ‘noble’ pastoralists and less noble agriculturalists and urban dwellers. Tourists came originally to see and kill wild animals; most were members of ‘big game safaris’ organised by ‘White Hunters’, reportedly often the sexual targets of women tourists. Shooting is now prohibited, but tourists shoot with cameras: they now come to see both animals and ‘exotic’ Africans. Sexual relations with local inhabitants are often part of ‘capturing’ them.
Tourists resemble pilgrims, in search of the sacred and the purity of the exotic and wild; many also see themselves as successors to the formerly dominant settlers of colonial Kenya. Local inhabitants compete with the tourists by dominating them and by forming new social categories of entrepreneurs in the modern Kenyan economy.

Subjects: colonialism, hunting, photography, sexuality, ethnicity, sacredness, pilgrimage

 

The evaluation of development projects. A South African anthropological perspective

By: Prof-em RD Coertze

Pages 75-85

Abstract: The need to equate development with a process of self-directed westernisation in the present time is explained initially in this discussion. This is followed by a discussion on the involvement of the Ethnological Section of the former Department of Development Aid in passing judgement on the administration of development projects. After enumerating the characteristics qualifying anthropologists to pronounce on the evaluation of development projects and profiting from the experience of the above-mentioned and other colleagues, tentative feasible short-, medium-, and long-term evaluation procedures have been formulated. Accepting the value of the Logical Framework Approach developed in the USA and at present used by the Development Bank of Southern Africa (DBSA) in their work, anthropologists are urged to acquaint themselves with the importance of this approach.
Die noodsaak om in die huidige tyd ontwikkelingsprojekte as prosesse van selfbestuurde verwestersing te beskou, word ter aanvang verduidelik. Die wyse waarop die Etnologiese Afdeling van die voormalige Departement Ontwikkelingshulp verplig was om die administrasie van ontwikkelingsprojekte te beoordeel, geniet dan aandag. Na behandeling van die kenmerke wat antropoloë laat kwalifiseer om uitspraak te gee oor die gang van ontwikkelingsprojekte en vanuit die ervaring van kollegas hier te lande en ook elders word tentatiewe prosedures vir evaluering oor die kort-, medium- en langtermyn geformuleer. Uitgaande van die bewese waarde van die Logiese Raamwerk Benadering, wat in die VSA ontwikkel is en tans deur die Ontwikkelingsbank van Suider-Afrika in hulle werk gebruik word, word kollegas opgeroep om hulle van die waarde van hierdie benadering te vergewis.

Subjects: directed culture change, modernisation, Ethnological Section, program orientation, problem orientation, research method, holistic approach, regional expertise, resistance analysis, communication feedback, Most Significant Change (MSC), Logical Framework

 

The Buysdorp conundrum: constructing and articulating community and identity in Soutpansberg, Limpopo Province

By: Michael de Jongh

Pages 86-91

Abstract: Coenraad de Buys, the great-grandson of Jean du Bois, a Huguenot immigrant from Calais, France, was by all accounts a formidable man. He left an indelible, often disruptive, mark on the historical, political and sociocultural landscape of South Africa. Coenraad married or co-habited with several indigenous women, one being Elizabeth, who according to sources, was Mzilikazi's sister or ‘niece’. Of the nine recorded offspring from this union, three brothers, Gabriël, Michael and Doris were to play a decisive role in the establishment and development of the Buys community in the foothills of the Soutpansberg. For ‘services rendered’ to the Boers and the Transvaal Republic, in 1888 President Paul Kruger granted 11 000 hectares of land exclusively to the Buys people. Subsequent years produced a narrative of individuals and events, interactions and struggles which shaped and reshaped the people and the place which became known as Buysdorp.

Subjects: Coenraad De Buys, Buys family, Buysdorp, identity politics, politics of identity, moral geography, contested land, local government

 

Capitalising on privilege: home-based businesses and informal settlements as a post-apartheid phenomenon in Indian dominated residential areas in Durban, South Africa

By: Anand Singh

Pages 92-102

Abstract: This paper is an ethnographic account of fieldwork that began in 1999 when African squatter camps in the Greater Durban metropolitan area accommodated people almost equal in number to the settled tax-paying Indian residents in the vicinity. While their numbers were seen as an almost destabilising factor in the region, and prompted many to label them as ‘land invaders’, others saw a window of opportunity opening up for them by virtue of their position as homeowners. The response was to provide a service along the lines of mainly grocery retailing. The closure of many licensed shops that were vulnerable to holdups and theft created space for a nascent shopkeeper class that capitalised on the opportunities that the squatters provided as a captive market. The paper demonstrates, through case studies of Indian informal traders, how the emergence of these home-based businesses, on the one hand, actually served as a catalyst for racial friction, and on the other hand, as a test case for racial integration in post-apartheid South Africa. It also intensively examines the time that the service providers put into their work, the inputs of labour from family members and the relationships they built with their African clientele. The contradictions brought about by the social tensions and the cordial relationships that emerged between Indians and Africans demonstrate the organic development of a new multi-racial environment.

Subjects: informal traders, home-based trading, captive market, racial friction, racial integration, informal settlements

 

Succession to traditional Venda leadership in a changing constitutional environment in South Africa

By: FC de Beer

Pages 103-110

Abstract: The conflict and ambivalence in the legislative transformation in South Africa, recognising on the one hand the institution of traditional leadership and its concomitant customs and values, and on the other hand enforcing the fundamental value of gender equality entrenched in the South African Constitution, Act 108 of 1996 are debated in this paper. A succession dispute among the Venda of Masia is used to show how untenable the application of the gender equality principle in the Constitution and in Act 4 of 2000 (The Promotion of Equality and the Prevention of Unfair Discrimination Act) is as regards succession to traditional leadership in this tribe. The claim to the position of traditional leader of a senior female member of the Royal Council of Masia was refuted by the Council. During a special Royal Council meeting convened to discuss the succession dispute in the royal house of Masia and related issues, senior members of the Council emphasised the fact that the recognition of traditional leadership and customary law and the right to culture, embodied in the Constitution, endorse their views and their decision that succession to the position of traditional leader among the Masia is patrilineal (in the male line of descent), with the result that only males are eligible to succeed to the position of traditional leader. A breach of these rules may still today lead to the intervention of the ancestor spirits who, as custodians of tradition and the customs of the tribe, expect the Royal Council to honour the rules.

Subjects: South African Constitution, Bill of Rights, Venda of Masia, succession dispute, Royal Council, makhadzi, khotsimunene, khadzi, ndumi, dzekiso-wife

 

Formal and informal dispute resolution in the Limpopo Province, South Africa

By: C. S. van der Waal

Pages 111-121

Abstract:The study of customary law benefits from a focus on both its formal rules and mechanisms and the informal aspect. The complexity of ‘living law’ is best captured by considering process and context. The working of the three-leveled formal traditional courts of the Nkuna Tribal Authority near Tzaneen in the Limpopo Province is complemented by informal mechanisms and processes for adjudication and intervention in conflicts. The civic association, kin, the police and other organised groups or networks play a significant role inside and outside the formal traditional courts. Case material shows the strategic use of these mechanisms by the rural poor, depending on their social and economic positions.

Subjects: formal dispute resolution, informal dispute resolution, customary law, Limpopo Province

 

Cultural diversity, group formation and alienation as constraints on employee interaction in a wholesale company

By: Stephné Herselman

Pages 122-128

Abstract: Although a relatively new concept in anthropology, the notion of cultural alienation appears to be a useful instrument to explain aspects of workplace interaction and behaviour. This article deals with alienation as a function of cultural diversity in a wholesale company in Gauteng, South Africa. It was identified as an important issue impacting upon employees' interaction with others and was manifest in group establishment, various affective experiences, and distancing between people. Sources of the alienation include both organisational culture and culture in the conventional anthropological sense, but it appears that in the company concerned, the former outweighs ‘conventional’ culture as an alienating factor.

Subjects: alienation, anthropology, culture, organisational culture, cultural diversity, group formation, detachment